Let’s look at these choices in a little more detail, starting with the notebook or scrapbook method. You can use an acid free paper or copy paper and cover the pages with protective plastic sleeves. The pages would be 8 x 11.5 inches, which gives you a good area to work with. You can format the pages on the computer if you have computer skills. If you don’t have computer skills recruit some of the younger family members to help you. I learned so much about my family while I was working on ours that I would of never learned if I had not decided to do a book. After all, it’s their history also. It will be easy to add additional recipes to this type of book over the years, as new recipes become family favorites.

Letting a cookbook publisher print your book for you is another solution. I investigated four different companies and actually thought it was a good value if you are going to do a recipe only type of book. For these books, most of the companies had pre-designed covers and formats you could choose from. Most let you choose the type of recipe format you would like and a choice of the type of font you would like it printed with. With this type of cookbook, you can type or print the recipes on sheets they will provide to you and select the category you want the recipe to be in. You can do this type of book for around $5.00 a copy, but you have a minimum order of 100. Comparing it to the other book styles it is a great value and involves the least amount of work on your part. To easily find cookbook publishers, do an Internet search using “cookbook publishing” as your search term. You will be able to get sample books and see the choices you will have directly from the publishing companies.