CHRISTMAS GIFTS GIFTING CONTINUES

I’ve always loved to cook and have collected recipes since childhood.  Seriously, you go through my recipe box and you’ll find recipes for cookies and candy printed out in my childish scrawling.    And I’ve done three cookbooks on old family recipes. 

Do you have people on your Christmas list who you have no idea what to buy for?  Today’s post continues with my series “Gifts From My Kitchen”.  And it’s a great one!  How about creating a special recipe book for them?  It’s easy, but so appreciated when they open it p to some of your very own favorite recipes.  And in your own writing will make each one even more treasured by them one day.  I have recipes written out by my Mom and my Aunts, and seeing their writing today is as special to me as the recipes themselves. 

This is such an easy project to do! 

To start, collect your favorite recipes. I choose my favorites (ones that I’m sort of known for), Holiday specialties, with a few cookbook recipes thrown in. You'll want to collect a good variety of recipes so that you don't get to the end only to realize that you have all appetizer and dessert recipes and no entrees.

Next, get some recipe cards. I’m putting some on here for you.  Just save them to your computer and you can usually fit four to a page, running them on card stock. 

Finally, you'll need a photo album with plastic protective sleeves. Ideally you’ll want a 3-ring photo album that holds two 4"x6" pictures per page (two on the back of those).

To make the divider pages, cut out a rectangle that is about 1" wider and 1" taller than one of the protective sleeves. Leave a tab on the outer edge upon which to write the recipe category (Appetizers, Bread, Cakes, Cookies, Entrees, etc.).  It’s also great if you add some extra plastic sleeves and blank recipe cards so that the recipient can add their own favorites in the years to come.

You can't go wrong with this gift to your favorite cook. It is useful and practical while still being personal and hand-crafted.

And here are the recipe cards that I created.  Feel free to run them off for your gift-giving this year.