Cookbooks are perennial bestsellers the world over and even online. A lot of people tend to collect cookbooks, especially because not all the recipes you want can be found in just one cookbook. Don't you have cookbooks where you only find that you like a few recipes and don’t bother with the rest? But what if you can, indeed, compile all your recipe choices in your very own customized cookbook? Wouldn't that be just great? Well, now you can at Lutongbahay.com.
Lutongbahay.com is the first and only interactive cooking portal online that highlights Filipino regional food recipes and also contains thousands of international recipes. It is where a community of cooking enthusiasts can meet and enjoy discussions on food and homecooking. After all, lutongbahay is th Filipino word for homecooking.
I, for one, already have a clear idea of how I want to organize my cookbook at Lutongbahay.com. I want one section to focus on daily meals. This would be a collection of quick and easy yet healthy and tasty recipes for busy weekdays. There should be enough for at least a month, covering breakfast, lunch and dinner. It should also include easy recipes for lunchboxes to take to school and work.
A separate section will focus on more elaborate weekend meals. With more time on my hands and with the entire family at home, Saturday and Sunday is the time to prepare heartier meals and fancier desserts, as well as treats for snacks.
Cooking for company or for celebrations would be in a different section altogether. Although I am not beyond preparing some of these party dishes for the family on certain weekends, there are recipes that really are for special occasions. In the Philippines, these are fiesta food such as Arroz Valenciana (a kind of paella), Rellenong Bangus (stuffed milkfish), Rellenong Manok (stuffed chicken), Morcon (stuffed and rolled beef flank), Embutido (a homemade sausage) and Crispy Pata (deep fried pork leg).
Within each section, I would group together traditional Filipino recipes, variations on Filipino recipes and new dishes made from traditional Filipino ingredients. Another grouping would be made up of international dishes, perhaps sub-categorized by region.
Your customized cookbook can be easily printed out. I suggest you keep it in a binder that allows for the addition of more pages and the reshuffling of pages. This will make room for more recipes and make your cookbook flexible for any reorganization you may want to do later.
You might also want to insert a blank page after each recipe to allow you to put in personal notes such as any variation you have made on the original recipe. Perhaps you might also want to note down any special occasion you have prepared the recipe for.
Those who are fond of scrapbooking will probably create beautiful cookbooks with personalized designs. If you have a digital camera, you could take pictures of your version of each dish and add that to your cookbook. If the photo includes the people you have made the dish for, the cookbook becomes a treasured memento as well. After all, we often enjoy cooking for our loved ones and cherished friends.
The customizable cookbook feature is a special privilege of Lutongbahay.com members. Premium membership is easily affordable, though, at only $9.99 a year. With all the benefits that come with it, it is more than worth the price. Payment can be made conveniently by credit card, PayPal, Western Union or check and cash deposits from anywhere around the world. Visitors based in the Philippines can also pay with automated teller (ATM) cards online through PayPlus+.
Why pay for all those expensive cookbooks when you can have your very own customized cookbook? Get your membership at Lutongbahay.com so you can start compiling your recipes now.