@nancyinpink: You may not realize that you can review all the notes you've made on books and recipes from your profile page (click on your member name in the upper right hand corner to get there). On the green bar, you can view your books (the default), but also magazines, blogs, and Notes. You still have to scroll through them rather than search, but it's a lot handier than raw searching.
You can also do the same thing for any other member. Breadcrumbs may be the member most eager for searchable notes, given that she's made hundreds of them!