Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Lessons From Great Grandma’s Kitchen; Recipe Organization

Recipe Organization

Recipe organization is something I have been struggling with for a while now. I even made corralling my recipe chaos one of my 30 by 30 goals.

Like most recipe hoarders, I have a stash of recipes that are spilling out of folders, notebooks, and drawers. This doesn’t even include my abundance of cookbooks that I need to weed down (hmmm… do I see a 31 by 31 goal…). Don’t forget to throw Pinterest in there.

I had this idea that I would digitize and organize my recipes. After many unsuccessful attempts I gave up (quite a few times). The thought of starting up my computer, then searching for a recipe all but drained any kitchen ambitions I had. The worst part was when hubby would ask, “could you make that dish you made….? You know it had….?” I realized that I was not keeping track of recipes that my family liked.

One of the best things about cooking with Grandma was pulling out her green metal recipe box. I would flip through the 3 x 5 index cards adorned with Grandma’s penmanship and years of cooking smudges. As I grew older our time together in the kitchen grew far and few. One habit that never ceased was requesting to look through Grandma’s recipe box.

I have recently accepted that digital isn’t for me. I have taken to Grandma’s recipe organization; the green metal box. Each recipe in Grandma’s little metal box had been tried, tested, perfected, and family approved. No magazine clippings shoved in there.

I still have my overflow of paper. I still add to my Pinterest boards. But when I find a successful recipe (meaning a recipe that my family will eat again), I handwrite the recipe on a 3 x 5 index card, and tuck it safely into my very own green metal box. (Do you know how many garage sales we went to before we found a green metal box?)

This method has been working so far. I guess I just wasn’t meant to be a digital cook.

How do you organize your recipes?

*Did you miss the first lesson from Great Grandma’s kitchen? Here it is.

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