Wedding Blog
My previous post mentioned these cookbooks from my bridal shower.
People close to me know that I am a horrible cook. On top of that, I don’t enjoy cooking. I really don’t like the idea of following instructions in such detail that one tiny teaspoon will ruin the entire meal. I realize that I have to follow instructions first before I can create meals on my own, but I wish I could do that now. Let’s just say that cooking and I just don’t get along. For example, I made pasta one night for Mr. Blush. I wanted to be “innovative” so I added BBQ sauce to it… TERRIBLE IDEA! Mr. Blush usually eats whatever I make him (because he’s so sweet and will eat whatever horrible thing I create). However, he couldn’t finish his “BBQ pasta”. I felt so bad! Although we laughed so much about it afterwards, I really wish I could cook! He thinks it’s cute that I can’t cook, but I tell him all the time that it’s not going to be so cute when we’re 50, 50 pounds heavier, and a whole lot unhealthier from eating out everyday. (I’m a bit neurotic when it comes to unhealthy and restaurant food.)
However, things changed after my bridal shower! How you ask? Well…
…when SisterBlush and I go to the bookstores she is always heads to the cookbook section while I promptly start picking up a pile of gossip and fashion magazines. She is a phenomenal cook and her dishes are to die for! SisterBlush knows that I wish I could cook better, so when it was time to start brainstorming ideas for my bridal shower, she thought of the perfect gift.
SisterBlush sent an email out to each guest a few weeks before the shower for their favorite recipe. Then SisterBlush, along with Bridesmaids B, H, & S, collected these recipes and compiled them into little books for each guest to take home with them after the shower. They were presented with adorable plates from Anthropologie.
I was browsing through one of them when one of my bridesmaids told me, “You’ll get yours later.” Here is what I got:
The beautiful cover
The front page
I received my cookbook “later” because every single guest wrote me a little note AND my sister used her PoGo to attach a picture of me and a guest to each page!!
The book was designed by one of my bridesmaids—each page has its own color scheme and perfectly matching patterns. I am absolutely in love with it!
The mom pages! I can’t believe how wonderful these are!
One of my aunts wrote two recipes for me (she knows I need as much help as I can get).
My dear sister and MOH—I love her so much.
How colorful and vibrant it is!
I couldn’t bear the thought of having a cookbook handmade by my bridesmaids sitting on a bookshelf collecting dust. So I pulled it out one day and have not put it back since! Mind you, I haven’t used it every day, but I am totally not the same cook wimp I was before! I used one of my aunt’s recipes to cook a Korean Stew and Mr. Blush LOVED IT (although he could have been lying). I realized that following instructions wasn’t that bad. You just have to think of the end product and the process of cooking is okay! My cookbook has sparked something in me that I thought I would never have: a desire to cook!
Are you a horrible cook like me or do you love to cook? Has a specific cookbook changed your perspective on cooking? What was it?
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Share this post: I’m a Cooking Wimp
i’m a mediocre cook. i can do a few very simple things very well, but meals that require a recipe are a bit of a crap shoot. the mr. is very sweet about eating anything i make and he even helps me plan menus. i highly recommend it. after i make a particular meal he gives me his thoughts on it. if he liked it (and i liked it too) the meal goes into rotation. i find that i don’t stress about making dinner when i have a list of meals we like.
So cute! Yay for you on tackling some of those recipes!
I’m not a bad cook, I’m just a bad meal-planner. I hate going to the grocery store (mainly because I’m indecisive and 2nd guess myself about purchases) and I always use the excuse that it’s too hard to cook for just one person. My fiance comes from an Italian family where the women love to cook and the men love to eat! Luckily for me, he knows what he’s in for and will probably lose 10 pounds once we move in together! But he likes to cook so maybe we’ll be one of those couples where the man cooks and the woman does the dishes! 
I’m learning too — there is just SO MUCH MESS with cooking — I hate doing the dishes more than I hate cooking 
I’m also more than sure Mr. Blush was NOT lying!
I so suck in the kitchen! This is such a thoughtful; not to mention super creative, gift! I’m passing this along to my sister as a hint because I am in desperate need of some korean recipes from my mama and FMIL!
My husband never cooked until graduate school, when he got so tired of choosing between restaurant or microwave dinner that he signed up for a cooking class. Now he’s in charge of menu planning, grocery shopping, and cooking, and I rarely lift a finger. I think for most people, it’s an issue of deciding to do it and finding a repertoire that works for them.
I love the cookbook! It’s such a great idea. I like to cook, but I love baking more. I don’t use cookbooks a whole lot, but swear by allrecipes.com. The real user reviews have never failed me. And those little pillsbury and taste of home mini magazine-style booklets you can find at the checkout counter always seem to have simple and delicious recipes.
@chemchopity: Thanks for the tip! Mr. Blush is also involved in the meal planning It’s just me that doesn’t want to make.
@Kosstobe: We are the same way! Mr. Blush loves to cook! Although it’s not him 100%- we are definitely a cook together eat together couple. Lucky for you that the Mr will probably cook some amazing Italian dishes!
i heart cooking, esp if its for mr. pink… he eats with such gusto and makes me feel every dish is amazing hahaahah. then again he isnt very hard to please….
im assuming you’re korean from the cookbook.. korean food is really VERY easy to make. the same staple ingredients go into almost every dish - we are versatile ppl! additionally, korean cooking is more of a “taste as you go” kind of method - so as long as you know what goes in, you’ll be able to adapt any dish to your/mr. blush’s tastes and itll be fun figuring it out!
jealous of ur awesome cookbook - the note from your halmuni was so sweet =)
My made of honour and mother included recipe cards with each shower invitation and a note asking the attendees to share a favourite recipe of theirs with me (some people got more than one card if MOH/ mom knew that I liked a lot of that person’s recipes) or if they knew a certain person had a killer recipe for something they wrote the name of the recipe on the card and also included a blank one so I could get the awesome one and another one of their choice. Then it all got compiled in a matching recipe card binder. http://www.organize.com/cardbook.html
So fantastic - it sits on the counter next to my kitchenaid mixer. I use it ALL the time. I love that the cards are lined on the back and each card can go in its own plastic sleeve so I can see the front and back of each card. 
I would recommend it to EVERYONE!
That’s such a cheery cookbook! I love recipes and spending time in the kitchen, so I think it’s such a cute gift idea.
I love that cookbook! It’s so pretty and creative and full of love! ADORKABLE! (my favorite word for cuteness! haha)
I HATE cooking but I love to bake - it makes no sense! FI cooks though so it’s cool. He enjoys cooking but hates the prep work! haha
Ok, to be fair to restaurant everywhere…there are tons of things more healthy than BBQ pasta that can be eaten out.
Darling cookbook though! I recommend any cookbook by Mark Bittman, Ina Garten and Jamie Oliver. Easy and yummy.
What a lovely way to commemorate your shower AND get new recipes!!! Your BMs are amazing for doing that! Such a great idea!!
I really wish I could cook better. Mr. Q is such a great cook that it’s easy to just leave it to him to do it. I love to bake, but he doesn’t really eat sweets…so…
Also, I don’t eat meat & Mr. Q does, so if I cook, it’s all vegetarian, as I can’t touch raw meat without getting queasy. I am working on that, though
I wish I had your problem. I happen to be a really good cook, but I’m beginning to think I should have kept that to myself. Now my fiance expects me to cook for him every night, and on weekends he wants the 3 meals. He now pretends that he doesnt know how to cook, so that I get stuck with the duty. He’s cooked me dinner 3 times in the 5 years we’ve been together. I do love to cook, I just wish it didnt always feel like it was mandatory.
I used to be a baker because it was so much easier to me to have exact measurements for something rather than just do something on a whim (which seems to be the cooking m.o.). Then I watched a few Rachel Ray episodes and even though her laugh is annoying, if it weren’t for her, I would have never realized how easy cooking really is! I have moved on since then, but I totally have to credit her for teaching me how to cut an onion, chop garlic, mince herbs and pull something out of the freezer instead of making it from scratch!
The cookbook looks awesome; what a great start!!
Everyone did such a great job putting together your amazing cookbook. I love the colors and design of each page, and the pictures just make it so personal and touching. I will admit that I’m horrible in the kitchen. Within the past year or two I’ve really gotten into reading a lot of food blogs, and I get most of my inspiration from there. If everyday bloggers can do it, then why can’t I? Although I still lack kitchen sense, but that’s okay because I have my fiance there to fix my mistakes.
I hear ya Blush. Mr. Peep is the cook in our house! I have a few meals in rotation and I’ve had some very similar meals to your BBQ pasta! The Mr. just laughs it off.
I totally understand too - hahah my mom always I needed to marry a cook - and now I am (score!) Yet I must say with being in love I do try my best to enjoy it.. and sincerely have =) [as for the taste.. let's just say good thing he likes to eat anything]
I happen tho be the cook and baker in my house..but I’ve been cooking since i was 8 ..Product of the latchkey system…..BUT I LOVE cookbooks so I really feel in love with your hand made one…GREAT IDEA
I love cooking, and my nose reflexively wrinkeld at the reason for your hesitation was that you don’t like to follow exact directions. I HATE following exact directions, and I almost never cook from the recipe EXACTLY as written. But, the more cooking you do, the more you’ll know how to successfully substitute, so you aren’t running to the grocery store for that one weird ingredient, and you’ll know what tastes balance each other so you can edit recipes to suit your own tastes. It takes some practice, but I love it and find it very relaxing now that I’m good at it. Some great cooking blogs are noteatingoutinnewyork.com, simplyrecipes.com and my fav, smittenkitchen.com. I hope my MOH does something like your recipe book for me for my shower (she’s been hinting at a cooking theme!)
I LOVE to cook. I just google recipes online. Or take notes when I go to the Bookstore when I see something that looks yummy.
I struggle in the kitchen though I come from generations of good cooks. MY FMIL bought me a cookbook that you insert your own recipies in my first Christmas with my fiance. She knew I needed help long before we got engaged!
Such a great idea. I really enjoy cooking but sometimes I get overwhelmed with what to make. I’m hoping to get a cookbook of all my mom’s recipes before we get married. However, she does most things just from memory so the trick will be getting her to write it down.
I love to cook and am pretty good at it, but I’m a terrible baker. The worst part is that I come from a family full of women who are wonderful bakers! I think it would be awesome if my family and friends would put something like this together to instill some of their baking know how in me. It’s such a thoughtful, personal gift.
I only started cooking a couple years ago! but I love experimenting in the kitchen. Baking is another matter– I love it, but stick to the recipe with really minimal embellishment.
I adore cooking - its a huge passion of mine. For Christmas my folks gave me a cookbook of family recipes and I was the happiest meatball in all of the land.
What a great gift and so cute! I love how colorful and coordinated it is!
Congrats on making delicious foods! I love the cookbook idea your so lucky!! No cookbook has done it for me, it has been watching food network then printing out their recipes online. I still love cookbooks but finding recipes online is free and you can read reviews of the recipe. Allrecipes is a great site too! I used to not know how to cook at all and now I can say I am pretty good!!
what a great idea! i think the best thing about cooking is you don’t have to be exact about measurements, which is probably why i love baking more because being exact is key [it fits perfectly with my perfectionist tendencies]. but i am enjoying the freedom of cooking and just tossing things in the pot willy-nilly.
i don’t have a cookbook, i get most of my recipes online or from watching the food network. i agree with allrecipes because i like reading the reviews and some of them offer tips to make the dish even better. i made a new year’s resolution to cook one meal a week to start boning up on cooking and so far i’ve been having fun with it! good luck mrs. blush!
I get home an hour before my fiance so I tend to cook most of our dinners during the week. I am so not creative! I need my own first cookbook. When we cook ‘together’ it is usually me cutting stuff up and asking what I should do next. When he cooks everything turns out so much better and so much more gourmet and he doesn’t need a recipe to do it. I’m really trying to learn from him!
This is such a great idea! And I love how the books is put together for you.
how wonderful. that is one kick-arse gift. g’luck. cuz i’m w/ u in the cooking is not my forte too. what is it about korean moms that they cook so well? I hope we get like that one day too!~
I was never a good cook, but I started watching “Top Chef” on Bravo, and I wanted to learn to cook! Now I’m 6000 miles away from hubby, so I’m practicing cooking while I’m away! Hopefully by the time I get home I’ll surprise him with my awesome chef skills!!
(As a side note I can’t bake at all…at all!)
This is a great gift, and I love the fact that incorporates recipes from your family and culture.
An AWESOME gift that you can cherish forever and pass down one day too. I like to cook but I’m more of a “hmm… let’s see what’s in the fridge and throw it together somehow” kind of cooker. Yeah, I live on the edge, yo.
thats a really wonderful gift, and its so cute! im absolutely horrible at cooking. and my boyfriend, who knows how to cook, insists that i learn if i plan to marry him. and even if we dont get married, i think its a useful skill…..i just suck at it. i think im going to have to take cooking classes…
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Miss Blush New York/Atlanta
Age and Occupation: 25, Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Law Student
Engagement Date: July 13, 2007
Wedding Date: January 2009
Blogging Since: October 14, 2008
Venue: Church ceremony, country club reception
About Me: I’m a Southern Girl marrying a Midwestern Boy, planning our Southern winter wedding from Manhattan. I love paper, photography, hand-sanitizer, high ceilings, colored pencils, brunch, and Frosted Mini-Wheats. If I could, I would hand-write everything, travel without a map, stare at diamonds all day long, don my favorite stilettos to the supermarket, play with the NY Philharmonic, attach a Karaoke system to my car, and run 3 miles at 6 AM every morning. Mr. Blush and our families mean the world to me, and I can not wait to share our wedding preparations with you!
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