We have a series of recipes that are lovingly stored on scratty pieces of paper that live on top of the microwave oven. Favourite recipes that have been scrawled by hand on envelopes by now-deceased loved ones or printed off the Interwebs from long-forgotten sites. I had a panic attack on the weekend when I couldn’t find A Recipe. I had visions of the mouldy, sticky, dot matrix printout having been accidentally turfed in the bin and I Knew What Had to be Done.
A Recipe Book. A recipe book that contains all of the favourites that we would be sad to lose. A recipe book that can have lots of pages added to it over time. Here is page one, made with envelopes and left-over butterflies. It’s our Crunchy Lemon Muffin recipe, shared here and devoured several times a year at our house.
You see – this for me would become unfinished project 1457 – such a great idea though
By: Mary on March 19, 2008
at 6:19 pm
Love your idea, like Mary said, it would become project no 1000-something for me.
Crunchy lemon muffins. That intrigues me even more…! I will read the recipe and try to make some!
By: nicolette on March 19, 2008
at 6:25 pm
Oh, that is so much more interesting and appealing than a blank page recipe book! It sort of reminds me of scrapbooks that women used to keep with all sorts in one big book together – especially the writing in more than one direction! ( Very talented! )
Will have to try the recipe – I have a very similar one for a lemon loaf.
By: Ali Honey on March 19, 2008
at 6:43 pm
Hope you’re going to try all the recipes as you go! Good on you, girl!
By: Erilyn on March 19, 2008
at 7:08 pm
Hahaha. I will show you a picture of my recipe book one day. Let’s just say there are more recipes waiting to be stuck in than there are ones actually stuck in.
Yours is gorgeous. Don’t be doing the short attention span thing with it, will you.
By: Stomper Girl on March 19, 2008
at 7:21 pm
That is too beautiful to be splattered with melted butter, encrusted with sugar and smeared with cream. (Or does that only happen to recipes in my kitchen?)
By: Fairlie on March 19, 2008
at 8:04 pm
What a beautiful recipe book it will be. If it was mine I would have to wrap it in plastic like Fairlie my recipes usually have enough food on them they could become a food group.
By: Leanne on March 19, 2008
at 9:10 pm
This is goreous, Kirsty, as are the paper butterlies in the last post. But I have one question – you won’t destroy the original copies of those recipes, will you? I was thinking it might be a great idea to collage them onto something to preserve them forever. Maybe even to the inside and outside covers of this cool cookbook. And if you have too many, maybe collage them onto dividers for your book. I just realized I did what I hate for other people to do – and that’s give me ideas for changing or adapting my work. OOps! I dunno – whatever you do though, please don’t destroy them if at all possible…
By: Ricki on March 19, 2008
at 11:13 pm
entirely too pretty. ours would get spattered and ruined on top of the microwave… where our recipes live, too.
By: kirsten on March 19, 2008
at 11:26 pm
My husband will be forever grateful for what I’m about to do to replace all those post-it notes stuck around my cooking areas and fridge. A person gets so used to walking past things without really noticing them. Sometimes clutter is my middle name. Your sample page is great, and will inspire me to use up a bunch of things around the house that would otherwise be tossed out for lack of quantity. Also, marvelous butterflies.
By: Lilian on March 20, 2008
at 12:45 am
How fun. I love the maturation of the butterfly project. Where else will it take you? Your recipe file is so pretty! I just a glob of goo doesn’t end up there! Because that’s what always happens with mine.
By: chronicler on March 20, 2008
at 12:56 am
Great idea, beautiful and immediately at hand! I wonder where the butterflies will land too………………quilt/ knit/applique?
By: Christiane on March 20, 2008
at 1:01 am
That’s so scrummy. And the book is great too : > )
By: threadspider on March 20, 2008
at 3:07 am
[...] them to have a “banged together in a hurry” feel. In answer to your questions about the last page and the butterfly post, I used a “Whale of a Punch” (that’s the brand!) that cost [...]
By: Quick and Dirty « twolimeleaves on March 20, 2008
at 1:20 pm
Beautiful and ingenious.
By: Tanya Brown on March 22, 2008
at 2:21 pm
my husband gave me an empty recipe book last year for my birthday and I thought, thanks, whatever.
But it has been brilliant. It’s got pocket, blank pages and I’ve done the same as you except not as pretty…
By: Monica on March 25, 2008
at 10:22 pm
What a wonderful idea. I have the same panic sometimes too. I had to ring my mum one day for her Kiss Biscuit recipe!!!!
By: 2paw on April 4, 2008
at 9:29 am