"RecipeStorage" news and stories

For the most part, I embrace technology. I use my iPod daily, am happily bound to my cell phone and spend between 10 and 12 hours a day pecking away at a computer keyboard. There are, however, a couple of places in my life where I haven't been able to surrender to the siren song of digitization. I still use a paper calender, as I like the ability to physically touch a representation of my days and scribble things in with pen and pencil.

I also keep all my recipes on paper. While I have cooked from my computer occasionally, waking up the screen with a dough-y finger to check quantities, I far prefer to hand write my recipes. Part of this attachment to paper comes from the fact that I don't have to worry if a bit of butter leaps out of the mixing bowl and the other part is due to the fact that I love cooking from the recipe cards that my grandmother and aunts originated. I think about my own future descendents and think that they'll also prefer to have a tangible representation of my time in the kitchen.

However, all that said, the sheer volume of recipes I've amassed over the years is beginning to make storage an issue and I've begun to play with the idea of recipe storage software as a way to finally get rid of the bursting file box in our second bedroom. Lucky for me, a new program (sadly for you PC users out there, it's for Macs only) has just recently hit the market that is sort of like iTunes for recipes, making the switch feel intuitive and inevitable. Called SousChef, it allows you to sort and search by name, ingredient and category. You can rate recipes and star your favorite. It makes it easy to scale batches up or down and offers an import feature so that you can pull recipes found on the internet straight into your database. All for $30. I am sorely tempted.

[via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

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Sometime about five years ago or so, I got in the habit of printing recipes I wanted to try off the internet. This was back in the days when I had a full-time administrative grunt job and so had free time, abundant internet access and unlimited laser printer toner. I started out storing those recipes in a three-ring binder, but quickly outgrew that storage device. I ended up with a file crate with hanging files and manila folders (complete with clearly printed labels--I can be a little overzealous with the office supplies at times).

In addition to that crate (which I often flip through for inspiration) I have a series of small wooden file boxes in which I've stashed the recipes I really like and want to be able to access again easily (without digging through several reams of paper). Sometimes I think about revamping my recipe storage system, but I hate to mess with a good thing.

If you are looking for a way to store your recipes (or want to buy a creative kitchen-based gift for a friend or family member) you should head over to Design*Sponge and check out the Recipe Storage Roundup that Grace put together. She has scoured the internet for a variety of boxes and binders that will hold your recipes neatly and in style. I am particularly smitten with that binder decorated with silhouettes of kitchen utensils.

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