Get
your Recipes Together!
By Monica
Resinger As a
lot of you probably know by now -- I'm a recipe fanatic. I have written
about how to create your own computer cookbook which is about organizing recipes
that you find on the Internet or in your e-mail from recipe lists. Now I'd
like to write about how to organize recipe clippings (from magazines or
newspapers), recipe cards, and recipes in books. I know of a few methods
that may help you with your recipe organization.
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USE
PHOTO ALBUMS
The first method I'd like to talk about is placing your clipped recipes and
recipe cards in a photo album. You can use any type photo album (hint: go
to the thrift stores and pick up inexpensive albums) although the type of albums
that you can add pages to would be best because this will help you organize the
album better. You can place tabs on pages to divide the album into
categories then simply place your clipped recipes into the appropriate category.
This method is a great way to keep all loose recipes together. The plastic
protection will help keep your recipes clean and you can simply wipe any
spatters of food off.
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A
RECIPE FILE
Get an accordion-type file to organize clipped recipes and recipe cards.
Label each section with a different recipe category then simply file your
recipes. This method will at least keep them all together and is quick,
but you will have to sort through all the recipes in a certain category when
trying to find a particular recipe.
A
RECIPE BOX
With a recipe box, you can put different categories onto tabbed dividers and you
can buy more dividers if necessary. You can file clipped recipes but it is
neater if you write them onto recipe cards which is time consuming.
As with the accordion file, you'll have to sort through recipes in a category to
find one.
A
COMPUTER RECIPE PROGRAM
If you have a little spare time this is a great way to compile all of your
favorite recipes -- including ones in recipe books. These programs are
pre-formatted so you just fill in the blanks. It can get time consuming
entering in all your recipes, but if you stick to entering in 1 or 2 recipes a
day, you'll make some progress.
With
the computer program there's a number of benefits. One being that you can
easily find recipes and print them out. You can print out recipes and make
homemade `cookbooks' to give to your friends and relatives. The program
will figure the nutrition information for your recipes so if you are health
conscious you can easily get this information. Some programs offer a menu
maker and a shopping list. The menu maker allows you to plan a menu for a
specified amount of time then it will figure an editable shopping list for that
menu. You can also get a shopping list for an individual recipe.
Another
reason I like this method is because it's easy to locate certain recipes with
certain ingredients. For example, if I have ground beef on hand, I can do
a search for `ground beef' and the program will bring up all recipes with ground
beef in it. Also, these programs come with recipes -- so if you don't want
to enter your own, you'll still have a great cookbook to use all these features
on.
I use
Key Gourmet and Master Cook II and I highly recommend both of them. Master
Cook II has a better menu planner. I think I paid around $10 for each one
and it was well worth it. You can find these programs in the electronics
section of retail stores or in office supply stores such as Office Depot.
A
THREE-RING BINDER
I use the three-ring binder in conjunction with my recipe programs and computer
cookbook.
I have put tabbed page dividers into it and labeled each divider with it's own
recipe category. Whenever I print out a recipe to use from my recipe
programs or computer cookbook, I punch holes in it and place it into the
appropriate category in the three-ring binder. This eliminates the need
for me to re-print the recipe later.
I hope
you have found some help with the above methods for organizing recipes.
Recipe collecting can be a fun hobby especially if it is organized!
©
2001, Monica Resinger
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