Thursday, April 12, 2007

Organizing my recipes

I actually have time to write twice today! I served homemade veggie beef soup that I started on Tuesday and finished this morning. It is so nice not to have a stack of dishes waiting to be done after dinner...just three bowls!

I thought I'd show a few pictures of the three-ring photo album where I keep all the recipes and one-page articles I cut out of magazines and newspapers. I used to keep one back in the 1980s but I switched to putting everything in files for awhile. However, I found once they were put away, they were forgotten.

Two things happened that made me decide to organize my magazine and newspaper clippings like this again. First...I misplaced a recipe that I had cut out and I really (really) had been looking forward to trying. I never did find it...

Second...I loved what my daughter had assembled when I visited her a couple years ago (she not only puts recipe clips and articles in hers but also recipe cards)

So, I decided to put one together again. I nearly filled up the first photo album with articles I had in files already. I'm just now starting on a second. The album is easy to go through since it keeps the articles as intact as possible.




My camera isn't very good so I hope you can see the pictures clearly enough to get the idea! This has worked out very well. I not only keep it in my kitchen where it is handy but I've enjoyed looking through it at times, just for inspiration!

Added Note: This is the magnetic type of photo album where the plastic peels up and the back is sticky. Not the best for your photos but perfect to hold magazine and newspaper clippings.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did something almost the same with mine. I typed up lots of recipes or punched holes in them to put them in a notebook. It always took me so long to find a recipe in before. Now I just turn to the category and quickly find it. Joy

Elizabeth said...

Hi,
This is so neat. I have ben thinking of ways to organize my recipes. Please send me your address again. I have something to send you.
Hugs,
Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

Brenda ~ great job on all the organizing! Even though I have two long wooden recipe boxes my husband made me, I still had a shoebox and a bulging folder full of magazine and newspaper clipped recipes. My daughter recently finished a huge project of organizing them all for me similar to what you have done! Now, I need to be faithful to check the book out instead of falling into the "same-old-thing" routine and cooking from recipes I'm used to.

Thanks for showing us your project!

Lallee said...

Brenda, you should see the mess my recipes are in. Maybe this will inspire me ;-)

smilnsigh said...

I can see them perfectly. Such a good idea too.

Mari-Nanci

Maggie Ann said...

I do the same thing with mine and it is a gem of an idea. A friend at church told me about this several years ago. No more 'lost' recipes...=)

Anonymous said...

What an absolutely MARVELOUS idea. I had had a binder for recipes that was not using the full page..broken in half-sections, if you can imagine. However, that left no room for the pic to accompany the recipe and truthfully, it waned for inspiration. I do believe I should like to take up this project. :). Thank you for posting this.

Cheatn Thursdays said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

My mom was complaining about her old school recipes, that have been passed down from generation to generation, falling apart. Not wanting to have to re-write them every few years, I decided to make her an online recipe organizer to keep her recipes.
While figuring out how to make it/what features I should implement, I decided to make it so that anyone can register a user and upload their recipes as well.

I invite anyone who is having the same problems to go to
http://recipe.gauzza.com

and make a user to back up your recipes and be able to access them anywhere with an internet connection.

Also you can view other recipes users have uploaded to get new idea's and add new recipes to your cooking repertoire.

Organize - Print - Email