Where do you keep your recipes? When I first went overseas I had a motley collection of pages torn out of magazines and handwritten scraps of paper which I tucked inside a 1937 cookbook I’d inherited from my mother. That old recipe book stood me in good stead as I learned to cook in a country where convenience food was almost non-existent. In many ways it helped me change the way I cook forever, but in time I grew weary of sorting through all the bits of paper and decided to create my own cookbook of family favourites.
It took time to type them all into my computer, but once that was done I could print them out and put them in a 3 ring binder. Every time we moved countries I’d ditch the binder (one less thing to pack) and print them out again when I arrived in my new location. Along the way of course I picked up lots of new recipes from the people I met. These ones were special and I would usually name them for the people who gave them to me. So I have Olga’s Beans, a wonderful stew of beans, dried fruits and caramelized onions, Milli’s Chicken and Rice, her Louisiana speciality and Angele’s Lemon Meringue Pie, an out-of-this world confection and just as easy to make as a can or packet mix. My latest version of the 3 ring binder is even decorated with many of their photos.
Today is World Blog Action Day and the topic is food, hence this post. However I’d also like to use this opportunity to ask you to contribute YOUR recipes to a project I’m involved with which is the Families in Global Transition Cookbook Project. Proceeds from the sale of the book will help to provide scholarships to their annual conference for students, volunteers and non-profits. And if you want to know which recipe I contributed, you’ll have to buy a copy 
The recipes I haul around the world are a mess, with half at least not entered on my computer. It will be a massive job trying to sort them and enter them. Would love to get it done some time, because it’s a fun collection!
PS: the Global Transition Cookbook Project no longer accepts new submissions. Cut off date was 2 days ago
Oh wow, thanks for pointing that out! The cookbook fairy has just waved her magic wand and the cut-off date has been amended to Dec 1
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Judy, thanks for sharing! Your post inspired me to write about how I organize my own recipes ad you can read it here: http://rohaizan.com/blog/?p=2201
Actually the link I made to your blog already points you there!
That’s a brilliant idea, Rohaizan. I just love that you are so artistic AND a geek at the same time
Hahaha..I’m a geek-wannabee! But then, we have to make use of all the tools available to us to simplify our lives, don’t we?
What a good idea, Judy, I might try this myself!
Check out Rohaizan’s solution … a blog…it’s a great idea if you want to share with family and friends.
Absolutely Judy. I share it with my sister who lives in the US too.