The Most Important Gift You Can Give Your Family This Christmas

Martha Stewart

When you were young, cookies, birthday cakes, and holiday treats may have seemed to appear magically from your mother's kitchen. Now you know they took time, planning, and recipes. Preserve those memories by gathering your favorite dessert recipes into a book to share with your siblings.

Related:65 Quick and Easy Holiday Decorating Ideas from Martha Stewart

Family Dessert Book

Bound with a length of baker's twine, the book combines old and new recipes with photos. You can make a permanent master copy, using the original recipes and photos, or fix these items in place temporarily with archival adhesive, which leaves no sticky residue.

Paper
Baker's twine
Sewing needle
Bone folder
Optional: Archival adhesive

1. Trim 11-by-17-inch sheets of paper to 8 1/2 by 17 inches, then fold in half so that each page is 8 1/2 inches square. Crease each fold with a bone folder.

2. Stack photocopied pages neatly; use a large sewing needle to punch five evenly spaced holes through the fold. Stitch pages together with a "pamphlet stitch," which creates a double figure eight; pass twine through the center hole from the outside of the book, thread down through the next hole and back through bottom hole.

Related: 22 Gift-Wrapping Ideas for Turning Any Gift Into Something Spectacular

3. Stitch up the page to the top, and back down to the middle. Remove any slack; tie ends together. A family photo makes a suitable cover.

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Cooking with kids is a wonderful bonding experience. Just make sure you're teaching them good habits!