Tip - recipes & print jobs

I used to eat out a lot. I admit it, I was lazy. In fact, I once justified my excessive dining out habits by saying and convincing myself that eating out costs just as much as cooking at home once you factor in water usage, electricity/gas, and the energy it takes to clean up afterward.

I'll wait while you laugh at me. :)


Now I know better though. I cook at home now. A lot. I enjoy it now. Not only is it cheaper...much cheaper, but I can better manage what's in my food...including that stray dog hair, but hey at least I know where it's from, right? ;)

One thing that comes with cooking at home are recipes. I love collecting recipes and trying new recipes because I have a luxurious tastes when it comes to food. I love to eat gourmet, and I actually don't mind cooking gourmet...as long as I have a recipe to follow.  I have hundreds of recipes saved...at last count, over 500 of them. Now if I were to print each one out, many of which are at least two pages long, that would take two reams of paper and a LOT of ink...things that costs money. Not to mention my printed recipes tends to walk off.  Here's what I've come up with to save and organize my recipes:

CutePDF

CutePDF is a program that allows you to print things to a .pdf format and save them on your computer rather than printing it out on paper. I .pdf all my recipes then organize them into folders based on their main ingredient, course, or cuisine.  And of course, I back them up periodically, off site, especially since our external hard drive containing hundreds more of my favorite recipes died. :(  That was a very very sad day for me.