Storing recipes

One of the things that I played around with was how best to store hard copies of the recipes that I use. I have a collection of newspaper cutouts, photocopies and hand written recipes from friends and off TV shows.

I played around with a few methods.


First was to take a notebook that a friend had given me and write in the recipes myself. I also stuck in recipes that had been emailed to me by friends. I found that the spacing on the pages was too big (they were ruled pages!) and writing the recipes out somewhat tedious. Also, since I wanted the recipes to be catalogued somewhat, it meant that I had to guess at where in the book to put the recipes. I found that I was not using it, so I tried to think of another idea.


One of my friends gave me a Recipe Book from Kieanna Stationery. It seemed like a nice idea and a practical way to collate everything. I copied a few recipes into it, but I found that I didn't use it, and the lines in the recipe sheets were again spaced too far apart. It would also mean that I would have to buy specially sized sheets - or make my own - once the ones that were supplied with the book had been used.

What I have settled on is to use an A5 file with plastic sleeves for the recipes and dividers that I made myself out of coloured card. I have decided to have the following categories, coloured to match the card! [photo, and insert headings]

I have two files, one for storing the recipes that I have collected, and the second one with the recipes that I have actually tried. That is the collection that is catalogued. Many recipes now are taken from online sources, and for these I have created a MS Word template to copy them into so that I can print at A5.  I make sure that I reference the source of all recipes.

I use the sheets to write notes and additional information on the recipes. This is useful so that the next time I use the recipe I can learn from the past!
Here is an example of the book in action for gingerbread men.


I still have to design myself a cover sheet, the handwritten cover page is a little preschool. I mean I didn't even rule lines to make it even!

I would like also to start taking photos of the food that I make, so that I can include them into the A5 recipe sheets.

One thing that I have not thought about is how I should record the recipe failures! I have had a few... and not just because of my cooking.