Notebook

The Kitchn is one of my favorite food sites, in large part because it often comes up with some pretty nifty hacks. Here are a few that they've posted recently:

• Use your garlic press to juice key limes - I don't have a garlic press anymore. This is mostly because I prefer to handle garlic with a knife than a press, but I also don't like unitaskers. This tip gives a garlic press another purpose. If you can't come up with a couple more for it, I'm disappointed.
• Keep writing utensils in your kitchen - a permanent marker is good for labeling freezer bags. A dry-erase marker (or a permanent marker and a bit of masking tape) is better for reusable leftover containers. A pen and notebook are great for keeping recipe notes.
• How to plump up your raisins - This should also work with other dried fruit.
• Keep add-ins from sinking to the bottom of your baked goods - a simple trick (toss the stuff in flour) to keep your fruit, nuts, or whatever from sinking to the bottom or your muffins or cakes.
  

I was reading this post on keeping a lab notebook over on Make (one of my favorite blogs), when it occurred to me that I don't really keep a formal cooking notebook.

Shocking! I know.

I should, though. I often treat cooking in an experimental manner, and I rely on my memory too-often. I sometimes have scraps of paper around the kitchen with notes and bits of recipes on them, but these tend to get lost or destroyed before I think to catalog them. I keep a notebook for blogging, but it is the sort of thing I carry around with me during the day to jot ideas into. I don't keep it in the kitchen. With a good lab-style notebook, I could keep all my results (good and less-than-good) in one place, learn from them, and maybe even share what I learn...

I'm debating the Maker's Notebook. It looks like a solid book: blank headings for project names and such on every page, 150 blank pages of 1/8" graph paper (useful for depicting sizes of things - say the leaf of a fresh herb - accurately as well as for writing), a table of contents, and 20 pages of reference tables (including useful conversions and such). The original $20 price tag that Make charges is a bit steep, but Amazon's price seems like a deal, particularly given the cost of nice notebooksthese days.