lionladydi......I am the same way....my Mom wants to put together a family cookbook with recipes from her Mother (who was a fabulous cook)....I have many of them but they are in quite a mess....someday I will surprise my Mom with the cookbook...but it seems like such a project!

yeah i understand that my mom has a great deal of recepies but she just keeps hers all in a box I could see her making a cookbook way before I would ever have the chance.

Start out by sorting them out and keeping in one place. Next scan all your notes a few at a time on to a disk so if something happens then at least you have a copy. Then start entering into word document. Just one recipe at a time or whatever you can get done in 15-20 minutes. I always try to write a paragraph or two about what was going on at the time we were eating the dish or making it. Good or bad sort of a mini history. anyway if you do a little at a time it doesn't seem like such a big task and you would be surprised how much you get done after the first few times. Don't print out till your done cause you may want to go back and add pictures or diffrent things you remember as you go along. Just a thought. (be sure and save to disk everytime in case you have a computer like mine that always crashes in the middle of something),

I am very organized with my recipes (I am a slap together cook too, but for posterity I keep the general recipe) I keep them in a folder on my laptop, and am always adding, changing, etc. My mother on the other hand has an antique metal bread box on top of her fridge and it is literally stuffed to the gills with recipes written on napkins, grocery store receipts, torn out of magazines. They are not remotely organized! I want to type them all up so badly, but she keeps putting me off!

My grandmother never writes down a recipe. She tells me about all of the wonderful recipes her mother made (also from memory) and how much she misses them. Often she will want to make something that she loves and has made a million times, but now she is unable to remember how she made it. It kills me to look into her eyes and see the pain caused by a failing memory. It is because of this that I save each recipe I get. I want others to be able to have wonderful food and I want to one day prepare these foods for my future grandchildren. When someone shares a recipe with me I take it personally; it's an honor to me. I feel that recipes are special and that you're sharing a part of yourself with your recipes. I would much rather be remembered as the lady who gave somebody "this great recipe" than the one who took it to her grave. JMHO

Jan, you're right... if you showed up, I would bust hump making you a gourmet meal! Every weekend I try to have as many family members as I can round up come over and I spend the whole weekend cooking and baking to please them! My husband just shakes his head and smiles. He is just happy to eat the yummy food. I cook constantly because it brings me great pleasure!!

[quote= When someone shares a recipe with me I take it personally; it's an honor to me. I feel that recipes are special and that you're sharing a part of yourself with your recipes. I would much rather be remembered as the lady who gave somebody "this great recipe" than the one who took it to her grave. JMHO [/quote]

Amen to that! Most recipes I got from somewhere else so why not share?


Diane

Thank goodness for nice people who share..

Hey, I'm a d@mn nice person, and I don't share all of my recipes. Please don't insinuate that just because someone doesn't want to share something they spent years creating that they are some sort of ogre hiding under bridges and eating small animals. It takes all kinds of people to make this world go 'round.

Oh, I'm calm... don't worry! Believe me, I have enough other junk to keep me up at night! Just don't want this to turn into another thread where people are telling each other they are bad people, etc. I have seen enough of them turn into that, it's just sad. I hate it when everyone fights!

I am a recipe sharer that way when I try something that has been made by others and I like I always ask for the recipe and always put their name so I remember where it came from. Some people share some don't.

15 years ago I was home from work for 7 weeks recouperating from having an operation, while home I sorted all of the recipesI had from all over the place, typed them up and printed, saved to a disk, put in 3 ring binders and have them handy in the kitchen. Some are tried and truely great, others haven't been tried yet. If I try something and it is good it is saved, if not it gets tossed. If someone asks for the recipe, I go to the binder and pull out a copy (printed extras just for this purpose). Any handwritten notes are added to the copy or I retype the recipe.

I love to cook and bake and put plenty of love in each recipe. Although someone else is making your recipe it never is exactly the same as brands of products are different and the way each person measures is different, but the recipe will usually be close.

My MIL passed away 6 years ago and had Alzheimers before she passed, I was lucky enough to convince her to sit and let me make her recipes for certain holiday foods by telling her it was getting to hard for her to stand and mix recipes. I really wanted to get the recipes written down as she had everything in her head - no written recipes - and I wanted to put them in writing while she still had the ability to remember the correct ingredients. Her potato salad, stuffed cabbage were two of the top items as I was always at work when she made them the week before the holiday.

Now everything is written down and handy for my daughters when it's their time to take over the cooking. When you share what you love to do it comes back to you twofold, so share what you can and write down everything else for after you are gone.

I share hoping somebody else will make the tamales, or cakes, ect.........but no one wants all the work. I enjoy it but once in awhile would be nice to be the one eating instead of cooking.My grandchildren and nephews and nieces (7 all together) have been helping me cook the traditional christmas and new years meals since they were 2 years old.( from shopping for ingredients to plating and serving)They are now 5-13 and look forward to it every year. They are learning first hand the family secrets. I am really looking forward to the day all I have to do is supervise and eat!!!