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Book Fri Apr 23 2010
Welcome Home, Beloved Recipes
I, like most people, am constantly in search of new recipes and I find them in a variety of places - books, friends, magazines, blogs. There's a corner in my kitchen where all of these random recipes live and I cringe every time I see it. Paper is everywhere, magazine clippings haphazardly stuck in between pages of one of my many recipe books. I simply don't have the room to store all of these in my kitchen without it looking like a tornado swept through. And I honestly don't have the memory to remember what I've tried, what I love, what I hate. I have been in search for one place to store all of my favorite recipes for longer than I care to admit.
I contemplated storing all of my recipes online, but after a couple of near-disasters with my computer dangerously close to the war zone my kitchen becomes when I cook, I decided to leave my computer out of it. I also know that I could just buy a recipe book and fill out recipe cards when I find a recipe I like, but here's the problem. I tried it and I ended up having blank recipe cards lying all over the place and for some reason, I really hate writing on recipe cards. My handwriting is neither small or neat enough.
So, imagine my delight when I stumbled across this lovely recipe journal today. I'm going to get one in the hopes that it will help me become organized, for once.
Do you have any genius ideas for storing your favorite recipes?
Sunny / April 24, 2010 11:20 PM
Super-nerdy but super-effective: I have separate three-ring binders for recipe categories (apps, desserts, entrees, reference, etc). I tear out magazine pages and newspaper articles as they appeal to me, then chuck them into a file box. Printouts of recipes go into the box as well.
Then, every so often on a rainy day, I settle in with a scissors, glue sticks and blank paper that I've three-hole-punched. I paste the recipes onto paper and file them in the appropriate binder.
It's been several years since I started the binders, and I find myself using them constantly. I'll write notes in the margin about how the recipes could be improved, whether or not they were flavorful or worth repeating, or how they could be improved or amped up. I wish I'd been organized/foresightful enough to sort them by ingredient (lamb/beef/chicken) or by subcategory (bread/pastry), but you can learn from my mistakes.