Request from DH re recipe storage!

[Budababe]

"If you are going to be on Mumsnet all day, can you at least do something useful and ask about recipe storage".

So - ideas please!

I have loads of cookery books. Also lots of recipes that I have copied from books and magazines, recipes I have printed off internet, recipes friends have given etc etc. Have about 4/5 files.

How do you store yours?

DH wants to create a database on the computer but I love flicking through books and files etc.

Oh come on! He needs to be convinced you lot are useful for something!

I have a shelf in the kitchen with teh books on it and a lever arch file with dividers for things i cut out..

but i always come on here and ask for recipes etc..as it is more fun !!

i have a file which i put all my cuttings in and pages ripped out of the newspaper
i also have a book which was i write recipes in as well
no to a database - handwritten recipes, amended as you make and re-make them on pages splattered with flour etc are much nicer!!

Books I use regularly are in the kitchen but most of my cookery books are on a bookshelf in out games room - I quite like reading cookery books in bed. Sad but true!

Copy the ones you like laminate them and keep them in a ring binder with dividers

our games room. Apologies to your DH but a database sounds like the sort of thing my DH would suggest! - the fun is in the poring through recipes, not being able to go straight to what you are looking for IMO.

i'd love to have a kitchen scanner, dig cam and laptop. otherwise it isn't very practical to store recipes on computer. haven't even got a printer at home [ridiculous]

i have a small shelf in kitchen and a big bookcase just for cookery books upstairs. i rigorously take whatever books aren't being used up and sometimes fetch an armful down to browse. that means they do sort of change seasonally. also don't like loads of books in kitchen getting smelly and sticky.

I am trying to answer your question but.. I .. can't .. keep .. my ... eyes .. ope

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzz

We use a big hardback notebook and just paste the recipes in.

Twigg, this is INTERESTING.

Ring binder with loads of plastic folders in here - just slip the bits of paper in, and it helps keep them clean, too.

So sorry Twigg! Got to be marginally more interesting then some treads on here no? Maybe I should bump on Monday?

And it was DH's question - not mine. Am happy with my "system"!

huh whassat?

Right am bumping!

DH still wants answers! He doesn't understand why I like flicking through cook books (and then using the same old recipes!).

Lever arch files a possibility. Liking that one. Any other suggestions?

(Hope I didn't wake you up Twigg!)

We use those display books of plastic pockets bound together for the 'keepers' and cardboard envelope files for the 'not yet tried' - it has to be a v good recipe to make it from one to the other...

Same as JackieNo. I'm deeply ashamed to admit I nicked the folder and plastic inserts from my last job but three.

For your dh - I do see the point of a database because sometimes I would like to be able to say 'OK I have eggs and onions, what can I make' and to have a shopping list from that. But TBH my menu planning tends to be done at the breakfast table while supervising ds eating, plus finishing my breakfast, phoning the tax credit helpline and putting on my mascara. I'm afraid the life where I can do one task on its own, like menu planning in front of a computer, is about 15 years away.

(sorry) guess if i had a PDA it might be possible [joins the 21st century emoticon]

I have a couple of hard back journals to write them in and some ring binders where i have stuck recipe in from magazines, which i keep in the kitchen.

I have to say i am about to have a cull of cook books i haven't used for a while. I will go through them and copy out any recipe i think i will use.

If DH suggested this then i would suggest he did the sam ewith his computer/poker books.

A computer database never sounds as much fun as sitting on sofa flicking through cook books and magazines.

May have to placate him by doing a cull and going through the magazines and copying the ones I will actually use. (Just ordered a subscription to Good Food too to add the the pile!)

Off to buy a "nice" lever arch file.

I too have tons of books (on 2 shelves in the kitchen) and folder (rather than ring binder cos less hassle just to pop in the file) for recipes I've cut out or printed. Folder has sections so have sorted by starters/chicken/beef/pork etc.
Every now and then I go through the file and say to myself "are you ever really going to make this" and if not, throw out. We did tons of entertaining over Christmas last year and I forced myself to make only recipes from the folder to prove to DH (and myself!) that they were worth keeping!
I too love reading cookey books. I make a note of recipes I really like the look of on post-it notes which I stick in the front of the book so it makes it easier next time round. Guess I could index these on the computer, but not sure it's worth the hassle.