I really enjoy reading and owning recipe books, but I’ve discovered that they are not practical instruments for usage.  I’ve got about 5 square feet of shelf space devoted to recipe books in our pantry and that is were they sit.  There are zillions of great recipes I’ve never tried because going through recipes when I’m making up our weekly menu plan is tedious.

So I want to go through each book and pick out recipes that have ingredients we enjoy and seem to be something I would actually make.  But what to do with those recipes after I’ve done this is my dilemma.  Do I copy them into a computer file?  Do I type them up and reprint them onto index cards?  I’m undecided as to whether to have them available on a computer screen or on paper.  I do have a computer in the kitchen and have accessed online recipes using them directly from the screen so I’m not opposed to this format.  Having them in a binder or on index cards also is perfectly acceptable to me.  But what is the most efficient and effective way to make these recipes more useful and available to me?

In the end, I’m not going to get rid of all my recipe books.  There are a few to which I hold no attachment and will get rid of as soon as I’m gone through them and decided what to do with the recipes I like.  Other books I will keep readily available in the kitchen, but the remainders are going into storage to free up space.  Oh, and I forgot to mention the billion or so loose recipes of every shape and size imaginable that I’ve collected over the years.

I’m kind of leaning toward a paper format for organizing these, mostly because I’m still sentimentally attached to paper unlike some folks from the generation behind me.  Paper is still easier for me to perouse versus a computer, but a computer can organize all those recipes in all sorts of useful ways.  Argh!  I’m not convincing myself of an organizational plan here.  Any ideas from anyone??