Managing Cookbooks and Recipes

If you love to cook, you have no doubt tried a variety of recipes. Some of them were probably real winners while a few of them might not have met your expectations. But how do you remember which recipes were tastier or faster to prepare? And what's the best system of organization for the recipes? For those who list cooking as a hobby, here are some great tips on how to manage your recipes and cookbooks.

--Don't be afraid to mark up your cookbooks. That's right, make notes beside recipes to remind yourself what you thought about the recipe. It is helpful to record the date you first cooked the recipe, make note of any changes/additions/subtractions you made or want to make next time, and any comments about the dish. Here's a sample notation-"This soup was delicious. Next time, add onion." You can also write, "This recipe cooked up really fast." Making notes like, "This chicken was boring" will steer you away from preparing the recipe in the future.

--Think about buying a 3 ring binder with some of those clear plastic insert pages to store the recipes you clip from the newspaper to keep them in better shape. The drawback to using the inserts is that you must remove the recipe from the insert to record your notes.

--If you clip recipes from the newspaper, prepare the recipe one time before storing it in your "permanent" recipe file. If it's a recipe you don't prefer, it's best to just pitch it. It just doesn't make sense to keep a recipe that you don't think you'll cook again.

--Consider using color-coded files to keep your "loose" recipes together. Recipes printed from FoodNetwork.com, those from the newspaper, or recipes you jotted down from viewing a television show can be sorted into colored files. Keep vegetable recipes in a green file folder, entrees in yellow, breads in a blue file, and desserts in a purple file, for example. The red file could house recipes for appetizers and miscellaneous recipes. Use any combination of recipe type and color that you prefer. Once you develop and learn your own system, finding a special dessert recipe or a tasty entrée recipe will be easy.

--Find a lovely basket or kitchen box to house your recipe cards and recipes found on small slips of paper. Years ago, people exchanged recipes by handwriting them onto 3 by 5 inch recipe cards. Some still do. Look for a basket with a cover to keep your recipe cards. That way, you can just grab the box and take it anywhere you like when you want to browse your recipes on cards. For those who love to cook, nothing is better than a relaxing evening browsing recipes while watching television.

--Have a special place in your kitchen for your beloved recipes and cookbooks. Make it a point to have your recipes and cookbooks within arm's reach when you are in the kitchen. If you have the room, consider having shelves built to house your books and recipes. If that isn't possible, an individual shelf could be purchased and placed on the wall in the kitchen.

--If you have plenty of cabinet space, you might want to select a cabinet to store your recipes and cookbooks. Designating a special place in your kitchen to store your recipes is akin to having your own treasure trove. Plus, keeping them all together is a great organizational strategy.

--Make a "scrapbook" of favorite meals. For a wonderful way to document favorite meal combinations, consider using a 3 ring binder to record the family's favorite meals. Let's say your husband says, "Wow, that was a really great meal" after the two of you dined one evening. That's your cue to add that meal to the three ring binder. There's a variety of ways to do this. One is to simply record the date you cooked the meal, your husband's comments, and then list the name of the recipes you prepared. Be sure to list where in your kitchen each recipe is found (i.e. in which cookbook and the page number, or in your "green" vegetable file folder or your recipe file box/basket).

Another method of keeping your binder of favorite meals is to actually place the copies of the recipes (if they are loose, this is easy to do) into your binder. You can glue loose recipes onto a page or place them in the plastic insert pages mentioned earlier. If you use this method, then when you are at a loss for what to cook, all you need do is open your "favorite recipe" scrapbook to find ideas for complete meals. If you have time to kill, you can even handwrite or type up the recipes to keep them together in your scrapbook.

--You can establish a computer file of recipe favorites. With computers, anything is possible when it comes to recipe-keeping. If you don't prefer the "clutter" of all the cookbooks and recipes in your kitchen, you might want to type up your favorite recipes so that you have then all in one place-in a computer file. Even better, scan in your favorite recipes so they are "paperless." There are even online and web programs that allow you to "store" your favorites online. Thus, no typing is needed.

For the person who loves to cook, managing your recipes can be a challenge. Finding the perfect recipe for the occasion largely depends on your ability to organize and manage your recipes and cookbooks in the most efficient way. Applying any or all of these tips can help you explore, find and enjoy your recipes.

Source

Personal experience.