organize my recipes

on a daily basis, deleting, reading, writing down, eliminating duplicates, searching, weeding through computer files, picking new ones to try.
I’ve come to a point where this is actually a fun activity – I enjoy it and I don’t let it take over my life.

But it looks like this is going to be a looong-term project. At this rate, it might take something between 1 and 2 years.

The end is far-far away, but I am finally moving conistently towards it!

• myrecipes.com (consisting mostly of cooking light recipes)
• epicurious.com
• sparkrecipes.com
• allrecipes.com
• finecooking.com
• mayoclinic.com
• kingarthurflour.com

I also have a selection of weightwatchers, ediets, and foodfit recipes saved in word format. (I no longer receive their newslettes).

I put everything together in one place.
Which is, a 4-shelf library in the corridor.
On the 2 top shelves I have my cookbooks and the magazines I plan to keep intact (mainly issues of Fine Cooking and various BHG publications).
In the lower 2 shelves, I have separated my recipes by season: Magazines, clippings and printouts that are season-specific are divided in 4 piles: spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Then, I have a box where a keep the rest of the recipes.
Also on the lowest shelf, I have all my binders and notebooks that I have been using so far.
- I will transfer ‘tried and approved’ recipes into my 2 new notebooks (and also enter them into sparkrecipes.com to see their nutritional value).
- I will maintain a binder (or more) with maybe/someday recipe clippings to try out.
- I will toss the rest: mediocre recipes I’ve tried once and have categorized as flops but am still holding on to thinking I should be able to find some way to improve them, as well as the ones i’d never try for various reasons (too time-consuming, ingredients we don’t like, etc)
Edit: – I’m also thinking of a separate binder, with traditional Greek recipes. This would be more like reference material, with recipes and ingredients and techniques that are rare and sometimes forgotten. I’ve been collecting these for so long, it seems like a waste to toss these.

...is the correct word.
I already have an organizing system in place, which made sense when my recipes were in the range of hundreds. Right now, they’re out of control. Basically, I can’t find one when I need it.

I have bought 2 large notebooks (one for savory and one for sweet), and I will write there the recipes I consider keepers. The drawback is I won’t have photographs, but I am ready to accept this, since my clippings and printouts are simply too many to handle.

I am keeping my cookbooks and magazines (of course), storing them in one place, bookmarking favorites. Gradually I will add these into my notebooks as well.