Page Layout ⇒ Uneven column sizes?

[iain]

I'm designing my family recipe book. I want the recipe name and description full width, the ingredients (and any pictures) 5cm in a left column, the instructions 8cm in a right column, and any notes or variations full width.

Attached is my attempt. I don't know how to move the marginpar over, and if I did, would it collide with the text below? I tried using tabular for this at first, but some recipes are multiple pages long. I can't use multicol, because (a) the columns would be even and (b) the instructions would flow into the first column on subsequent pages, instead of staying in the second. How do I accomplish this?

[localghost]

Two minipage environments of suitable widths should do the trick. You may take a look at the CTAN Catalogue [1]. There are several classes and packages for typesetting recipes.

[1] The TeX Catalogue Online, Topic Index - Cooking Recipes


Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten

[iain]

I want to be able to use \marginpar in the wide column and have the note appear in the narrow column. The ingredients and instructions would start at the tops of their columns, but pictures would start to the left of where they are mentioned in the instructions. Could I do this with a minipage? I also notice \marginpar can't break across pages, and sometimes the ingredients list needs to. Is there something like \marginpar but that breaks across pages?

I looked at the Catalogue entries, and the cuisine package, the closest to what I want, can't break steps across pages. Many of my recipes have long steps, so I probably can't adapt it.

I've attached two images from the book on whose layout I'm basing mine. One shows ingredients continuing from the previous page; the other shows an image in the margin.