Meals and Memories: How to Create Keepsake Cookbooks

Rating:
Summary: Logical, easy introduction to making your own cookbooks
Review: At one time or another I would look at the jumble of cookbooks and collected recipe cards in my kitchen cabinet and think that there must be a better way to organize those recipes. Something to gather them all in one place, ordered and protected, within easy reach. A family cookbook perhaps? Meals and Memories: How to Create Keepsake Cookbooks answered my need and gave me a few new ideas for wonderful keepsake cookbooks.

Author Kathy Steligo really leads the reader by the hand through basic steps to collecting, organizing and designing keepsake cookbooks. Before you start on your treasury of recipes, there are many points to consider depending on what the purpose of your keepsake cookbook will be, or really who will be the main user(s). If you're like me, you wouldn't have thought ahead about the differences between a cookbook for your own home and one destined to be reproduced for a fundraiser, for instance. When do you most need page protectors, and which type of binding system is best for personal gifts? Is it better to handwrite or use computer journaling? How could you include the original recipe cards on your pages? Never here, the solutions are in here.

Now a caution to all you scrapbookers: this book is focused more on the organizational, practical issues about preserving favorite recipes. You don't consult it for cute page ideas about recipes in your scrapbook layouts, you read it to find out how to make a complete, working volume for use in the kitchen. Sure there are some tips on decorating and design, references to other books and resources to teach you further about design and journaling, even an introduction to archival preservation basics and techniques, but that's not the main point here. This is a no-nonsense guide to getting it all done in a simple, orderly fashion that leaves plenty of room for personalization and artistic flair, but at your own discretion.

All that being said, I learned a lot about keepsake recipes and even came away with inspiration for how to do my own collected recipes books for family gifts. If you are serious about preserving this part of your family heritage, or just want to remember good times with friends and food, this is the ideal introduction to the topic.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

Rating:
Summary: Logical, easy introduction to making your own cookbooks
Review: At one time or another I would look at the jumble of cookbooks and collected recipe cards in my kitchen cabinet and think that there must be a better way to organize those recipes. Something to gather them all in one place, ordered and protected, within easy reach. A family cookbook perhaps? Meals and Memories: How to Create Keepsake Cookbooks answered my need and gave me a few new ideas for wonderful keepsake cookbooks.

Author Kathy Steligo really leads the reader by the hand through basic steps to collecting, organizing and designing keepsake cookbooks. Before you start on your treasury of recipes, there are many points to consider depending on what the purpose of your keepsake cookbook will be, or really who will be the main user(s). If you're like me, you wouldn't have thought ahead about the differences between a cookbook for your own home and one destined to be reproduced for a fundraiser, for instance. When do you most need page protectors, and which type of binding system is best for personal gifts? Is it better to handwrite or use computer journaling? How could you include the original recipe cards on your pages? Never here, the solutions are in here.

Now a caution to all you scrapbookers: this book is focused more on the organizational, practical issues about preserving favorite recipes. You don't consult it for cute page ideas about recipes in your scrapbook layouts, you read it to find out how to make a complete, working volume for use in the kitchen. Sure there are some tips on decorating and design, references to other books and resources to teach you further about design and journaling, even an introduction to archival preservation basics and techniques, but that's not the main point here. This is a no-nonsense guide to getting it all done in a simple, orderly fashion that leaves plenty of room for personalization and artistic flair, but at your own discretion.

All that being said, I learned a lot about keepsake recipes and even came away with inspiration for how to do my own collected recipes books for family gifts. If you are serious about preserving this part of your family heritage, or just want to remember good times with friends and food, this is the ideal introduction to the topic.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

Rating:
Summary: "An ingenious idea"...a one-of-a-kind, step-by-step guide.
Review: I have many cookbooks in my collection, but none as "enjoyable" as this one by Kathy Steligo! She has created a unique, well thought out, heart-warming way to preserve family traditional recipes. As soon as you begin reading, you are inspired to create a "Keepsake Cookbook" for every member of your family! I especially "relished", her sharing her own family recipes. Ms. Steligo's passion for family traditions is prevalent throughout this wonderful book. I think this "Keepsake Cookbook" should be OPRAH's next "Pick of The Month!" Thank you for allowing me to share my delightful experience!!!

Rating:
Summary: how to create a family/genealogical cookbook
Review: Meals and Memories: How to Create Keepsake Cookbooks by Kathy Steligo. Carlo Press, San Carlos, CA. 1999. 112 pp. $18.95 trade paper; 8-1/22 x 112. illustrations; resources; glossary; index.

An ideal book to tie in with the current rise in the interest in genealogy. In a user-friendly format covering all of the basic considerations in a simplified, orderly way, Steligo tells you how to begin and to expand a family cookbook. The formatting includes visuals incorporating recipes, sample mementos, food lore, and drawings which not only illustrate the guidance and tips, but also give ideas for your own cookbook.

Beginning with selecting a theme (e. g., desserts, camping, Christmas), tone, and style for the cookbook, the author takes you through collecting and formatting the recipes which are the basis of the book; and then putting these together and adding memories and anecdotes from different individuals, colors or borders for the page, visual elements (including perhaps photographs), and a cover to make the book distinctive and especially appreciated by family members.

One example of a special touch Steligo uses is a picture of an uncle with a caption in italics noting his love for growing tomatoes with one of his tips on growing them. In one section, she suggests how children can become involved in creating a keepsake cookbook--what better way to have them enjoyably learn about their heritage? Steligo ends her timely, instructive guide with advice on how a 3community2 cookbook resembling a family keepsake cookbook can be used as a fundraiser for a church, school, team, or other organization.

Henry Berry, Book Reviewer

Editor/Publisher, The Small Press Book Review

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful twist on memory albums!
Review: Memories are so much more than words and pictures ... they are sounds and smells and tastes. Meals & Memories provides an easy step-by-step method for capturing our families' heritage with recipes so we can recreate those smells and tastes for our children and they for their children. This is a great addition to any scrapbookers library but it's more than this. If you're looking for unique gift ideas, making a Family Keepsake Cookbook would be a wonderfully, personal gift that would be cherished for years to come. If you're involved in fund raisers, there is also great information on publishing cookbooks as fund raisers.

This one is a definite buy!

Rating:
Summary: An invaluable reference.
Review: Once you decide to go ahead and begin a project like compiling your family's unorganized recipe collection, it's hard to know where to start first. Kathy takes all the guesswork out of figuring out layout and design, and with more than 50 illustrations, examples, and samples, you're sure to find one that appeals to you. You'll then be on your way to creating a family masterpiece. If you're serious about undertaking a project like this, I highly recommend How to Create Keepsake Cookbooks, it's an invaluable reference you'll turn to again and again.

Rachel Paxton, Creative Homemaking

Rating:
Summary: Not Nearly as Useful as You'd Think
Review: This book is organized, clearly-written, with a step-by-step approach. However, it's far too basic, and not worth the cover price. It's got worthwhile information, just not much of it.

At 100 pages, Steligo tries to pack a lot into a slim volume. It's heavily illustrated which can be great for seeing an example of what she's referring to, but that also means that those illustrations take up space that she could be going into greater depth. She uses nearly a whole page to make seven quick points on the advantages of using a computer over hand-writing. (The double-spacing between those points is filler, and unnecessary.)

I was disappointed. I wanted to like this book, I tried really hard to like this book. I thought that I might find more information that would help me write a second edition of my family cookbook (I've already written one), what I got was very basic information. Consider this book if you have ***no*** idea where to start. The ideas are good, just too basic for me; I recommend the book for novices. But don't buy it, check it out of the library.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring! Full of great ideas and recipes!
Review: What a great idea! I've never seen a book quite like this one. Family sentimentality blended with hi-tech and old-tech craft make a perfect recipe for a keepsake cookbook. I can't wait to get started on mine! I'm hoping I can have a dozen done by Christmas. What a great gift-giving idea for family members!

The format makes for ease in reading and understanding. Ms. Steligo's creativity inspires mine!