Writing recipes down
Now that I have a commonplace book I started to write recipes down and it's been of so much help. For recipes I usually look for a video rather than a text format, it works better for me if I can see how the food it's suppose to look, you could see some in pictures of course, but I think it's more detailed in a video. So I would watch a video multiple times until I could remember the steps or in the middle of cooking I'd have to look at it on my phone, which was a problem because I'd have to wash my hands every time. It was a little stressful to follow a recipe.
Another problem it's that I would forget the recipe if I don't do it after a while, so in the best cases I'd look for it in the interminable recipes playlist I have or in the worst, that recipe would be lost forever. Not to mention that I'd forget if there were details or things I have to pay attention while cooking. Basically I'd have to re-learn how to make the dish, going back to zero. "¿How much time was the cooking time? last time I did less than the recipe said but ¿how much was it?" I'd have this kind of doubts.
Writing the recipes was the solution to my problems.
Having the recipe in my notebook I can lay it on the table and look at it while cooking, I don't have to touch it at all, I don't have to maintain a screen on, I don't have to scroll through pages, everything I need is right there, specially written by and for me. I just watch the video of the recipe once or twice and take notes, this also helps me to remember better. After cooking I take notes of things that can improve the recipe: things that went wrong and why or ideas for next time, now when I go back to these recipes I know what to do better and I don't make the same mistakes as before. I've improved my cooking thanks to this.
I'm trying to write my own recipes as well, nothing gourmet, but more like the food I make daily and the little tips I use to get it to the taste I like. I usually take inspiration of many different recipes I tried and make my own version of it. It's fun to experiment and finding a recipe that I like. It's obvious that this would help me now that I think about it, because it's like doing a science experiment: having and idea, implement it, taking notes, modifying what went wrong, try again and repeat.
The big playlist of recipes was overwhelming, but this section of my commonplace book it's full with recipes that I truly like and it's very useful. It's one of my favorite sections as well.