My Nana's Cookbook [Esther's Surprise]

[Editor's post]

Last winter (2009) my Aunt Esther created a cookbook of her own favorite recipes for her family. She called it "My Nana's Cookbook" and gave it to selected family members as a Christmas present.

Esther did it all herself (of course with some help from her son and daughters) – she printed out each recipe on the printer and hand collated it and then took it to the print shop to have it put into binders. She created 20 books to give away. It was a tremendous work!

I was fortunate enough to receive one these hard copy books and I was totally astonished at the extensive listing of recipes. It was completely different from my mother's cookbook. This was a no-nonsense-get-in-there-and-make-it cook book.

A bit of negotiating with my Aunt took place and I convinced her to let me convert the hard copy to an electronic copy to share with everyone on the blog. My Aunt was exhausted from all the hard work on the original book but she readily agreed to the project.

I explained that a hard-copy book is not the same as an electronic copy and that I would do all the work to make the electronic copy but she would have to do the proof-reading as the project progressed. I explained it would take a lot of work and it would take a lot of time to do. However, in the end I felt we would both be happy with the out come.

Esther sent me copies of her original recipe documents and away we went. First, I converted her MS-Works documents to OpenOffice documents where I would have more control over the format. Next I created a Master Document and began to add the recipes to it. After every few entries I sent her a copy to proof-read and she sent back corrections. We exchanged copies several times a week. I want to give my Aunt Esther a BIG HUG AND A LUG for hanging in there when it seemed like we would never get to the end.

After we got all the original recipes into the electronic copy, I prevailed on my Aunt to add some new ones. Special recipes that I remember her making when I first met her as a teenager visiting her and Uncle Vernon in Baton Rouge. We call these Vernon's Recipes and I am so grateful that she included them!

Next I asked my Aunt to send some photos to add to the book. Color hard-copy is expensive but color in an electronic book is not – so after a bit of gentle pushing on my side, Esther got her daughter Cindy to take a bunch of photos. Esther selected the ones she liked best and her family were champs at figuring out how to email me the photos! The photos where the final touch needed to complete the book.

Well it's time to unveil Aunt Esther's Surprise!

On the left panel there is a download link to My Nana's Cookbook!

Kim