How do you organize your recipes??

[pdswife]

I have note books filled with print outs,
recipe cards, word programs stuffed with recipes, cook books with a million book marks,
a bunch on "myfamily" page, and scraps of paper
all over the place.

It takes me longer to find a recipe than it takes to prepare the
dish.

How have you sloved this problem??

Thanks, Trish

 

[PA Baker]

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to be organized! I have a ton of cookbooks and try to keep a mental list of which one has the recipies I like; a binder of pages from my cooking magazines, cut out, placed in clear plastic slip covers, and sorted by subject (or a bunch piled in the front of the binder until I get around to organizing!), and several boxes of recipe cards.

I'm slowly trying to type my recipies into Word documents and save in subject-specific folders. It is probably a life-long project! I want to eventually have all of my recipe card and magazine recipes typed in. The hope is that some day we can have a small flat panel in the kitchen and I can pull them up as needed. A multi-year project, I'm sure!

 

[irishtravel1]

I have all of my recipies on my computer. I also have a hard copy as well as a CD backup. Whenever I try a new recipie, if I want to make it again, I put on my recipie file on my computer. It is also handy when someone wants a recipe. I can either print if off or email it to them.

 

[norgeskog]

My recipes cut from a newspaper or from a friend are on 3x5 cards inside little plastic covers in a box with alphabetical dividers, i.e. appetizers, breads/biscuits, cakes/pastry, fish, grains, etc. If I printed them on the computer, in a notebook with dividers by class. But now I try to use my cookbooks as I have 25 or so and some have rarely been used. I have printed several here but am trying to use my cookbooks, a lot of bucks invested in them. I am interested in reading on how everyone here organizes their.s

 

[mudbug]

I don't think I'll ever get truly organized. There's so many sources of new ideas that it would take an eternity to neatly type them all up, print them out, and back them up on CDs and so forth -- AND I would never have time to cook.

Mom's recipes are still on the original paper in her own handwriting. Somehow I can't bear the thought of throwing them out in lieu of some sterile computer-generated printout.

 

[Lugaru]

Much like memento... garbled notes, random cryptic files and backwards tattoos so I can read them in the mirror.

Nah, the only time's I ever write down recipies is when I am creating them for an event. For example for my mexican independance day festival I started hammering stuff down on scraps of paper which eventually graduated into a nice fat text document with actual measurements, estimated costs and all that. It help's keep me disciplined when I am cooking for other people instead of falling into Coltrain style freestyling.

 

[mudbug]

It help's keep me disciplined when I am cooking for other people instead of falling into Coltrain style freestyling.

If I were ever lucky enough to have you cook something for me, Lugaru, you damn well better be freestylin.

 

[SierraCook]

I am slowly but surely getting all my recipes on in Word and onto my computer. Then I have them backed up on a disc. Most of my favorites I also have in hard copy form in a binder with clear plastic sheets. Some I also have backed up a zip disk.

 

[fried fish]

I'm farrrrrrrrrrrrr from organized! I did make an attempt once by buying a little plastic container to store 3x5 cards... but mainly, I just mark pages in my over a zillion cookbooks of my favorite recipes. I think someone on here once was asking about recipe software. I can't remember who it was.. maybe it was jkath. I'm not sure, though.

 

[Lugaru]

It help's keep me disciplined when I am cooking for other people instead of falling into Coltrain style freestyling.

If I were ever lucky enough to have you cook something for me, Lugaru, you darn well better be freestylin.

I dont blush often but man...

Btw I just went into Microsoft works (windows XP edition), followed the "Database" icon and one of the first things in sight? Recipy book.

The options for templates include 4x6 recipy cards, full page and heirloom recipies (whatever that is). Im thinking this is a great option for people like me who use the internet as one big recipy book and a little more often than they would like to admit steal from recipy forums like this one

Any way's using that you could just cut and paste and since it's a database you have scrolling and search options.

 

[Bangbang]

I don't. They are all in my head.

 

[middie]

i have them in a folder. meats and potatoes on one side
desserts in another

 

[AllenOK]

I keep all of my recipes typed in Word, on my computer's HDD. They are organized into subfolders by type (desserts, entrees, breakfast, sandwiches, etc.). I can run searches by title or a word in the document. Those recipes that I use often, I have a hard copy in a folder in the kitchen that I put up onto a clip mounted onto a cabinet door.

I need to get my recipes backed up. Before I can do that, I need to find out why my CD-RW won't actually burn a disk. It's a software glitch, I'm sure. Last time I buy a cheap burner, that's for sure.....

 

[DigitalAether]

organize???

 

[bienallo]

Boy of boy, do I ever feel better. I thought I was one out of a handful of people that are scattered all over with books, clippings, cards, etc. I too spend more time looking for things than I do cooking! T'was I that asked about a software programme. Some very nice people answered me, and I printed the answers out - have I used the advice yet? For shame on me! I've just turned 70 so the very idea of gradually getting organized seems rather remote. I'll keep trying though. Happy New Year to all.

 

[amber]

Some are on my computer, but most is on paper, hand written. I'd like to type them up and print them off, then place in a binder as my own personal cookbook of favorites. Problem is, the ink is so expensive!

 

[beaulana2]

What I do for favorite recipes: keep a piece of paper in the front of my recipe box of the name of the recipes and the book with the page number

 

[Paint]

Print them out small, so they fit in my planner - then I always have ideas & ingredients to hand when I go to the grocery store on the way home from college

 

[kitchenelf]

Lagura - Where's the data base icon?????

 

[Erik]

I don't. They are all in my head.

Yeah, me too...but I really need to write them down, or put them on a disk!!!