Saturday, November 03, 2007

Oh yeah, hey, I remembered!

So, unpoof. I remembered the point.

Recipe organization.

I own one cookbook, that I got today. It was my grandma's Better Homes cookbook (that is the one with the red and white checkered pattern, right?). Well, in reality, two cookbooks if you count the spiral bound collection of recipes that my fifth grade class put together (my recipe was mini pizzas made with English muffins). Suprisingly, this book has the BEST recipe for Scottish shortbread I have ever had (you should see my handwritten note about it, I spelled Scottish - Scotish and sugar - surgar).

Fast forward to today and my one cookbook. I get most of my recipes from the Internet (Food Network and now Epicurious reign supreme [did anyone get that Iron Chef reference, huh?] as well as a motley crew of food blogs). I copy them from whatever site and, get this, send MYSELF an e-mail. THEN, I tag that e-mail with the label "recipe" and archive it. Ingenious.

Well, not really.

When I want to make a recipe, I print it out. Then, it is kept indefinitely in a three-ring binder on my counter. Problem is, I lost my hole punch a gazillion years ago so none of the recipes are actually punched and put into the binder. The recipes I like are on the left side of the binder and the ones I hope to never make again are on the right hand side.

I would love to do something real with my collection of tried and true recipes. However, I'm resistant to do something permanent since all of my recipes evolve. I love the idea of these, but I know they would get all nastified (I have a bad habit of putting spoons or spatulas down on the paper recipes are printed on...my recipe collection is..well, you probably don't care) and I would be too tempted to write notes on the recipes.

So, tell me in 3,000 words or less how you manage your recipes?

6 comments:

Mommy Daisy said...

Oh man, my recipes are A MESS! I will be watching for good suggestions here. But I do have tons of cookbooks. And the other recipes I use are printed or handwritten (on whatever was handy when I called my mom for the recipe) and thrown in a drawer in the kitchen. I shuffle through them each time I need a recipe. It's a pain.

Awesome Mom said...

I wish I could help but most of mine are printed off of recipe websites and are not in the plastic covering so are absolutely filthy. I just print out a new copy when the one I have is unreadable.

Anonymous said...

Ditto. Most of my recipes come from various sources on the internet as well, get printed out and kept in a three ring binder. I use the plastic sheet protectors.

My problem is that I'm accumulating recipes, and I still never know what to cook for dinner. Go figure. I need a list of 14 tried-and-true, simple menus with recipes. :) That way I just rotate... No thinking involved.

Anonymous said...

LOL! My recipe collection is EXACTLY the same as yours.... three-ring binder, no hole punch, crusty spoon prints on the pages.

I've toyed with the idea of copying them all down onto cards and storing them that way, but I'm pretty lazy so I'm guessing that's never going to happen.

Anonymous said...

I kind of LIKE the way recipes get all crusty: it makes it easier to find my favorites, since they're crustier than the others.

I have one cabinet shelf of cookbooks, and at this point I have a rule: new cookbook means ditching old cookbook. (Actual application of rule: one cookbook goes into witness protection program on regular bookshelves.)

I mostly use a recipe card box, with index cards. IN THEORY, when I like a recipe I printed out or found in a cookbook, I copy it by hand onto an index card. IN PRACTICE, I have SOME recipes written down, SOME on print-outs folded up small to fit into the recipe box, and some in cookbooks.

Katy said...

I've been in the same spot. I have a binder of page-protected recipes that are the tried-and-true. New ones that I love get shoved in the back, and I have a monster stack of ones I want to try. I did discover a website called You gotta eat, and you can store your recipes online there--I have an account, but I haven't done much else with it. I don't do note cards--I lose those in about ten seconds flat.

I LOVE the way those books on Epicurious look--I don't think I have that many recipes that I want, though. Maybe later. . .