Advice - how to turn 25lbs of cooking mags into a binder full of recipes

So I need some advice and I know that those who read this are full of advice.

I have a substantial number of cooking magazines. About half of them are the amazing and free Food and Drink (from the LCBO - even if you don't partake in alcohol, go in and grab one). The other half are Gourmet. There are some other smatterings of Cooks Illustrated, Savour, and Bon Appetit. I have some Fine Cooking mags but they are too nice to chop up.

Unfortunately the magazines are mostly ads and articles that, while interesting, aren't worth keeping. I want to just keep the recipes; with the vain hope of making a majority of them (probably not going to happen, but I want to keep then anyways).

So I got this idea from my wonderful sister - just cut out the recipes and stick them in a binder. A very good idea - I can probably reduce the whole lot to a single (large) binder.

But there is the question of how to do it en masse? I don't really want to tear them out - that can be messy. Below are a couple of options I've considered - both of them involve removing the spine of the magazine and then picking out the pages with recipes:

1. Find a willing friend with a table saw and saw off the spines. This is probably the quickest, but I am a little afraid that it won't be good for the saw and/or the magazine sheets.

2. Find an old, heavy-duty paper cutter, guillotine style. Then I would slice off the spine with either my brute strength, or hook up a pulley or hydraulic jack system to do the dirty work. But I don't know if I can go through 75+ pages with a paper cutter...

So - I'm calling on you guys to help with this question - how can I transfer my cookbooks to binders? Any one who has a good suggestion that gets used will get a free dinner - they can even chose the recipe from the binder!

2 new things I love

Two new things I love.

1. Jars of Clay album Who we are instead. I know the CD has been out for almost 3 years now, but we just picked it up (or rather downloaded it from itunes). The album is more bluegrass (if that's the right word) then previous albums. It has the wonderful ability to make you feel happy and melancholy at the same time. It you enjoyed Jars early works but haven't bought any of their stuff recently, I highly recommend it.

Their new album Good Monsters has had some pretty critical acclaim, but I haven't listened to it enough to decide for myself.

2. Gridwars 2 (download). I'm not much of a gamer. Sure I have an XBox and a few games, but that was a gift from work - I would have never bought it for myself. But this game is something special. It is quick and twitchy, but there is also strategy and thinking. If you have a relatively recent machine and you want a quick diversion, grab the game (while it is still available).

Tonight I have wasted about an hour on it already. My highest score is in the low 300k.

Painting done - yaaaah

The painting in the living room and dining room is finished (except for a couple of areas that need to be touched up). We are very happy; we were able to sit down and eat for the first time in a week this evening. Hmmm grilled chicken, tomatoes and baslamic vinegar and mixed veggies.

Two rooms down, Six to go :)

New house - new paint

So Tara and I are painting our living room and dining room. Tara and her aunt picked out the colours. We picked up the paint last weekend and started the task of moving furniture, removing wallpaper, priming, taping and painting. I finished the last coat on the trim this afternoon (while Tara was at work) and after I post this, I am going to take off the tape, make any touchups that are needed (there is always needed touchups) and start taking the plastic off the furniture. Hopefully we can have everything moved back before we head out for the evening...

I'll post a pic of the finished product. But this is what it looked like before (with the furniture of the previous owners)

OSAS Horse Show

Last weekend was spend getting ready for and going to the OSAS horse show. We didn’t know if the weather would cooperate for us, but it did and a good time was had by all.

Horse show preparation for the non-rider involves heading out to the barn the afternoon before to pretty up the horse. The order of operations is:

1. Brush the horse
2. Wash the horse
3. Dry the horse
4. Re-brush the horse
5. Braid the long hair of the horse
6. Clip the whiskers off the horse
7. Spray the horse with showsheen
   
8. Paint the hoofs
9. Blanket and stall the horse
10. Pray that the horse doesn’t roll in its own manure before you get back to the barn in the morning.

Of course, no show preparation is complete without first a trip to the tack shop. We went to the local one in town who hooked Tara up with all she needed (plus a saddle to try out).

The day of the event was overcast but the rain held off for the most part. Tara (and I) had a great time. King and Tara got two 5^th places (walk/trot/cantor and hunter over X's) and a 1^st place in walk/trot (her prize was a black bridle)! Results here.

Our good friends Darren and Hannah showed up for the last class Tara was in (X's). They had never seen a horse show before and I think they had a good time.

And now for some fun pictures…