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Tame All Those Recipes..........

© Ronda Asta

All through the holidays we collect recipes as we cruise those monthly magazines and local newspapers. They get tossed in a drawer or wherever else we put those recipes. For years I did just this and had lots of cookbooks at the time I "just had to have" piling up. Once I was even in one of those recipes clubs where cards arrived every so often. Over the years I've grown to where I don't cook too much, unless the mood really strikes, which it doesn't too often. One day I took a look at the mess and decided there had to be a better way. So much else in my life seemed in order - why was I having so much trouble with this are?

I finally thought of such a simple solution, I couldn't believe it took so long to think of it. I took some time to actually go through all these recipes, recipe cards and cookbooks I had. I tossed out lots of them. Those I knew I'd probably never try. You know the ones you've had for three years and never used once. I tore pages from cookbooks with recipes I honestly thought I might try, something not too complicated. Get getting rid of all those cookbooks (minus selected pages) freed up lots of space in my cabinet.

I then took a 3", three ring binder and labeled it "RECIPES". I gathered document protectors and tab pages. I labeled the different tabs: "Main Dishes", "Desserts", "Fruit", "Side Dishes", "Soups", "Breakfast", "Breads" and "Drinks". I took the entire collection of cut out recipes (which comes in various sizes) and taped them to the inside of the document protectors by category and simply placed them behind the appropriate tab. When you want to use them, just pull out the entire page to use. It will stay clean with the plastic document protector covering. If they do get splashed, just wipe them down and put them back in the binder. I took the recipe cards I chose to keep and punched them with my three-hole punch and just put them in the binder behind the appropriate tab. Since they're plastic coated, they clean of easy if soiled.

At the front of my recipe binder I have a "Common Food Equivalents" and measuring list punched and put there for easy access. The binder has small pockets in the front and back and I sometime toss new recipes there until I get them put in their appropriate document protector.

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