“Things” have changed so dramatically in my lifetime – that is the last 58 years. Yes, I am old enough to remember the first televisions – those big, heavy, boxy things with rabbit ears attached. (I have this comical notion – an image of colonial times as the precursor to life, pre-tv – people cooking in open hearths in their long dresses – I don’t know what people did before tv! -like it was the times of Little Women or something – so sorry, I digress) Although there must be many others, my first firm memory is of watching John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s funeral (1963) on a small portable television in my Mother’s bedroom and, on a happier note, countless episodes of Julia Child’s The French Chef and the Galloping Gourmet with my Mom in the 1960s.
Lots of other developments have occurred – we submitted card stacks to run computer programs in college (I bet none of my pastry school friends nor my kids have any idea what this means) and well, fast-forward, and we “arrived” with the first home computers.
I remember very clearly the day I first saw a cell phone. A man was walking around in the Short Hills mall with one and speaking very loudly into it. I remember feeling that was very obnoxious. (Mostly people text now and don’t talk much – they just walk around with their eyes glued to their phone screens and step into traffic while trying to stay glued to their cell phone conversations – I confess I have done this in NYC myself, simultaneously reading and thinking I could be run over by a cab right now – yikes – how did we get this way?). I now chuckle every time I see a rerun of the movie, Pretty Woman – the scene on Rodeo Drive when the father and son are driving along in their RR convertible with these big cell phones which look like old walkie-talkies. Now we have smart phones that measure about 3 1/2″ x 2 x 1/4″, on which we can conduct most all of our daily business without moving out of our chair. They are so small that I can never find mine in my purse. On some airlines now you can text and work on the internet on your flight without interruption, essentially remaining in contact with the entire world while you are flying from one destination to another.
All in all, I’d say the last 50-so years have been quite amazing in the technology department and without question, have totally revolutionized the way we live our lives. They have also given us access to basically a limitless amount of information online. This brings me to the subject of today’s blog.
Yesterday, I was searching around on the internet while researching citrus fruits. There is no doubt that I would have a much harder time focusing my thoughts and getting something down on “paper” (potentially extinctable concept) without the ability to do this. Now I toggle back and forth between my laptop and my ipad when I am doing research, so I don’t have to leave the page I am composing on to look something up. As a matter of fact, I could probably sit in one place all day and learn an incredible amount of information without having to leave my spot (except of course to go into the kitchen to make something that I have found). Actually, I do get up and walk around to snap a few pictures on my iphone. This internet business can be a problem, though. I now have access to more recipes than I could possibly ever read, ingest or try. Confession: This provokes some sort of hoarding-behavior-instinct in me from time to time. I am such a total sucker for great photos of recipes in certain categories – thank goodness it is only certain categories or I would be a candidate for being on that tv show about hoarders.
Facebook has clearly helped me find great sources for recipes. But, this has its drawbacks too. I have “friended” several sites whose authors I admire, and now I get an instant presentation of what they are working on and thinking about. This is all very good for me as it puts a lot of good ideas into my head – and recipes I want to try. Well, the point here is really how to deal effectively with the overload condition and organization of all of this material. A few weeks back I was listening to “Ask Martha” on my car radio and a caller asked about the best software packages for recipe collections. Martha rattled off a list of good ones and the caller signed off, satisfied. I said to myself, “I really need to do that”. Problem is – I have no idea where I would begin. This would amount to me trying to organize approximately 40 years of collected information, beginning with the dog-earred Harvard Coop notebook which contains the hand-written recipes I got from my Mom which I began when my cousin was in Harvard Law School in the 70s. This is now stored in my kitchen cabinet with a large rubber band holding it together. Trouble is, I don’t think I could ever part with this item in its current state. Trouble REALLY is that I currently remember, for the most part, where particular recipes are in their current place – either a spiral bound notebook (I have many), in a cookbook, a recipe box, in a word file on my lap top, in a pile on my desk in the Laundry room, in a pile on my desk in the sunroom, or now, on my blog. If I were to change this mental file I have, I would potentially become unglued and totally disoriented. And, further, ugh, lately I have found myself reflecting often that I am quickly reaching the point when I worry – has my world become too large? How do I control access to my favorite recipes without losing them?
just one pile
My current life and recently-found vocation has presented a dilemma for me (or a conundrum -that favorite word of my husband’s) – on the upside, I have found something to do with myself which I totally enjoy every day, and on the downside, it has the intended and unintended at the same time, consequences – I have an unbelievable collection of recipes, but I also have an unweildy collection of recipes. Well, I don’t know what to say about this, except I am now going back to search for some more recipes in my book collection and online. I think I am in serious trouble. Well, truth-be-told, I think I passed this point a long time ago.
First Recipe “collected” today:
so many recipes……. but, I can’t stop collecting (do I need an intervention?)
www.eurocheapo.com