Create a recipe notebook

(Real Simple) -- Nothing's so annoying as wanting to make your friend Sally's snickerdoodles and not being able to find the recipe -- or her cell-phone number for that matter.

A binder system can solve one of the most niggling kitchen problems -- keeping track of recipes. This is more than just a place to stash clippings: It works for the novice as well as the gourmet.

Unfortunately, this binder will not cook four separate dishes for four sets of picky taste buds. But it will help you avoid the anguish in locating the recipes.

Setting Up the System

1. Categorize and Subcategorize. Instead of organizing your recipes by appetizers, entrees, and desserts, make your categories as specific as possible. Break them down by major ingredient (poultry, beef, pork, etc.), type of side dish (salad, rice, potatoes), or kind of dessert (brownies, cookies, pies).

2. Protect. Keep your recipes behind the plastic sleeves when you cook so they stay splatter-free.

3. Consolidate. Instead of flipping back and forth between your recipe collection and stacks of cookbooks, jot down the names of recipes, the cookbooks, and the page numbers on a sheet in the appropriate divider of your notebook. Discard recipes that your family doesn't like or ones that no longer fit into your life, like the peanut-butter cookies you used to bake before your daughter became allergic to them.

4. Assemble. Buy a binder that holds more pages than you think you will need; recipe collections tend to grow. And if the binder has side pockets, you'll be able to stash recipes when you're in a hurry.

5. Clip. You'll be more inspired to make a dish if you clip out a photo of it (if there is one) along with the recipe. Plus, it will make your binder look like a customized cookbook.

6. Separate. Use colored background paper to divide each chapter between "tried-and-true" recipes and "to try." That way you'll know which recipes you can count on for company and which experimental ones might be best tested on the family first.

7. Date. If a year has passed since you've clipped a recipe and you still haven't tried it, throw it away. If you haven't made the dish yet, you probably never will.

8. Comment. Make notes on the recipes when you use them. If your five-year-old usually hates spinach but loves spinach-and-Cheddar souffle, write it down. If the baking time is slightly off, or if you think one ingredient might substitute for another, write that down, too.

9. Color-Code. Use dot stickers to highlight recipes for specific occasions. Red means "quick-and-dirty weeknight"; blue means "for special occasions only." Other categories: holidays, potlucks, dinner parties, healthy eating. Real Simple: Pantry problems solved

Quality Ingredients: The Gear

Three-ring binder: If your collection expands into more than one binder, choose a different color for the second binder so you can easily tell them apart. Look for plastic binders that are easy to wipe clean.

Plastic sleeves: Clear plastic sleeves keep recipes free from splatters of oil, drips of tomato sauce, and other kitchen effluvia. They also let you read a recipe printed on both sides of a card or magazine page. (Print File archival print preservers, $8 for 25, www.pfile.com and photo-supply stores.)

Colored paper: Tape, glue, or paste clipped recipes to a sheet of paper, then slide the paper into the sleeve (you can fit more than one recipe on a sheet). The paper keeps the recipes -- whether they're on index cards or pieces of paper -- from slipping around. Colored paper is also a great way to organize the pages.

If you've been using an index-card box for your recipes, just tape the card onto paper and slip it into the plastic sleeve. If the recipe continues onto the back of the card, slip it into the sleeve by itself so you can read it from both sides. Attach the recipes vertically so that you can read them when using the binder as a stand, leaning it against the wall behind your counter.

Dividers: Use tabs to mark the different sections.

Divider pockets: If your binder doesn't have built-in side pockets, attach Peel & Stick Add-On Filing Pockets ($6 for 10, www.cleansweepsupply.com).

Dots: These highlight specific recipes for specific purposes. (Avery Color Coding Labels, $5 for 1,000, Staples, www.staples.com.)Real Simple: 14 Surprising uses for your microwave E-mail to a friend

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