Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Christmas Gift Idea/Cookbook and Memories

My twin sister and I always enjoyed cooking and had our favorite recipes we made over and over. Like many who have a collection of recipes, ours were in books, on pieces of paper, on index cards, etc. A couple of years ago, I decided to make a simple recipe book that would put our favorite recipes in one location. Anyway, that is how it started. Since my twin sister had passed away 8 years before and her husband 5 years later, this would also be a special gift for their two daughters. The idea began to grow and I decided to include pictures and stories. I searched through boxes of old pictures, picking my favorites and scanning them to my computer. I began gathering the recipes and jotting down stories. The process of putting it all together was very time consuming and brought out many emotions, some happy and some sad. I got our children and my parents involved to help with the stories and to help me decide what to include. I enjoyed the project tremendously and was very pleased with the result. I ended up printing about 25 copies and gave them as Christmas gifts to each of my children, my parents, close friends and family of my sister and brother in law and a few others who requested a copy. Everyone loved the idea and enjoyed making the journey through the book. I have my copy displayed in my kitchen and use the recipes from it often.

Here is a sample of some of the pages.

This is the cover with one of my favorite pictures of two of us. These dresses were made for us by my grandmother. On the collar is a pin with the first initial of our names that we wore throughout most of our school years. It was the only way the teachers could tell us apart. The next few pictures are samples of some of the pages. I put a picture and story on the left side of each page and a recipe on the right.Trying to figure out how to arrange it so that I could print on both sides of the paper was a bit of a challenge. Also, I wanted to start with us as infants and progress through the ages.

I also included an introduction, table of contents and a few personal messages at the end - to their girls, my children and my mom. I also added a couple of blank pages and a couple of lined pages with lines to add other recipes.

For anyone who has lost a loved one, this is a great way to document some of the stories, share favorite pictures and remember them in a special way.

1 comment:

Kimmer said...

This is something that I've been wanting to do for a while now. Thanks for sharing yours!