If there is one question that I get asked a lot it’s how I organize my recipes. My response is usually to simply laugh because up until about a month ago, my recipe “organization” was a joke! I had three binds packed with recipes from magazines, the newspaper, the internet and anywhere else I happened to find inspiration. There was no rhyme or reason, nothing was really even attached to the binders. I just stuffed papers in and shut the binder. I’d spent so much time searching for recipes — it was ludicrous.
So a month ago I decided that my best bet was to go digital. I went through every single last recipe I had on paper, found it on the internet (most magazines put the recipes on-line now) and pinned everything to my Pinterest boards. I kept a few recipes that my husband cooks and organized them for him in to one binder. I’m OK with this system but it makes me a little nervous. Sometimes pins disappear on Pintrest and what if the whole thing shuts down for some reason… then what? I really wanted somewhere a tad safer to keep my recipes.
Enter the creators of Cook’n Recipe Organizer software who asked if I’d like to review their product. Hello?! YES, PLEASE! I haven’t spent as much time on the software as I’d like (just spent a week in the hospital so I’m still a little fuzzy around the edges), but I love this software! Finally, a place where I can put recipes for safe keeping and it stores right on my very own hard drive.
What I love the most aboutCook’n is that the software has a search engine built right in to it so I can search for a recipe and then “capture” it and put in a cookbook I create. The other day I saw a recipe for Coca Cola Cake on the Serious Eats website. I searched on Cook’n for the recipe name followed by the website name and there it was! I hit the “capture” button, put it in a cookbook I’d created called “Recipes to Try” (nice picture and all!)and I was done. You can change the serving size, swap out ingredients or even create a menu and shopping list based on recipes you choose.
The only thing I didn’t like about Cook’n is that at the moment it only works with certain websites (although all the big ones are included) so I couldn’t put the recipes on my blog in to a cookbook.
What about the old family recipes you have around that aren’t on-line? No problem! You can manually input any recipe you want. There is also a print feature which would be great for making family cookbooks or to hand out recipes to friends.
Any software that allows me to find recipes on-line, enter my own recipes, create shopping lists AND menu plans has my vote!
The creators of Cook’n have generously offered to giveaway one free copy to a reader! The software will be a part of a fabulous Mother’s Day giveaway starting on May 1st! Don’t want to wait or need a gift for Mom before that? How about a code for 50% off Cook’n! Just enter “mb-gabel” at checkout!
This would be so convenient for storing my recipes! I would love to have this!
hmmmm…if only it would cook for me too! 😉 Great concept.
I just couldn’t deal with more PAPER! 🙂
Well, I’m also into binding magazine pages with recipes on it. Great that you shared your secret. And good thing I can put all my old recipe with it. Thanks!