Recipe Organization

Keeping recipes organized is difficult. Knowing exactly where to find a recipe when you need it, and saving good-looking recipes you come across for the future is tough. I have yet to find the perfect system  I used to use a notebook, which was organized by cookbook, and keep record of all of the things that sounded good, and after I made them, I would comment on how they turned out. That worked for a while, but I began to acquire too many cookbooks, and kept needing to add more notes in a certain section, and it didn't fit. Also, I would clip recipes from magazines, newspapers, and print them from online and out them in a binder, and write on them. This works fairly well, though they are hard to organize and keep in the binder, and I keep needing to upgrade to a bigger binder.

Because I read all of my cookbooks cover to cover, and read my favorite ones numerous times and look through them a lot; it is sad but true that I have somewhat memorized them. I know exactly where to find certain recipes, and where to look for certain ideas, and what type of recipes each book contains. I don't have it down to the exact page number, but I'm pretty close. And when I want a square recipe, I know to turn to my favorite squares books. 

Lately, I have been finding a lot of recipes online. They just pop out at me while I am visiting blog sites and such. I have a new favorite website that uploads new recipes numerous times throughout the day, and the majority of them appeal to me. And I love (but hate) how one recipe will link to another good-looking recipe, which will link to another, which will link to another.........
All of this has lead to numerous additions to my Favorites folder. I have that pretty organized into many different subcategories. For example: Recipes - Desserts - Bars. However, this is one of the larger folders, and I will likely need to sub categorize that again, using categories such as Chocolate, Fruit, No-Bake, etc. So far, this technique has been working fairly well, however, I am adding far too many recipes, and I know I will never have time to make them all. At least I have a good selection to choose from! 

My blog is my ultimate recipe organizer. Here, I can keep track of all the recipes I have found, made, and develop. Each post is complete with recipes, comments, suggestions for  next time, and picture. Tags and the search bar help me find things quickly and easily, as does the side menu of past posts. Not that I often make things more than once, because I'd prefer to find something new, but still, the blog has proved to be useful.