The problem I’ve always had is keeping track of where I’ve found all of these recipes. Many of these sites provide a Recipe Box feature that allows you to collect recipes, yet nearly all of them limit you to collecting recipes from one site. This is why I set out a few years ago to create One tsp. — a place where I can store recipes found anywhere on, or off, the Internet.

The task of copying recipes into One tsp. has gotten a whole lot easier. A few months ago, I released a one-click tool for copying recipes from some of the top recipe sites directly into your One tsp. recipe box. The “Recipe Clipper” is a bookmarklet that you can add to your web browser. It’s just like a bookmark, but instead of pointing to a web address, it contains a small amount of JavaScript code that copies the recipe you’re viewing into your One tsp. account. That’s right… with one click, you can copy an entire recipe right into One tsp. And from there you can add tags, create shopping lists, and go mobile — just like you do with any of the recipes you’ve already added to One tsp.

If you want to see it in action, check out this video demonstration of One tsp. that highlights the bookmarklet.

Then install the Recipe Clipper into your browser* and start clipping recipes.

Instructions for installing on an iPhone or iPad are available in the help articles.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about the clipper. You can always feel free to contact me directly with questions or comments!

* Sorry, but Internet Explorer is not yet supported.

There has been no shortage of emails asking about how to post photos for your recipes on One tsp. I’m happy to say that (after a loooong wait) we now support recipe photos.  You’ll find a link on the right-hand side of the recipe page that will allow you to upload a JPG, GIF, or PNG that will appear with your recipe on the web site and the mobile recipe site.

So get in there and start uploading!

Today we released an export feature that is available from your profile page.  By downloading your recipes to your computer, you can be sure they will be available even if you cannot connect to the Internet.

To get started, sign into One tsp., then click on your username at the top of the page.  The download option is available in the section titled, “Backup My Recipes”.

Your recipes will be downloaded as multiple text files stored in a single zip file.  Each file contains a single recipe.  We are using a custom format for exported recipes.  Because we allow for flexible formatting in the recipes you add to One tsp., it is difficult to adapt every recipe to some of the more common recipe formats.  However, we use the same format for all of the exported recipes and it is certainly possible to parse these files into other formats (for all of you nerds out there).

A sample of our current recipe format is shown below.  Contact us if you’d like more information about the format, or have requests for other formats.

----- Recipe exported from One tsp. (ver 0.1)

Mom's Granola

Home-made granola, served with milk.

Source: Family recipe

Yield: 7-1/2 Cups
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

INGREDIENTS

4 C quick oats
2-1/2 C wheat germ
1 C coconut
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 T brown sugar
1/2 C honey
1/3 C salad oil
1 tsp. vanilla

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix first five ingredients together.
2. Add honey and mix well.
3. Add oil and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
4. Spread in un-greased 10"x15" pan.
5. Bake at 325F for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. When cool, store in covered container.
7. Optional: Nuts and raisins, sesame seed, sunflower seed may be added.
8. Serve with milk.

----- Recipe end

Here are some ideas for new tags you can use to organize your recipes.

Organize levels of difficulty

Many recipe sites have a specific field available for easy, medium, or difficult. Use these tags on each of your recipes to figure out which dishes are going to be a cinch, and which are going to require a little extra motivation.

Additionally, think of using tags like one-dish or casserole to label recipes that are going to make for easy clean up.

Five Stars

We don’t have stars on the site to rate each of your recipes, but you can make your own with tags.  Try tagging recipes with one to five asterisks: *, **, ***, ****, and ***** to highlight which recipes you like best (and least).  Of course, if you don’t like a recipe, why are you keeping it in the first place?

Primary ingredients

This should be an obvious choice.  Most of my recipes are stored with a protein or other primary ingredient.  Think of tags like: chicken, pork, tomato, or tofu.  Additionally, you might specify more general ingredients or descriptions like vegetarian, fat-free, gluten-free, or diabetic to keep track of health-conscious recipes.

Which course?

I use tags like soup, salad, and entree to distinguish recipes that fit specific courses.  Additionally, I’ll use breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I want to split out recipes that maybe I’d only eat in the morning, noon, or evening.

International cuisines

Finally, if you consider yourself a worldly eater, organize each of your recipes according to country of origin.  I have a lot of Japanese and Italian recipes in my cookbook.  Obviously you could use other like Middle-Eastern, Latin-American, or maybe German to organize your own recipes.

Share your ideas

Have your own favorite ideas for tags that I haven’t covered here?  Share them in the comments below!

I encourage you to try the Recipe Clipper bookmarklet, instead. The clipper allows you to save recipes from a selection of the top recipe sites on the web.

1. Visit http://onetsp.com/

2. Sign-in to your account (or create an account for free)

3. Follow the installation instructions.

This is the coolest feature yet. I used to think that being able to pull up recipes on my iPhone while in the grocery store was handy. But now, you can add as many recipes as you want to your shopping list and then check off each item on your phone as you find it in the store.

You can also add any other items to your shopping list, even if they have nothing to do with cooking at all.

What I’m trying to say is shopping lists totally rock! Sign up today and try them out.

One tsp.’s mobile interface works on just about any smartphone, but is super handy on iPhone’s and the Palm Pre. If you’re using One tsp. on another mobile phone, tell me about it.

For users new to One tsp., the app runs in the web browser and registering for an account is free. This is better than recipe software that you would install on your phone because you can also access and manage your recipes from your desktop computer or anywhere else you have access to a web browser.

Thanks for the screen shots, Anthony!

Turns out, however, that as things were up until this weekend, that sometimes meant jumping back and forth between recipes, or having to look up recipes again through your tag list. There is no search on the mobile interface… yet.

So this weekend I added a history list for your most recently viewed recipes, which is available from the home page on the web and mobile sites. So after looking through recipes at the office, you can head to the grocery store and quickly refer back to the two, three, or four recipes you were digging through — right from the One tsp. home page.

This sort of stuff will continue to get easier with the additions planned over the coming weeks.

When your friend receives your recipe by email, they will have the opportunity to copy the recipe directly into their One tsp. account… instantly. No typing! Give it a shot today. Send one of your favorite recipes to a friend.

Not familiar with One tsp.? What are you waiting for? It’s one of the coolest recipe organizers around, allowing you to store all of your recipes online so you can view them from anywhere you have access to a computer… at home, at work, or even in the grocery store from your mobile phone using our great mobile recipe website.

I’m also getting a better test suite together of mobile phone emulators to make sure that users with iPhones, BlackBerries, Opera Mini, or any other mobile browser are all seeing relatively the same thing. I don’t expect it to be perfect — I’d just like it to work.

I wanted to also mention that the dev.mobi site (and other sites affiliated, see their header links) has a ton of great information about building mobilized web sites.

Thanks for the plug, guys.