Cookbook Create: A Cookie Swap Gift Idea & Family Recipe

Happy Monday friends! I hope you all had a great weekend! We completed the last of 4 weekends on the road traveling here and there and I'm SO glad to be at home through the rest of the holidays! And since we're back and ready to soak up the season I'm going to be pummeling you with holiday posts, as to be expected this time of year, right?!? :) Speaking of...I have such a fun gift idea for you today that I can't hardly stand it!

Cookbook Create: A Cookie Swap Gift Idea & Family Recipe

I love cookbooks. I love giving them, getting them, I even love looking at them in stores. And as I get older, outside of gifts for the kiddos, personalized gifts are my favorite!

I recently got to be a part of a very fun virtual cookie swap project with Cookbook Create where a group of bloggers put together a collection of our favorite holiday cookie recipes and created a beautiful cookbook of our own. We each compiled three or four favorite recipes and added them to the group collection on Cookbook Create. From there we were able to add text, personal photos and tweak the layout of the pages. It is a group effort book that can be completely personalized. 

Once the book arrived it was so fun to flip through the pages and see all of the yummy recipes from my fellow bloggers!

One of the best features of Cookbook Create is that you can collaborate with other users to build your cookbook. Everyone in your group or family can contribute their own recipes to create one awesome book! This would make a perfect gift for parents or grandparents, a place to contain special family recipes to pass down through the next generations. And, the burden of the recipes doesn't fall on one person's shoulders.

The site is very user friendly and the quality of the books are really top notch! I love the hardback cover too. Instead of using personal photos of our family, I chose to create our book with beautiful photography (from photographer Laura Sumrak) to give it a high-end look. These are photographs of our home, which make it personal, but it also looks like it could have come off the shelves of any book store, making it a perfect gift.

Another great idea would be to put a book together for friends or neighbors. I belong to a girls group that meets once a month and I would love to have a book of all of the recipes that we prepare for each other when we get together.

My family is not by any means known for our cooking skills (other than my late Granny), however, there are a handful of dishes that we do really, really well. Our "Best Cookies Ever" recipe as we have titled it is one of those recipes.

It's funny I've never been protective of a recipe like I am of this one and I rarely share it so you're in for a treat! I'm not sure why that is other then it's very nostalgic for our family, almost like our little personal secret. But we love them so much I think it's a shame not to share it with you guys! They're so easy to make and if you use these proportions the recipe yields a ton of cookies, approximately 50 or 60. So, when you make a batch you have enough for the fam and some to share with your neighbors too!

"BEST COOKIES EVER" RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 cups brown sugar

1 ½ cups powdered milk

4 cups oats

1 ½ cups coconut

1 package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup oil

1 tablespoon vanilla

4 eggs

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. I find it easier to use my hands to mix the ingredients together. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spoon cookie mixture onto the pan about 2 inches apart. The size of the cookies are up to you, they will spread out a little. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Keep an eye on the cookies so the bottoms don't burn. I move the cookies to a different rack at the halfway point. When they turn barely golden brown on top they are done.

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It's not too late to create a cookbook for your family or to give as gifts this holiday season! Head over to Cookbook Create and check them out! The books are super easy to make and will surely be a beloved gift to all that receive them!

And check out the fab bloggers that participated in the cookie swap: Cassie Bustamante, Positively Oakes,

Cheers!

{A huge thank you to Cookbook Create for sponsoring this post and thank YOU for supporting the wonderful brands that make Simple Stylings possible. All designs, ideas and opinions are my own.}