Creating A Recipe Binder

In terms of kitchen organization, there are some things that I like to have just so. My drawer with food storage containers is arranged by size and shape with a lid organizer making it easy for me to grab a container and find the coordinating lid. My spices are arranged with all the labels pointing out, making it easy for me to grab what I need each and every time.

And while I excel in these areas, there was one part of my kitchen that was sorely lacking as far as organization was concerned. I had no real method of keeping track of recipes. I’d tried a card system, but so many of my recipes came in different sizes, it just wasn’t feasible for me to move them all over to index cards. The fact was that I didn’t have time to do it, and I was never going to make the time to do it, even if I had very real intentions of doing so.

Instead, my recipes sat in a basket, tucked into pages of my cookbooks and stored in folders and bookmarks on my computer. It came to an ugly head this year while I was attempting to bake Christmas cookies with my sister. I’d purchased the ingredients. I knew the recipe by heart…except for that baking portion and the amount of sugar I needed to put in there. I had gone through the recipe basket twice in an attempt to locate the piece of to-do list paper that a friend from church had scrawled her pecan crisp recipe on for me to bake. She was getting old, and she had asked one year if I’d be kind enough to make them for her. They had been a hit and became a regular addition to my holiday baking.

Finally, I caved and attempted to call her, but there was no one home. Now what? Frustrated, we started on the next cookie in our baking list, bypassing the pecan crisps. As I was opening the cookbook from my grandmother and started turning pages I came across the recipe, tucked in right next to the other Christmas cookie recipes, naturally. All together in one nice, neat little package. Except it wasn’t so “neat.”

When I opened my sister’s gift on Christmas, I found a binder for organizing my recipes. Apparently she couldn’t handle the basket method any longer. I’m so excited to use it! One problem I’ve had when considering options is that none of them are exactly what I want, so I just don’t purchase anything, and because she knows me so well, my sister fixed that problem.

First, there are dividers. Every organized binder needs dividers, but these are even better than the plain heavyweight ones because they have pockets. This means that when I have odd-sized recipe cards or oddly shaped clippings, I can file then by recipe type right in the pocket. I can always tape them to a sheet of paper to add behind the dividers later, but there’s an immediate solution to get the recipe where it needs to be for me to find it easily.

Beyond the dividers my sister included several sheet protectors, which makes slipping printed recipes or whole magazine pages into a breeze. I can’t use the excuse that my three-hole punch isn’t readily available. Plus, both the dividers and the sheet protectors are plastic, so I don’t have to worry about having them out on the counter while I’m cooking for fear of spilling on them. Grease spots and drips no more!

I’ve already started organizing my recipes, and for now I’m using sticky notes to mark the different categories until I decide exactly what I need. Perhaps my husband needs his own grilling and “From the Patio” section, and I’m pretty sure devoting a whole tab to truffles isn’t out of the question. Valentine’s Day is on its way.

This is, by far, one of the best Christmas presents. It was thoughtful and a surprise, and because she knows me, my sister left all the guesswork out of it and got me something I can customize to fit my needs.