I have been mulling over creating a family cookbook for a long time. Probably years, at this point. While I have saved nearly all of my favorite recipes on Pinterest, I really don’t like reading recipes on a screen. I find it really cumbersome. The problem is, my family’s favorite foods change as our kids develop different tastes and abilities. For example, it was hard to convince the 2 year-old version of my son to eat soup and salad, but now that he’s 4, they are creeping back onto our menus.
So how could I make a cookbook that would definitely include recipes that we will still be using next year, much less 5 years from now? Or should I make a new one every once in a while? That sounds like too much work. But something needed to be done to replace the giant file folder that was collecting my printed out recipes. It was getting too unruly. I was having to dig through so many loose pages to find the one I wanted that occasionally I just reprinted the recipe, not realizing that I had already printed it.
I have found two solutions to this problem! I want a cookbook to both use as I cook, and as a way to document the recipes our family has enjoyed as we’ve grown. For the practical side of needing my recipes handy for cooking, I am slipping recipes into page protectors in a 3 ring binder. It isn’t the beautiful custom printed book of my dreams, but it is practical.
The second solution is here! Duh! It dawned on me that this blog is a great way to document the recipes that we are enjoying. I can include the notes on the changes we make to make recipes work for us. And someday, when the kids are all capable of eating soup and salad, I can make a proper printed cookbook to celebrate all the recipes that have stood the test of time.
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For the Love 
So my mom gave me a binder full of family recipes when I first moved out of the house. Some were recipes that her mom had given to her. Others were ones that she gathered from friends, family, cookbooks, and magazines (in the pre-internet age). As I’ve grown, I’ve added my own recipes to it and taken out others (sorry mom, salsbury steak is never going to be a thing in my house).
A couple of years ago for Christmas, Landon made me an update–we now have two small binders full of recipes typed and printed on 1/2 sheets of card stock and laminated. I can add/remove as needed and only recipes that we love make it into the book (usually this means we have to have eaten it at least 3-4 times). This allows me to add my own changes/edits to recipes I find on Pinterest or blogs or magazines. Sometimes I even add recipes that have in other cookbooks, just to have them all in one place. There are no fancy photos or headings…just 1 recipe per page with a title, ingredients, and instructions. Works for me, and best of all, when the kids get ready to move out on their own, I’ll already have a head start on their Chelf Family Recipe Books!
That is awesome! I’d love to see yours the next time we’re over. My mom made each of us girls a cookbook, too, of recipes that we ate growing up, and like you, some of them I use (especially at Christmas time) and some are no longer my style (like, all of the meat recipes!). I really like the idea of being able to pass on our recipes that we eat for my kids to take with them, too. I look forward to seeing which recipes I love that will be their “salsbury steak”! đŸ™‚