I’m a clipper. Not a Los Angeles Clippers fan, but a compulsive clipper of magazine and newspaper articles. This condition, along with high cholesterol, I got from my mom. Thanks, mom. For as long as I can remember, my mom has been clipping articles and saving them for me, my siblings, and now her grandchildren to read. I don’t mind it really, because it shows that she is always thinking of us.
I started clipping during my college years, because I was building up my recipe repertoire so that I could catch a good man. Well it worked – I got myself a good man, but now I’m a clipper that can’t stop herself! I’m following in my mom’s footsteps by clipping articles that I think my kids will be interested in reading. When they went off to college, I dutifully mailed them their monthly stack of clippings. They’ll thank me one of these days, I’m sure. Their envelopes usually contained funny cartoons that reminded me of them or articles about hometown folks and hometown events so they could stay in touch or sometimes the mom-type safety articles such as not using headphones or cell phones in a storm.
With spring cleaning on my mind, I am determined to attack my stacks of clippings. I clip articles with information that I can use on my blog or ones with helpful gardening tips, but I have to admit, the majority of my clippings are food-related. And worse than that, most are recipes that fall into the dessert category (sigh). What can I say other than I am a lover of desserts? But what a dreamer I am! If I live to be 100 years old, I will never have enough time to test all the recipes I’ve collected. And even if I did live that long, I would probably weigh 500 pounds by eating all the food that I’ve tested! So in an attempt to rid myself of all the stacks of clippings I possess, I am going to be more judicious while rummaging through them. Only recipes that look to give the best results with the least amount of labor will survive to be tested. Difficult recipes and recipes with 50 or more ingredients, I’ll just drool over and then trash them. I’ll test a couple of recipes each week and post the recipe and the results on my blog. No matter what the outcome, I’ll provide you with my honest opinion of each recipe. If the recipe looks good to you, you can always try making it yourself – I’ve been know to screw up a recipe by not reading it correctly!
I’m motivated to attack the stack now. I’m going to power my way through the recipes just like Julie Powell, of the Julie and Julia fame, did. I’m going to start this project just as soon as I finish reading the morning paper . . .
What about this? 
Dear Linnell,
I have a confession to make. I too am a food clipper, a catalogue saver, an empty box collector and the list goes on. I feel your pain, you are not alone.
Best,
The Clipaholic
Hi Julie,
I didn’t want to bring up my box collection in the post, but, I, too, save interesting boxes so that I can deconstruct them and make templates out of them – just in case one of these days I need to make a special box! Creative-types like us see potential in everything!
Linnell
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