Ramblings...

I do most of my cooking at home, which requires a large amount of recipes to keep things from getting boring. While I have a rather large, and constantly increasing, collection of cookbooks I don’t use all the recipes in them. I have a select few from each that I frequent, as well as recipes I’ve found online, which makes for a LOT of recipes. The ones from online I usually write down or print to use later, and the ones from the cookbooks just get looked at when I need them-which means I have to remember revisions for each one or write them in the book (something I don’t always want to do because I may need to get rid of the book one day)-.

Having a cookbook out isn’t always practical depending on the amount of counter space I have at the moment or the amount of mess I’m making. The paper copies are too flimsy to stand on their own as well as the paperback books and the hardcover books are just too darn bulky. I’m sure many of you understand exactly what I’m saying. Sometimes just getting the recipe in a place where you can properly read it can be a major pain in the butt and hinder your cooking.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I need a better, more organized way of handling my recipes, but what? I wasn’t sure until I was clicking around on Shutterfly the other evening. There in the photo books section were two very cool books you can make, and they were recipe books! One is just the simple book with recipes and pictures, the other is a more glamorous version (which is what I intend to go for, because I want what I’m reading in the kitchen to put me in the mood to cook up something good!).
Not sure how I’ll do up my recipe book(s), I’m leaning towards combining it with my meal planning so each book would feature a month’s worth of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks(at least two of those a day)). I can do up at least two to four books (yes I have that many recipes!) and alternate between the weeks in each one so I have some variety for us each month. It’s something to mull over while I pull together all the recipes I have.

I’ll share a peek at the final product when I get it. How do you keep all your recipes organized?

I’ve wanted to have a day where the boys and I cook up some fun in the kitchen. Since we will be covering Physical Science *a blend of Chemistry and Physics* this year, I want to try to work in some of our Chemistry with our cooking. Cooking is itself a lab experiment. You mix in various elements in order to produce a *hopefully* tasty outcome, but there are also actual chemical reactions taking place. In everything from dough rising to melting butter there is a plethora of chemistry lessons to be uncovered.

Most of what we will cook up in the kitchen will be edible items, like homemade applesauce, butter, and rock candy, but we will also do some fun crazy stuff like slime and play dough.

Here is a list of links with more info on Kitchen Chemistry and some fun recipes:

Link One

Link Two

Link Three

Link Four