It is a collection of recipes I have gathered throughout the 11 1/2 years I have been married. It is just over two inches thick. About two years ago I cleaned out an inch worth of recipes I knew I would never make. The funny thing is that I have probably only made 25 recipes in this pile. I am a recipe hoarder; I'm not a recipe maker. I have recipes in here that I began the pile with 11 years ago that I have never made (rice balls - some kind of deep fried meat & rice concoction a guy in our ward loved while on his mission). I have recipes for Christmas time candy making - but I don't own a candy thermometer. Sometimes I get ambitious and distribute them into piles: vegetables, desserts, main dishes, crêpes (I have at least 25 recipes for crêpes), etc. But then within a couple of months they get mixed up into a jumbled mess. I love to leaf through them occasionally and salivate over them. You can tell by going through the pile that I love chicken, asparagus and I LOVE dessert. I keep the ones I actually use at the bottom of the pile so they are easy to find, and when I find new recipes that I want to try eventually, I put them at the top of the pile. The latest one? The Crockpot Lady's Rice Pudding. I really will make some of these recipes. One day. When I have time, energy and an unlimited grocery budget.
P.S. I linked over to Cajoh's Friday's Feast.
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My stack is also tall and much messier.
Good thing reading a recipe is almost as delish as eating!
Just imagine the flavors...it far less expensive and less messy :)
I do the SAME thing...
I finally started throwing them in page protectors and slipping them into a binder. They still don't have any real order to them, but at least they're easier to leaf through when the urge strikes!
You have two inches,
I have two shelves full.
Oh, I SO do this, too! I keep all mine in a pink folder! And I get ticked when I can't find a recipe in the folder that I actually HAVE made!!
My recipes are horribly unorganized as well. I love reading recipes. It's a pasttime.
I try to add a new recipe into my mix at least once every few months, but I do find that what I add is almost always similar to what I already have.
I have a whole drawer full!
You remind me of myself. I have a three ring binder that serves the same purpose. I toss recipes in there...thumb through them, and then its sits. I should totally make my next project a digital form of recipes compiled into a pdf...hmm...ideas..
I hoard recipes, too. It's insane. I try to throw them out--clippings from newspapers and magazines and print-outs from the net, some as much as 14 years old! And NEVER tried. But when I look at the recipe, I remember why I cut it out in the first place, and I think, Yeah, I need to try this one. I need to organize. It's just pretty low on the list ...
Wait a minute. You say you keep the recipes you use at the *bottom* of the pile so they are "easy to find," ??? Interesting organizational tactic.
I seem to always make the same handful of dishes, as well. Making a new recipe usually entails buying new items for the pantry, and that is just too much work.
P.S. I think it's time I step up and take this blog relationship to the next level. I'm going to officially become a follower. Is that okay?
Thanks for linking up!
It looks like all of your recipes are on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. You could get a hole punch and a three ring binder and put them in that. You can then get dividers and place them in categories. There are actually metal clips that editors use that you could place on those recipes that you use frequently in order to find them quicker. Just a thought…
At least you have a grocery buget that is more than I. And you will try new things....I have a box full of things Malachi would like made, that I don't want to try. I swear each time I try to make somthing there is one bizar ingredent...ex. last week I wanted to make Banana bread (easy enough) ...Sour milk? Stumped me, I had to call aunt Terry!
I quit hoarding recipes. I do still hoard cookbooks, but individual recipes? I just made a favorites file for them in my browser and I save them in there. Every now and then something goes in a folder, but not much any more!
Just go digital! I get EVERYTHING from Allrecipes dot com, Recipezaar or Recipe Goldmine. I never have to have a hard copy of it because it's always in my computer.
Allrecipes even lets you have an online recipe box.
On the printed ones you use, next time you make it have your family rate the recipe between 1 and 4 stars then write it right on the recipe. It will give you a better idea of how well liked it is next time you go to make it. They may like it more or less than you think which will help determine if you should keep it or not.
Good luck!
At least it's in a neat stack all in one place...sigh.
most of mine are saved on the computer--I have NO idea when I'll ever use them
i'm a recipe collector too.
i recently got a binder and put them all in, organized.
now, if i try and don't like it, i rip it right out of the binder. if i do like it, i put a star on it, or add notes of how i want to "fix" the recipe.
My dad is a recipe hoarder too and my mom faithfully puts them in a loose-leaf binder. His favorite recipe books are from churches or schools that put them together for fundraisers.
I do the same thing. Only mine has torn-out magazine pages, 3x5 cards and scrap paper with several (often unrelated) recipes scrawled on them. I'm sure it drives James nuts and I would love nothing more than to go through and organize it once and for all, but, like you, it so messy that I've adapted myself to the mess and I usually have some sort of idea where recipes are.
Look for an e-mail about Survivor at some point today!
I'm a recipe hoarder as well. I mean, who really needs thirteen different ways to make banana bread. Me, apparently. Let us know if you get feisty and try something new that maybe we should be trying too. :)
I love collecting recipes and until recently I would never get around to using them but I have experimented lately and found some good recipes. I am glad I am not the only one with a pile of printed of recipes!!
I don't have nearly as many recipes but I do have a bunch of cook books that we got for our wedding. I only use about two or three of them. I don't like to cook so I'm not a recipe hoarder.
At least yours are in a pile, my recipes are everywhere.
I know we have some recipes somewhere in the house....... I prefer take out!
Your title on this one totally made me laugh!
What happened to the days when all recipes came on index cards that could easily be slipped into a cute little file box?
I have a very similar stack! A couple months ago I holepunched them all and put them in the binder to give myself the illusion I might actually use them some day.
Yeah. Not likely.
I got a three ring binder and put them in alphabetical order. I find that I'm making more of the recipes since they are nominally organized. Although I have yet to make your lemon velvet cake!
I have a three ring binder, too, but mine are organized according to main dish, desserts, and - ? I guess I just have 2 categories. The rest of the meal fixin's are just in my head. NOt the best place for them, I'm sure!
:~D
I have the same problem. So I finally bought a file box. It helps. THere are still many in there that I am determined to make. . .someday. But until then, I just go through it every time I make a new meal plan and find a couple of easy ones.
Good luck!
I don't have a stack but I do collect them, especially by cutting out of magazines and pasting them in this big recipe scrapbook. But then, when I go to cook, I don't lug that out...I go to allrecipes.com. WHY?
You sound like my mom except she had them on scrap pieces of paper, envelopes, etc. She finally organized it when the moved from Virginia to Utah. I collect receipe books or magazines but am like everyone else, make the same old thing.
I loves recipes too. But, I rarely use them.
They bug me.
Too time consuming.
And I usually change the seasonings anyway.
I could've written this post too! I made a decision to put them all in a binder this summer....now let's hope I can stick to that!
I got about half my stack put into a binder a couple of years ago and I do use the binder all the time (cough, I mean all the time when I cook, so maybe once a month, and really I just use the same 5-10 recipes over and over,) but the remaining 1.5" stack has remained since then, and it has difficult stuff in it like my Grandma's recipes that are on small scraps of paper and I've never tried them and don't want to bother retyping them to fit my binder unless they're actually good -- stuff like that.
On the other hand, I at least haven't added to my stack in a while -- I almost exclusively use allrecipes.com when I'm looking for a new recipe. I love that site.
Ha! Glad I am not the only one. I have a whole cupboard of good intentions.
I have no system and no advice, but I just wanted to say that the crockpot lady's recipe for Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup is one of my favorite recipes EVER of all time. Yum.
My mom has so many hand-made recipe books of things she's printed out. But my mom makes a lot of the recipes, but usually she just uses a few specific ones.
I do the SAME EXACT thing with all the recipes I collect. I finally put the huge pile into a file folder and stashed it in a cabinet with all my cookbooks (that I also rarely use). I'm also a recipe hoarder but I've probably only made maybe 1/4 of the recipes I've collected.
If I ever get a spare moment (like when the kids go off to college), I'd like to type them all up and make a book out of them for myself, like with one of those book programs they have available online. Think of what a great gift it would make for your kids when they're grown up and on their own!
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... crepes! I have been sick all week and that sounds SO GOOD! Thank you Erin! xoxo
I wouldn't mind one of your recipe's to try. I'm so excited to be able to cook because now I have time! I am though, learning from this because I have probably 5 papers of recipe's... my own start to a pile, so I'd better file those now.
I save recipes too. Once in a while I will clip them and put them in page protectors and in 3-ring binders.
The pile is getting bigger and bigger. I keep telling myself that sorting them would be a perfect poject to do when the power is out.
I hear you woman! Hope you had a super lunch today! ♥ HUGS ♥
I just love rice pudding. I also have a stack, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I always hope that some day I will actually try some of them, but who knows. Today was great fun. Thanks.
I'm in the same boat as you--especially when it comes to wishing for an unlimited grocery budget. Think how fun it would be to cook with that!
I have recipes collected for dutch oven cooking. Huh??? I don't even own a dutch oven, but the recipes look cool. I think secretly someday I want to be a camper and really try them out, HA!
Thanks so much for the super fun blog lunch. I had a great time getting to know all three of the women there. It's so exciting to me to be able to connect with blogging friends in real life. You are so amazing in real life and I enjoyed our conversations so much.
i am a collector of recipe books and recipes! A COLLECTOR!
I have all these great intentions of baking, cooking and grilling but I seem to always go to the same boring stuff! I am setting one day a week to make the new stuff. I think it is going to be Sunday.
Erin, I am exactly the same way. Maybe tonight at the Virgin Megastore in the Louvre I bought THREE recipe books to add to the eight I've already purchased in Paris. Don't worry that they're all written in French and have metric measurements--I'll somehow overcome all of this and make my own macaroons, tajine dishes, farcied tomatoes, and home-made yogurt. *Sigh*
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