The helpful household cookbook

I have shelves upon shelves of cookbooks, plus at one point I had recipe software, and subscriptions to Vegetarian Times, Vegetarian Journal (a great vegan magazine) and Bon Appetit. Friends give me recipes. The internet provides a wealth of cooking info at your fingertips. How do you store everything?

I noticed long ago that I pulled recipes but never tried them and then when I needed to find a specific one, it was impossible. Or I didn't even have the slightest idea what was in the pile. So I developed a system. I have a pile for new recipes that I have not tried. I have some bookmarks in cookbooks, but for the most part, I use a binder.

ANY recipe I use on a regular basis, gets inserted into a plastic sleeve and stowed in a three-ring binder. The binder is separated into the following categories: appetizers (including soup), baking/desserts, bread, breakfast, drinks, entrées, salad, sandwiches, sides, snacks and vegetables.

In order to earn a place in the binder, it must be tested and approved by the family. The binder contains print-outs from my database when I had it, magazine clippings, hand-scrawled items even web pages printed. I have even copied pages from cookbooks I own. Because now I can flip through the volume and find a dinner recipe lickety-split. Without trying to remember where the recipe is stored. And the plastic means it cleans easily. The binder means it's easy to add pages. I love it.