Recipe Notebook

 

This is my system for keeping track of the things I want to cook. I use a composition book with a green-speckled cover, probably purchased from the Rite Aid Drugstore around the corner. When I find a recipe I want to try I note the name of the recipe, the book and the page. When I've made the recipe, I check it off. 

The compostion book is divided into time periods and occasions (summer, fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) so if I see a really great recipe for tomatoes in November I simply enter it under "summer" and next summer when I refer back to my notebook, there it will be. Of course, I now have multiples of the same category because I've run out of room on the original  pages.

I've been using this for about a year and it works fairly well. Prior to that as I went through a new cookbook I would write down any recipes I wanted to try on an index card which I sometimes put in the book and sometimes collected elsewhere. I never did a get a definitive system down with the index cards, and it turned out to be a short-lived system because it was fairly useless.

Before the index cards I went through a period of copying any recipes I wanted to try but that resulted in a lot of paper to paw through whenever I wanted to see what was in the queue and the system was never efficient or satisfying.  And before that I didn't really have a system other than keeping in mind what I wanted to try or piling the cookbook with whatever recipe I wanted to try in the kitchen. Neither was particularly effective.

For some reason I'm usually able to lay my hand on whatever book I want immediately but the notebook itself is harder to keep track of. It floats around the house between my bedroom where I often read cookbooks in bed at night and the kitchen where most of my cookbooks are stored but sometimes it gets set down in places in between and I find myself hunting for it.

Comments

[Just a Plane Ride Away]

Such as good idea! My cookbooks are dog-eared, bookmarked, and sticky-noted. Of course years later, I'll re-read a cookbook and think, oh yeah, I wanted to try that! I also have a huge binder full of recipes... but we won't talk about that right now.

I shall start my recipe notebook today. Thanks for sharing :-)

[Patricia Scarpin]

What a great coincidence, Julie - I started doing that a couple of weeks ago, but I'm using an Excel file for it.
Great minds think alike!

[Elizabeth]

Good idea!!

[Thimbleanna]

Ohmygosh! This is so funny. Your book looks almost exactly like mine, only my book is for keeping track of recipes and sewing/knitting/quilting ideas I get from blogs. I can't believe how much they look alike!

[adele]

I've always wondered how other bloggers keep track of their recipes.

I have a list of bookmarks in my browser, Post-It flags in all my cookbooks, and a corkboard covered in Post-Its with random ideas scribbled on them. :)

[Hilary @ Smorgasbite]

Your system is more compact than mine. I have a red box full of clippings, notes and papers.

[Katharine]

I have all my cookbooks with tiny color-coded post-it tabs on them (red for meat, green for salad/vegetable, etc.), plus I keep 3 binders (1: dessert, 2: main course, 3: hors d'oeuvres and appetizers) of recipe cutouts and print outs in sheet protectors so that I can take them out, splatter sauce all over them, wipe em down, and put them back!
I organized my mother-in-law's recipe clippings in a similar manner one year for a Christmas present and she was exstatic and still hasn't stopped talking about what a great present it was!

[The Food Hunter]

What a great idea. It sure beats all the sticky tabs I keep in my books.

[Lisa (Homesick Texan)]

That's exactly what I need--one comp book to write down everything. As it is, all my ideas and recipes are scattered across multiple platforms, and it's any wonder that I'm ever able to find anything!

[pigtown*design]

It's great to see Just a Plane Ride and the Homesick Texan on here. Lone Star gals giving props!

[Julie]

Just a Plane Ride Away, I forgot to say that I did the sticky-note thing for a while also. I still have books that are full of them.

Patricia, I love Excel and use it to keep track of all sorts of things but I decided against it for this because I’d have to have a computer by me while going through a new book or be disciplined enough to periodically translate post-it noted pages to a spreadsheet. One of the definite advantages of using Excel though is that once your list gets long enough you have an easy way to search it.

Elizabeth, thanks!

Thimbleanna, wow, you’re covering a lot of ground with yours! I’m guessing that your notebook also has the same well-thumbed quality mine does.

Adele, I’ve done the post-it note thing and I do have bookmarks also. Actually, if it’s something I find online I usually copy it and email it to myself along with the url. I started doing that after having a few experiences with a page being deleted or updated and the recipe disappearing.

Katharine, you sound so organized! (Please report to my house stat!) My only problem with the sticky notes was that I’d have to open the book to job my memory. I needed something to keep all those recipes in all those books in front of me. Oddly, I don’t have that many clippings. If I see something in a newspaper or magazine I look for it online and am usually able to find it.

Food Hunter, this works a little better than the post-it notes, only because I’d forget all the recipes I’d post-it-noted and needed to open the book to remind myself. And since I have dozens of books that I want to make things from at any given time, I’d lose sight of too many things.

Lisa, I don’t have my online items organized very well but this is a helpful (for me) way to keep track of things I want to make in books.

Pigtown-Design, yes, we love those Lone Star girls!

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

Wish I were that organized -- I try to keep lists and files on the computer, but I've always got several notebooks going at once. Can never find a thing in them!

[claudia (cook eat FRET)]

i love this post... kinda warm and homey... nice and normal... let's totally have lunch...

[Jesse]

Wow, what a great system. If only I could be so organized...

[BMoreSweet]

I am just amazed at the breadth and scope of your cooking - from appetizers to desserts and everything in between. I'm coming over RIGHT NOW!!!

DLR

[Keswickian]

Wow, that's too organized for this librarian ;-) I have a nasty green folder and I (gasp) just write right in my cookbooks. YEAH so what they are mine!!! If you want to give butternut squash one more try let me know, I've got a soup recipe that hides it appropriately. See you in January.

[kitchenography]

Lydia, I have a feeling you're very organized!

Claudia, could it be a lunch that you cook for me? Because I love the stuff you make.

Jesse, the funny thing about this is that I am not at all organized.

Deb, please do come over!

Keswickian, you write in your books!! I can never bring myself to do that but it certainly makes sense to keep your notes with your recipes. (And soup seems to be the only way I like butternut squash. Oh, I also like it in pies.)

[lolobstersquad]

I´m jealous. I wish I had a system. I put tags on my cookbooks, and whenever I´ve done something and it works, I write it down in a kitchen notebook. But now I have three of them, and I have to rely on memory to find what I want, and it doesn´t always work.

[michelle]

This is such a great idea! I've been looking for something that I could actually maintain and stick with - I wonder if this is it?!!

[heidi leon]

thanks for sharing this simple but amazing idea. It comes on the perfect moment for me, I was sick of thousands of post-it's and folded books. I tried to start a list but had no idea how to sort recipes out.

Best advice everrrrrr!!

thanks

[ann]

I have no system other than memory and luck. It used to wrok pretty well when I had a lot of room in my head for things like recipes, but these days that space is being takne up by definitions for CDOs and TARPs and garden plans and plant lists. Maybe its time to deploy the notebooks! Thanks for the idea Julie!

[FJK]

Great idea. I'm always wondering where I saw that recipe I found I wanted to try!

I know we are bloggers and should be all computer based, but sometimes a good manual system is best.

My notebook if of "memorable dinners" -- not necessarily just entertaining or holiday but just when the food, the company (even if its just us), and/or the overall experience was something I want to remember.
Been doing that for 20 years in a big bound sketchpad type notebook and it is really great to go back and refresh my memory and get to enjoy those meals all over again.

[w.]

Great idea!! I always end up copying out the entire recipe (and saving it into my computer) but that's definitely annoying especially when I haven't actually tested the recipe to see if it's worth hanging onto. I shall have to reorganize my system to one modelled after yours. Thanks for the inspiration! :)