Saturday, November 29, 2008

Heirloom cookbook

While I was on the internet hiatus I was able to really work on a rather large project.

I decided to make an heirloom cookbook filled with our favorite recipes as well as family favorites from Stefan’s family and mine. I have had this in mind for some time and thankfully I had a large stock of photos that I have taken of various dishes over the years. At the last minute my Grandma gave me some of her recipes that I didn’t have photos for. I improvised by taking images of ingredients and her.

Once I was finished making the book, I decided to add photos of the people that gave me the recipe, as well as little quips about occasions when we eat the particular food or what it reminds me of. After that was completed I added a simplified family tree in the back. It’s rather amazing, but I can track some of my mother’s family back to the 1500’s!

Rather than tackling this again, because it was much more time consuming than I could have ever expected, I will continually make pages of new favorite recipes and combine them for a second book once I have enough.

My sister said the book has already arrived and she said it's absolutely beautiful. She sent me these pictures until I am able to pick it up next month. I'm so excited!

10 comments:

N said...

What a great idea to keep up the traditions.

Abby said...

What a beautiful idea! I love the font you've chosen :)

JoernandAllison said...

That is an incredible idea! I have been toying with doing something similar, but probably wouldn't have thought to add photos of family members. This might be a nice way to preserve my mother's recipes!
Thanks for the awesome idea!!
Oh, if you could let me know which publisher you used for the book, I would be so incredibly happy :)
Your book looks beautiful by the way!

Emily said...

bluefish...
Maybe you'll want to do the same as you head to Denmark! The only pity is that sometimes it's hard to find certain ingredients.

abby...
Thanks! I used american typewriter & chrysler electric.

allison...
What a fantastic way to remember your mom! I used blurb, which I have found is very versatile, but there are plenty of others like fotobuch.de or fotokasten.de if you want a German one.

N said...

Tell me about it...I am bringing enough Chinese food ingredients over for Christmas. Scandinavian food really lack spices and I am not used to their food yet.

Anonymous said...

I just had to comment (even though I'm a little late on this!) to tell you how amazing this is. Your hard work really paid off! This must have taken so much time, but what a wonderful labor of love. I just sent this link to my mom and we were talking about trying to do something similar for Christmas next year.

Emily said...

Thanks Rachel!
I will get more pictures of it when I get home. It would be such a great idea for next year. I hope you can find the time since you've got so much going on. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.

Kristen Marie said...

Which publisher did you use?

Lise said...

Where did you have this printed? I am making a photo book of all of our Europe trip pictures and looking for suggestions.

Emily said...

I used Blurb with the highest quality of materials and I was very pleased. If you sign up on their site they periodically have discounts and free shipping as well.

You can also format things so others can purchase through the site. I didn't do that, because I wanted to keep some of those family treasures a secret, but it is really a fantastic gift.