Cookbook was just delivered!

Several years ago Mom suggested that we do a family cookbook. Everyone (guys and gals) in our family cooks, and we're pretty good at it too. So last year I decided that would be the Christmas present to everyone from Wayne and me. We didn't get it done in time for Christmas, but we did have the first draft of all of the recipes done when we went home for the holidays. It took me a while longer to proof it, and make the corrections. I had typed the recipes in online so I only needed to finish the personal pages for the front of the book.

My sister, Marcia, suggested that I use one of the photos I have taken for the cover. We ended up using one with pink dogwoods - I take dogwood photos every spring for us to use as graphics in materials for our April AQS Quilt Show.


Lynda Smith, one of our great graphic artists at AQS, helped me format the photos and do the artwork on them. I shipped off those pages, and saw the proof in early August. The UPS man just delivered me three big boxes of cookbooks - and the other half of them should be arriving at Mom's today too. And so, now Cooking with the Kirklands is all printed!


Here are a couple sample pages of recipes in the cookbook. There are 300 recipes in the cookbook with a spiral binding to lay flat, plus there are an index and other helpful pages in the back, including napkin folding, substitution charts, food quantities, quick fixes, and even an order form for ordering more copies.

We will have some cookbooks left over to sell. If you would like a copy, they are $15 plus $3 shipping. If you would like a copy, send an e-mail to: bbquilter@gmail.com and I'll send you my address for sending a check/money order.

Bonnie B - editor of Cooking with the Kirklands

After Thanksgiving...gas is $1.50 here now

After enjoying our Thanksgiving turkey, it's been a nice quiet weekend. Shopping for a few groceries for things to eat up the rest of the turkey...turkey & noodle casserole, and turkey salad sandwiches, and a trip to Office Depot to replace our computer keyboard (I actually wore out the e and s keys) meant that we had to head to the shopping areas. Surprisingly, we were able to park close and the traffic wasn't bad. We bought an ergonomic keyboard and so far I like the feel of it. The keys are in a slight arc instead of straight across. It seems like a natural fit for the hands.

I've kept busy this weekend. For the last several years, our family has talked about doing a family cookbook to share our favorite recipes. I have collected recipes and I spent Thursday and Friday typing them into a recipe format. You know how sometimes you write a recipe on a card and only record the basic stuff. Well, when you put those recipes into a cookbook, you have to fill in all of the other information that people might need to cook it...like, how long you bake those cookies or cake. Mom even dug out her recipe for Hard (lye) Soap, and we have Karen's recipe for Homemade Noodles (and they are really good). I'm still waiting for recipes from some of the family so we have some from everyone. I don't think it will be done in time for Christmas because it will take 2 - 3 weeks to get it printed. We'll gather some more recipes when we go home for Christmas and then get it finished and printed. I want to include photos of our families too.

Some of the recipes that I included are the candies that Wayne's Mom and I used to get together at this time of year to make. We would each buy 10 pounds of sugar and we'd spend a whole weekend making batches and batches of different kinds of fudge, divinity, peanut brittle, date roll, and more. We wouldn't stop until we'd used up all of that sugar. Then we had goodies to share all through the holiday season. Typing recipes for all that food made me go out and buy some ingredients to make Toffee, peppermint bark, and Santa's Snicker Surprise cookies. I haven't baked much lately...so this will be a treat. Oh, and I need to make my favorite - Snickerdoodles - Mom added that recipe to the book.

Wow, I love the feel of this new keyboard. It has a good touch.

Gas here ranges from $1.50 to $1.56. Doesn't that make you wonder why there were charging us $4.00 a gallon a while back?

Today is a sewing day. I haven't stitched a thing for a while, and I'm ready to make a sample of a Lone Star quilt for a new class that I'm going to be teaching soon.

Have a great Sunday!

Bonnie B