Recipe Organization

I LOVE RECIPES.

I love reading them - I love collecting them - I love sharing them - I love making them!

I have sooo many recipes and need to have an 'extra' day in my life to get things organized as I'd like.  There are times when I get totally frustrated, because I have Too Many Recipes, and can't find the one I'm looking for.

But I do have some thoughts for organizing your recipes that I want to share.

If you have many cookbooks, have you considered the idea of making a 'recipe file' with the name of the cookbook, the recipe name and page number?  I have often kept a list in front of the cookbooks with the recipes I want to try, along with the page number.  It helps save me time looking, but what works for one, may not be good for another.

I have a recipe drawer - this is where I keep my most used/new recipes.  If it's out of sight, it's so often out of mind, so it's something I go through often.

I use the small flimsy-cover photo albums, and have them labeled with different topics: 9 x 13 desserts, appetizers, 'real food', microwave - whatever you use most, to keep recipes handy. I stand them up on end in the front of the drawer, so they're easily accessible and to view.

I do love the 'make your own' cookbooks - with sections for holding magazine (rectangular) recipes. It helps me clear out the recipe magazines that pile up in my kitchen.

I also keep folders in the drawer - color coded - and store favorite recipes in them.  I have one just for 'Favorites from Friends" and write on the manilla folder, which recipe from which gal, because they often get shared too.

I have a friend who tries a new recipe nearly every day of her life and I often get to be a part of taste testing.  She sometimes, leaves a sample at my door - and I don't have to wonder who has dropped it off.  She keeps a 3-ring binder with recipes/pictures and it's wonderful to go through.  I have learned from her,  to always write on a recipe what I thought of it, but if it isn't a 'keeper', it gets pitched.  I do LOVE recipes - and it's easy to get frustrated if you don't have a system.

Hope some of these ideas make things easier for you in the kitchen.