Happy New Year! There is a calendar hanging in my kitchen that is full of beautiful pictures of fruit and vegetables and the occasional flower. Last years has been replaced by the new-and-improved version and it was in a pile headed for the basement. My camera sat nearby and inspiration took hold. Here are some of the pictures that I photographed from the calendars that I love so much.
While visiting my sister and her family last weekend, I came across a current seed catalogue in their bathroom. Leafing through seed catalogues in January is a wonderful way to look forward to spring, imagining the world of possibilities at your finger tips. My mind gives no thought to the work involved in sowing, growing, hoeing, and harvesting. Armchair gardening holds a lot of appeal for me.
This is the year that I'm going to make all of those recipes that I've always wanted to try and never have for whatever reason. Too caloric? I'm not bothered anymore. Too labour intensive? Don't be daunted. Why make it when you can buy it? Let's try it at least once. I'm tired of putting recipes off. There are so many foods to make, try, and savour. If I don't start this year, when will I?
In preparation for making everything I've ever wanted to this year, I spent a few evenings (ok, more than a few) this fall indexing my recipe scrapbooks. What a chore, you're probably thinking. But no. The recipes and food ideas that I have haphazardly collected over the years are nothing short of amazing. Each scrapbook could be a cookbook in itself. And now I can turn to my neatly typed out indexes when I'm looking for something specific, or I can peruse the lists with little more than an ingredient or a thought in mind and find the most inspiring ideas and pictures.
I feel a good year coming on. Family, friends, good food & drink.... I just brewed a cup of Kombucha green tea and the tag on the string says, "The purpose of life is to enjoy every minute." Let's try.
I would love to know more about how you indexed your recipe scrapbooks. I have a couple of bulging binders and a file folder with all sort of recipes falling out of them. I need to figure out a way to organize my recipes.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty simple and I may find I need to get more detailed in the future, but here's what I did. I labeled each scrapbook as 1,2,3, etc. and then I wrote page numbers on the bottom of each page. Each scrapbook holds about 40 pages. In Microsoft word I gave each scrapbook a document and they are all contained in a specific folder. I went through the books and indexed them as you would see a cookbook done. Now when I'm looking for that recipe for triple chocolate layer cake, I can scan through the cake sections of each document/scrapbook (or just do a search through the whole folder) and voila - it is much easier to find recipes that I sort of remember wanting to try but I have no idea which scrapbook they are in.
ReplyDeleteLet me know how you make out doing yours!
ReplyDelete