I’ve created a YouTube video about the project that you can view HERE.
For a few years, I’ve been working on creating a family recipe book from the collection of recipes I got from my mom. The box even contains some of my grandmother’s recipes. But getting through all those recipes, making them, and taking pictures is a huge endeavor, and I’m not sure my waistline will handle them all.
You can find them below if you haven’t seen what I’ve posted.
Pineapple Delight and Cape Cod Casserole
Chocolate Zucchini Cake and Zucchini Bites
No-Bake Cookies and Impossible Pie
Grandma’s Christmas Pudding Sauce
Then, the other day, I got a note from my niece, Miranda, asking for my mom’s pickled beet recipe. The day before she sent this message, I was literally thinking that I should just scan the recipes, put them in an album, and then create a book with the scans.
I asked her if she’d like to help me with a family cookbook by making the recipes and providing photos of her and her children making them. We could create a book with pictures, recipes, photos of my mom and grandmother, and other photos of family events. With our family, it was always an event that included food. She thought it was a great idea and said she’d be happy to help.
Photomyne is the perfect scanner for this project. I had the recipes all over my living room table so I could quickly scan them.
Photomyne is a phone app. I saw it demoed at RootsTech, and the cost is $15/month or $40 for a year. It was an easy decision to go for the year because you never know when you’ll need to scan a photo at a cousin’s house, and it works on images, documents, and slides.
With the app open, you can choose either the red Scan button at the bottom or the square scan button closer to the top. Then, just point at the item you wish to scan and hold the scan button down.
It then crops so you capture the image. If you were taking a scan of an album with multiple photos, say four, it would clip them into four separate images. They then go into an album, and it’s that easy.
Once I had all the recipes scanned (it literally only took 1 hour or so because there were about 100), I could choose “share them,” select my FOREVER app, and simply transfer them over. (Make sure you only do about five at a time; otherwise, it creates a link, and that’s not what I wanted. I wanted the individual scans.
Now, they are all in my FOREVER account, and I can select the recipes and put them in an album I created called Family Recipes. I can then go into each recipe and make the title the recipe’s name. If I do that, when I use the search bar in FOREVER, I can look for that recipe if I know the name.
All that’s left is to invite my niece to the album. I was telling my brothers about this project, and one of my brothers wants to join in, so I’ll add him as well. Adding them is easy with “Connections.” First, I need to invite them to FOREVER. They don’t have to have a paid account; they need a free one to upload to my album. That’s my plan. Then, they can download the recipes if they want them, but I also asked them to take photos when they make something. All can then be added to the book.
Once they accept, I can add them to the group I created called “Recipe Group.”
You can see the button where you add new groups and the group I created for the project. I can add them to other groups, such as the Thompson Family, which will have Thompson genealogy records. My further plan is to have groups for each family surname, and then I can add various cousins to each group that would be important to them. Then, they will have access to the albums that go with the group. I have all my genealogy scanned and in FOREVER, but I’m still working on organizing it.
I’m a bit excited about this project because it’s a way of getting other family members involved, and it’s our family history, so it will make it all more meaningful to them.
If you want to watch my YouTube video about this project, you can do so HERE.
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