During 2020’s pandemic quarantine, I found myself with more free time than I had ever had to cook but a lack of inspiration to try new recipes. To remedy this problem, I recruited a few friends into a weekly cooking challenge that became a bright spot of my summer. When it came time to decide on a capstone project for my M.A. in the fall, a book version of my cooking challenge that could inspire others to try new recipes every week too was a no-brainer.

The project began with a whimsical, hand drawn logo that speaks to the home cook with its apron icon. From there I focused on writing an entry for each week of the year that prompts users to cook something that satisfies the week’s theme. I then laid out and illustrated all 52 entries and created a page to document each recipe. Because I believe cookbooks and written recipes hold a special place in many people’s kitchens, I created a handmade book that would look at home among the cookbooks on any kitchen shelf.

The full version of the book is viewable on Issuu through the below image.

Not satisfied with my capstone project living solely in the world of print, I built this website as an accompaniment to the book aspect of the project. Its main purpose is to inform users about the book, provide a way for people to buy a copy of the book (which more people than I ever expected to have done!), give a weekly inspiration recipe, and to connect users with others participating in the project by sharing their cooking creations.

Click on the image below to see the whole website.

This project spanned months of hard work and dedication that deserved to be showcased beyond the final product. I built this website to document that lengthy process (and to play with fun parallax javascript effects).

Click on the image below to see the whole process page.