Blog DJ Inkers Our Family Recipe Book

Our Family Recipe Book

/ By: DJ Inkers Staff
Dear friends...   Alix here... happy to be guest-blogging again.  :)  With Mother's Day coming up, my siblings and I have been brainstorming some fun ideas for Mom.  After 30 years, it's getting hard to continue being creative... coming up with new ideas & creations to impress Mom & let her know just how AWESOME she is!  But, it's totally worth it... and we always think of something.  After having my first baby last year, I am constantly asking my mom how on earth she managed all 5 of us hoodlums.  What a brave soul.  Nothing makes you appreciate your parents like becoming one yourself. Hook Family Recipe Book   So last year, before I gave birth to my now-very-busy son (that time long ago when I still had time on my hands to really get creative)... I did something pretty cool for my mom.  (It was for our entire family, actually.)  I made the 'Hook Family Recipe Book.'   Hopefully reading a little bit about this will give you some ideas of your own!  Maybe you can use this concept for YOUR recipes!  Make one as a wonderful Mother's Day gift idea this year... or as a Christmas gift for the entire family.   What gave me the inspiration was actually my Grandma (my mom's mom).  She gave a book of her recipes to my mom many years ago.  To this day, it is one of the few items my sisters and I all want to call DIBS on to inherit someday.  It is such a treasure.  It's handwritten, and full of not only incredible recipes... but also pages and pages of stories!  She wrote about her kitchen experiences growing-up... learning to cook for a house-full of boys (10 brothers!!!).   There were so many difficult things that she had to figure out (like how to kill & pluck a chicken) in order to cook.  Things that we take for granted as we run to the store for a package of chicken that's clean and ready to go.  Phew.  Well, I talked my mom into letting me borrow the book for a bit so that I could scan in all those priceless stories and select a few recipes to add to this recipe book I was making.   From there it was quite the collaborative effort.  I dedicated the whole first section to my grandma, and then gave every member of my immediate family a section too.  I asked everyone to hand-write (if legible) a few of their favorite recipes and add a story about why the recipe was a favorite.  So, everyone knew what I was making (sort of), they just didn't know the details of what anyone else was doing.

 recipes

I used adorable DJ 'Kitchen Doodles' clip art to create the cover and the section pages for each person.  Of course, DJ fonts are used throughout the book for the table of contents, index, a dedication letter from me AND for those few members of my family with doctor-y handwriting.  Haha!  

more recipes

 I must say... it turned out really neat.  I wish I could post the entire book for you to see.  The gals who helped me print it at the copy-shop were even asking me for details.  I refer to the book often and I hope my family does too.  It's been fun to try out everyone's different recipes and learn more about them through reading the stories we shared & our fun little doodles.  (We are our mother's children.)  It is a project that I will always hold dear... and hope that someday, my kids will beg for a copy.   Should you decide to make one for yourself & your family, I give you fair warning... it was a LOT of work.  Far more than I ever anticipated.  But, again, totally worth it.  And it definitely made Mom smile... which was why I came-up with the crazy plan in the first place.  I love you, Mom!  :)   Serious kudos and major respect to ALL the dedicated mothers out there!  I hope you are spoiled rotten on Mother's Day.   Smiles to YOU! ~Alix   Enter below to win your own copy of DJ Inker's 'Kitchen Doodles' clip art! a Rafflecopter giveaway