Anyone who does any amount of cooking likely has at least a few cookbooks. If you’re my mother, you might have a few hundred. There are some you keep only for one recipe and some that you use on a weekly basis. Many are divided by theme — appetizers and desserts, meat or vegan, Italian or Chinese. Some are collections of favorite from restaurants, or simply favorites that a church group have put together to publish and raise funds.
I only have one shelf of cookbooks, though they will spill over and require two very soon. My first cookbook was actually one I started with my grandmother when I was 8 or 10. She would save the recipes from Rookie Cookie, a cartoon mouse who gave kids easy recipes to make and published them with themes in the Saturday newspaper. I’d cut out the recipes and glue them onto pieces of paper to put in a binder. Eventually I added recipes from other sources. I’ve dismantled that binder, but still have most of the recipes.
My favorite cookbook is similar. My aunt had put together a cookbook of family recipes for my mother when she got married. A few years ago my family started putting together another cookbook for my generation. It contains recipes for all the meals I enjoyed at family gatherings.
When it comes to my Saturday night theme cooking, I am much more likely to look online for a new recipe, but sometimes I pull from an old favorite. I’ve kept the recipes that work and put them into a file to make a cookbook of Saturday night recipes.
A friend asked me today how to organize the recipes she’s been clipping. I have a folder where I stash clipped recipes, with the intention of maybe typing them up and adding them to one of my favorite cookbooks. But I wonder how you organize your recipes. Any suggestions?
