Pulling the Weeds from My Recipe Garden

The recipe cabinet overflows.

   Hooray, the first step is done.   I set aside twenty minutes a day to go through recipes.  I started with the loose recipes that were just scattered about the cupboard.  First, I removed any recipes that I just don't see me cooking because they are too time-consuming for my current lifestyle or they have funky ingredients.  Let's face it, cabbage is not very popular with my crowd.  Next, I ditched the duplicates.  When I get on a roll apparently I can copy down four or five bean soup recipes.
   Whatever recipes were left went in the "New Recipes"  binder if I haven't made them yet.  Special recipes like Grandma's Zucchini Bread that I don't make everyday, but I had to keep for sentimental reasons, went in the "Favorites" binder.  The third binder is my go to binder for   everyday meals.  This is the one I hope to be building up for meal planning ideas.
     I also weeded out the cookbooks.  This was harder.  One went because it was a basic cookbook and I already had two basic cookbooks.  One was a food network star that I had two of so I picked the one I liked best to keep.  I gave away many small pamphlet type cookbooks since much of that informaion is available online.  That left me with five cookbooks to donate to the library booksale. 
   Working in bits each day, I chiseled away at the mountain of papers.  I thought it would never get done, but after two weeks I made steady progress at taming the mess.  Now on the real challenge, cooking all those delicious dishes.
 

Confessions of a Recipe Addict

      Okay, I finally have to come out and admit it.  I am a recipe addict.  I collect cookbooks and recipes.  It started off small.  I would clip the recipe off the box of pasta to use later.  Then I photocopied recipes out of library cookbooks.  When I started printing recipes from the internet I had every intention of using each and every one. Well, it has gotten to the point that no amount of organizing can contain the volume of my obsession.  
       Despite the plethora of recipes at my fingertips, I often find myself cooking the same things every week.  Perhaps having too much is causing me to be overwhelmed and give up before I start.  Have you ever had a closet full of clothes and can't find anything to wear?  With all my recipes, night after night I still find myself wondering, "What should I make for dinner?"  I reach for the cookbook cabinet and am showered with loose recipes falling on my head. It is time to stop collecting and start cooking.
     I hereby  state that I will not print, scan, or clip another recipe until I use what I already have.  My first step is to unsubscribe from recipe sites I currently receive.  They will still be there if I want to look something up, but I need to stop the flow of new recipes for now.  Secondly, I will not check out any cookbooks from the library, no matter how tempting and new.  Thirdly, I will weed through my stack of recipes and lose anything that realistically I'm just not going to make.  Finally, I will make a new recipe each week and post my results.  I am looking forward to trying some new dishes and sharing them with you.