Copy Me That....

 I am a foodie!  My mother was a spectacular cook and she taught me to always try fun and new foods.  For the most part, I have never dismissed a food without trying it first.  And there is not much that I have not found good enough to eat... except maybe liver and onions...

One of my favorite things to do online is to cruise recipe sites for new and interesting recipes to create dishes, sides, desserts, etc. to try in order to please my palette.  I found many interesting things on FaceBook and when I am faced with preparing a dish to take to a potluck, I will look through my old recipes or search for things on the Internet to try out or take with me.

Years ago I used to use a recipe program that I purchased.  It made it very easy to copy and paste recipes that I found on the Internet.  Living Cookbook allowed me to copy and paste into the different sections of the proram which saved me lots and lots of time from trying to type them into a form!  The last update was in 2013 and then it appeared as though the company went belly up.  No updates have been made and no customer service exists.  If any of the Windows updates makes the current version unuseable I would lose a lot of recipes.  I should start moving the more important ones to the new program.

So which program am I using now??  Glad that you asked.  It is more of an extension that is loaded on my browser than an actual program.  It is called "Copy Me That" and it makes adding a recipe into a cookbook file just for you and saving it out on the Cloud as easy as counting 1, 2, 3!!!

I have been copying recipes to Copy Me That for quite some time.  At this point, I have close to 1,800 recipes in My Recipes.  I can get to them from my computer, or on the app from my cell phone or IPad as long as I have an internet connection or my phone is on a network.  I can print them out from my computer to cook them and then if I make adjustments, I can add my different ingredients or procedures or times so I can recreate those same results.

Most online recipes are really easy to add to your cookbook.  When you find a recipe that you want to add, scroll down through the normal step-by-step instructions, and usually toward the bottom you should come across the actual, condensed version of the recipe like it has been in a cookbook.  If you find the recipe in that form, then all you need to do is click on the little icon that will appear in the area beyond the written address line and the program will take all of the information... and a picture if there is one... and create a beautiful recipe page.  The 1st draft will allow you to click on each line that is selected to add.  If the program has picked up a line that you do not want, then you can unclick it so it will not be copied. 

You save the parts that you have clicked and look at what you have.  If there are parts of the original recipe that you want to add, you can click the Edit (Pencil) icon and it will reopen the entire recipe for changes, either to what has been saved or adding things like a description or including notes that the original save did not catch.  You can also add your own information.

And as long as the recipe is in your file, you can keep adding and deleting.  You can even take pictures of the dish that you create and add them to the recipe.

If the recipe is included in a FaceBook post, it will still copy the recipe.  All you have to do is highlight one of the ingredients and then click the Copy Me That icon and it will still create a recipe.  If the system cannot make a recipe, it will give you instructions on how to make it work.

When you bring up your recipes you will see pictures of the dish and the title so you can decide what you want to make.

There is a free version that is fairly robust.  It gives you a chance to play with it and see if you like it.  There is a premium version that gives you full use of all of the many extras. And the cost of the Premium version is only $25 for a lifetime!!

So, now you know my secret for finding and keeping recipes.  I hope you will give it a try.  I think you will find it fun and easy to use.  Let me know when you get more than 1,800 recipes in yours.

BTW, you can delete the ones that do not work out or when you find you have seventeen recipes for macaroni and cheese!!