Doxie scanner sitting in a kitchen drawer

How I: Use Evernote and Doxie to Save Family Recipes {Guest Post!}

In the spirit of sharing helpful information from one home cook to another, I’m going to start a series of guests posts from home cooks talking about ways that they make their time in the kitchen easier, more efficient and more delicious.  (Are you a home cook interested in doing a guest post?  Email me.)

When Amanda (a fellow geek, foodie and Twitterer) told me about some of the ways she collects original, hand-written family recipes using Evernote and a Doxie scanner, I knew this needed to be shared with the masses.  Full disclosure: Amanda works at Apparent, the company that makes Doxie, so she knows all the best tricks to using it.  Check out her fabulous guest post below–it might inspire you to create a family recipe notebook of your own over the holidays!

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How I: Use Evernote and Doxie to Save Family Recipes by Amanda

I have various means of keeping track of my favorite recipes. I toss recipes into my Evernote “Cooking” notebook to keep track of everything. From cook books, saved PDFs, screen shots, magazine clippings, and handwritten family recipes, I like to have my entire catalogue on me at all times. As a cook, you never know when you’ll need ingredients or a recipe on hand.

There have been too many times when I’ve gotten to chit-chatting with someone about a recipe or meal and they’ve asked for the recipe. “Yeah, yeah, of course, I’ll send it your way” I chirp merrily. Then, three hours later once I get home I’ve completely forgotten who, what, and why I’m sending something (yes, my memory really can be that awful). Now that I use Evernote to keep track of my favorite meals I can send over a recipe as soon as someone asks for it. In this digital age, having that sort of quick response is a must.

My favorite way to digitize my recipes is using my Doxie scanner. I have a Doxie Go that I keep on me at all times (in my laptop bag) and a Doxie One that is permanently housed in my kitchen . What I love most about scanning with Doxie is the portability of a mobile scanner. I don’t need to be connected or even near a computer to use one. If I’m over at my mom’s and have a great home cooked meal, I can scan the recipe in while I’m there and have it to my Evernote notebook in seconds.

Doxie scanner sitting in a kitchen drawer

I also love taking Doxie to my grandma’s to scan her family recipes. There’s something so special in being able to hold on to those hand-written recipes and not have them fade away. I come from a line of great cooks, and our original hand-written recipes are some of our greatest family heirlooms. With my Doxie I’m able to easily scan, preserve, and share those heirlooms with my friends and family. Although, I’ll be honest, some recipes have to stay strictly within the family (like Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie… shh!).

Using Doxie and Evernote together, the paperless possibilities are endless. What I love most about keeping recipes in Evernote is the amazing searching capability within the software and apps. Evernote has really gone the extra mile to make things easy to find. For me this is a must when in the grocery store trying to find a recipe on the fly so I can pick up ingredients. If I’m in the mood for something with avocados I search “avocado” and boom (!) – like magic there’s recipes with my favorite fruit as a main ingredient.

I tag my recipes in Evernote by their dish and source. I can easily find all recipes that I’ve collected by person thanks to my tagging system. The easiest way for me to keep on top of tag organization is as soon as I scan in a recipe. In the smart and simple Doxie app I have the ability to rename my scan with the scan’s name, the Evernote notebook I want it sent to, and any tags I have associated with it. For example, if I have a recipe for french toast I would rename it as such: French Toast @Cooking #breakfast. Then, with the click of a button my scans are sent and automatically organized in Evernote for me. My “French Toast” recipe goes straight into my “Cooking” Notebook and is tagged with “breakfast.” Honestly, it couldn’t be any easier.

If you’d like to learn more about Doxie scanners feel free to contact Doxie directly at hello@getdoxie.com.

 

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