Activity #477: Make your own TasteBook

by Whitney on October 24, 2007

in Crafty, Eating, Mommy, Toddler

You may have noticed that Heather is really into meal planning and finding solutions to getting dinner on the table before putting the baby to bed. I wish I had as much passion for the subject as she does. My obstacle: the picky palates of my husband and myself. When I page through the recipe books I own, I find myself eliminating almost everything because I don’t like mushrooms or he doesn’t like ground turkey or I don’t like sun-dried tomatoes or we don’t eat pork.

What I need? My own cookbook of my go-to recipies, so that when I do find a winner, I have it in one place where I can go to it again and again. And now, there’s Tastebook.com, offering me exactly that. Only instead of an index card box of hideously folded and stained print-outs from epicurious.com, it will be a beautiful spiral book with tabbed sections that I name myself, ie “Julian’s Faves” or “What my dad likes that is not more than thirty-minutes worth of cooking” instead of “Appetizers”. Oh, and you can share recipes with friends. (All you mushroom hating, semi-vegetarians, share with me!)

So I’m on a mission to fill up my Tastebook.

Coolness! Heather has arranged for us to giveaway two Tastebooks! Comment on this post before midnight on Halloween, and we’ll pick a winner at random on Thursday November 1!

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

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October 27, 2007 at 12:49 pm

{ 142 comments }

xxxkey October 27, 2007 at 11:12 am

I always thought this would be a good idea. My recipes are a mess

Beth/Mom2TwoVikings October 27, 2007 at 11:31 am

I do this with a three-ring binder and page “sleeves” but OH to have it look so nice! Count me in!

JT October 27, 2007 at 11:44 am

This is a MARVELOUS idea! I tend not to buy cookbooks because I have a husband and kids with food allergies, and it’s really frustrating to have to tiptoe around certain ingredients (and sometimes, whole categories). Do you know how many cookbooks that aim to feed picky kids rely on peanut butter? Too many, if you’ve got allergic kids like me. I think this is a great idea (and I’m going to remember it for gifts, too)!!

Nichole October 27, 2007 at 11:55 am

What a great idea! Thanks!

Kate October 27, 2007 at 12:03 pm

What a great idea!

Lindy Funaki October 27, 2007 at 12:56 pm

What an awesome, much-needed idea! And great giveaway! Oh, how I could use this.

Tricia October 27, 2007 at 12:56 pm

Great idea — so much better than the random page tabs in shelves and shelves of cookbooks and magazines.

kelli October 27, 2007 at 1:01 pm

That would be so much better than my binder-clipped printouts!

Kathy October 27, 2007 at 1:06 pm

this is a fabulous idea!

Elana October 27, 2007 at 1:06 pm

Oh, please enter me too! My recipes are scattered all over hte place!!!

Michelle October 27, 2007 at 1:38 pm

Wow, what a great idea. I have all my recipes in binders but they are pretty mseey and getting ripped up. What a great way to save recipes that are family favorites to hand down to future generations!

Stephanie October 27, 2007 at 2:36 pm

WOw — what a neat thing! I’d love to win my own tastebook.

mrs. B October 27, 2007 at 3:43 pm

This is just what I keep saying I’d make some day….not that I’d ever have time to do it myself!

Tisha October 27, 2007 at 6:34 pm

I’ve done something similar, but not nearly so nice – actually started photocopying favorite recipes from cookbooks that we already own and putting them in a binder so we don’t have to go searching through many cookbooks to find a certain recipe. Definately a work in progress though.

Miriam October 27, 2007 at 9:39 pm

That is a brilliant idea!!! And I love cookbooks

Amie October 27, 2007 at 10:41 pm

That’s pretty cool. I checked out their site and I AM their target audience. I have so many cookbooks, looseleaf printouts, 3X5 cards, PDFs, and links. It’s amazing I can find anything. And what a great idea for the holidays. Or family reunions. Or Mother’s Day.

SueBeeee October 28, 2007 at 5:04 am

I love this! I always have such a hard time planning our meals for the week!

Julie Johnson October 28, 2007 at 5:47 am

This is a wonderful idea. Currently my recipe book looks like a really bad collage of recipes written, cut of of magazines, and dripped on by various food items. I would love a book that makes me look organized!

Karina October 28, 2007 at 6:24 am

Wow! Beautiful, practical, convenient and with sooo many posibilities! I tried doing this with my nieces, gave them a binder with my favorite family recipes one Christmas, meant to update it every Xmas, but didn’t. This would be a great way to keep up with sharing recipes with them, and friends and family living far away.

Lauren October 28, 2007 at 6:43 am

I’ve been collecting family recipes for years and this would be a great way to display and oranize them!

Michelle October 28, 2007 at 7:03 am

Fabulous! Count me in!

Staci October 28, 2007 at 9:15 am

This is fantastic! I could make my own, one of family recipes, one of recipes for kids to make, one of my friend’s best recipes….the list goes on and on!

Yvonne October 28, 2007 at 9:24 am

love the idea!

Violet Twilight October 28, 2007 at 9:25 am

Sounds like a great idea, I would love to try it out.

Tami October 28, 2007 at 9:38 am

This would be best solution to all these years of collecting! I can start one for my daughter now and add “editions” later.

Victoria October 28, 2007 at 2:16 pm

That is SO cool! Thank you for posting about it! :o )

Lori October 28, 2007 at 2:43 pm

I’ve been wanting to gather a bunch of our family recipes for a cookbook for everyone…the only bummer about this, is that it looks like Tastebook isn’t set up yet to allow you to include your own personal photos. Hoping they will do that soon!!!

Stephanie October 28, 2007 at 3:57 pm

I’ve gathered and graded recipes A+, A and A- that are what we call “keepers” and put them in a folder. This idea is just so wonderful. Wish I would have thought about it!

Alison October 28, 2007 at 4:41 pm

I would love to have one of these. The cookbook I have written my recipes in is literally falling apart.

Holly October 28, 2007 at 5:10 pm

I would love to have one of these. I can never decide what to make any more since we had the baby. Thanks!

April October 28, 2007 at 11:32 pm

I have been really working on organizing and compling great recipes. This would make my job go so much easier. I would LOVE to have this in my kitchen.

Melissa October 29, 2007 at 9:05 am

What a great idea! Thanks for the contest!

AK October 29, 2007 at 9:59 am

I love the fact that it’s not “permanently” bound – can continually swap recipes in and out.

Lisa October 29, 2007 at 10:52 am

Sounds fantastic!

christy October 29, 2007 at 9:21 pm

I LOVE this idea. But, I LOVE, LOVE your blog more. Kudos!

Heather M October 30, 2007 at 1:36 pm

Yep! Does look a lot prettier than the ancient binder and more bang for the buck than sheet protectors. Sounds great!

Sariah October 30, 2007 at 2:27 pm

This is exactly what I need!! I have a very large stack of recipes I have printed out or copied from others or whatever, but it’s so disorganized and messy. Anytime I want to find a certain recipe, I have to dig through the entire pile (which takes a good 10 minutes). I’ve been meaning to organize the “pile”, but just haven’t found the motivation. This Taste Book would give me that motivation. Yay! And I can put in the recipes we actually USE with the notes I have made on HOW we use them. Double yay!

Laura October 30, 2007 at 6:08 pm

This is a great item! I am yet another one of those people with a notebook with cryptic scribbled recipes and taped-in recipes clipped from magazines. I could definitely use this.

Hannah C. October 30, 2007 at 9:26 pm

I would love it!!

Christie October 31, 2007 at 5:52 am

This is such a great idea…I’m always making a good meal and then forgetting about it when it comes time to make the grocery list!!

kristine October 31, 2007 at 1:22 pm

VERY COOL! I’d love to be entered…

julie October 31, 2007 at 1:45 pm

finally! this is the perfect solution!

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