To say that I have a lot of recipes on file would be a huge understatement. I have a collection of bookmarked websites that would put the NY Public Library system to shame, more magazines than I know what to do with and a cookbook collection so large I had to organize it in a spreadsheet to not buy the same one twice.
Recently I realized that this needs to change. I will never find what it is I am looking for if I am swimming in so many options I can’t breath. I realized that 99 tabs of paper wont matter in any magazine if I don’t have a way of remember what it is I wanted to make when I want to make it.
So my latest organization plan has been to flip through magazines in my down time ripping out any recipes that I really really feel are worth keeping. After that I recycle the rest of the magazine, then I organize the recipes – Sweet, Savory, App, Yeast, you get the idea in corresponding folders. Then I write on the front of the folders for each the ones I feel need to be made immediately.
I know this is the most exciting post in the world isn’t it. But, so far my new method has been effective at getting rid of a ton of magazine clutter (I don’t know if I’ll ever have the guts to just rip recipes out of my actual cookbooks – though it’s starting to not sound like a bad idea).
However, upon organize my ‘must try recipes’ I noticed the same exact recipe – 5 months apart – in the same magazine (We’re not talking a revision, an edit, a ‘hey this was so awesome were showing it to you in 3d’ – we’re talking line for line copy, except for what it was served over). I’m not sure why I care other than to say that your readers are observant and at least one of them noticed – but secondly – for that half a page – I kind of feel ripped off. It’s stupid I know, but I maintain two new recipes a week on Pass the Sushi. Not two recipes I think you wont notice are the same – or two recipes I may have already tried a bunch of times and know work. No, two NEW to my kitchen and I recipes a week. If I can do this, with my tight little kitchen and my even tighter purse strings, why shouldn’t I expect every page of my new magazines to have new recipes?
It’s not a big deal, I still love the magazine and will continue to try new recipes from it’s pages – it just lost a little of the ‘Disney Magic’ for me.
Sage-Walnut Butter Sauce
from Food Network Magazine, March 2011
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 teas honey
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 tbs unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup fresh sage leaves
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 lb cooked ravioli or tortellini
- 1 cup pasta-cooking water
- Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper
Preparation:
Combine vinegar, honey and bay leave in a saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until syrupy, 5 minutes (not a second longer or it will not be usable… trust me on this one).
Cook ravioli according to package.
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add sage leaves and walnuts; cook 3 minutes. Add 1 cup pasta-cooking water and cook until reduced by half, 2 minutes. Toss with ravioli, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Drizzle with balsamic syrup.
Serve this over ravioli or tortellini – doesn’t matter which as it’s all the same to them 
My name is Kita. I am a 20 something girl geek and website/graphic designer who can rock an apron like there is no tomorrow. 
The wonderful things you can do with this!
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Ohhh these sounds so good
I need to try this sauce 
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Ok, I want this for breakfast, looks amazing!
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That’s really a fantastic recipe to share. I am bookmarking this.
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I am so the same way with recipes! This looks fabulous!
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I have the same addiction so I use three ring binders to save recipes from magazines, newspapers, etc. That way I can update my sections easily. Love the addition of balsamic to this recipe. Thanks!
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Fabulous presentation. Love the sound of that sauce, perfect for a light pasta dish. And I kind of dig your organization. I’m a serial tosser…if a recipe is more than 3 months old and I haven’t used it, I delete the bookmark and move on.
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This looks amazing!! I wish I had some sage right now! Good luck with your organization. If it works for you – I might need to copy you. I started a binder a couple years ago, but then I haven’t touched it since, so it is bad to a giant mess!
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That is a bit strange for a magazine to reprint the same recipe. This is a wonderful pasta dish and the sauce is just fantastic
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I so agree. Putting the same sauce over a different base, is not a new recipe — it’s lazy editing. The options could have been printed in the original. But, this does sound like a great sauce. Thanks for sharing.
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I’m surprised at the reprint as well – and you would think Food Network would have enough recipes to go around for a couple of years before reprinting like that. The ravioli look scrumptious enough for us to give them a pass.
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I’m glad this made your list for recipes to make immediately, it looks delicious!
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Ravioli looks great with that sauce. Great photos too!
http://spoon-and-chopsticks.blogspot.com/
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I also need to organize my recipes. Every time I try, I get so distracted because I stop organizing and start reading. I would definitely get distracted with this butter sauce. It looks delicious.
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I do love quick dinner fixins, and this sounds like a winner. I totally get what you are saying in this post.
* I have a collection of bookmarked websites – Yes
* More magazines than I know what to do with – yes
* A cookbook collection so large I had to organize it in a spreadsheet to not buy the same one twice – yes, although I ended up using Book Hunter to tame it.
I will have to address this problem too although I feel so guilty ripping pages out of magazines I am going to donate, even though I paid for them. I tend to open the magazines website, find the recipe online, bookmark it and then I can donate the magazine intact.
My biggest beef with repeats is usually around the holiday time, especially when they give a magazine a brand new cover but have the same recipes and push it as a new holiday magazine. Sometimes they have a disclaimer on an inside page stating “this was previously published as blah blah blah, but it is usually so small you would need a magnifying glass to read it.
Wow, this was longer than I intended but I guess you hit a nerve with me.
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Kita Reply:
June 28th, 2011 at 8:16 am
Oh, I have to go google book hunter now! And Im glad I hit a nerve – loved the reply!
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Lovely simple but mindblowingly tasty dish! I have the same issue with recipes. I did a huge clearout of my files once when moving house and regretted it for months afterwards, but hey, it made room for loads more new recipes!
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I stopped getting Bon Appetit when i noticed that very similar recipes were coming round again…but this was 6 years apart, not 5 months. That’s BAD! But your sauce looks ah-mazing. A must try for me.
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I totally agree! That’s crazy about the recipes…wow. I wonder how often that happens and people don’t catch it. What a shame. I must say though, I enjoy recipes from food bloggers better anyways!
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well it definately has me intrigued! Idk, I tried the ripping out pages and putting them in binders method and it was just to much work, although I do have 2 big binders full of great recipes. I decided that I like to flip through food mags (mostly Cooking Light and Saveur) for fun and finding great recipes that I missed the first time I flipped through them.
This is most def my idea of a perfect dinner and I am bookmarking (I try to keep my list short and sweet) to make soon. o.k. honestly, ravioli, maybe it will be when it cools down a bit. :0
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Made this tonight for dinner with butoni wheat tortellini. Don’t think my butter sauce reduced enough, but I don’t think it mattered. It was delish. Finally something to do with the tons of sage I had!
One year for Christmas I typed up the scraps of recipes that my mom put in a cabinet. others that were handwritten I put in sheet protectors.
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