Create a Family Recipe Binder

Confession time: I’m a recipe hoarder. There, I said it. Over many years I’ve amassed a small mountain of recipes. We’re talking about a mix of family heirlooms, hastily scribbled notes, magazine cutouts (vintage style), digital snapshots, and everything in between. The problem? Well, it turns out my organization skills were as haphazard as a blender on high, without a lid. Enter the game-changer: a Family Recipe Binder.

This isn’t just about sorting papers and pictures; it’s about preserving memories, flavors, and lots of love. It’s about connecting to the past and seasoning the future with family meals that are more than just eating. They’re about togetherness, sharing stories, and nurturing our well-being around the dinner table. And in our fast-paced, screen-dominated world, sitting down for a family meal is like a wellness retreat for the soul.

And since I can’t seem to leave well enough alone, always tweaking recipes to our tastes, I needed something I could scribble on, rearrange, and update as my whims and disasters dictated. When I’m done with it, this will be more than just a collection of recipes. This binder is destined to become an heirloom, passed down to my daughters, hopefully becoming the pride and joy of their kitchens. I want them to have those wonderful kid memories that come to life when they cook a favorite recipe and smell the aromas coming from the kitchen.

Do you regularly (or even just sometimes) scramble for where you put that recipe? Or have a number of cookbooks that you keep for only a handful of tried-and-true dishes? Then let’s get to creating a binder where you keep and can easily find all your family’s favorites!

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Step 1: Organize the Chaos

Sort and Eliminate

The first thing to do is organize. This ended up taking me awhile because I had too many recipes. I needed to get rid of quite a bit. It’s amazing how my tastes have changed in the last 15ish years (happy to say I’m much healthier now!) Plus, I’m much more realistic about what I will and won’t attempt in the kitchen. Any recipe that has too many ingredients, or ones that I need to go hunt down at specialty stores will NEVER get made. Out it goes. I also pulled out the few recipes from several cookbooks that I wanted to save. These were probably the reason why I got the books to begin with.

Group by Dish Type

Then comes grouping the recipes by dish type and main ingredient (or whatever makes sense to you), saving you from scrambling in the future. Because let’s face it, we should be done playing ‘Where’s Waldo?’ in the kitchen looking for that recipe you saved and want to try.

How you organize should directly correlate to how you go about planning (or NOT planning) and making your meals. I tend to have a protein that I want to use for dinner, such as ground beef or chicken. Then I’ll want a recipe that I can use for that. So, my entrées are organized by type of meat, or meatless.

Step 2: Create the Pages of Your Family Recipe Binder

Once grouped, you want to cut, arrange, and tape them onto both sides of sturdy paper (a crafty side-project that had me at “hello”). These pages then go into plastic sheet protectors and nestled into 3-ring binders; each category separated by tabs. Depending on how many recipes you have and the size of the binder, you may end up with multiple binders. I ended up with one for entrées, one for side dishes, and one for desserts and snacks.

Step 3: Edit, Take Notes, and Personalize

Here’s where the magic happens. Those plastic sleeves? They’re not just for protection; they’re for play. Grab a dry erase marker and go to town – tweaking recipes, noting who made gagging noises (and who wanted seconds), and maybe doodling a stick figure chef (that’s me, by the way). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made a meal that my family loved, but I never made it again because I didn’t have a place to jot that information down.

And if a recipe bombs, out it goes. This is culinary Darwinism, and only the tastiest survive. If the dish wasn’t good enough to make again? I simply take it out of the sleeve, and I have room for a new one.  Even though I STILL have a lot of cookbooks, I always go to these scrappy books first to find a recipe.  I know these are all dishes my family would like, and I typically have the ingredients on hand because I don’t do complicated in the kitchen.

Create Joy in the Kitchen – Use Your Family Recipe Binder Often

Now that you’ve got this great family recipe binder, use it and it will become your go-to kitchen companion. I know many culinary mavens who want to hang on to their old recipe card boxes that were handed down. And I completely agree with you! Save those original treasures. But you can easily create a digital copy and print it for a “working copy” to put in your binder. Which gives you the opportunity to tweak or update Grandma’s best recipes to use what you prefer.

Going through these pages is like taking a walk down memory lane. Handwritten notes from my grandmas and recipes from relatives who didn’t know what “digital” meant and used manual typewriters. These weathered, stained index card copies are the heart of my binders – they tell stories, evoke memories, and let’s not forget, contain some kick-ass recipes! Even though you can go to your phone or computer and find any recipe your heart desires online, I prefer flipping through these pages much more than my phone!

Creating a Family Recipe Binder isn’t just about being organized. It’s about embracing and continuing a legacy, one delicious meal at a time. These binders are more than collections. They’re stories and memories of the past, with your additions and tweaks of the present, all rolled into a mouth-watering future.

Eventually you will have all your tried-and-true family recipes just how you like them. Then you can create a new, one-of-a-kind, family heirloom recipe book that anyone in your family will be blessed and grateful to get. Signup for theRustiChic Newsletter below, and you’ll be notified when the follow-up post is live on how to take your Family Recipe Binder and create a beautiful recipe book from it. So, let’s get creating and cooking!

Let me know what you think about this project in the comments below. Are you a recipe saver? Or have your mom’s or grandma’s recipes found their way into your possession? If so, lucky you!!