Want to learn how to make your own cookbook? I'm guessing you'll soon find that the process is a lot easier than you might think... and the final result prettier and more professional that you might have hoped. Today, making a family cookbook is easier than it's ever been, and the resulting cookbooks look just as nice as anything you might pick up at your local bookstore.

Why make your own cookbook? Well, a homemade family recipe book can be a great way to record your family's favorite foods, favorite moments, and favorite memories together. After all, some of the best memories in a family are made around the dinner table. Creating a family cookbook is a great way to honor that.

Read on for some great tips on creating family cookbooks... you'll also find a few great links to other pages on the site that will really help you put together a wonderful homemade cookbook.

Creative Family Cookbook Themes and Ideas

If your family is anything like mine, you've got a treasure-trove of favorite recipes that different members of the family are known for. And for most families, celebrating that is theme enough!

But if you're looking for a creative way to arrange a family cookbook, or want to give people a laugh, there are some great ideas out there for themes to use when you make your own cookbook. Some of my favorites are:

1. Family Vacation Cookbook: A cookbook full of recipes from a special family vacation (along with lots of great vacation shots and stories!). Or a compilation of vacation photos over the years (spanning decades, if you want) with accompanying recipes.

2. Two Eras in Time Cookbook: Half of your cookbook should use favorite family recipes from, say, the 70's, along with old family photos and favorite memories. The other half should highlight today's favorites, along with photos of what your family's like now.

3. Cookbook to Honor a Family Member: A beloved family member hitting a special birthday, or recently pass away? Assemble all of his or her best culinary creations into a cookbook... with plenty of photos!

4. Wedding Memory Cookbook: Recipes from your wedding reception's buffet dinner can make for a really fun themed wedding memory book. And the resulting cookbook can make a great thank you gift for anyone who helped out. Check out this page for some more great ideas for wedding memory books.

5. Battle of the Sexes Cookbook: Got one of those families where both the men and the women love to cook? Pit them against each other by devoting half of the book to the men's recipes, and half to the women's.

For a ton of tips on choosing recipes for your cookbook, visit "How to Make a Cookbook"

Organizing a Homemade Cookbook

Once you've collected the recipes you're using, you will need to organize them so that your friends can find their favorites. Generally, cookbooks are divided into categories of food including:

• Appetizers and Snacks

• Soups and Salads
• Pasta or Meatless Dishes
• Meat Dishes
• Seafood Dishes
• Vegetables and Sides
• Accompaniments (breads, etc.)
• Desserts
• Drinks

Consider the theme of your book and choose sections that make sense for your recipes. When you make your own cookbook, you really can think outside the box, if you want... you don't have to create a cookbook in just one way!

For instance, an historical cookbook might be arranged by the date particular recipes started showing up on the family table (a kind of family tree or family history cookbook), or even sorted by special occasions like July Fourth, Christmas, and birthdays.

Using Photos in a Homemade Cookbook

When you make your own cookbook, there are several different ways to get it published, which you can read all about at How Do I Print My Own Cookbook? But the easiest is to use a photo book publisher.

These companies, (Picaboo.com is my favorite for recipe books) can publish the text of your recipes and family tidbits, but they can also give you a lot of flexibility-- and make it very easy to add lots of wonderful photos, which is the best way to make a family cookbook really special.

The best part? These photo book publishers offer templates and background images to make this process easier. Like this one from Picaboo:

All you do is select a cookbook template, play with backgrounds and colors, add your recipes and photos, and send off to print.

What Photos to Use in Your Cookbook

When adding family photos to your cookbook, you have lots of options. You can put a picture from the family reunion on the cover, or honor Mom with a smiling tribute photo right up front. Limit your photos to one or two per page if you want to give your book a "real" cookbook feel, or you may risk overshadowing the recipes with pictures. Want to make your own cookbook/family memory book? Then go nuts with photos!

With everything on this page and on my other cookbook pages:

How Do I Print My Own Cookbook

and

How to Make a Cookbook

You've got everything you need to make your own cookbook! So get assembling some recipes, put together your favorite family photos, and visit a site like Picaboo.com for the template, tips, and everything you need to create and print a family cookbook.

Go from Tips and Help to Make Your Own Cookbook to the Make You Own Photo Books Main Page.