The cover of “The Ovin’ Spoonful,” a compilation of recipes from about any source I could find. I’ve seen other family cookbooks, but I wanted mine to have panache and pizzazz, rather than look like a theme for an English class. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

I compiled a recipe book in the past few years. I’ve done harder things, but this ranks up there with sewing headcovers for my golf clubs or making that ship in a bottle, which ended up as a ship in a jar.

The main problem is making sure the recipes are right. It’s like giving someone directions, then forgetting about a turn. Many of the recipes are in my head. I learned them from my mother, which is interesting because she always made things from scratch, including spaghetti. I could, but don’t, and there’s nothing better than spaghetti from scratch. When a spaghetti factory opened in Marietta several decades ago, everyone in the office was giddy with excitement, except for me. It wasn’t bad spaghetti, but when you’re used to having your mother’s, everything else is just plain pasta.

Anyway, the recipe book was on my bucket list. I was going to do it in 2024. Unfortunately, I ran out of time because of a series of unfortunate incidents and I missed the Christmas deadline.

First let me say, I am no expert in cooking or the culinary sciences. I don’t go for things like presentation, ambiance, fancy garnishes or ingredients you can only find in a market in Timbuktu. I’m just trying to eat dinner and it better taste good. The point here is you don’t have to be the French Chef or Betty Crocker to compile recipes.

I collected several hundred recipes, including drinks, but no pastries and things like that. Too many calories, I entered them into a word processing program and cataloged them according to beef, pork, poultry, etc. I worked on it several hours a week, sometimes on the extra desktop in the basement while washing clothes. I like working down there. I pretty much know my wife isn’t going to come looking for me and I can work in secrecy. The cookbook was code named Secret Project, by the way. Most of the recipes were from internet sources. Some are mine.

Layout was done with the LibreOffice writing program. Nothing special about the two-column design. Photos were altered with a drawing program that can convert photos to various styles, such as charcoal or oils. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

Then came the process of confirming the recipes were correct. Since many were from the internet, I assumed they were correct as long as they came from trusted sources. I flagged suspect recipes. One such recipe was for Mexican tortilla soup. The recipe I had bore no resemblance to soup. I also 86ed my recipe for pig brains and scrambled eggs that I learned from watching my mother. Dad loved brains.

For layout and design, I used LibreOffice and its writing and drawing programs. It’s free. Maybe not the best for desktop publishing, but I did say it’s free. I tried Scribus. I couldn’t figure it out.

The next hardest thing to do was coming up with an imaginative title. My first was “Cooking with Jess Mancini.” It was OK. Next was “The Jess Mancini Cookbook.” Also too pedestrian.

I wanted a snappy title with pizzazz and panache. I gave it much thought, perhaps an hour, and decided on three candidates: “What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’,” “Gimme’ Some Oven” and “The Ovin’ Spoonful.” No. 3 was chosen.

I designed a title page with a picture of me toasting you and the name of the book in a decorative font.

Layout was done with the LibreOffice writing program. Nothing special about the two-column design. Photos were altered with a drawing program that can convert photos to various styles, such as charcoal or oils. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

I wrote a preface and biography, compiled a table of contents and organized it into a book with a cover, title pages, preface, table of contents, recipes and back cover. The front and back covers were made with card stock printed on the laser printer then glued with spray adhesive to poster board.

The book was ready for layout after several months of editing for consistency of style, clarity and removing extraneous verbiage. I set up pages with margins and columns, page numbers and things like that. I added photos of the family turned into line drawings with an online program, also free. (There’s a picture of my wife with Wayne Newton in Las Vegas.) I have a laser printer that only prints black and white. I completed printing in March.

I experimented with inexpensive ways to book bind the pages. I tried white glue, sewing the pages together and other ways, but never got the hang of it. I took the manuscript to Easton Printing and was ready to place an order, but I saw an ad for a binding machine for less than $20. I bought the binding machine and plastic binders. I punched the sheets, being careful to keep the pages in order. Assembling the pages in the binding combs was tricky, but I got the hang of it after I found the appropriate-sized binders online. I made custom boxes for the books, wrapped them and put them in a closet where they sat in secrecy for nine months before Christmas.

The women in the family received the cookbook with my usual Christmas gifts. I believe both were appreciated.

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The title page says everything. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

Unless you think this column wasn’t enough of a waste of time, send ideas for “Wastin’ Time with Jess Mancini” to Jess Mancini at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.

A description of “The Ovin’ Spoonful” and a little about me and my wife are on the back cover. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

Cutting the paper to A5, half the standard letter size of A5 (8-and-a-half-by-11) before printing. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

Assembling the pages using the plastic binders and punching machine. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

Punching pages is easy with the machine. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

Many a night was spent editing content. (Photo by Jess Mancini)