Sometimes I find that I am uninspired in the kitchen simply because my recipes are scattered. It takes far too much effort to hunt down a recipe in an over-stuffed drawer of half-scribbled papers, coffee-stained index cards and torn magazine pages. I've tried different systems for recipes--a lackluster computer program, an index card box too narrow to rifle through--and decided that I like the binder system best, where recipes are neatly organized in page protectors sorted by tabs, always at the ready. My old binder, which had no tabs, began falling apart. And so I put to work making a beautiful new, organized binder to keep in my kitchen.
I found the binder itself at Target, and loved the red firecracker motif--it reminds me of the classic Better Homes & Gardens cookbook my mom used growing up. I searched through two office supply stores, as well as Amazon.com, for the perfect tabbed dividers, but never found ones that I loved. So I took a trip to Archivers and got coordinating 12x12 papers. 11 in all.
Archivers has a crafting area within the store, so I used one of their scalloped hole punches on off-white card stock to create the tab ends. I cut them in half for the front (labeled in pen by category: appetizers, brunch, etc.), and attached full scalloped circles to the backside to reinforce the tabbed dividers. I staggered them on the 12x12 papers so that five labels would show at a time (see above). Then I drew a line with a ruler, and cut around them so that they protruded and were easy to grasp. I cut the hole-punch side until they were the width I wanted, then laminated the dividers at Mardel; all 11 of them cost around $2 total to laminate at 25 cents a foot.
The categories I used were: appetizers, brunch, soups, salads&sides, crock&freeze, poultry, meat&fish, pasta&casseroles, desserts, holidays, miscellaneous
I filled it up with printed pages, index cards, even sentimental scribbles. Notice the "Apples of Gold" recipe below? (I had to give it a plug ;o)
And at least ten of these recipes came straight from the Heartland Moms blog. These ladies know how to cook a mean brunch!
I notice now that I'm more excited about cooking and meal planning because of this little beauty. And because it contains so much love and so many memories (good food feeds the soul), I was inspired to make duplicate binders for my mother-in-law and my daughter, Lorelei.
If you would like to print the recipes I've collected as our family's tried-and-true favorites, e-mail wendyleia@yahoo.com.
