Country Kitchen:
Creating An Alphabet Recipe Book
By Mary Emma Allen
Have you ever thought of creating an alphabet book of family recipes?
This can be an enjoyable project to undertake with the youngsters in your
life as you delve into compiling recipes you use nowadays or those that
have been made by family cooks throughout the years.
This also could be a project that homeschooling parents work on with
their children or that teachers become involved in during a school unit.
For instance, if you're studying colonial America or western history,
find recipes that will be typical of the times and region that can be
compiled in alphabetical order.
Youngsters also can draw pictures to accompany the book, either of the
recipe itself and the steps involved in making it or of something
connected with their family or the topic they are studying.
What Types of Recipes Do You Use?
The recipes would depend on the topic of the cookbook. Is it family
history oriented, one about regional recipes (either the area where they
live or some era of the past)?
Or will you be studying a particular type of cooking? It could be cooking
from another country. Or it might be cooking that revolves around
vegetarian recipes, seafood, or a particular diet.
Examples of Recipes
For instance, recipes included in a family recipe collection could be:
A is for Apple Squares
B is for Blueberry Cake
C is for Chililess Chili
D is for Deep Dark Chocolate Cake
E is for Eggplant Casserole
F is for Fudge Pudding Cake
G is for Green Tomato Relish
If you were creating a cookbook of breads:
A is for Anadama Bread
B is for Blueberry Muffins
C is for Cranberry Nut Bread
D is for Dill Biscuits
E is for English Muffin Bread
Format of Book
These recipes can be typed into a computer recipe program, printed out on
8 x 11 1/2-inch pages, then put together with spiral binding. The cover
could be designed by the youngsters then laminated. With this format, you
can produce a number of copies.
This is the format we used for the Allen/McCracken Family Cookbook. It
wasn't an alphabet cookbook, although the recipes within each section
were arranged in alphabetical order. This was the easiest and least
costly way of producing a cookbook for our needs
Other suggestions include the student using a notebook or journal and
making an individual copy of the alphabet cookbook.
APPLE SQUARES (mentioned above) - Mix together 3 cups chopped apples, 2
cups sugar, 1 teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir together 2 eggs,
1 cup oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add to this mixture to the apples and
stir.
Sift together 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt.
Add dry ingredients to the other ingredients and mix.
Pour batter into a 9 x 13-inch greased and floured pan. Bake in 350
degree pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes or until tests done. Don't
overcook.
Serve warm or cold, with or without whipped topping.
Article (C) 2004 Mary Emma Allen
About the Author
Mary Emma Allen has been writing her "Cooking Column" for newspapers
and online publications for 30 years and
has compiled a family cookbook. She’s currently compiling a
cookbook/story book,
"Tales From a Country Kitchen." Visit her web site for more cooking
articles. Contact her at me.allen@juno.com
