e Albert's Ice Cream, Aunt Bea's Coconut Cake, Aunt Betsy's Sand Tarts, and the list goes on. We came up with 49 great recipes. Carol typed them and I printed them on a light blue paper and designed a cover which was printed on a heavier weight blue paper. Looked pretty spiffy! Made 100 to start. We knew they would last a short time after we advertised. Someone told me I should not give my home address in the ad so I had to take out a PO Box for the people to send their money to for purchase. It was all coming together. Ad cost about $50 for 3 lines for one time placement and the PO Box cost about $40 for a month. The price to print the books was about $25. We decided to charge $2.00 for the recipe book plus the shipping. Now all we do is wait and rake in the money. A week passed and nothing. Monday after school I stopped at the Post Office and found a envelope. We sold one! Well, after a month we had sold three. To this day we still have a few left. As a matter of fact, I made Mom's Potato Soup the other night. Recipe right from the pages of "49 Lancaster County Recipes." Best Potato soup you'll ever eat. I guess people knew we weren't Amish or even Dutch. Maybe we should have stuck with the fireplaces. Somebody's bound to try that sometime. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The "Enquirer Cookbook" Story
It was an ordinary day. I had just come back from the Post Office. I was checking our PO Box to see if we had any orders. Carol and I had three kids which at times required as many funds as possible and for years we had tried all ways to strike it rich. Carol made smocked dresses and sold them. Didn't make a fortune off them. I made miniature baseball stadiums that you could use to play the APBA game. Didn't make a fortune off them. We needed something with mass appeal. We had purchased a National Enquirer to take on vacation so we would have some fun reading. While leafing through the paper we found our answer. We will advertise something in the classified section. Unbelievable circulation. If half the people who subscribe or buy the paper buy something from us, we will strike it rich. Now what can we make to sell? What would someone from all over the world be interested in from Lancaster County? THE AMISH! OK, now what do we do with the Amish, or even the Pennsylvania Dutch. How about a gas fireplace made by people who look like they are Amish? Nah, no one would buy those. How about a book about the Amish. Nah, that's already been done. Hey, how about a cookbook with recipes from Lancaster County. Now we're on to something! OK, let's gather together all our relatives really good recipes and put them in a book. We started to put together our favorites. Irene, a friend of the family made fantastic baked beans. That will be one. My Grandpap's famous Chicken Corn Soup with a worm in it. Another one. Also Grandpap's Oyster stuffing, Aunt Lillian's Cherry Cake, my Mom's Chicken Pot Pie, Alice's Fruit Pudding, Judy's Strawberry Pie, Molly's Apple Pudding, Uncl
e Albert's Ice Cream, Aunt Bea's Coconut Cake, Aunt Betsy's Sand Tarts, and the list goes on. We came up with 49 great recipes. Carol typed them and I printed them on a light blue paper and designed a cover which was printed on a heavier weight blue paper. Looked pretty spiffy! Made 100 to start. We knew they would last a short time after we advertised. Someone told me I should not give my home address in the ad so I had to take out a PO Box for the people to send their money to for purchase. It was all coming together. Ad cost about $50 for 3 lines for one time placement and the PO Box cost about $40 for a month. The price to print the books was about $25. We decided to charge $2.00 for the recipe book plus the shipping. Now all we do is wait and rake in the money. A week passed and nothing. Monday after school I stopped at the Post Office and found a envelope. We sold one! Well, after a month we had sold three. To this day we still have a few left. As a matter of fact, I made Mom's Potato Soup the other night. Recipe right from the pages of "49 Lancaster County Recipes." Best Potato soup you'll ever eat. I guess people knew we weren't Amish or even Dutch. Maybe we should have stuck with the fireplaces. Somebody's bound to try that sometime. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
e Albert's Ice Cream, Aunt Bea's Coconut Cake, Aunt Betsy's Sand Tarts, and the list goes on. We came up with 49 great recipes. Carol typed them and I printed them on a light blue paper and designed a cover which was printed on a heavier weight blue paper. Looked pretty spiffy! Made 100 to start. We knew they would last a short time after we advertised. Someone told me I should not give my home address in the ad so I had to take out a PO Box for the people to send their money to for purchase. It was all coming together. Ad cost about $50 for 3 lines for one time placement and the PO Box cost about $40 for a month. The price to print the books was about $25. We decided to charge $2.00 for the recipe book plus the shipping. Now all we do is wait and rake in the money. A week passed and nothing. Monday after school I stopped at the Post Office and found a envelope. We sold one! Well, after a month we had sold three. To this day we still have a few left. As a matter of fact, I made Mom's Potato Soup the other night. Recipe right from the pages of "49 Lancaster County Recipes." Best Potato soup you'll ever eat. I guess people knew we weren't Amish or even Dutch. Maybe we should have stuck with the fireplaces. Somebody's bound to try that sometime. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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