I'm still in the process of reformatting my recipe files since I crashed and reloaded my WP

E

elenor

Well-known member
recipe files into Open Office (Vista). I was using Landscape and dividing the pages into 2 columns and printing them on 6-1/2x9-1/2 paper and putting them in a binder. I lost all the formatting but the worst part was that everywhere I had fractions it changed to something that looked like this |- What a mess!!! So I decided to make the printing larger, change the formatting (portrait) and print on 8-1/2x11 paper and use a larger binder. I'm also using both sides of plastic sheet protectors. (which is getting costly). Looks great though and I can read recipes without my glasses BUT. My “Recipe Book” is starting to weigh a ton and I've already separated “Sweets” to a separate book. I keep my DD's recipes with mine, so there is quite a lot. She's not too happy with this huge book I'm creating.

Didn't mean to babble on. I have the flu so I guess that's another reason I'm a little depressed. My family says I'm spending more time fiddling with the recipe files than I am cooking. What I'm curious about is how everyone keeps their hard copy recipe files. Hope everyone is well and flu-free.

 
I print mine in as large a font as space will allow, and with a 1/2" margin on the right. If I can't

find my glasses, that works well for me.

I've already graduated to 2 of the huge binders and am now starting the 3rd. I had a tab called Desserts but it was too all-encompassing so I am going to break that down.

I just use a full 8x11 sheet for each recipe. I use columns for the ingredients only if it is a complex recipe that will fit a page if I do break it down that way.

I copy everything to editable text rather than printing from the format provided by recipe sites.

Plastic sheets would be swell, but indeed, it would be very expensive for the collection I have, and it would be a nuisance when I want to make notes, and I usually do. I'm tending not to follow recipes anymore, but using them as a red traffic light in Italy...just a suggestion.

I have a collection at the back of each section that includes recipes that I have not tried. Generally now, unless it's something I'm going to make right away, I just leave the doc (also WP) on my computer without printing it but I normally do remember that it's there. I have a food section in My Documents, that is broken down into increasingly more categories. Every recipe stays there and if I have numerous changes to make, I will then reprint it with my notes and alterations.

H helps with the fiddling with the binder. That is good for me, but every time he goes into it, he sees things I haven't made yet and natters about it. That is very discouraging as I make about 5 new meals a week.


Hope the flu doesn't last much longer. At least you may be buidling up some immunity. Chicken soup.

 
Thanks for your input. I also have a file in Documents that I call a Try File that I dont

print out until I try it. I'm not up to 5 new recipes a week. Probably only two or three. I feel much better after talking to you. I was feeling disorganized and overwhelmed. I'll just open up a new book when the one I'm working on get too big. TA

 
Feel better Elenor!

I'm working on typing up my Granny's recipes into a format. I'm trying though to recreate the look of her ledger book. It's too bad there isn't a database template out there, I don't like mastercook but haven't seen another version that cones out close. I suppose I could do something in Microsoft Access but despite it being a professional software program it lacks the output in a format I like without a lot of complicated programming.

Okay, my brain hurts now, so funny how loopy I am with the flu, I really can't think straight yet. Hope you feel better and don't push it.

 
Elenor, sorry that you are under the weather! For adults, it seems to be lingering quite a bit

 
Yes, feel better soon! I keep most of my recipes on the computer, but if

I print some out, I usually stuff them between the microwave and the stove and organize them by category only after I realize I want to make something that I know I've printed off.

Most everyday recipes, however, are in cookbooks or in a handed-down homemade collection of printed recipes in a notebook.

 
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