Before I returned to Sydney to start my tertiary education in 1991, I remembered spending days at home in KL writing down simple easy to cook recipes that I can follow. During my senior high school years, I lived in a boarding school so my meals were catered for. During my uni days, I shared a flat with two others but we never shared the cooking due to different timetables. It was challenging to cook for one person and at times, it was easier to walk up the road to the Junction to eat at the local Asian eateries.
I still keep the 'Buku Latihan' (exercise books) that I wrote the recipes in. Over the years, I have accumulated many recipe books and foodie magazines. Hence, I am confronted with the dilemma, how do I keep a record of these recipes? What is the best way to keep track of the recipes that I want to try in each of the monthly foodie magazines? What about recipes that I come across at the hairdressers or doctors? Initially I placed post-it notes on the recipes that I was interested in. But then, it also got difficult to find the recipes when I wanted to try them.
Now, I am trialing this method of listing the recipes in an Excel spreadsheet; categorising them by 'Beef', 'Pork', 'Chicken', 'Vegetarian', 'Desserts', 'Cookies' etc. Each time I come across a recipe that I want to try, I type the reference next to the name, so I know which magazine or source. Let's see how this method goes. Hopefully it will work.
I love to hear your methods to record and store your favourite recipes or recipes that you like to try.
So funny how you mentioned recipes you pick up at the doc's waiting rooms! I thought I was the only one who did that ! I take pics of recipes from what I like the look of now on the iPhone. I swear people in the waiting room must think I'm nuts. As for organizing my recipes and on sites that I like, I don't ! I bookmark my favorite sites and then simply do a search later if I want a different recipe. I also have a book, similar to ur buku latihan where i plan my weekly meals - I scribble and paste recipes. And put little reminder notes of ingredients etc so I can flip back later, for some strange reason I still love flipping through pages! You have a great idea there with the spreadsheet!
ReplyDeleteCyn: I do that too, take photos of the recipes at the doc's room, library and hairdressers. We're not alone, I have seen quite a few people do this too.
ReplyDeletewow.. so organised .. I think it is a good idea.. I normally book mark recipes, problem is that I bookmarked until the list is soooooo long and I have recipes in 2 PCs, different recipes somemore ... pengsan .. and u know what, the list of food I want to bake/cook is getting longer by the day...
ReplyDeleteChew Lee, i can relate to tht. I was doing the same too at work and home, then I get confused when I need to search for the recipe. This method takes time but hopefully will be easier.
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