Cooking? Only if it's out of a scrapbook!

Cooking is almost like crafting. ALMOST. You work with your hands, create lovely things and get to enjoy the finished product after you are done. However, cooking has some pitfalls that crafting does not....which is why at the end of the day, I choose crafting! When you are finished doing a scrapbook page or painting a frame, you can just throw away your scraps, drop cloth and be done with it. BUT, cooking....ahhhh! You cook for a bit and you have to clean a hundred little tiny things when you are done. You have to make sure you don't leave any extra food out, because if you do, you will smell something rotten in a couple days. Even if you cook something AMAZING, you only get to enjoy it a few times. You spend all that time cooking and then 'poof,' your husband gets home and the food is gone. You spend time crafting, and you get to enjoy it FOREVER!

I realize that my logic might possibly be a little skewed, but nonetheless, it is where my opinion stays: crafting will always trump cooking. However, since cooking is a must for this stay-at-home-part-of-the-time-wife, I have turned my cookbook into something worthwhile! A cookbook scrapbook. 

This idea is NOT my own, but I love it! My aunts (years ago) put all our family recipes into a 5x7 cookbook and decorated each page. I, of course, had to be part of this project! As time has gone on and many more recipes have made it into my arsenal of cooking, I have added on to this cookbook. Last night in fact, I could not sleep, so got out some new recipes of mine, typed them into the computer, printed them out, cut them to a 5x7 size, decorated each little 'page' and then found them a special spot in my cookbook.

How to do it: type up your recipe (set the page margins what your cookbook scrapbook will be), print it out in easily readable but CUTE font...colors are good too, cut the page to size, add simple border to the page (You will be SHOCKED how many random boarder stickers you might have!), then add some fun stickers or embellishments to the page. WaaLaa, done!
If you are not a scrapbooker, or just learning how to scrapbook, this is the PERFECT project, because it is very quick and you can make it as complex or as simple as you would like. And, then, when you finally do decide to cook, it will just warm your heart that at least something in your kitchen will last forever....well, at least longer than your food!





Where my recipe book sits open in my kitchen next to all my other "regular" cookbooks.