Hey-lo Marsha from Do You Salut! Do you have a family cookbook?

Growing up I was a rebel and refused to learn how to cook. Now that I'm older and settled into my home with my husband, every now and then I get hit with the nostalgia bug and wish I had some of my family's home cooking.  As a first generation American it's extremely important to me that my husband and I preserve the food culture of our parents. Today I'm going to set up a family cookbook and then drive my godmother and mother-in-law crazy gathering recipes. 

Recommended Supplies: 

• B5 notebook  ( the limited edition books from the Journey sub box or a Square notebook are also great alternatives to the B5 notebook) 
• Pencil and eraser 
• Acrylograph pens 
• Watercolor and paintbrushes
• Optional: Family pictures  
• Glue or tape 

Cover Page 

First thing you should do is set up your cover page. I like the idea of having a tree in the center of the two page spread then having the tree branches spread out across the page. Using watercolors you can paint the background behind the tree using your country's flag colors. Since my family is from Haiti and my husband's family is from Colombia  I decided to do one side of each country. I originally planned on using the wet on wet technique for the top part of the spread so the  "Haitian blue" can blend with the Colombian "yellow" to make green.  Alas I was afraid of making a mess, so I used the dry technique instead. 

Here's a video showing how I created the cover page. 

Family History /Family Tree 

How wonderful would it be to include some family history or facts in the cookbook. If you can trace your family history adding a family tree can be a nice addition to the cookbook.  You can also write down family food traditions during the holidays.  

Country/Town Facts

I think having some facts about your town or country is another nice addition to a family cookbook. I love hearing stories from my godmother about her hometown. Also if you end up moving around this is a great way to have information about your hometown.  I decided to write some facts about Haiti and Colombia. I also included some information about the national/popular dishes of each country.  

Key 

A key can be helpful to organize the recipes. This is a "living cookbook", meaning I'll be adding the recipes as I go. So they won't be grouped together by category (soup, breakfast, sides, etc). I plan on including traditional Haitian recipes, traditional Colombian recipes, fusion recipes, and our new creations.  My husband and I are both Registered Dietitians and FOODIES! We also travel often and end up cooking foods from all over the world. 

If you prefer to gather all your family recipes and create a complete cookbook to give as a gift, I think a Neapolitan book would be a great idea. Since the neapolitan  book has different color pages you can use the different colors to identify different categories. 

Recipe List

 As mentioned before I plan on adding recipes as I go. I decided to add a recipe list so I can know where to find a specific recipe. I put the recipe list on the last page of the journal. I can add the recipes as I go without having to worry if I left enough pages for the "index". 

On the recipe list page I created a three column chart: page number, recipe name, recipe type. Super easy and uncomplicated. 

Recipes 

Last but not least the final section in the Family cookbook is the recipes! 

You can put the title of the recipe in the center of the page. On the upper left corner of the page you can put the icon for the recipe type. The next part of the spread is the ingredient list and directions. After writing out the recipe I recommend including a little "footnote" about the recipe and its importance to you or your family. 

The first recipe I included in my family cookbook is "Soup Joumou". It is one of the national dishes of Haiti. It is always cooked on January 1st to celebrate Haiti's Independence day.  The second recipe I plan on adding to the  cookbook is, Sancocho. This is a soup that is popular in Latin American countries. I LOVE my mother-in-law's sancocho soup. The first time she made it for me I was feeling homesick and it reminded me of a Haitian soup that I love. Sometimes when she notices I'm down she makes sancocho soup to cheer me up. 

What's your favorite family recipe? Do you have a family cookbook? Check out the printable below for a family cookbook checklist and cookbook doodle ideas.