Summer is the season for weddings, family reunions, graduation parties, garden parties and barbecues. For every such gathering, the one thing that is always present besides family and friends is the food. Many times, these occasions are special enough and deserve a family recipe cookbook.

Good food guides the conversation from appetizers to dessert — who brought what, if it’s a new recipe or if it’s a cherished one: Aunt Helen’s famous barbecued meatballs, grandma’s anise candy and the plum pudding with lemon sauce — handed down for generations.

When someone leaves the “nest” to begin their own family or graduates from college, it’s important to pass along recipes to keep the food, and the memories, alive. A favorite family recipe is cherished like an old photograph. And like an old photo album, family recipes put together into one book becomes a cherished family heirloom.

Here are a few ways to use a keepsake cookbook:

* A keepsake cookbook as a bride’s gift sends the bride into her new life with a wealth of family recipes.
* Passing the cookbook out to wedding guests shares the family’s “history” with everyone.
* At a family reunion, providing everyone with a copy of the cookbook — full of family stories, notes, photos and food — makes the reunion complete with something for everyone to share.

“I just wanted to put out my own cookbook with my family’s recipes so I could always have them,” says Tina Marizetts of Peoria, Ill. “This was a great experience for me and I really had fun putting this cookbook together.”

How do you make a keepsake cookbook? Go to cookbooks.com and sign up for their free kit on how to create a family heirloom cookbook. Once you sign in, you receive the kit, including samples of covers and bindings, a catalog with instructions, and your own recipe Web site. Then, you enter the recipes collected from family members and your recipes are bound with the dividers and cover of your choice.

Choose from different recipe formats, add artwork, notes, photos and anything else you’d like for a tailored family keepsake that can be handed down for years. Each divider page can have a different theme, with a family tree, childhood photos, the recipe’s history, heritage notes or a “story” about the recipe or its significance.

“It was a fun experience; my daughter helped me pick out everything — even the dividers between recipes, how many per page and all,” says Peggy McBride, of Nocona, Texas. While creating a keepsake cookbook can be a fun project that brings the family together, planning the reunion can be overwhelming if you have a big family or group.

For help throwing a great reunion, order the free Reunion Guidebook for tips to putting together great family and school reunions and parties. It includes family activities, awards and registration table ideas, such as color-coordinated name tags — all to bring a different sense of fun to the reunion. The Guidebook makes the task of organizing it seem smaller.

Having a reunion can be costly so many families are using their keepsake cookbooks as a way to fund the event. It can help to cover traveling expenses for those families who have a long way to go and want to bring all the kids.

Fundcraft Publishing is the largest and most respected cookbook publisher with a guaranteed cookbook program that will guide any group, step by step, in creating their very own cookbook.

For information on the free keepsake cookbook kit and/or the Reunion Guidebook, log on to www.cookbooks.com or www.fundcraft.com or call (800) 853-1364 ext. 206.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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SIDEBAR:

Check out the recipe database with literally thousands of hometown recipes to create your own community or church group fundraiser cookbooks. Thousands of individuals and community groups from across the U.S. advertise their cookbooks to raise money to meet their fundraising goals.

Sample Recipes

Onion Crispy Chicken
1/2 cup butter or margarine (melted)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 6-ounce can French fried onion, crushed

In a shallow bowl, combine the butter, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic salt and pepper. Dip chicken in batter mixture, then coat with onions. Place in greased 9-inch square baking pan, top with remaining onions. Drizzle with any remaining butter mixture. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes or until chicken juice runs clear. Yield: 4 servings.

Lavender Lemonade
1 12-ounce can lemonade concentrate
1/4 cup lavender (can get at health food store)
2 cups boiling water

Combine lemonade and 1 gallon water. Steep lavender for 10 minutes in boiling water. Strain and pour into lemonade mix.

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