A reader has written in with the following question:
I’m searching for a good recipe organizer/holder – but one that I can distinguish ‘weekday’ meals versus ‘entertaining’ meals – where should I look??
I totally agree – finding a great and functional way to store and organize my recipes is always a huge challenge. I am currently working with a three part system consisting of the traditional recipe box filled with cards (my mom actually started this for me years back and filled it with family recipes, which I have been adding to), miscellaneous cookbooks that I slide into my clear cookbook stand while in the kitchen, and a vast library of recipes from assorted magazines that are very non-ogranized in a few files folders or stuck to the side of my fridge with a magnet.
That said, here are some thoughts:
A traditional recipe box like this is always a keeper. Recipes can be organized by genres via tabs.
This Personalized Recipe and Entertaining Journal from Williams Sonoma is a fantastic choice. It serves a dual purpose – allowing for both the storage of recipe cards, as well as providing space to detail guest lists, menus, etc.
A double sided recipe box like this might be a good choice for our reader’s specific need to organize everyday, quick recipes from those reserved for company and entertaining.
A while back, The Preppy Wedding posted about these cute monogrammed recipe boxes. While they don’t offer anything exceptional in the organization department, they are just too cute, and I certainly wouldn’t mind receiving one as a gift!
Do any of you have any great recommendations on recipe organization? We would love to hear!
flj
4 comments:
i love scrap booking so you could purchase a nice scrap book and then you can individualize each page with different details and stickers as per the recipe. and then you can organize the pages and change them around when needed. if you do one recipe per page you can also put a list of groceries needed on the back of the page and then when youre off to the grocery store you can just pull the page out and bring it with you!
Ok, I think I have to have the Williams-Sonoma recipe journal! That is a great way to organize recipes as well as make notes on what worked well - a must have! Currently, I have a standard recipe box and find that I often forget about some of the great recipes that I have! -neill
As you get older and busier with work, dogs, kids, aging parents :), and as the recipes become longer & more complicated, it's just easier to keep an organized notebook with dividers. Everyone either ends up copying stuff off the internet or ripping pages out of a magazine. The note cards are nice, look great, etc., but really, who has time to sit down and copy the recipes - and what do you do if they don't fit on one card?
I use a binder with sheet protectors. You can organize them however you want, and when you want a recipe, you just pull it out and it's already got a splash-proof cover that you can wipe down if necessary before you refile it. I'm just using an old W&M binder left over from college, but you could get a fancier one if you wanted to. If your recipes are on sheets smaller than full-sized pages (like cards), you can use sheet protectors that hold that size (like photo inserts). Or you can mix and match if you've got all different sizes.
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