foodaccordingtoemily

Must…Stay…Organized.

I am pretty sure there are a hundred million recipes out there. Actually, that number probably isn’t big enough if you count all the treasures stored in grandma’s crusty recipe box, not to mention the ones in her memory. To say the least, there are a lot. And to top it off, there are a lot of them I want to try. I see them everywhere; in magazines, at grocery stories, in cookbooks, online, emailed from a friend, sometimes even on TV. And while the idea of a recipe binder with all the ingredients and instructions printed out on cards, neatly arranged by categories sounds nice, I’ve found it is impossible and impractical for my lifestyle.

So, enter the online organizer. I am sure there are a ton of options out there – I’d love to hear what you use – but I have found Springpad to be an effective one for me. You can actually use the program to organize all sorts of other things, but thus far I’ve stuck to recipes and restaurants. The great thing about this site is you can enter URLs from recipes you find online and it will pull the ingredients and directions into a nice bookmark. Manual entry is also an option. You can mark whether it is a recipe you want to cook or something you’ve tried already, and add a 1-5 star rating as well. There is a drop-down menu of “courses” if you find that organization method useful and you can also mark your recipes with helpful tags. I’ve found ones based on the ingredients (beets, arugula, couscous) or the style of cooking (vegetarian, gluten free, soup) to be most useful.

Regardless of what program you use, my advice is to start NOW. The more links that pile up in your email or pieces of paper that accumulate on your desk (admittedly, I have some waiting for me there right now), the more time consuming – and frustrating – it will be. Spend some time when you first start and get as many recipes entered as you can. Once you’ve done that, maintaining your online cookbook is easy – if you are committed to entering new ones regularly. And believe me, it’s worth it, because when the time comes to harvest my winter squash, I’ve already got fifteen tasty recipes ready and waiting.

July 24, 2011 at 1:11 pm 1 comment