Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Family Cookbook, The Next Generation

It's that time again!
(Also, yes I know I still have the xmas tablecloth on the table still, I've been busy.)
December 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of when I, with the help of my family's contributions, compiled our family cookbook. I learned a lot from the experience, including that 3 months is not enough time to do it in, if you expect to do it right. I passed that learning experience on to the you, in the form of a website, then a book: Creating an Heirloom.

As I mention on that website, I did have a draft for a second edtion started not long after I finished the first book. But now families have grown, children have gotten married and have kids of their own now, and it's time to take that draft and turn it into another cookbook, with the help of those new families.

I have my spreadsheet of names and addresses (29, which I think just about doubles the number of people I queried last time), I wrote my cookbook letter, as well as a "newsy" Happy New Year catching-up letter since some of the people receiving a letter haven't heard from us in a long while, and stuffed my envelopes. I even did myself a favor and used printed mailing labels, since my handwriting is so wretched.

Want to join the fun? C'mon, we'll do it together! I'm giving my family (both sides, my side and my husband's side) a whole year to get their recipes to me, so I have 2020 for editing, formatting and printing. (My life gets very complicated around the holidays, so I'm just budgeting a ton of time, your mileage may vary.) Grab a copy of my book if you don't already have one, and we'll get started!

I'm happy to give you moral and limited tech support (I'll answer the questions I can) while you work on your family cookbook, because more than anything, I want you to succeed at preserving your family's history through the foods you eat and share.

We can do this, it'll be fun! Pay no attention to any of my tweeted complaints to the contrary... it'll all be worth it in the end.