Monday, December 5, 2011

Monday Morning Q & A

It was a fairly nice weekend, if you don't count the sub-freezing temps and snow.  Some stuff was finished - the tree.  Some stuff was started - laundry.  Some stuff was continued - decorating the rest of the house continues, book-work continues, kit sorting continues, and my Thanksgiving recipes are tossed back in the pile o'shame.  Which had me refer again to ya'lls suggestions about my binder with the following questions: 
  • Briel,  you had the great idea of putting the recipes you like in the cover of the book they came out of.  Do you do anything else to know which books hold which recipes or do you just flip open the covers until you find your notes? 
  • Kristin, it's a glorious mess, but yes, time consuming when you're shuffling through them every time to find what you need.  Do you purchase pre-partitioned pages or do you make your own by sewing them? 
  • JLP - I did realize as I was searching for my sweet potato recipe, stored in the offensive binder, that there were probably quite a few recipes that I have either made and didn't like or weren't really appealing anymore.  Now, did I toss them as I was looking?  Heck no, that would have made sense.  So go you for tackling that one! 
  • HEY Beth!!  I like the tapping smaller notecards to full sheets of paper - money saving too. 
  • Patchi - I like the scrapbook idea - I'd like to reuse the binder I have, it has dividers as well; at least until it's full.  It's 8 1/2 x 11, and I do have some spare protectors hanging around.  I agree, protectors are good for spills and flour and spoon marks. 
And then there are the answers to questions like, "What can I do with this month's Smaller than a Breadbox kit?"  Well, just take a peek at what Sous Chef Amy Crockett did here with the My Little Shoebox portion of the Smaller kit.  Too cute!  See more of Amy's fantastic work on her blog HERE.




Catch Apron Strings sponsoring this week's sketch challenge over at Let's Scrap.  If you're looking for a jumping off place, sketches are always a fast easy way to get rolling.
 
Happy Monday,
 

2 comments:

Briel said...

Hi Lori! I find that looking inside the cover of the cookbooks doesn't take as much time as sorting through a million pieces of paper. Over time, I have a sense of where favorite recipes are, so I can go to that book quickly. I love writing in my cookbooks, and I write lots of notes about changes, thoughts, etc. I love when I go back and see my notes and go, "Oh yea!"

I subscribe to Cooking Light, so most of my recipes are from there. During the year I make notes in the magazines and at the end of the year I buy the yearly book and transfer my notes. It seems like a lot of work, but it can be done in one sitting. Then I recycle all those old magazines. Throwing them away is so freeing!

Pieces of paper don't work as well, but I do have a recipe file box for other recipes. Honestly, I don't use it much.

My best advice: throw things away that you aren't using. You will feel so good!

By the way, do you want the easiest recipe for shredded beef tacos? This has to be the simplest and yummiest ever. DH loves it.


This is LITERALLY the easiest meal you could make:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shredded-Beef-for-Tacos/Detail.aspx.

I skip the hot tomato sauce, garlic and green onions and just pour in a medium jar of pace
picante sauce and a can of black beans. SERIOUSLY. Over the frozen piece of
meat. It is amazingly good (I do add in the wine, for what it is worth).

Cheers!

Kristin - The Fifth Sparrow No More said...

Hey Lori,

Make my own hah - you so funny! Go to Staples (office supply store) and type in divided page protectors in the search and it will give you lots of choices!

Good luck!