I know that most of you come here for the recipes and rest assured, I have something sweet up my sleeve (and perhaps a little intimidating on first sight) – just not today. Today is about a topic that is close to my heart and – as all your copious comments on an earlier post on delicious:days have shown – close to yours, too: how to organize recipes. Having used an imperfect, sometimes chaotic mix of online bookmarking tools, a couple of folders for rip-outs and handwritten Moleskine recipe books, I was never really satisfied with the situation.

Always on the hunt for the perfect solution and being an avid computer user, I tried to warm up to different recipe tools – several times! But nothing really stuck and convinced me to stay, either because of lacking functionality or rather bland layout style. Too impractical, neither flexible nor accessible enough. And on top, as soon as the iPhone moved in with us, the wish to access my favorite recipes from just anywhere grew exponentially. Still, the perfect tool for my needs was nowhere to be found. Then one day last summer I thought out loud. The fatal words: Why not design and program my dream tool ourselves?

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Grrrrmpf. Finally the list I have been looking forward to the most. And despite the fact that there is little, if any, more appealing to me than celebrating my recollection of great meals during the last 12 months, making the final choice has been much harder than anticipated. Let alone my growling stomach. We’ve had our fair share of travel last year, discovered lovely new places, found hospitality that made us feel very welcome and genuinely embraced, enjoyed lively company and – obviously – ate our heart out.

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Compared to the picky eater I once was, I’ve made major improvements. Nowadays I consider very few things inedible or not worth trying (tripe might be among the few that still give me the hibby jibbies). But I am fighting on all fronts, working hard on myself to overcome culinary childhood indispositions like raisins, capers or mussels - with growing success. Isn’t it a huge gain to constantly be able to discover new food favorites? And once the hey-this-is-not-so-bad enlightenment kicks in, I tend to indulge in newly found faves as often as possible…

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There are only two occasions where I could be caught singing, one would be me driving in the car, the other is in the kitchen, cooking or baking. Since I’m most positively one of the world’s worst singers, these are the only safe places for me – and ensure no collateral damage. Music CDs are the only things in our apartment, that could almost rival our cookbook count. Yes, that means I’m one of those people, that still prefer to buy the physical CD, with booklet and such, over an iTunes album. (But then I do purchase single songs at iTunes, sometimes. Especially disco tracks from the 70s and 80s.) Anyways, 2009 some fairly good music found its way into my heart.

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Recipe inspiration is ubiquitous today, cookbooks and magazines guarantee for constant inspirational influx. Yet when in doubt, I love to turn to food blogging buddies, whose recipe repertoire and quality level have proven successful over the years. Here are some awesome recipes, that made their way into my favorites folder last year and got cooked, baked or prepared multiple times since – and they for sure have the potential to make you food-happy, too:

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Initially we were scratching, biting and pulled dirty tricks to avoid the first (and second) generation iPhone virus, but as soon as Apple announced and released the 3G S, there was no turning back. Oliver and I had to have an iPhone. Said, done. And let me tell you, I wasn’t so excited about an electronic gadget since… probably my first Atari console. Not in my wildest dreams I would have imagined how useful it would become in daily life. Of course you can use it for a gazillion things, but I will list only those, that the food lover in me appreciates dearly:

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