Thinking Spring and Summer Recipes-Themes For Your Family Cookbook
As I pine away for signs of spring here in the Great Northern Tundra, today temps will hit 50 maybe and the snow is melting in my yard, my thoughts turn to weekends at The Lake. That means weekend recipes that are easy to make and a short shopping lists to buy in The Cities before we go. Sometimes, if we are entertaining it means making some of the food ahead to take up so I can spend more time with my guests.
That is why I think theme cookbooks are so helpful. They help people pull the right cookbook out quickly before going to the Joy of Cooking with its catchall index. I just received a new weekend cookbook and a dessert only cookbook that I can wait to use. By keeping the theme simple I know where to go to pull a cookbook for that part of the meal. What I also like in the weekend cookbooks they offer meal suggestions that I can correctly pair with the people who will be there. Kids in the group might get some kind of burgers when an adult only crowd my get grilled chicken sandwiches.
Creating your own themed cookbooks allow you to narrow your focus and allow for you to complete your family recipe cookbook more easily. But what I like even more is the fact that it more likely to be used by your family when they think about that kind of dish.
Many of you are saying but I just go to the web and get recipes. You can of course but more often when I go to the web for a recipe I know what I am going to cook and look just for that recipe. I need menu ideas more often then just the recipes. When you are at the lake entertaining you are going to make at least five meals so more ideas are helpful. Sometimes I even make the guests make the Sunday breakfast/brunch so I am only cooking four. My thoughts here are people like to offer to bring something and this allows them to bring something which makes them they feel better but it lets them focus on one meal which lets them use their creativity on the meal which more often will have everyone raving about it.
Theme cookbooks also allow you to enter a recipe that will not get made. If I were going to write my weekend cookbook, I would add my mother's summer fruit soup with a full story so future generations might make it since I my family does not like it. I finally found out this year that the Scandinavians fruit soup that living in Minnesota I heard so much about was made with dried fruits and it is more of what I think of a compote. My mother's fruit soup was a liquid cherry, peach or plum soup. It was made with fresh fruit, usually over ripe fruit that my mother was able to purchase for less money at the market and cooked to soften and create a fruit broth. She would add whipped egg whites on top to decorate it like floating clouds.
It was a fun summer memory and a recipe that is easy to make and will be lost if not written in a cookbook. I am sure with the story some of my relatives might want to try it, without the story probably not. I can add the recipe to a summer recipes cookbook or a weekend cookbook. Themes are so much fun. I cannot wait for spring but I feel better about March writing this blog now!
That is why I think theme cookbooks are so helpful. They help people pull the right cookbook out quickly before going to the Joy of Cooking with its catchall index. I just received a new weekend cookbook and a dessert only cookbook that I can wait to use. By keeping the theme simple I know where to go to pull a cookbook for that part of the meal. What I also like in the weekend cookbooks they offer meal suggestions that I can correctly pair with the people who will be there. Kids in the group might get some kind of burgers when an adult only crowd my get grilled chicken sandwiches.
Creating your own themed cookbooks allow you to narrow your focus and allow for you to complete your family recipe cookbook more easily. But what I like even more is the fact that it more likely to be used by your family when they think about that kind of dish.
Many of you are saying but I just go to the web and get recipes. You can of course but more often when I go to the web for a recipe I know what I am going to cook and look just for that recipe. I need menu ideas more often then just the recipes. When you are at the lake entertaining you are going to make at least five meals so more ideas are helpful. Sometimes I even make the guests make the Sunday breakfast/brunch so I am only cooking four. My thoughts here are people like to offer to bring something and this allows them to bring something which makes them they feel better but it lets them focus on one meal which lets them use their creativity on the meal which more often will have everyone raving about it.
Theme cookbooks also allow you to enter a recipe that will not get made. If I were going to write my weekend cookbook, I would add my mother's summer fruit soup with a full story so future generations might make it since I my family does not like it. I finally found out this year that the Scandinavians fruit soup that living in Minnesota I heard so much about was made with dried fruits and it is more of what I think of a compote. My mother's fruit soup was a liquid cherry, peach or plum soup. It was made with fresh fruit, usually over ripe fruit that my mother was able to purchase for less money at the market and cooked to soften and create a fruit broth. She would add whipped egg whites on top to decorate it like floating clouds.
It was a fun summer memory and a recipe that is easy to make and will be lost if not written in a cookbook. I am sure with the story some of my relatives might want to try it, without the story probably not. I can add the recipe to a summer recipes cookbook or a weekend cookbook. Themes are so much fun. I cannot wait for spring but I feel better about March writing this blog now!
Posted by Hella at 3/31/2011 9:26 AM 
Categories: recipes, Cookbook Writing, family recipes, family traditions
Tags: cookbook themes cookbook writing family favorite recipes family memory cookbooks
Categories: recipes, Cookbook Writing, family recipes, family traditions
Tags: cookbook themes cookbook writing family favorite recipes family memory cookbooks
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