Cooking + Internet = Awesomeness

I’m not the best at keeping notes in a cohesive collection, I can admit that.  I have tried notebooks, index cards, spiral-bound index cards, recipe cards, cookbooks, Google Docs, and countless other methods to store recipes that I want to try and my recipes that I create.  None of these options ever really worked for me, so I’ve been on the hunt for options.  There is no shortage of sites, but to find one that really met my needs was tough, until recently.  Now, I’ve got a great system and one that I think is worth sharing.

I love to cook, but I need a way to stay organized with what I’ve done, what I’m going to do, and what I will never do again in order to really develop a cooking blog (which I will try to launch yet again when I find a name for it that doesn’t look offensive).

I sorta hit on this topic this week on a blog I wrote for Prairie Hive, but it’s worth going into here as well.  I have fallen in love with Pinterest.  Pinterest is a great way to sort recipes you find online that you’re interested in trying, and it couldn’t be easier.  First thing you need to do is download the Pinterest extension for your browser (I use Chrome).  Then as you’re browsing recipe sites, you click your “pin it” button and it will save to your Pinterest account.  Within Pinterest, you’ll need to set up boards.  Boards are ways to organize what you find online.  So I have a board for chicken recipes, veggie recipes, Lenten recipes, desserts, breads, etc.  So say I’m looking on the web and see a recipe for this Tikka Masala

It looks delicious and I want to try it, so I click “pin it” put it on a board and I’m good to go. Then, my friends can also see this recipe and repin it.  Next thing I know everyone I know is thinking about Tikka Masala.

Chances are you’re on Pinterest, and familiar with this (by the way, you should really follow me).  What you may not be so familiar with is Pepperplate.  Pepperplate.com is a way for you to organize your recipes.   Pepperplate has an extension (they call it a bookmarklet) for your browser as well to copy and format recipes you find from other sites, which is cool, but I prefer the social aspect of Pinterest more.  I like to take my notes and save them, plus Pepperplate will build a shopping list for me.   It has a cool layout: 

To top it all, Pepperplate has a free app for Android, iPhone, iPad, etc to keep your recpies within reach in the kitchen, with a great easy to use interface :

Hope this helps you stay organize and makes cooking at home easier.