Take an old hardback book with an interesting cover and boring contents,
a jar of rubber cement, a pair of scissors, a pile of favorite recipes scribbled on loose leaf paper, shared by friends,
or quietly removed from magazines while sitting forever in a doctor's office *cough* (what?),
Now plant yourself in front of a favorite movie that you've watched a hundred times. Cut, paste, and
whistle watch while you work
Here's where I digress. I bought this old postcard and pasted it into the flyleaf of the book in honor of the grandmother I lived with when I was a kid. The scene makes me nostalgic for her kitchen. The similarity is striking, right down to the mirror above the sink and the old wringer-style washing machine.
I recall the way she would flour the rim of a water glass to use for cutting biscuits, and the full glass bottle of Schlitz beer that made its noontime appearance on the kitchen table.
The yellow liquid gradually disappearing didn't hurt her ability to make amazing meals.
Seriously, that woman never left the kitchen--cooking us all three hot meals a day--which I totally did not appreciate when I was young.
Looking back, I do believe it was she who planted the love-of-cooking seed in my heart.
La la la, back to the book. Along with the cutting and pasting, add a little imagination, some collaging, and messing about with markers,
and you have a recipe for a recipe book. The End
Take an old hardback book with an interesting cover and boring contents,
a jar of rubber cement, a pair of scissors, a pile of favorite recipes scribbled on loose leaf paper, shared by friends,
or quietly removed from magazines while sitting forever in a doctor's office *cough* (what?),
I recall the way she would flour the rim of a water glass to use for cutting biscuits, and the full glass bottle of Schlitz beer that made its noontime appearance on the kitchen table.
The yellow liquid gradually disappearing didn't hurt her ability to make amazing meals.
Seriously, that woman never left the kitchen--cooking us all three hot meals a day--which I totally did not appreciate when I was young.
Looking back, I do believe it was she who planted the love-of-cooking seed in my heart.
La la la, back to the book. Along with the cutting and pasting, add a little imagination, some collaging, and messing about with markers,
and you have a recipe for a recipe book. The End
Seriously amazing. Oh how you inspire me. Have I mentioned I love you?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds just like the sort of thing I should do now that I have a flu... The problem: many of those recipes I've collected from magazines are pages from magazines with recipes on both sides.
ReplyDeleteStill, it sounds like a good way to reuse those books that we cannot sell off.
lovely -- sounds like grandma was a good one :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! Only I'd have to have an unabridged dictionary to paste all my handwritten, cut out recipes into. I think I need to clean out. ;)
ReplyDeleteCan I just tell you how many times I thought of you during the retreat at Laity Lodge? John Medina, author of Brain Rules spoke. He talked about "Functional Cognitive Disinhibition." One of the examples he used was trying to come up with alternate uses for a brick. People offered suggestions like: Door stop. Weapon. Bake something on it.
ReplyDeleteHe said, and then there are some people who would decide to grind it into powder to make paint color. And I thought, yep. That's what Jodi would do. Functional cognitive disinhibition. In spades.
Also known as "What would happen if..."
Love this. Love you.
These are great, im always scrapbooking recipes but into notebooks. Ive seen beautiful recipe books made with dictionaries, where the recipes are alphabetised, for example all of the honey based recipes are glued in starting from the dictionary page with the word honey on it - and highlighting, painting around or collaging around the word honey. They are very effective!
ReplyDeleteAqeela xx
These are great, im always scrapbooking recipes but into notebooks. Ive seen beautiful recipe books made with dictionaries, where the recipes are alphabetised, for example all of the honey based recipes are glued in starting from the dictionary page with the word honey on it - and highlighting, painting around or collaging around the word honey. They are very effective!
ReplyDeleteAqeela xx
Hana, I hope you recover from the flu soon. I have some pages with recipes on both sides, and I thought I could attach them to the book using colorful paper-clips.
ReplyDeleteSouthern Gal, did you see Aqeelah's comment? Using a dictionary sounds like a great idea.
ReplyDeleteNancy, "Functional Cognitive Disinhibition," ooooh. Cool! xx
ReplyDeleteAqeela, that's one smart idea.
ReplyDeleteAmy, <3
Vicki, thank you. She was.
Absolutely brilliant and creative! Yes,i too need the dictionary to use for mine;) thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteChristina
Gosh, you make me regret all those uninteresting books I've gotten rid of over the years...but I know a place I can go and buy one, any size, any thickness, for just One Dollar and perhaps try this myself one day.
ReplyDeleteI especially love the way you highlighted some words from the original page above one of the recipes.
How lovely :0)
ReplyDeleteThis is WAY better than my system of sticking loose recipe pages in clear page protectors in a 3-ring notebook! So creative! I've always loved altered books & art journals, but it never occurred to me to make one out of recipes! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteThis does look like a lot of fun! And suddenly I was thinking of how I usually print out recipes nowadays (though I have a half century of handwritten ones!) and wishing we could have a hand held book with you tube like videos embedded in it.But I don't think anything does this yet, not even kindle.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing solution for loose recipes!
ReplyDeleteI especially love the photo that reminds you of your Granny's kitchen, genarative generosity bearing fruit forward in your kids.
My Dad is nearing "his time." I wanted to call you,Jodi, but I thought I'd connect with you via Curious Acorn at this odd hour. As always, I have received the blessing of seeing Life and Poetry in action which is what my father breathed in his unique way.
Cognitive something or other. Now I understand (wink.)I brought some found worn pieces of roof tile back from Italy and my brother ground them for me to use as pigment for paint.
Ah, Bright Star.
oops, that was from me...
ReplyDeleteJoan<3
Please pray for us.
I'm torn! I love the idea of sorting my recipes in such a fabulous way, but to a book! Breath..... Although the idea of highlighting the text is appealing. Hmm. A really boring book, right? You make it look so good, as usual.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I made one original scrapbook/cookbook decades ago that I still use at times, though it is kind of a mess. I'd love to make a new one like this.
ReplyDeleteI linked to your blog from Sara at Come Away With Me and have been enjoying myself nosing around.