Monday, December 8, 2008

Self Publishing Your Own Cook Book


I love to cook but come the holiday's I put away the pots and pans, put on my baking hat and pull out the flour, butter, sugar and other baking goodies so that my family and friends can enjoy holiday cheer in the form of buttery golden goodness.

I always make the old favorites like tree shaped sugar cookies iced and sprinkled, gingerbread men with raisin eyes and white iced smiles, delicate lemon squares and pistachio-lemon drizzled cookies. Sometimes I make anisette cookies covered in sesame seeds, Mandelbrot or biscotti filled with nuts and dried fruits or a bishop's bread because I won't compete with my Aunt Cynthia's rum soaked fruit cake (I hope she's reading this and remembers to send me my cut!!). To keep it lively each year I also experiment with one new recipe, sometimes it's a hit and is added to the baking roster and sometimes it becomes a forgotten holiday memory. This year's tester is a bittersweet chocolate cookie, a triple chocolate treat of cocoa powder, chopped baking chocolate and dark chocolate chips covered in confectionary sugar.

Over the years I have collected recipes from family, friends, magazines and cookbooks. I had gone through many storage variations before finally settling upon a 3" ring denim covered binder but recently after reading about TasteBook.com I am currently working on combining all my favorite recipes, not just baking, into a personalized printed binder that allows me to play publisher, art director and editor as well as customer. The website walks you through the compilation process and gives you the opportunity to cull recipes from various magazines and recipe websites or type in your own personal recipes as well as upload personal pictures to print. The starting price is about $20 for the binder plus 25 pages with additional 50 cents for each extra recipe page. I am still working through the process so I have to admit I am not certain what the final charge will be but I am hoping to have a complete book dedicated to my niece and nephew come spring.

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