My Slightly Mortifying Mother's Day Gift

I was a little suspicious when Natalie's preschool teachers asked parents to send in a favorite family recipe so close to Mother's Day.

I obliged and jotted down the recipe for Skier's Cake, which is saved in my Blogger drafts file for a winter post, so you'll have to wait for it nah nah nah.

When Michaela Byrd and I picked Natalie up from school on Wednesday, she was bouncing up and down with excitement, clutching a wrapped package to her chest. I promised I'd open it as soon as we got home.

I was delighted to find an adorable cookbook with recipes compiled from Natalie's "Young 4s" class and the preschool administrators, P.E. teacher, music teacher, Spanish teacher, and church office worker.

(In case you are not an FBI Handwriting Analyst, that says "Made with Love for Mom by Natalie.")

The mortifying part came when I realized that the teachers asked each child to dictate a "special" recipe to be included in the book.

My child chose Brownies. No big deal, right? Here's how the recipe reads:

"Take the ingredients what are from a box plus eggs and put them in a bowl and stir. Then cook them for 10 hours and put them on the stove to cool off."

 Boxed brownies? Really?! She doesn't remember the 9732 times we've made blonde brownies from scratch?

No, she remembers the times Mommy buys the Betty Crocker variety on sale at Target and cranks a pan out in 20 minutes. Sigh.

I will forever be known to the other moms in the class as "that mom who makes brownies from a box." I am shamed.

I share my shame with you because after I got over the humiliation (by making a box of brownies), I got to thinking that wedding season will be upon us soon and these little cookbooks are actually great bridal shower gifts!

Here are a few variations:

• Find a set of cute recipe cards at your local stationary shop and insert them into a decorated binder after writing some of your favorites down. Use colored dividers for different categories. Be sure to include extra blank cards.
• Visit a site like Create My Cookbook and have one printed professionally for the bride-to-be. Make a copy for yourself if you like how it turned out.
• Use an 8x8 scrapbook album and create an embellished cookbook. My mother-in-law did this when T's brother got married in 2008. You can include stories behind each recipe, photos of family enjoying meals together, or a picture of the family member who shared the recipe with you. DCWV has an adorable paper pack with Kitchen themed papers called "Nana's Kitchen."

• T's mom typed up the recipes she used in the bride's recipe scrapbook and had them made into a little book that she gave to each family at Christmas. Each person's name was at the top of the page with their recipe. You could even go a step further and include the recipe donor's birthdate/marriage info. and it would be a lovely genealogical gift to future generations of the family.

So there you have it. You can turn my mortification into something useful. If you start looking through your cookbooks now and emailing family members, you'll have plenty of time to complete a DIY cookbook by wedding season...or Christmas.

I'm linking to Kimba's DIY party at A Soft Place to Land today.

{Special thanks to today's Sponsor, The Peacock Shop!}