July 21st, 1969 was a memorable day for me.

While many people who were alive at the time remember it for Neil Armstrong’s immortal line: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, I recall an even more memorable quote.

You see, it was also the day of my grandmother’s funeral, and as her coffin was slowly lowered into the ground, my cousin uttered a plaintive, melancholy whisper: “Did anyone get nonna’s recipe for gigis?”

To understand the significance of his question, it’s important to remember that we didn’t have anything like Google in the ’60s, so once a recipe was lost, it was essentially gone forever.

And so the importance of passing on beloved family recipes was fixed in my mind on that day.

#118 Make an Achievable New Year Resolution

It’s so much easier to do this today.

Researching for this post, what should I come across with the click of a button but the very recipe my cousin thought was lost:

However, this doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile compiling an electronic file of your favourite family recipes, and what better time to bring it to fruition than at the start of a brand new year?

With a clever little app called Recipe Keeper

you can quickly create a bespoke recipe file crammed with all your favourites ready to be converted to a PDF file and shared.

The absolute beauty of this app is that — while it’s possible to type and do the lay-out for each recipe yourself if you’re a masochist — it gives you several simple, painless options for compiling your favourites.

You can copy and paste an online recipe, import a recipe from a website, or scan it from a photo or scan it from a PDF or even take a photo from your own old recipe book and it miraculously knows that there’s a precious recipe to be plucked out amongst all the chatter and cooking stains. It then automatically displays it in a perfect layout with any accompanying photo. Only minimal editing skills needed!

You’ll end up with a file on your iPad full of recipes that look stunningly professional.

I can, however, see one potential problem.

There’s always a chance a distressing murmur will ripple around the mourners as someone asks:

“Does anyone know the PIN for nanna’s iPad?”

---

…you can even print a real book