Assembling a Family Favorites Cookbook

It used to be that a woman's prize possession was her recipe box. When my mother-in-law died, we received hers, and I typed up the recipes and shared them with all of her family. They were on recipe cards and papers torn from magazines and note paper from friends. Some you could tell were favorites and some might never have been used. The recipes represent a time when the one version of a recipe was the only one a woman would ever see; she didn't have internet access. If she lost the recipe, that was the end of it.
Slowly over 27 years of marriage, I have compiled my own set of favorite family recipes into a Family Favorites cookbook. I know I've tried many recipes and failed to keep track of what they were and where I got them; but just lately I've attempted to find all those I commented on in my huge collection of cookbooks and incorporate the best in my family cookbook. My collection increases often enough that at this point I don't have the whole thing printed. It's about 70 pages and has a huge variety of recipes. I also keep recipes that interest me in various word processing documents categorized very specifically; some of these I have tried, and some not. My "favorites" cookbook document is helpful for sharing these recipes; they are quick to access, and easy to send via e-mail or facebook to friends; I've also sent my entire cookbook to my now-married daughter Katie so that any happy childhood food memories are probably included in the cookbook I e-mailed her. 
This seems like a good thing for any family to do with their recipes; it's great for quick access to the foods that comfort us most readily, and for sharing with others. And it's not that hard, especially if you add recipes one at a time as you find them. I keep recipes not only on my computer but also printed up and put in plastic page protectors in binders on my kitchen bookshelf. It keeps them clean and I can write notes on them and adapt them as needed. I have made various theme binders in addition: one for hospitality, one for wheat allergy, and various holiday binders. I don't have a laptop computer, but this would probably even be better just kept on disk and cooked from the computer screen; I think that's what Katie does with hers. (I think if I did that, though, I'd have a problem with food crumbs, splashes and smears on my computer...I'm pretty sure I'm better off with the plastic page protectors!) Maybe someday I'll have great-grandchildren who might not remember me, but who will still have access to my cookbook. Maybe they'll even use it.