A New Blank Family Cookbook

Family Cookbook Recipe Journal

How many of you have family cookbooks?

We have two that are in use and now a blank one that I was sent by Rockridge Press to check out and then review.

I'm trying to decide what to do with the new cookbook so many after I show you a few pages, you all all can help me out with suggestions in the comments.

Ready to take a look at it with me?

The cover is water resistant because of but the rest of the pages are just sturdy paper so be careful when you using it while in your kitchen or around any beverages. I'm not a big fan of the color blue and there are three blue parts to the book -- cover and then two of the chapters -- but there are also a lot of other colors including two greens, two oranges, yellow, and brown.

The book has basic but clear instructions about how to use it. Four chapters of 18 recipes and four chapters of 28 recipes

This is both a lot of freedom but also takes time to think about. What types of foods does your family have the most recipes for?

Once you've made your decisions about what each of the eight chapters or sections will be, you can add those to the Table of Contents at the beginning of the book.


Let's just look at a couple of the beginning of the chapters to show you the artwork and the page you can add in the list of recipes. What do you think of the colors and the images? I like that they are basic and muted not flashy because that feels calming to me.

The recipe layout is another considering when picking a family recipe book. You need enough room for your handwriting and the recipe's ingredients and directions. At the top we have recipe's title, where you got it, servings, prep and cook time. Then the left hand column is for ingredients and the instructions are across from it. At the bottom you can put notes; I'd probably put calorie or carb information for my household.

Right now I'm trying to decide what to do with this cookbook. The freedom of this book is actually feeling a bit overwhelming to me. I have bad handwriting; it got worse every year that I was in graduate school. In order to make this journal usable, I'll ask my partners to write in it for me so I need to know what goes where and why.

We have two family recipe books and I notice that my personal family one has far more dessert recipes than anything else.

I'm really tempted to make this new cookbook into a dessert one divided by the main type of ingredient. I confess, this appeals to me because I could even divide the recipes by type of chocolate -- Milk, Dark, Other -- which I often wish chocolate cookbooks would be divided by. It wouldn't be all chocolate. For example, a chapter of Cinnamon Desserts would appeal to my family a lot.

What do you think I should use this recipe journal for?