Creating TCS Cookbook

[fluffy'smom]

I didn't mean to be "clinical" just simple. I'll use any letter you want but before i do it i want to 100% that this is what we are doing as i had about 50 emails sent out last time. Anyhow i'm off for the day to go visit family. I'll check this thread tonite.

Have a great day everyone!

 

[hissy]

I understand the simplicity of your answer. But some of these people are going to be hit out of the blue with this idea and not have a clue what is going on. Many of them from old threads for whatever reason are no longer a part of this community.

To do an effective job, means to take your time in planning and execution. Several *ideas* on here from years past have fizzled out and died because not enough time was taken to implement the plan.

If the burden of making up bios is removed from you, and if instead you collect pictures and board names and one line to explain the member's cat and send this information to Heidi, that leaves and Mom of Many spearheading this, and Heidi putting it online. Their idea is to release this for Christmas. It does not have to be done tomorrow, there is no rush on it. If PM's or emails are not responded to in a timely fashion, the recipe will be deleted from the cook book and perhaps another one can go in its stead.

My letter was to try and stimulate some holiday giving first of all and give background as to what is going on. Again, some people do not participate in this community any longer and may not even wish to be a part of this. That is their choice. The cookbook was just mentioned days ago on the board. I have sent an email to my mom asking for some of my grandmother's recipes, I would like to include them in this collection. I am sure others might also wish to keep this original recipe idea growing and have others to contribute. Just don't be so quick on the draw here FM. Your willingness to contribute is wonderful, but don't rush through this without at least emailing Heidi or MomofMany about your plans. Let only two cooks stir this broth for right now until it gets past the planning stages. The only reason I am involved is because of the cause it represents and I know the shelter that it will hopefully help. But then so does Anne, she works for them as well.

 

[fluffy'smom]

I would never just go and do somethinbg to with TCS cookbook without asking here thats common sense to me. I was under the impression we were under a deadline of sorts. If not great

When you or whomeveris ready just lmk and i'll send out the info.

 

[momofmany]

Just catching up on this thread. After pulling all of the recipes, there are a LOT of folks that have contributed, and I tend to agree with the opinion that the bio's of all contributors might be excessive. What MA is collecting on the folks that are pulling it together is probably sufficient for this effort.

If we put cat pictures in the book, it could be a separate section at the end of the book that shows the cats that influenced the cooks. If people want their cat pictured, great, but I'm not sure that I would e-mail everyone that has contributed recipes - some of these go too far back! Perhaps just a post asking for pictures????

Having a Christmas deadline is probably a good idea - I'm having difficulty keeping up with the daily submissions and getting much editing done. Will need to set up a timeline, reverse from Christmas to know when our cut off is. Something like:

December 15th: final cookbook posted online
December 1st: Final word document to Heidi to reformat into PDF
November 15th: Final recipe submitted

Not sure if these are the right dates, but by the size of this thing right now, it will take weeks, not days, to edit. I only got thru classification of 1/2 of the recipes today, and have spent no time in proofing the content.

Sorry for the ramble.....

 

[valanhb]

Amy, do you think we could shoot for a December 1 release so people can think of it for gifts for Christmas? (Just trying to think like a marketer, as well as logistics.

)

Perhaps you could delegate some of the editing? Such as, one person could take Appetizers and Bread, one could take Desserts, etc. We don't want to overwhelm you with doing everything! The biggest thing would be writing out how you want everything formatted so it would be consistent through all of the sections.

 

[fluffy'smom]

Ok so do you still need me to do anything then? I would do editing but i'm really bad at that type of thing. I'll gladly help with anythiong else.

 

[rapunzel47]

Bios: I've submitted one, but will not be offended if they are not used. In fact, as we discuss this more and more, I'm inclined to think that including bios just takes up space that could be used for recipes. Anybody who wants to can check my bio on the board, and anyone not yet connected to the board may very well not care anyway.

Photos: Here I have some random thoughts. Do with them what you will

If we put the pic with the recipe, what impact does that have on use of space? What size pic are we talking about? Can't be too small, or why bother? Would it be worth gathering them in picture galleries (appropriately identified, of course) every few pages, rather than putting them alongside the recipe? or in one picture gallery, with links from the recipe to the pic? from the pic to the recipe(s)? Not knowing what would be involved in doing that sort of stuff, I have no idea whether those are viable suggestions in the context of this project or not; whether we have among us the necessary expertise (probably); or if those with the expertise have time and/or inclination (possibly, but not something we can assume).

Also, I think we're talking about pics in two different contexts -- correct me if I'm wrong: a pic of a current "kitchen helper" instead of bios; the RB memorials, which is a separate thing and may be purchased for an additional donation.

Anyway, all of that for whatever it's worth.

 

[george'smom]

Perhaps we should just ditch the whole idea to use bios?
It sounds like a lot of extra time, energy & space.

I think the introduction that Hissy wrote (purpose of our mission) along with the memorial markers is enough.

I like the idea to designate a few pages to the cats of those who contributed recipes. . . to include the cat/s pics & name/s . . . . People always like to look at cats (at least I do!). If past members (or even current ones) do not reply with a pic. . . just don't include the pet (deleting the recipes sounds a little harsh).

Do we really need to get permission from all TCS members to use recipes that were posted in past threads? I'm not sure how many recipes/members this adds up to. . . . but if these are people that are long gone. . . . it might mean deleting a good number of recipes.

I think the idea to take it slowly with this. . . . rather than trying to get this done in 2 weeks, is a much better approach. A holiday time frame sounds reasonable.

I think the idea to do it in two weeks was thrown out there in the intital development stage, before this got so complicated.

Laurie

 

[okeefecl]

Originally posted by George'smom
I like the idea to designate a few pages to the cats of those who contributed recipes. . . to include the cat/s pics & name/s . . . . People always like to look at cats (at least I do!). If past members (or even current ones) do not reply with a pic. . . just don't include the pet (deleting the recipes sounds a little harsh).

Do we really need to get permission from all TCS members to use recipes that were posted in past threads? I'm not sure how many recipes/members this adds up to. . . . but if these are people that are long gone. . . . it might mean deleting a good number of recipes.

I agree with Laurie's idea. If a recipe was posted here, it was in some ways meant for "public" use. So, all recipes should have an acknowledgement (i.e. "The greatest recipe in the world" contributed by joe schmoe). As for the pictures-maybe post another thread (yeah, I know, another thread) asking if those who contributed want to have their cat's picture in the cookbook and where to send it. That way, the choice is left up to the contributors.

 

[valanhb]

IMO, if we were doing just a little cookbook the bios would be nice, but it has expanded to the point that I do think that the full-on bios would just be extra pages. I do like the idea of kitty pictures from those who want to include them, and that could include RB kitties as well.

If we wanted the pictures scattered throughout the cookbook, here is my idea for the presentation. Little 100x100 or so pictures of the cat(s) by the title of the recipe. It doesn't add much if any space to the overall design of the book.

Deb, I don't know if I would want hats on all of the kitties, but that does give me great ideas for the cover art!

 

[momofmany]

Originally posted by valanhb
Amy, do you think we could shoot for a December 1 release so people can think of it for gifts for Christmas? (Just trying to think like a marketer, as well as logistics.

)

Perhaps you could delegate some of the editing? Such as, one person could take Appetizers and Bread, one could take Desserts, etc. We don't want to overwhelm you with doing everything! The biggest thing would be writing out how you want everything formatted so it would be consistent through all of the sections.

Any target date will work for me - let's make one and set a timeline around it.

For editing - someone has to take the first pass, if nothing else but to create the categories for recipes. We have a lot more than I expected, and many didn't fit neatly into the original categories that I created. I modeled the sections from Joy of Cooking yesterday. Once I have the recipes plugged into the right spots, yes, I will take others up on proofing. Rapunzel already volunteered to do that.

For pictures in the recipes: Ok to do this, takes more time in formatting the pages - you can place a picture next to a recipe without taking away page space. The downside is that it adds to the overall size of the file. If folks are downloading from the Internet, adding pictures could double the length of time to download. It's already about 700K in size without pictures. With that in mind, if we include pics, suggest that they are done in one place, or perhaps at the start of each section, with none of the pictures repeated.

I had pictures in my family cookbook and they took up 3/4 of the size of the file. They were great, but made it impossible to e-mail to anyone.

 

[momofmany]

Originally posted by George'smom
I think the introduction that Hissy wrote (purpose of our mission) along with the memorial markers is enough.

As I have been editing it, I came up with more thoughts but haven't had time to formulate them. I will probably add a paragraph as a "letter from the editor".

 

[rapunzel47]

Originally posted by valanhb
...
If we wanted the pictures scattered throughout the cookbook, here is my idea for the presentation. Little 100x100 or so pictures of the cat(s) by the title of the recipe. It doesn't add much if any space to the overall design of the book.

I really like that approach, Heidi. Given a carefully selected photo, it's just large enough, without making much impact on space.

Deb, I don't know if I would want hats on all of the kitties, but that does give me great ideas for the cover art!

Yeah, I wasn't sure about that, either, but now you've got my curiosity piqued regarding what you're dreaming up for cover art. Can't wait!

 

[okeefecl]

Amy, if you need help with editing, just drop me a PM.

 

[rapunzel47]

For pictures in the recipes: Ok to do this, takes more time in formatting the pages - you can place a picture next to a recipe without taking away page space. The downside is that it adds to the overall size of the file. If folks are downloading from the Internet, adding pictures could double the length of time to download. It's already about 700K in size without pictures. With that in mind, if we include pics, suggest that they are done in one place, or perhaps at the start of each section, with none of the pictures repeated.

Right! File size! Don't we know about that! If we kept 'em little like Heidi suggested, what do you think the impact on size would be? It would be really neat to do pics, but if it's going to make it unrealistic for people downloading, then, with regret, I'd back away from the idea.

 

[valanhb]

Yikes! I had no idea it had gotten that big!!

I just ran a test, I took a 756K file and converted it to a PDF, and it became 1.38 MB.

So unfotunately, I am beginning to think that scrapping the bios and pictures will be the best thing at this point. I think we've created a monster here!!

 

[hissy]

LOL Would that be a cooking monster?

 

[rapunzel47]

Originally posted by hissy
LOL Would that be a cooking monster?

Groaner! Good one, though, Hissy!

 

[momofmany]

Originally posted by valanhb
Yikes! I had no idea it had gotten that big!!

I just ran a test, I took a 756K file and converted it to a PDF, and it became 1.38 MB.

As I go thru the book, I'm looking at how some of the stuff is included in here to see if the format is adding to the size. I think we can keep content and still shrink size. Hey - that's part of what editing is all about!!

But I am taking up all offers on proof-reading!

 

[george'smom]

I'm sure glad that you all have computer experience! I wouldn't know where to begin.

I still think it would be nice to have these books printed in hard copy format some day. . . . even if it seems impossible based on the fact that we are all connected by phone & cable lines and have virtual friendships.

And the fact that it costs money to publish. . . . and distribution would be a challenge when we are scattered all over the world. . .

I just wonder how many people will access the thread in TCS to get recipes. . . . instead of purchasing a computer file that contains the recipes.