Managing My Recipes- The" Old School" Way

I have a dear friend who enjoys cooking and perusing cooking magazines as much as I do.  But right now, he's feeling a little under the weather and needs to put all his energy into getting well.  I was honored when he offered to give me a couple of years of back issues of some of his favorite magazines. I say honored, because I know how hard it can be to let go of these treasures!   Magazine junkies, such as George and myself, can accumulate some pretty tall stacks of potential dinner time yumminess, but eventually those stacks can start to take over and you just have to do something with them!  I was glad to help George out with his clutter problem.

For a few days, all my spare time went into reading, clipping and treasure hunting.  I'm not sure how I've made it for fifty some years and never read Saveur , but I think it just might be my new favorite "foodie" magazine.  Travel and food.  Two of my passions all wrapped up into one wonderful magazine?  What's not to LOVE?  I mean, just look at that green chili cheeseburger and tell me you don't want to plan a trip to Sante Fe.  I totally want that in my stomach, now!   Saveur takes you around the world and tempts you with amazing food.  How about a little Toad in the Hole or Bubble and Squeak?  If you've spent time in England you might know what those dishes are, but if not you can learn from Saveur that it's sausages baked in a yorkshire pudding and a fried vegetable hash with potatoes, carrots, parsnips and brussel sprouts.  I would eat both of those.  This magazine is plain fun.  And imagine my surprise when I flipped the pages and found an article about a fish camp, complete with recipes for rainbow trout,  just miles from good ole' Asheville, N.C.  As much as I've enjoyed reading Saveur for the culinary travels, I've enjoyed Cooks Illustrated for the art.

I haven't decided exactly what to do with these prints, but they are definitely too beautiful to end up in a recycling bin.

This is beautiful food art!  On the back of each issue is an illustration of certain types of food, like this one with mesclun greens.  Some of these will be binder covers for my recipe books, but the rest?  I'm just not sure, but I have them safely tucked away for when I figure it out.

So here's where I'm going to tell you about my very "un- techy", "old school" way of keeping recipes.  I have friends who love having all their recipes organized on their computer, but I just haven't been able to go there.  I still like having paper copies of my favorite dishes.  I know you can find any recipe you could want on line ( I just found Carabba's sausage and lentil soup!), and even though I have a pretty hefty "Recipes to Try" board on Pinterest, I still have lots of paper recipes that need to be dealt with.  And since I keep accumulating them, this is the system that works for me.

Whenever I find a recipe in a magazine that I think sounds good, I clip it out and then put it in one of these two binders.  I started out with one, but over the years, as it became so full I couldn't shut it, I needed to have another one. The recipes are organized under lots of plastic tabs.  Sometimes the entire page goes in, like this one for cream horns, or if it's a small clipping, I tape several of them on blank pages.

Some pages are informative, teaching me more about certain foods,

others are cooking lessons.  I still can't make a pretty lattice top pie.  I need to practice this one.

I taped this recipe right onto the picture.  Quinoa Tabbouleh...sounds delicious.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it doesn't take long.  I do this at the end of the month, when I'm going through my magazines, to decide what to keep before recycling them.  I try to rip out anything I find interesting, put it into a binder and then get rid of the magazine.  This keeps me from having piles of magazines sitting around the house.  This time, since I had lots of magazines (thank you, George), it took a little longer.  

But it was fun work!

Whenever I want to try a new recipe, all I have to do is pull the binder from the shelf and turn to the tab "Brownies".  Yes, I have an entire section of brownie recipes.  Doesn't everyone?  Or Salads.  Or Chicken.  You get the idea.  Once I've tried the recipe, if it's a keeper, then I write it down on an index card and it goes into one of my recipe card boxes.  Only tried and true recipes make it into the box.

When I'm menu planning for the week ahead, I go to my cabinet with my boxes and binders and spread everything out on the island.

I also put my calendar within sight, so I know which day I have time to cook a full meal, which meals need to cook themselves in the crock pot because I'm going to be gone all day, which day I might have time to try something new (because a new recipe always takes more time), etc.  I go to the recipe boxes first for ideas for our favorites and then to the binders if I'm going to be trying something new.

I have a pretty folder that holds my menu plan, recipe cards or clippings (from the binders), along with coupons and my grocery list.  This is what I take to the grocery store and the folder I work out of when I cook all week.  As I finish a meal, the card goes back into the folder and once a week (when I'm menu planning- because I have the recipe boxes out), I refile cards back where they go.

I've got my system down pat, so it doesn't take long to plan and prepare for the week.  It took a lot longer blogging about it!  I've found that when I stick to this plan, I always know what's for dinner, I don't have to scramble around at the last minute, and when I'm really smart I even plan my meals so that I can get several dinners from one cooking night.  Cook once, eat twice. Now, that's awesome.

I've set this recipe aside, because I'm planning on making it for George when he comes home from his stay in rehab.  I hear good reports that he's getting stronger every day and when he gets home, he's going to be ready for a good meal.  I'm thinking some garlic mashed potatoes (he loves garlic) and balsamic glazed brussel sprouts to go with it.  Sound good?