With the holidays fast approaching, most of us are pulling out our favourite recipes to enjoy with family and friends.
Years ago, one of my sisters put together two binders full of tried and true family recipes. She typed in the recipes from various sources (bless her!) and after printing them out she slipped the 8.5 x 11-inch pages into clear plastic sleeves so the sheets would be protected from splatters. Tabs in the binders divided the recipes by categories (cakes, cookies, meats, veggies, etc.) and everything was popped into two matching binders.
She then distributed the binders to her siblings and now presents her nieces and nephews with copies as they leave home for the first time.
You can use plastic sleeves and tabbed page dividers to organize your favourite recipes into binders.
Over the years, I have added recipes printed from the Internet (I am a messy cook, so cooking with my laptop nearby is a VERY bad idea, hence the need for hard copies), magazines, and friends. I’ve also added photo-album-style clear plastic sleeves (with four 4×6-inch slots per page) so recipe cards can be slipped in and out.
When friends ask for a recipe, I can quickly locate what I need in the binder and, better yet, if their request is for a recipe from the computer file (I’ve kept that file so I can add to or edit the binder contents), I can e-mail the recipe over to them with just a few clicks of the mouse.
So what is your system for keeping track of your favourite recipes?
