The Secret Ingredients Family Cookbook Story, Part One

Secret Ingredients has a pretty amazing story, if I don’t say so myself! The ideas behind Secret Ingredients and the creation of the product have led me on an incredible journey…

Why do I want to share the Secret Ingredients story?

It is such an honor to be a part of a meaningful family project. Speaking to people about their family stories and helping them document their history through recipes is a great passion of mine, and I want to share it with you.

In addition, the creation of the product is a very neat story, and I’m hoping it will inspire you to share your memories and create meaningful gifts for your loved ones. The possibilities are endless!

Creative Book Beginnings

The “creative book gift” idea came to me very early. I was always a stubborn child and had no interest in giving my family members what they actually wanted on gift occasions. I believed that every gift had to be meaningful! I remember sneaking photos out of our family album, hoping to copy and replace them before anyone noticed. I made books for birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, and Mother’s Day, and through the process learned how to create quality keepsakes.

A Mom’s Banana Bread Recipe

A family friend asked me to help her create a family recipe scrapbook for her children five and a half years ago. Her daughter and son had called her throughout the year asking about family recipes (particularly her delicious Banana Bread Recipe), and she decided that a family cookbook was the perfect Christmas gift. I happily accepted the challenge thinking, “This is right up my alley!”

The first SI Cookbooks were completely handmade!

The First Secret Ingredients Family Cookbooks

The Christ Family Cookbooks, my first creations, turned out beautifully! The recipe pages were organized inside of a 6”x 9” binder that I covered with cotton batting and fabric.
(Tip: If you ever make a fabric binder for the kitchen, remember the Scotchgard™!!)

To divide the recipes by category, I created dividers using file folders and handmade paper:

The Original Purely Organic

The Original Fabulous Fruit

The Original Fashionably Late

Word of the beautiful cookbook spread through the neighborhoods of my home town. Over the next two years I continued to make the handmade books. Each book took 3 months and many, many hours. It was a full-time job! After attending tech school, I decided to use the Internet to make cookbook projects completely interactive and simple, so that families everywhere can make beautiful family cook books easily!

Tomorrow the story continues… Stay tuned to hear how the Tsunami changed the way our cookbooks look today!