Snow, Books, Family

Snow plastered the storm window, making it impossible to see out  The news forecasters said we have had 5-9 inches of snow.  Luckily, no wind.
January in Indiana. 

   What is a person to do?.  Well, the young  found ways and means to go to town.  Things needed to be done, now. 
   But not for me.  I did not go to the mailbox.  Cedric went on a narrow path.  Obviously it is book time. There is many a laugh in that vintage book of poetry.  You didn’t think poetry was laughable, did you.?  Try this.
                                    The Optimist

The  optimist fell ten stories;
  At each window bar
He shouted to his friends:
  “All right so far.”
                        Anon 
 “The New Home Book of Best Loved Poems” edited by Richard Charlton Mackenzie  from which this was taken, has a section on humor.  There are other wonderful selections.  The Shooting of Dan McGrew, The Man on The Flying Trapeze, and of course,  serious stuff.  I acquired the book years ago at a household auction.
   Half Price Books is a great establishment.  It’s a give and take thing. Most of us take more than we give. 
   I received a wonderful little book for Christmas.  “I’m Proud Of You” by Tim Madigan.  It is the story of the writer’s friendship with Mr. Rogers, of television fame.  It inspired me to buy 2 DVD’s of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.   For the great grandchildren.  Our children watched Captain Kangaroo with delight, and missed Mr. Rogers.   But now, my little ones will learn from him.  All because I read a book. 
  If you are a foodie (and who isn’t) cookbooks are a great read.  I bought three cookbooks over the holidays, two were flops, the other one was a keeper. 
Or you can make your own cookbook.  A family treasure, a church cookbook, all wonderful.  How did grandmother make that cranberry sauce or what was Aunt Cecil’s recipe for sugar cream pie?
   Publishing your own cookbook can be fun or a headache.  There are steps that can help.  After you have gathered in the recipes you wish to include, you need to proofread.  Go over those recipes by several people and look for something that may be out of order.  After our first cookbook my sister-in-law told me the chili recipe was a disaster.  They couldn’t eat it.  The difference was between recorded 4 teaspoons of cinnamon and accurate ¼ teaspoon cinnamon.  Good cooks checking that recipe would have questioned that and asked the provider what was correct.  So the proofreaders must be sharp.  A few ;mistakes and the reader won’t trust anything.  Saying that, mistakes will happen.  When the book is fresh off the press those mistakes may be more obvious. Don’t despair.  Check everything before you give or sell that first one.  An insert at the front of the book with corrections is acceptable.  I have seen it done. 

    There are companies that specialize in home-made cookbooks.  They have a soft cover and a plastic binder.  We did a church cookbook, sold ads and had a reasonable cost.  It was a success, but when we re-ordered the catch was the price went up because we couldn’t  cash in on ads a second time.  Also that publisher has a copyright on your book and you can not take it to the local printer and have 100 printed off.  They honor that copyright.  The easy part to that method is the publisher does the work.   They arrange the recipes on the pages and send you a copy to proofread before it is published.
   On the other hand you can work with a printer if you have or, are,  a
computer  competent person willing to devote a lot of  time to the project.
Your printer will explain that margins matter, and lots of things matter. 
They will bind your book in  soft cover with plastic binding also.
   For our family cookbook we chose to go with a 3 ring hard cover with pockets.  The printer put it together.  We bought the 3 ring binders separately and got a reasonable price.  But when we wanted to re-order 25 copies, we found the binder price was expensive.  The printer was reasonable but the binder made the cost per copy excessive.  But the printer did not have a copyright.  We could  make our own copies and put the book together. 

Here are some good ideas from other people’s books.  Color coding of pages according to type of food. Names, addresses and phone numbers of contributors included.  If your pickle recipe has a problem, who contributed it, call and check with them.    Include some humorous sayings, or family quotes.  It makes the read more interesting. 
   If you do a good job you will be rewarded years down the road with compliments for saving that strawberry pie recipe.  Your children and grandchildren need a family cookbook, so,  go for it.