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You have to love those printed cookbooks. Many of us grew up skimming the pages with our mothers, always seeking the perfect meal to surprise the family with. Those were good times, memories of the past. The world has changed since then and we have changed with it. I will admit that I took many of those old recipes and stashed them away in my old cookbook. The special things that mom created from something she read in a book, something she tweaked.

You won't find meals like that anymore.

Folks today are all about time efficiency. With busy households and everyone going off their separate way with outside activities, hanging around the kitchen is not what it used to be. This does not mean that we can't find quality time to share and enjoy a meal together. It simply means that getting there takes less time.

The internet has opened up a whole new world for today's creative cooking men and women. I have found a new joy in sitting at the computer with my granddaughters, searching the web for something special. Be it a birthday cake recipe or a meal for the evening or special event. The web does offer a hundred different varieties of just about anything one might be searching for, but as an added bonus, something the printed cookbook cannot offer, is a whole world for multiple ways of making things. If you cannot have salt or lactose or sugar, there is most likely another solution, another way of making that recipe. Oh, and the added photographs. They give you a good idea on what your creation should look like. Presentation of a meal is an important step in how the receiver will respond to what they are about to eat. A dish can make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Watch any one of the hundred cooking shows on the Food Network and you will have a prime example of how good a nice food presentation can make you feel. Rachael Ray whips up a quick thirty minute meal that looks divine. For the family sit down dinner, you might want to look to Paula Deen or Emeril. Not very intense preparation, but it results in a scrumptious meal at the end. I will admit that not all of my dishes turn out looking as good as the pros do, but they aren't far off and my family appreciates my effort.

As for the printed cookbooks, my granddaughters and I have created our own family recipe binder that contains many of the dishes we have searched out on the web. With our creative juices we have even personalized the pages so that each person's favorite meal or dessert is noted. On occasion, we have included a small picture of the family member eating their favorite dish. (We usually do this with birthday cakes or pies)

We mount each printed recipe onto cardstock (if it is smaller than 8.5 x 11) then slip it into a sheet protector page to keep it from getting wet or dirty when we use it. We simply find the meal we want, take the protected page out of the binder and take it to the kitchen for us to use. When done, we replace it back in the binder, wiping it off if necessary. The binder is organized as most any cookbook might be and if we have improved on a recipe, we note it on that particular page. Most anything can always be made better.

Our current family tradition is different from how mine was as a little girl but it is every bit as wonderful and memorable. Our book will be passed down to my granddaughters when they are older and they will have something to share with their children.

Learn more about this author, Debbie Gillotti.
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