What's for dinner?

I have a good friend (who will remain nameless - but you know who you are) who's an amazing cook and baker. She puts the rest of us to shame with her cakes made from scratch. She keeps all of her recipes on the computer, and plans her meals well in advance. She will then publish the week's menu and post it on the fridge so her husband and son know what they'll be having each night for dinner. Then, she is able to print out her shopping list and head to the grocery store without any risky impulse buys. Clearly, she needs no help from me!


For the rest of us, who clip endless recipes out of magazines with the best intentions of trying every one, I have a more easily-implemented (and perhaps a bit more practical) solution: The Recipe Binder. You can get it together in no time, and you'll really feel like you accomplished something.


1) Pick up any standard three-ring binder, some clear plastic sheet protectors, and binder insert pages with 4 pockets to hold 3x5 cards. (Usually photo pages will do the trick.) You will also need a set of tab dividers.

2) Collect all of your loose recipes, clippings, magazine pages, printouts, and recipe cards. Divide them into categories of your choosing - breakfast, appetizers, poultry, grilling, etc. (If you're anything like me, dessert will be a disproportionally large category.)
Do a purge of the recipes that you are never going to use. (Let's be honest, do you really think you're up to the task of making Chateau Briande? Better stick with pot roast.)

3) Set up the tabbed dividers with labels for each category.

4) Punch holes in any full-size page recipes, or slip them into sheet protectors to save them from spills and stains.



5) Slip recipe cards into the pocketed pages.



6) Put everything together, and ta-da, you have a handy, organized recipe binder in no time.

Now if I could just try to make the Snapper with Spicy Pineapple Glaze instead of just ordering a pizza...where is that jar of cayenne pepper, anyway?