Family Cookbooks for Grandparents' Day
Air Date: 9/5/2008

Sunday is Grandparents’ Day, and I can't think of a better way to honor grandparents than by gathering together all of the family recipes that we've had tucked away on little pieces of paper and jotting down the ones we might only have in our memories to organize into a family cookbook. Talk about a great gift we can give ourselves and our families!

All we do is choose one person to gather the recipes together. In my family, it's yours truly. We can even include a photo of each family member with their recipe, or maybe a little go-along story.

Give each recipe a personalized name, you know, like "Aunt Hilda's Chicken Soup" or "Mom's Apple Pie." List the ingredients in the order they'll need to prepare them, and simply follow up with step-by-step instructions. As backup, maybe have another family member try out the final written version to be sure it's foolproof, and mark down how much it makes.

Type it all up on your computer and, when everything's ready, take it to a copy shop, run off as many copies as you need, and maybe have the cover laminated and even have them put tabs between sections of main courses and desserts, and so on. They can even bind them for you!

So whether we're lucky enough to still have our grandparents and honor them this way, or if we want to keep their tasty traditions alive for generations to come, nothing will mean more than handing down the directions for memorable meals that all end in...