So many recipes, so little time
There’s your mother’s awesome poundcake recipe. Your favorite potato salad from that cookbook by the French guy. The neighbor’s cousin’s sangria recipe she was kind enough to share, in handwriting that only a doctor could read.
Not to mention the hundreds more recipes scattered about the house, in the recipe box, the bedroom, and testing the power of the magnets that cling for dear life on your refrigerator. That doesn’t count the ones battling for supremacy on your computer hard drive.
Welcome to Recipe Savers Anonymous. It’s an addiction akin to gluttony, minus the calories.
As the piles grow, so does the guilt. You think about tossing some out, but ... hmmm, that banana rum cream pie sounds so good.
Let’s move on ... to all the cookbooks you own, some of which contain recipes you have made ... and want to make again—if only you could remember the name of the dish, and what book it came from. Oh, and all those family recipes you’ve inherited, which you’ve been meaning to organize. If only there was time. But there’s not time.
Because you’ve got more recipes to clip!
At this point, can we agree that we have a problem?
Marilyn Paul knows your pain. Paul is an organization consultant and author of “It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized.’’ She loves to cook, and she loves to save recipes. But in her case, she said, the passion had become a curse. “I was overwhelmed by recipes that I wasn’t going to use,’’ Paul said.
“I was wasting my time and energy and creating a mess.’’
OK, nobody’s going to tell you to quit clipping. But maybe it’s time to apply some method to the culinary madness.
The first step is to lose the guilt. Your intentions are honorable. “(Clipping recipes) means you want to cook at home, and it means you want to find the time,’’ Paul said.
Behavior psychologist Christoph Leonhard, a professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, agrees. “There’s nothing wrong with being a collector,’’ he said. “It’s quite enjoyable to look and fantasize.’’
But what good are 500 recipes — and counting — that just sit there, for weeks and months and years?
“The piles are demoralizing,’’ Paul said. “My strategy now is to become aware that the things I do unconsciously in Time A, like clipping several recipes a week, make my life miserable in Time B.’’
Because clipping a recipe is so much easier than cooking a recipe, there’s the danger of using the former as a vicarious substitute for the latter. Leonhard suggested re-examining your priorities and being realistic about your schedule. It takes a little discipline.
Paul, a self-avowed recipe clipper, recommended creating parameters for yourself. In her case, she is currently clipping only spicy main dishes she can prep the night before. (Next month, it might be quick healthful desserts.) Then, she said, “I give myself a deadline to use them. If I don’t use a recipe within two months, it goes.’’
And what about that banana rum cream pie that looked so tempting?
Remind yourself that it’s OK to take a pass, Paul said; you’ll be able to find a similar recipe when you need it.
“The recipes will keep coming, the cookbooks will keep coming,’’ Paul said, adding with a laugh, “We don’t have to clip from a sense of scarcity.’’
As for the recipes you do keep, finding a way to organize them is key. There is much to be said for creating family heirloom cookbooks with embellished paper, photos and prose. But that’s not the only route. Your cookbook could be as easy as compiling a working collection of favorite, tried-and-true recipes that define you as a cook. It also will help you make room for the recipes you hope one day to have time for.
Think of this as the first step toward honoring your life in recipes. Some of your “best of’’ collection might be from newspapers, cookbooks and Web sites, sure, as well as the ones that have a larger story to tell. By making a place for them, you’re making them a priority — and a legacy you can share. Recipes you might dismiss as ordinary may not be perceived that way by the people who love you.
“I can’t look at that Jell-O salad without thinking of Ceil,’’ a relative said recently of her late aunt’s version. “And my cousin can’t think of salsa without thinking of mine.’’
The compilation you create can be as attractive or as functional as you want it to be, and it will take as much or as little time as you choose. The point is this: Everything will (ideally) be in one place, ready to be used. That it is functional does not make it any less treasured, because done is always better than perfect.
And the way we figure it, less time looking and more time cooking always is a recipe for success.
———
COOKBOOKS AND COMPUTERS
Saving recipes via computer has huge advantages. You can collect to your heart’s content, and only your hard drive knows how gargantuan the stockpile is. Organization is a breeze, too. It’s why we own computers: Technology is our friend.
But sometimes friends turn on you. Among the drawbacks to cyber-recipe collections is that you have to input your own recipes, and that takes time.
Second, your collection can be vulnerable if you don’t back up files and your computer goes pffft. Or if the Web site you’re using discontinues its cookbook feature, or disappears altogether.
Working directly from a laptop is a pain, too. As one colleague put it: “(1) I have to bend low to look at the recipe and (2) I have to keep refreshing the screen because the screen saver enacts; to do that, I have to make sure my hands are clean and dry (or use the end of a wooden spoon!)’’
For many reasons, printing out copies as soon as you input each recipe is a good habit to develop.
Here are some of the online options. Many, many more exist.
FREE WEB SITES
Many let registered subscribers create “virtual cookbooks.’’ The best let you grab recipes from their substantial archives, as well as letting you add your own, often with photos. Some recipes print out “prettier’’ than others, and some sites make inputting easier. Because features vary by site, you have to decide which best suits your needs.
Popular food sites include allrecipes.com and recipezaar.com. However, wegottaeat.com remains a personal favorite for printing and storing because its intuitive template is among the best we’ve found.
Many magazines and food companies have great sites that let you collect and stash recipes. These include epicurious.com and kraftfoods.com.
SOFTWARE PROGRAMS
These have to be purchased, but the cookbook is all yours, sans advertising and privacy issues. Many come with thousands of recipes, too. A few to check out: Big Oven (bigoven.com, $30); Cook’n (dvo.com/recipeprogram.html, $80); Home Cookin (mountain-software.com/homecook.htm, $30); The Living Cookbook (livingcookbook.com, $30).
———
ORGANIZING AND CREATING
Our experts agreed: The easiest way to organize and collect your recipes is with a three-ring binder. Ways to use it:
—Tape recipes onto loose-leaf paper before filing. Or print/photocopy them onto standard 8½-by-11 sheets, then use a 3-hole punch to file them.
—Sort recipes with page dividers to categorize by course.
—Have one sheet of lined paper (or one per category) where you write the names of your favorite cookbook recipes, listing the book’s title and recipe’s page number, suggested organizational consultant Marilyn Paul.
Optional: Use plastic sheet protectors to shield paper from the ravages of time and splatters in the kitchen.
Optional: Use a photo album, suggested Karen Edenfield of Jo-Ann craft stores: It’s pricier, but it already has plastic-covered pages to store and protect recipes. She recommended albums that rest flat so they’re easier to cook from.
Optional: Splurge on binders designed specifically for recipes. Stationery stores (Hallmark) and many online sites (family-facts.com) sell them. Prices start at around $20.
QUICK TIPS
—File only recipes you have made and plan to make again, Paul said: “I started out putting in the ones I thought I wanted to try. Big mistake.’’
—Buy two binders, Paul suggested: one for family heirlooms, the other for your personal collection.
—Is your collection overwhelming? Limit your first book to a single theme, such as holidays or desserts. “That helps by narrowing the focus,’’ said personal historian Hella Buchheim, “allowing (you) to do another topic later.’’
—Still stressed? Scratch the notebook idea, Edenfield said, and just sort recipes into an expanding (a.k.a. accordion) folder, photo boxes or multidrawer organizers.
———
SNAPPY STORAGE SOLUTIONS
A three-ring binder, pretty or plain, is one of the best ways to collect and organize favorite recipes. (Greenroom Eco 3-Ring Binder, Target, $6)
Accordion files can store recipes waiting for “admission’’ into your binder, or serve as the main home for your collection. (Kendall Kollection 13-pocket accordion folder, available at OfficeMax, $7).
Record recipes and menus in a small notebook. It’ll help you remember where they can be found so you’ll be able to make them again. (“Classic Cook’’ journal from Coco Press, $10 at cocopress.com)
Stickers from the scrapbooking aisle of craft and department stores can add fun decorating elements.
Dress up plain recipes by affixing them to food-themed papers found in the scrapbooking aisle of craft stores.
Good-looking recipe-card and cookbook templates can be found on many sites. These come from Hewlett Packard’s HP Activity Center.
———
QUICK! WHERE’S THAT RECIPE?
Four ways to find what you need:
—Play the accordion: As you collect recipes — but before you put them in the binder — stash them in an expanding accordion folder by category.
—Stick-to-itive-ness: Put a small pile of sticky notes on the inside jacket of each of your cookbooks and magazines. Use these to quickly tag recipes you’ve made or hope to make.
—Be a copy-cat: Consider photocopying super-favorite cookbook recipes and filing them in your cookbook binder. (They’re easier to use in the kitchen and protect books from splatters.)
—Consider a journal: Jot down favorite new recipes in a small notebook. Nothing fancy, just the date, maybe the occasion, where you got the recipe. It’s a valuable go-to when you forget six months later. And trust us, you’ll forget.
———
GETTING FANCY WITHOUT TOO MUCH FUSS
Solutions exist for time-crunched cooks who still want a nifty-looking cookbook. “It needs to be fun and really quick,’’ said Karen Edenfield, whose title is inspiration specialist at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores. “We’re all in a hurry these days.’’
—A great source for good-looking recipe-card and cookbook templates is the HP Activity Center from Hewlett Packard. Visit hp.com and type “recipes’’ in the Search field.
—To dress up pages with a minimum of fuss, Edenfield suggested colorful stickers from the scrapbooking aisle of craft and department stores. (Pages start at $1.)
—Affix recipes to food-themed papers (from 50 cents a page) at craft and stationery stores.
—Photographs (that you download or affix to paper) don’t need to be limited to finished dishes. In fact, Suzy Pollock, manager of the HP Activity Center, suggested that photos of friends or family — especially if the dish is connected to them — add a sweeter touch.
———
TAKING THE NEXT STEP
OK, you’re even more ambitious?
—Hewlett Packard’s Web site offers a free online class that walks you through the steps of how to make a pretty cookbook. (Go to hp.com and type “create cookbook class’’ in the Search field.) The course is self-paced, and designed for all levels of craft-niks.
—For a more in-depth approach to creating a family cookbook, personal historian Hella Buchheim’s “A Plate Full of Memories’’ provides a coaching guide to creating an heirloom book (platefullofmemories.com, $27.45). “It’s a connecting kind of thing,’’ Buchheim said, “which gives honor and prestige to the people who are included.’’
—Online sites take recipes you submit and produce bound, professional-looking cookbooks. As gifts, these make wonderful keepsakes. Some to visit: Keyingredient.com, TasteBook.com, SharedBook.com and Lulu.com.
Not to mention the hundreds more recipes scattered about the house, in the recipe box, the bedroom, and testing the power of the magnets that cling for dear life on your refrigerator. That doesn’t count the ones battling for supremacy on your computer hard drive.
Welcome to Recipe Savers Anonymous. It’s an addiction akin to gluttony, minus the calories.
As the piles grow, so does the guilt. You think about tossing some out, but ... hmmm, that banana rum cream pie sounds so good.
Let’s move on ... to all the cookbooks you own, some of which contain recipes you have made ... and want to make again—if only you could remember the name of the dish, and what book it came from. Oh, and all those family recipes you’ve inherited, which you’ve been meaning to organize. If only there was time. But there’s not time.
Because you’ve got more recipes to clip!
At this point, can we agree that we have a problem?
Marilyn Paul knows your pain. Paul is an organization consultant and author of “It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized.’’ She loves to cook, and she loves to save recipes. But in her case, she said, the passion had become a curse. “I was overwhelmed by recipes that I wasn’t going to use,’’ Paul said.
“I was wasting my time and energy and creating a mess.’’
OK, nobody’s going to tell you to quit clipping. But maybe it’s time to apply some method to the culinary madness.
The first step is to lose the guilt. Your intentions are honorable. “(Clipping recipes) means you want to cook at home, and it means you want to find the time,’’ Paul said.
Behavior psychologist Christoph Leonhard, a professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, agrees. “There’s nothing wrong with being a collector,’’ he said. “It’s quite enjoyable to look and fantasize.’’
But what good are 500 recipes — and counting — that just sit there, for weeks and months and years?
“The piles are demoralizing,’’ Paul said. “My strategy now is to become aware that the things I do unconsciously in Time A, like clipping several recipes a week, make my life miserable in Time B.’’
Because clipping a recipe is so much easier than cooking a recipe, there’s the danger of using the former as a vicarious substitute for the latter. Leonhard suggested re-examining your priorities and being realistic about your schedule. It takes a little discipline.
Paul, a self-avowed recipe clipper, recommended creating parameters for yourself. In her case, she is currently clipping only spicy main dishes she can prep the night before. (Next month, it might be quick healthful desserts.) Then, she said, “I give myself a deadline to use them. If I don’t use a recipe within two months, it goes.’’
And what about that banana rum cream pie that looked so tempting?
Remind yourself that it’s OK to take a pass, Paul said; you’ll be able to find a similar recipe when you need it.
“The recipes will keep coming, the cookbooks will keep coming,’’ Paul said, adding with a laugh, “We don’t have to clip from a sense of scarcity.’’
As for the recipes you do keep, finding a way to organize them is key. There is much to be said for creating family heirloom cookbooks with embellished paper, photos and prose. But that’s not the only route. Your cookbook could be as easy as compiling a working collection of favorite, tried-and-true recipes that define you as a cook. It also will help you make room for the recipes you hope one day to have time for.
Think of this as the first step toward honoring your life in recipes. Some of your “best of’’ collection might be from newspapers, cookbooks and Web sites, sure, as well as the ones that have a larger story to tell. By making a place for them, you’re making them a priority — and a legacy you can share. Recipes you might dismiss as ordinary may not be perceived that way by the people who love you.
“I can’t look at that Jell-O salad without thinking of Ceil,’’ a relative said recently of her late aunt’s version. “And my cousin can’t think of salsa without thinking of mine.’’
The compilation you create can be as attractive or as functional as you want it to be, and it will take as much or as little time as you choose. The point is this: Everything will (ideally) be in one place, ready to be used. That it is functional does not make it any less treasured, because done is always better than perfect.
And the way we figure it, less time looking and more time cooking always is a recipe for success.
———
COOKBOOKS AND COMPUTERS
Saving recipes via computer has huge advantages. You can collect to your heart’s content, and only your hard drive knows how gargantuan the stockpile is. Organization is a breeze, too. It’s why we own computers: Technology is our friend.
But sometimes friends turn on you. Among the drawbacks to cyber-recipe collections is that you have to input your own recipes, and that takes time.
Second, your collection can be vulnerable if you don’t back up files and your computer goes pffft. Or if the Web site you’re using discontinues its cookbook feature, or disappears altogether.
Working directly from a laptop is a pain, too. As one colleague put it: “(1) I have to bend low to look at the recipe and (2) I have to keep refreshing the screen because the screen saver enacts; to do that, I have to make sure my hands are clean and dry (or use the end of a wooden spoon!)’’
For many reasons, printing out copies as soon as you input each recipe is a good habit to develop.
Here are some of the online options. Many, many more exist.
FREE WEB SITES
Many let registered subscribers create “virtual cookbooks.’’ The best let you grab recipes from their substantial archives, as well as letting you add your own, often with photos. Some recipes print out “prettier’’ than others, and some sites make inputting easier. Because features vary by site, you have to decide which best suits your needs.
Popular food sites include allrecipes.com and recipezaar.com. However, wegottaeat.com remains a personal favorite for printing and storing because its intuitive template is among the best we’ve found.
Many magazines and food companies have great sites that let you collect and stash recipes. These include epicurious.com and kraftfoods.com.
SOFTWARE PROGRAMS
These have to be purchased, but the cookbook is all yours, sans advertising and privacy issues. Many come with thousands of recipes, too. A few to check out: Big Oven (bigoven.com, $30); Cook’n (dvo.com/recipeprogram.html, $80); Home Cookin (mountain-software.com/homecook.htm, $30); The Living Cookbook (livingcookbook.com, $30).
———
ORGANIZING AND CREATING
Our experts agreed: The easiest way to organize and collect your recipes is with a three-ring binder. Ways to use it:
—Tape recipes onto loose-leaf paper before filing. Or print/photocopy them onto standard 8½-by-11 sheets, then use a 3-hole punch to file them.
—Sort recipes with page dividers to categorize by course.
—Have one sheet of lined paper (or one per category) where you write the names of your favorite cookbook recipes, listing the book’s title and recipe’s page number, suggested organizational consultant Marilyn Paul.
Optional: Use plastic sheet protectors to shield paper from the ravages of time and splatters in the kitchen.
Optional: Use a photo album, suggested Karen Edenfield of Jo-Ann craft stores: It’s pricier, but it already has plastic-covered pages to store and protect recipes. She recommended albums that rest flat so they’re easier to cook from.
Optional: Splurge on binders designed specifically for recipes. Stationery stores (Hallmark) and many online sites (family-facts.com) sell them. Prices start at around $20.
QUICK TIPS
—File only recipes you have made and plan to make again, Paul said: “I started out putting in the ones I thought I wanted to try. Big mistake.’’
—Buy two binders, Paul suggested: one for family heirlooms, the other for your personal collection.
—Is your collection overwhelming? Limit your first book to a single theme, such as holidays or desserts. “That helps by narrowing the focus,’’ said personal historian Hella Buchheim, “allowing (you) to do another topic later.’’
—Still stressed? Scratch the notebook idea, Edenfield said, and just sort recipes into an expanding (a.k.a. accordion) folder, photo boxes or multidrawer organizers.
———
SNAPPY STORAGE SOLUTIONS
A three-ring binder, pretty or plain, is one of the best ways to collect and organize favorite recipes. (Greenroom Eco 3-Ring Binder, Target, $6)
Accordion files can store recipes waiting for “admission’’ into your binder, or serve as the main home for your collection. (Kendall Kollection 13-pocket accordion folder, available at OfficeMax, $7).
Record recipes and menus in a small notebook. It’ll help you remember where they can be found so you’ll be able to make them again. (“Classic Cook’’ journal from Coco Press, $10 at cocopress.com)
Stickers from the scrapbooking aisle of craft and department stores can add fun decorating elements.
Dress up plain recipes by affixing them to food-themed papers found in the scrapbooking aisle of craft stores.
Good-looking recipe-card and cookbook templates can be found on many sites. These come from Hewlett Packard’s HP Activity Center.
———
QUICK! WHERE’S THAT RECIPE?
Four ways to find what you need:
—Play the accordion: As you collect recipes — but before you put them in the binder — stash them in an expanding accordion folder by category.
—Stick-to-itive-ness: Put a small pile of sticky notes on the inside jacket of each of your cookbooks and magazines. Use these to quickly tag recipes you’ve made or hope to make.
—Be a copy-cat: Consider photocopying super-favorite cookbook recipes and filing them in your cookbook binder. (They’re easier to use in the kitchen and protect books from splatters.)
—Consider a journal: Jot down favorite new recipes in a small notebook. Nothing fancy, just the date, maybe the occasion, where you got the recipe. It’s a valuable go-to when you forget six months later. And trust us, you’ll forget.
———
GETTING FANCY WITHOUT TOO MUCH FUSS
Solutions exist for time-crunched cooks who still want a nifty-looking cookbook. “It needs to be fun and really quick,’’ said Karen Edenfield, whose title is inspiration specialist at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores. “We’re all in a hurry these days.’’
—A great source for good-looking recipe-card and cookbook templates is the HP Activity Center from Hewlett Packard. Visit hp.com and type “recipes’’ in the Search field.
—To dress up pages with a minimum of fuss, Edenfield suggested colorful stickers from the scrapbooking aisle of craft and department stores. (Pages start at $1.)
—Affix recipes to food-themed papers (from 50 cents a page) at craft and stationery stores.
—Photographs (that you download or affix to paper) don’t need to be limited to finished dishes. In fact, Suzy Pollock, manager of the HP Activity Center, suggested that photos of friends or family — especially if the dish is connected to them — add a sweeter touch.
———
TAKING THE NEXT STEP
OK, you’re even more ambitious?
—Hewlett Packard’s Web site offers a free online class that walks you through the steps of how to make a pretty cookbook. (Go to hp.com and type “create cookbook class’’ in the Search field.) The course is self-paced, and designed for all levels of craft-niks.
—For a more in-depth approach to creating a family cookbook, personal historian Hella Buchheim’s “A Plate Full of Memories’’ provides a coaching guide to creating an heirloom book (platefullofmemories.com, $27.45). “It’s a connecting kind of thing,’’ Buchheim said, “which gives honor and prestige to the people who are included.’’
—Online sites take recipes you submit and produce bound, professional-looking cookbooks. As gifts, these make wonderful keepsakes. Some to visit: Keyingredient.com, TasteBook.com, SharedBook.com and Lulu.com.
Copyright © 2002-2009 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.