A Cookbook

Last weekend I had the honor of being in a dear friend's wedding in Branson. It was awesome!

She asked me to be a bridesmaid right after she got engaged... only TWO months ago!  I knew the wedding was coming quickly and I wouldn't have any way to attend a shower in Branson or host a shower during the short engagement. So I decided to do a "shower by mail." Or really a "shower by email." 

You see my sweet friend has worked for the Kanakuk Institute for the last 10 years.  I think her official title is Dean of Women. But I have no clue. I just know that she supports, mentors, encourages, and loves all of the girls who attend each and every year.  That's how we met... I went to KI and she became a sweet friend.  Then after I graduated, I moved in with her.  And that's when I really, fully understood the depth of her love for food and cooking.

So... I emailed every girl who had ever attended the Kanakuk Institute and asked for recipes.  (Okay, I didn't personally send the email. I wrote it and a KI staff girl sweetly helped me send the email.)  And then the recipes started pouring in.  I think we ended up with about 90 recipes from 60+ girls. 

Then the fun part... scrapbooking the cover :)  Here it is... The Connolly Cookbook.

 Do you see the sweet scrapbook paper I found?  "1 cup of love"  "top chef"  and decorated with measuring cups and spoons and oven mitts. Precious!!  Do you also see how I need a real camera and not a dumb point and shoot that never wants to focus where I want it to?

On the inside of the front cover I wrote a note to my friend.  Then I separated all of the recipes by type... we had Starters and Sides

 Soups and Salads
Main Dishes
Desserts
and Breakfast and Breads

I found this cute stationary paper at Office Depot and printed each and every recipe on one of the pages.  Some of the girls went all out and added photos (like the one below), colorful and fun fonts, and sweet notes to our friend. (cannot get this photo to rotate. Ugh)

 If the girls just emailed the recipe to me, I copied it into a word document and then I changed up some of the fonts so that many of the pages looked different.  and of course each recipe included the name of the girl who sent it.

 I found this super cute paper too! Had to use it!  Inside of the back cover.

 And then the back cover matches the front.


I had it bound and covered with clear plastic at FedEx Kinkos for only $4. Sweetness.

I of course did my favorite scrapbooking technique on the covers and embellishments... antiqueing with ink. No clue how to spell antiqueing.

My friend was super excited about the cookbook! I was so happy to bless her and her new husband in the kitchen!  And now I have a plethora of awesome looking recipes saved in my email :)  Hoping to try some new ones soon!