The Making of a Family Heirloom Cookbook

Way back in the Early 2000's

when I thought overalls were cool... shabby was 

JUST getting chic...

and I had dried flowers and raffia decorating my the walls leftover from

the 1990's...

Way back when I still had young children in elementary school... 

who didn't cringe with the embarrassment

of mom dropping them off at the bus stop in my pajamas because

we overslept...

(Yes, WAY back then)

I had an idea.

An idea that would make me mom of the year.

Other moms would want to come to my home and sit around the 

dining room table and drink coffee with cream

 and share secret recipes and traditions and stories about their families .

Yes, I was going to make THE most amazing cookbook full of

family recipes, old pictures, and stories of

our very own Green Family Traditions.

Just the five of us.

The family who celebrates EVERYTHING with food.

A little bit of my husbands family...A little bit of my family...

But completely OUR family.

So, 

I woke up in the middle of the night to write down stories that came to me. 

 I daydreamed as I soaked in the bath at night about this

idea that could make me famous.
After all,
shouldn't every home have a cookbook to pass down that includes traditions & history?

My grandma Robbins inspired me.  When she passed away my dad gave me a pile
of her cookbooks. I loved going through them because she always made
a note with the date she made the recipe and who she was with.
It wasn't just a recipe, it was a cherished memory. A family event.
I loved this idea, and I soooo loved her!
(That is an color photo of her original cookbook I have)

 I dug through boxes of old photographs while the kids where at school.

I shopped the scrapbook store and picked out pretty papers.

And I began to TYPE, and SNIP and PASTE and SCAN photo's.

Until about day 5...

That's when I stopped. Just because.

I thought I had a lot of time to get it finished. 

I tucked all my pictures, recipes, stories and famous aspirations into a notebook.

It got pushed aside with the other cookbooks, and moved along with us to 2 new homes. And there it stayed...bits and pieces of my dream to pass onto my children...

until last Fall.

*****

There is something surreal about watching your daughter get married.

The bittersweet realization that she belongs to another family now

as well as her own, and will soon be making

 family traditions with her own husband... and someday children.

I had flashbacks of our family sitting around the dining room

table celebrating Birthdays, Christmas & Thanksgiving and Easter.

I pictured many last days of school and going out for ice cream to celebrate.

Memories of neighborhood traditions on the 4th of July with our friends who were like our family away from home.

Snow days with hot chocolate and toast.

Homemade Raspberry jam with biscuits and sausage gravy breakfasts.

The eager little faces ready to help in the kitchen.

My little helpers were all grown up.

Those moments of catching them with their fingers in the cookie jar had passed....

SO QUICKLY.

****

I knew what I had to do.

Within days of returning from the wedding I dug out that old dusty notebook.

I was determined to make a cookbook for my kids!

Thankfully, there are websites and templates to work from now days.

The thought of all that scrap booking times three books...ugh.

However, in my search for exactly what I needed, 

I noticed there are very few websites that allow you to tell stories, add pictures, 

and add extra pages...and I NEEDED extra pages.

About 70 to be exact.

I finally found a GREAT website that had exactly what I was looking for.

(Totally my own opinion!)

Mixbook.com

My husband joined in, and found all the recipes and I typed them into the template.

I added pictures and stories and traditions from both of our family sides.

It was an honest to goodness work of love!

And the truth is...I'm glad I never finished the book all those years ago.

We weren't done creating family memories of their childhood.

We wrapped them up and gave each child their very own copy of

THE GREEN FAMILY HEIRLOOM COOKBOOK

for Christmas... so that no matter where they go

they will always have a part of their childhood home with them.

xoxo

PS.  In case you were wondering...
Izzy had a great day at the doggy spa!