How I Organize My Recipes
(Because I think it's useful.)
Gmail and a spreadsheet. We grocery shop every couple of weeks and don't make special grocery lists for every meal.
The first page of the spreadsheet is for recipes I can make using only ingredients I usually have on hand. The second is for favorite recipes.
The columns are as follows: Recipe Name; Type of Dish; Main Ingredient; Type of Cooking (Bake, Slow Cooker, Stovetop, Combine); Prep Time; Cook Time; Recipe Source; Recipe Location; and Notes. Notes is where I put things like the ethnicity of the recipe, if it's vegetarian, if it uses an ingredient I frequently but not always have on hand, or if it's good for using CSA ingredients.
If the recipe's online in a location I trust to stick around (like Epicurious), I just put the URL in the Location field. If it's in a cookbook I own, I put the page number in (the cookbook name would be in Source). If it's in Gmail, I just put "Gmail" and search for the recipe title when I want it.
I set up a "Recipe" label in Gmail. If I'm emailed a good recipe I want to try, I label it and then archive. If I find a recipe online that I don't know if I can find again or that might not be around eventually, I copy the recipe and paste it into an email to myself with a "Recipe: [Recipe Name]" subject line and have it automatically labeled.
Makes it easy to sort and search by how much time you have or what you want.
Gmail and a spreadsheet. We grocery shop every couple of weeks and don't make special grocery lists for every meal.
The first page of the spreadsheet is for recipes I can make using only ingredients I usually have on hand. The second is for favorite recipes.
The columns are as follows: Recipe Name; Type of Dish; Main Ingredient; Type of Cooking (Bake, Slow Cooker, Stovetop, Combine); Prep Time; Cook Time; Recipe Source; Recipe Location; and Notes. Notes is where I put things like the ethnicity of the recipe, if it's vegetarian, if it uses an ingredient I frequently but not always have on hand, or if it's good for using CSA ingredients.
If the recipe's online in a location I trust to stick around (like Epicurious), I just put the URL in the Location field. If it's in a cookbook I own, I put the page number in (the cookbook name would be in Source). If it's in Gmail, I just put "Gmail" and search for the recipe title when I want it.
I set up a "Recipe" label in Gmail. If I'm emailed a good recipe I want to try, I label it and then archive. If I find a recipe online that I don't know if I can find again or that might not be around eventually, I copy the recipe and paste it into an email to myself with a "Recipe: [Recipe Name]" subject line and have it automatically labeled.
Makes it easy to sort and search by how much time you have or what you want.