Recipe compilation idea - feedback needed

[Russell]

Hi All,

While I'm awaiting a PM reply from Master Moderator on the idea, I'll throw it out here for you guys to comment on anyway. The caveat is that if MM is already designing something to do this, then that would be the preferred option.

I was wondering what people think of the idea of collating all of the forum recipes into another format for 1) ease of reference and 2) backup purposes.

What I was thinking of is either collecting them all into a series of recipe "books" (either in database form or just simple PDF documents) or simply republishing them into a web site such as a recipe-only blog site.

The advantage of a blog site is the sorting, grouping and searching that can be done. This forum already provides most of this, but there is lots of extra "stuff" you have to wade through to find just the recipe info, and the advantage of a separate blog site is as a backup in case the forum goes down.

The advantages of "books" is offline readability. I still enjoy sitting down and browsing through a good paper book as opposed to staring at a glowing screen. While the new iPad from Apple may be a step towards killing paper books, i think wide adoption is still a little way off. The books could be collated on a category basis - Breads, Deserts, Mains etc, and quarterly updates or refreshes published with amendments and new additions. This could be presented back here on the forum and/or copies to a separate site as well.

Most of the needed info is here already, but I'd think a photo of each recipe is needed, so may need help from everyone is getting pictures of the made up dishes. I'd also propose a fixed recipe posting format to facilitate easy inclusion of future recipes.

Obviously there is a heck of a lot of work in doing this, and I'm too A.D.D. myself (and have too many irons in other fires competing for my time) to complete all the data entry myself probably, but if people were interested, I could start on the concepts and throw some samples out for people to comment on, but can't make any guarantees of completion.

What do you all think? Worth the effort? Comments please.

Russell.

[cathy79]

This is one of the reasons I bought "Living Cookbook" for around $20 - for recipes that I like and want to keep, I copy the text over and format it in that, and print off easy to read recipes.

As my mum isn't on the forum, I email her my "Living Cookbook" versions of what I like from the forum, or things I think she'd like that might not be my taste.

So I have quite a few forum recipes already "Backed Up", and others would be similar.  I can easily email you (or anyone) these as PDF or TXT files as a way of sharing the backup process.

One of my concerns when the forum went down was getting in contact with other users so I could supplement their back up with mine and share what we'd each saved.

[Ceejay]

I so get the ADHD reference here and I say "overwhelming" but if you wish to do it...   

[Russell]

This is one of the reasons I bought "Living Cookbook" for around $20 - for recipes that I like and want to keep, I copy the text over and format it in that, and print off easy to read recipes

Yeah Living Cookbook is a great program, although I haven't used mine much as we never made much from scratch besides recipes I already knew anyway. Now the TMX gives more incentive for making new stuff, I'm looking at pulling it out again. The pain with it is, unless you do print them out again, it's a bit hard having the Laptop on the kitchen bench while you're cooking. I don't think Flour in the keyboard would go down well

Russell.

[Russell]

I so get the ADHD reference here and I say "overwhelming" but if you wish to do it...   

Heh, is that a polite way of saying "OMG, that's like emptying the ocean with a straw, you idiot!!" 

I've always been a glutton for punishment, just ask my wife. Unfortunately, my track record for "incomplete projects" is just as amazing, to my complete chagrin 

Russell.

[cathy79]

Yes, I do print the one I want to try and have a folder full in the kitchen.  Then if I make a change, go back to Living Cookbook and edit etc.

My sister is buying a TMX soon, so will have to make her a recipe book...

[Ceejay]

I so get the ADHD reference here and I say "overwhelming" but if you wish to do it...   

Heh, is that a polite way of saying "OMG, that's like emptying the ocean with a straw, you idiot!!" 

I've always been a glutton for punishment, just ask my wife. Unfortunately, my track record for "incomplete projects" is just as amazing, to my complete chagrin 

Russell.

Yes.. we tend to have our own language... I swear my brother and I both drove our mother crazy with our "afflictions". 

I have found some positives though... I can manage 4 kids in different directions on most given days and I can make any piece of technology work so that it makes my life easier... usually.

I doubt I need to ask your wife... I know what my brother and I are like! 

[Russell]

What version of LC do you have Cathy? I think I have LC2005, although I vaguely remember I was supposed to get a free upgrade to LC2008, but never follow up? Or I could be wrong on that. I wonder if a 2010 version is coming out?

Russell.

[cookie1]

I'm not at all computer literate Russell but that sounds like an enormous task. My drama when the site goes down is probably more how to contact people than the recipes. Having said that I still need the recipes and feedback as I only print off the ones I plan to make very soon. The site has only gone down a couple of times.

[cathy79]

What version of LC do you have Cathy? I think I have LC2005, although I vaguely remember I was supposed to get a free upgrade to LC2008, but never follow up? Or I could be wrong on that. I wonder if a 2010 version is coming out?

Russell.

Mine's 2008, which I bought about September last year.  Certainly value for money.  I just had a look on the website and it still says "New for 2008" so no sign of new version.

[Russell]

I'm not at all computer literate Russell but that sounds like an enormous task. My drama when the site goes down is probably more how to contact people than the recipes. Having said that I still need the recipes and feedback as I only print off the ones I plan to make very soon. The site has only gone down a couple of times.

Yeah maybe it's a knee-jerk reaction because the forum went down THE DAY MY BIMBY ARRIVED!!  I so wanted to try Isi's buttermilk bread. I'd even ought packaged buttermilk to try it out, and didn't know the recipe But then in all the other stuff on Sunday we never got around to bread anyway!

Still, as I mentioned in another post, I'm avoiding buying the TMX recipe books and just using the ones here, so it'd be nice to have them collated into a proper book. I'll give it some more thought.

Regarding the LC version, they are working on a new version I found out, but earliest is late this year.

Russell.

Russell.

[cathy79]

I'd be happy to share what I've collected.

[meganjane]

I like the idea of a blog. I'm always on the computer, so would be happy to be a co-author, I love blogging.
I just think the initial set up would be huge.
I keep all recipes from the forum in a folder on my computer. I have set up folders for desserts, breads, cakes etc plus a separate Thermomix folder with the same sort of folders in that.
I'd be interested in checking out Living Cookbook to streamline the system a bit better.

[Russell]

Well I don't have LC with me, so when I get home on Friday I'll check it out from there.

Setting up a blog is easy. I have several domains I can use, so that's not a problem, it's just the data entry that's the question.

Russell.

[cathy79]

There are lot's of blogs already, so are we duplicating?

I like the idea of compiling the recipes - looking at Living Cookbook, there is an option to publish your own cookbook as a word document.  Apparently this is often done for school fundraising type cookbooks.  So potentially, we can collect the recipes in that software and "publish" the cookbook to a website where people can download just the recipes?

Maybe as a start members could vote for what recipes they would like to see in our forum cookbook eg Baf65's Chicken.  We could start off small(ish) and it could grow. 

Then as members submit new recipes to the forum, suggestions, tweaks etc, they can be incorporated into the downloadable book. 

Such a book would in no way substitute for the importance of the community of this forum, but enable easy download of recipes.  It would especially help users with limited computer access.