Recipe Cards

I've recently been invited to a few bridal showers.  In the envelope with the invitation came an index card for me to write down a favorite recipe and bring to the shower.

Oooooh, you're thinking.  What a nice idea.  It's really not.  Mostly because my recipes do not fit on an index card, and also I would much rather just hit print.  Being aware that most people do not archive all of their recipes on a personal cooking blog though, I will admit that many people's recipes are in a cookbook or on their own cards.  Still, wouldn't these just be easiest to make a copy of and bring with you, instead of transcribing?  So I digress, and should explain that I think that recipe cards are a poor way to store information.  They are small, and easily lit on fire. 

You know what is a great way?  The 3-ring recipe binder.  You can go fancy, or you can get a 3-ring binder and a bunch of sheet protectors.  That way, you can print, copy, or handwrite a recipe into the binder.  That way I don't have to rewrite a recipe into a teensy-tiny index card and constantly mess up, cross things out, and confuse the reader.  One shower I went to asked me to just bring a recipe on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, and then we put them in sheet protectors at the shower.  It was very nice.  And way easier.

So if you are currently planning a shower, a recipe binder makes a great gift, and just ask the guests to bring a recipe to go in it.  Or send out a recipe card, with wide lines and a lot of room to write! (And don't write "Recipe for" at the top, because some moron will write in the bride's name and not what the actual recipe is for!  They will do this in pen, and feel like a doofus.)