Monday, March 30, 2009

organizing recipes


In my quest to pretend I can actually cook (imposter!) I am thinking about embarking on an effort to organize my recipes. My current system (if you can call it that) of clipping and stuffing into a binder pocket does nothing to get me excited about cooking.

I would like to store my recipes online. I'm looking for a site that:
• is free
• is nicely designed (very important!) and intuitive
• allows me to categorize my recipes in different ways
• allows me to print them out
• lets me upload photos
• lets me make a cookbook out of them
• prints a grocery list from selected recipes
• lets me put in an ingredient and pulls recipe recommendations
• has a rating system
• can track nutrition information

A tall order, I admit. A few I have found in my quick search are Taste Book, Epicurious, and MyRecipes. I want to pick the right one before I go to the effort of typing in all of my favorite recipes.

So, I'm curious. Have any of you tried a site like this? Do you have an recommendations?

6 comments:

Unknown said...

For silly's sake,,
I know this lady that married my buddy who's an awesome designer who'd make it into her own awesome cookbook and,,,

oh,, wait,,
wouldn't that be you?

Why not format an indesign document, develop some style guides and sweet dividers, then when you finally have a full book, just publish the .pdf and you'll have full control. At any point you want to share, just email the page .pdf.

Or not.

MTGurl said...

http://allrecipes.com/features/more/createacookbook.aspx?lnkid=1992
Heres another link of one and I think that it would work for what you want. Im not good with internet address so you might already have??? Good luck. Youll have to share what you decided becuase its also something I need to do.

jen said...

I am doing this exact same project right now as well! I have installed two free iPod applications called Big Oven and a calorie tracker called LIVESTRONG. I haven't had a chance to use them much to see if I like them, but they are worth a try (afterall, they are FREE! :) Keep me updated on what you find, and I will do the same.

Amy said...

There's a new website in beta testing right now that looks like something that might work: www.food.com. They say you can add recipes to your online cookbook from any website- that sure would be handy! I think I have accounts on three or four different site, and it's a pain to find recipes when I need them! I have been printing and stuffing in a binder, too, but now my printer's not working.

Paige's Parents said...

I HATE recipes! :)

Unknown said...

I'd love to be that organized. Let me know if you find something that really works.

Actually, my diet is so prescriptive right now that I can't really follow recipes -- I use them more for ideas. My latest success: some really fresh shrimp I found at whole foods. Sauted it with lots of chopped leeks, some shallots and fresh garlic. I think I added dashes of cinnamon and cayenne. Yum!