PDA Cookbook Plus

PDACookbook Plus
Confession: I'm a compulsive recipe hoarder. I check out cookbooks from the library, I regularly browse cooking sites and blogs, and I tear recipes out of food magazines. A few years ago, when I realized the sheer disorganization of my recipe collection was discouraging me from actually cooking, I invested in PDACookbook Plus, a simple database program tailored for recipes.

Now when I find a dish I want to try, I add it to the database, which is searchable by ingredient or category, among other fields. Building a menu and a shopping list for the week--or for a big holiday meal--is just a matter of selecting the recipes and making a few clicks.

I chose PDACookbook Plus because it synchs with my smartphone, which is oh so handy when I'm dashing through the grocery store at 6 p.m. trying to figure out what to make for dinner. But there are plenty of similar programs available to relieve you of your overstuffed file folders and piles of clipped recipes.

--Michelle Thatcher

November 21, 2008 10:52 AM PST

Photo by: Michelle Thatcher/CNET Networks