In the Beginning
Okay, for Kay:
In the beginning, all the recipe cards were hand-written.
And they lived happily in their card box, with hand-written dividers to keep things organized.
But, as life got busier, The Cook started taking short-cuts. Like, cutting recipes out of magazines and taping them to index cards.
Then the whole thing started to snow-ball, and The Cook just folded the recipe page into approximately-index-card sizes and stuck them in the box.
With the advent of the internet, though, things really got out of hand, and The Cook began to just fold them in half and pile them.
Sure, she could have used a 3-hole punch and a loose-leaf binder, but she had actually tried that and ended up with an even worse mess . . . not to mention recipes in two different locations–the recipe box in the kitchen and the binder in with the cookbooks. And while it’s one thing to know that, if a recipe you need is in a cookbook, you need to go to another room, it’s a totally different story to try to remember what size and format a given individual recipe is so that you can find it.
Which brings us to where we are today. An overflowing tupperware container (originally intended for photo storage) overflowing with somewhat unsightly, recipe goodness. It’s not a fancy recipe box like some people have, but it’s BIG. Which, when you think of it, makes the fact that it’s overflowing that much more surprising, huh? I really need to do something about that one of these days….
Happy New Year, everyone!
And, Jen and La? Chappy’s tail is going a mile a minute. You really made his day!
Added:
Obviously, all I needed was some extra incentive. You’ll be pleased to know that I went through and organized all of these recipes after lunch. The pile of paper are the copies and cards for recipes that I decided I really didn’t need anymore, and all the others are IN the box. Granted, each individual section may not be alphabetized at the moment, but at least everything is in categories!
I mean, really, that lid hasn’t been completely flat in months. (And, granted, it’s not closed, but some of the cards are bigger than 4×6" and don’t fit as well as they should. That’s not the point!)
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Congrats on your award, Chappy!!
I’m not getting a good sense of scale on that photo/recipe box…
I have an almost identical box (lot the lid somewhere), but it looks like yours is bigger based on the other stuff in the picture. Mine’s a little larger than the standard shoebox size. Yours appears to be roughly double the capacity. Which means…. daaaaaaaaaaaaaang!
Oh yes, that does look familiar:) However, imagine the restaurant version. And they are all in three ring binders. It’s just the guess of “how did I choose to organize that?” I won’t even be going near that project reorganization this year.
Happy New Year!
What a delightful post!
Are those recipe boxes library card boxes? I always loved the looks and functions of them. Sadly our public library discarded them when a new director came along who labeled them obsolete and space wasters. grr
I’m thunderstruck at how many books you read!!!
Boy, does that look familiar! :o)
I have an overflowing folder, despite having used Mastercook for at least a decade. (Of course, then I print the recipes out and … put them in the folder.) It is possible to print on index cards, but…
Well, now that you mention it, my recipe box IS pretty close in size to a shoe box. I just never really made that connection before (grin).
Congratulations on taming the recipe beast. Mine are all over the place. Lately, I’ve been recycling Internet recipes as soon as I use them because I know I’ll never find them in the bookcase, binder, to-file pile, or random cubbyhole. You’re a good woman!
I wonder why it is that every new year we feel the new to get organized. I’ve been going through putting all my yarn stash on ravelry. Its a good feeling to accomplish something postive though.
Woohoo! I just visited JenLa and I noted not ONE, but TWO mentions of you - and Chappy. You rock girl! Congratulations.