Recipes on the computer

[cjsmith]

If you keep recipes on the computer, how do you do it? Is there a particular software package running on your machine, helping you index and sort? Are the recipes online at some web site?

Comments

[ericsilverbear.livejournal.com]

I'll just do a Google search, or more directly a Foodtv.com search if needed.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Index? Index?

Nah, I just save them as Word documents with descriptive names.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's my method so far! Or a LJ memories search. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. That makes sense. I'm asking mainly for my mom, who has dreams of having everything perfectly entered and tidy and searchable. I figure there must be some kind of lovely software that would be perfect for her -- but maybe there isn't. Maybe most folk just save them individually. I know I do (in LJ)!

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

There are programs out there, I just can't remember the names of any of them right now. Also some of the cooking sites have ways for you to store your recipes on their servers. Just not something that I do.

[brooksmoses]

Heh. I just have one Word document with all of them in it. Which actually works out pretty well; text search makes it easy to find what I'm looking for.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I usually don't leave them on the computer, I leave them on the printer, because it has a flat top. ;')

Otherwise I usually just google them as I need them.

[amphipodgirl.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people use Meal Master software; I have no idea if it's any good.

I have a few of my recipes up on Recipezaar.com. It lets you search, within either your own recipes, or all public recipes. It does nutritional analysis, and can generate shopping lists. If I ever wanted to regularize everything, I think I'd do it with RecipeZaar.

[nosrednayduj]

Text files with descriptive names, and the directory not protected so you can browse via the web, tho usually I just look at the directory with emacs. I find googling doesn't give me reproducible results. You get fifty different recipes for banana bread -- which one did you actually USE?

[tryslora]

This isn't about recipes but is a question... would you like me to bring homemade salsa tomorrow? Er, well, thing that involves peppers and tomatoes and vinegar and stuff... but may or may not actually be salsa because I make it up as I go along.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm deeply fond of http://www.recipezaar.com/ which has the ability to not only store your own recipes but to search for other peoples' recipes by ingredient and dietary needs. YUM!

[elgecko.livejournal.com]

Are you on a Mac? There's a beautiful pair of packages for the Mac. One's called Bento. It's a sort of personal life database sort of thing. May be overkill if you're looking *only* to keep recipes. The other is Notebook by Circus Ponies. All the good things of a paper notebook but editable and searchable. Good stuff. =)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hey, that would be awesome, if you've got the time! I have chips and guac and some non-homemade salsa, but homemade has got to be better. 8-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Cool info! Thanks. I'm not on a Mac, but my mom soon may be, and she's one of the main reasons for this question.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nifty! Thanks. I'll check 'em out.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Emacs has never been surpassed, in my not at all humble opinion. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I leave them on the printer, because it has a flat top.

Win. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow - nutritional analysis too? That really seems like something worth looking into! Thanks!

[mapache]

Why with the Honeywell Model 316 "Kitchen Computer"!



http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/004313.html

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Text search ROCKS.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah, cool. Yeah, I'm just kind of trying to figure out the landscape on that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHA!

[tryslora]

The salsa is in the fridge already -- I'll put together a cup of it to bring along tomorrow. Made with farm stand tomatoes and the peppers are from my garden (three sweet, one jalapeno, one cayenne, one habanero -- the hot peppers were all roasted). I don't think there's a way we can actually eat as much as I made so bringing some will be good to share!

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

I use my Lotus Organizer. I have a dedicated file called Recipes, and I just use it as a notebook. I have tabs for different types of Recipes - Breads, Passover, Main Dishes. Since Organizer is set up like a notebook, it has no problems with pages behind tabs. I even have a calendar in the back, just in case I need to check a date and I am not in my regular Mom file.
Once I've found something I like on Food Network or one of the others - I not only save it on their handy "Save your recipes here", I also copy it to my Organizer book (most websites will let you cut and paste text). That way I have another way to find the recipe.
And yes, I print them out from their website and put them in a regular three ring binder. That way I have the picture and their logo so I remember where I originally got it. *sigh* I don't have a computer in my kitchen, yet, so I do work from printouts when I'm cooking.

[apparentparadox]

I keep recipes in XHTML files (so, somewhat xml-based, but viewable by an HTML browser). I've got a java app that will run through them & generate an index page, and a "history" page (since I keep track of when I made each item). I also use HTML keywords in the "meta" tag to keep track of a few things.

For searching, I either use grep or now that I've got a mac, "searchlight" does it just fine.

I didn't want to use any online thing, because I don't trust it will be there when I want it (will I have internet access? will the site be down?). I decided that XML-based flat files would be the best approach for me, and it's relatively easy to write conversions to other formats if that ever became necessary.

Oh, and I keep my stuff in a Subversion repository, but that's just me.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm impressed. (I've never grown peppers.) I'm looking forward to trying it!

[tryslora]

Somedays it seems like peppers are the only things we grow well in our garden! We are inundated with habaneros. *laughs*

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

i seem to recall mastercook being big a few years back when i was on many recipe ygroups. i've never looked into software like that, becuase my computer has never been close enough to my kitchen to think it made any sense.

i tend to just print them out, tuck them into page protectors, and then pile in a binder. or, more precisely, print them up and scatter them about my kitchen.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Word Docs, placed in a folder called "Recipes", separated into subfolders according to recipe: Appetizers; Soups; Salads; Meat, Fish and Poultry (I may break this one down into subfolders); Condiments; Desserts... I'm on the Mac and the recipes are on the PC, so I'm remembering off the top of my head. There are a couple of other categories there.

Anyway, I've tried a couple of recipe programs and nothing's worked as well for me as this.

[erisian-fields.livejournal.com]

I use LivingCookbook (http://www.livingcookbook.com/).

With it you can:
Manage your recipe collection
Plan meals using the meal planning calendar
Calculate nutrition for any recipe, menu or meal
Create grocery lists organized by grocery aisle
Manage your kitchen's inventory
Publish and print cookbooks
Print on any size paper, including index cards
Share your recipes as files or e-mails
Import every major recipe file format
Copy recipes directly from the Internet
Help file with over 450 help topics
Online support forum with over 20,000 members

My favorite tool is the grocery list. If you plan the meals you want to shop for, it will give you the exact amounts of things you need to buy (and if you've done your inventory and put in the store's prices) and even the prices of the stuff you need. It's saved me tons of money when I've been a good monkey and planned the meals I needed to make.

you could open a recipe journal

[ossie.livejournal.com]

post any recipe you find and keep it public for your mum to search when needed or add you make it a mini community for you and friends


http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/frames.html
is a good site if you are need of something to make with the stuff you have

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nice. I am definitely getting the idea that most people do their own organization rather than letting a software package handle it for them.

I don't think I'd ever want to go completely without my binder full of paper. But maybe someday, when I'm less of a klutz, and won't spill gravy on the keyboard. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nifty! What does the java app create, exactly? A list of links by date and and index that's -- what, by title or by ingredients or something?

Subversion

*chuckle* Yeah, I probably wouldn't make the effort, but then I'm not a cook either; recipes don't have the importance for me that they do for many folk.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Know what I really want, for those pages in a binder? A cookbook holder, one that keeps the cookbook tilted up AND has a clear part over the pages. That way the pages are protected and, if it's a cookbook, the book is held open. The number of times I've made my favorite brownies by wedging one set of pages under the microwave and the other set under a pile of boxes of bittersweet chocolate...! Most holders won't hold the pages open, though. Some day I'll see one that does, that's also pretty and cheap, and I'll snag it.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Cool! Do you have a computer in the kitchen, so you work directly from that? That's what my mom is looking to do.

If you have an appetizer with chicken in it, would it be in both folders? I always have trouble deciding that kind of fiddly little thing.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. So the software runs on your own machine and the files are stored locally, right? I think that will work better for my mom than any setup where the files are on a server; my folks have Comcast, heh. :-)

Re: you could open a recipe journal

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking of a recipe journal for me. I think my mom will want a solution where her files are local. Her internet access is perennially flaky.

I love Cooking By Numbers. It's never told me much useful (hey! you could make scrambled eggs!) but it's a fabulous idea. I probably never have anything useful in the kitchen. :-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

i'm guessing you want something like this (http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Solutions-Jumbo-Cookbook-Holder/dp/B0000DE1MV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1221315305&sr=1-1), but for less than $30?

i have a plate stand that i will use as a cookbook stand. i'd really love this cookbook stand (http://www.homeandgardenparty.com/Home/KitchenTable/Products/51149), 'cause it's pretty and i like fancyish wrought iron stuff.

because of limited counter space and the challenge of bifocals, i almost always tape the recipe at eye level on the cupboard or stick it on the fridge. both my and my mom's BH&G Checkerboard cookbooks are ring-bound and can be opened to remove pages. (just remember to put them back!)

maybe, in my dream house-of-the-future, there'll be a computer screen built into the wall and i can pull up my googled recipes in a convenient location...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, or prettier. My mom has one that's one big acrylic sheet folded into the proper shape. That's a bit more elegant. I like yours, too! Except for the splatters. I'm a splatterer. :-)

[erisian-fields.livejournal.com]

Yes, everything stays stored on your personal computer. A good thing in case you lack internet for some reason.

I use it almost every day.

[apparentparadox]

Well, I use subversion for other things I"m doing, so it's just a natural to use it for that as well.

The java app creates a set of files, one is just an alphabetical index by name within category (Meat, Dessert, etc.) [although note that any recipe can be in multiple categories]. One file is a historical listing of what I've made. Then there are other files which are just the ones that I've marked that I want to try (but haven't made), ones that I want to re-try (because I think that something didn't work out right the last time, and now having gained knowledge, I could do a better job), and ones that are "keepers" (those that are just favorites, and it's an easy way to pull the recipe up).

I'll send you a copy of the files.

I never bothered to index by ingredient, since it's easier for me to just do a grep (or "spotlight" search on the Mac).

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

but! but! but!! how will you know which are your favorite recipes if you don't have to scrap the splatters off of them????

that's how i find my preferred 'nana bread recipe: get mom's BH&G Checkerboard cookbook. open to "breads". find where the pages are stuck together. gently peel apart. scrape off chunks. begin cooking. :)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I usually print the recipe out as it's easier for me to read, but I could just as easily put one of the laptops in there.

At the moment I don't cross-reference, but it might be something I'll do.