Dear Kitchen,

Some of my favorite recipes come from cooking blogs and websites. I use del.icio.us to bookmark them, but sites can disappear or change URLs, and sometimes I even find myself cooking somewhere without an internet connection. I'd like to find a good recipe-organizing software program to copy them into. Do you have any recommendations? I have a Mac.

Thanks,
Gwen

Dear Gwen,

I'm sure that trying to keep track of recipes is a very common problem for a lot of us. I know that I always used to forget where I got certain recipes. When I was initially organizing recipes that I'd made, I would type them into Word so I would be able to do searches for anything that included, say, sage. Eventually it got to the point where I'd want to be able to access my recipes from work to see what ingredients I needed to pick up at the store on my way home. So I started a blog as a way to inventory dishes I had made and would make again.

Of course there are also lots of different kinds of software programs out there specifically designed to serve as recipe databases. Most of them feature customizable categories and various types of search functions. Many of the programs also allow you to generate shopping lists based on a particular recipe, which can be printed or exported to your Ipod, cell phone or Blackberry.

For more information, check out some of these sites.

• Computer Cookbook
• Digital Fried Chicken
• eChef
• Living Cookbook
• Recipe Center