We love to see the ways you keep your recipes together - from soup-stained, handwritten hand-me-down books to the most elaborate filing systems. Tell us how you look after treasured recipes by emailing greg.roughan@fairfaxmags.co.nz - and, if possible, send us a photo.
Judith Smallbone of Rotorua writes:
Love the idea of finding out about people's family recipe books, I love mine and in fact count them as most treasured possessions!
I collect old NZ recipe books and often spend hours just reading them.
The photos are of my grandmother's books, the smaller was one she started while at school and the other was the "everyday" folder I remember that we would bake from.
The more colourful book is mine, compiled over the last 22 years. When it was looking a bit boring I started to get the kids to make wee pictures to go with the recipes.I take it everywhere I travel! It complements a very large collection of store bought books...more bookcases are needed!
When I was growing up my mum had a recipe drawer that always was a mess! and was full of magazine cutouts etc...I said that "I would never have a drawer like that"!! and have tried hard to always stick in/copy out recipes to avoid that pile!
I love the way the kids use the book now to whizz up the favourites
Caroline Otton from Wellington writes: You were asking for information on how we record and keep all of our recipes. Well, here's my recipe story...
Many years ago, I started writing recipes on index cards which I organised according to the course or type of meal the recipe related to. Two index boxes later, I saw a beautiful, red faux leather recipe book in a department store in England. I bought it, and spent many evenings transfering the best recipes from the index cards into my new book. Divided into sections for soups, meat, fish, desserts etc, it even has a section at the back for magazine clippings and an index. Now nearly full, I'm on the look-out for volume 2!
Andree Withington writes: We live in a beautiful area on the inner Tauranga Harbour just south of Katikati and have a B & B (Strathmore Lodge) on our farm.
I love to cook and put together a scrapbook of favourite family recipes and gave them to my neighbour for Christmas. I enclose a couple of the pages.   
Jan Landmann writes: Years ago, I adapted an accordion style business binder to hold all those recipes given to me by friends and family or clipped from magazines such as NZH&G. To replace the alphabetical segments, I re-labelled them to suit my own style of categorising recipes:
Beverages
Cocktails & Drinks
Appetizers
Dips & Spreads
Soups & Sandwiches
Salads
Dressings & Sauces
Vegetables
Fish & Seafood
Shellfish
Poultry & Stuffing
Meats & Meat Dishes
Savoury Pies & Quiches
Pizzas
Pasta & Rice Dishes
Egg & Chees Dishes
Cakes Pies & Desserts
Cookies Muffins & Squares
Breads & Rolls
and finally,
Miscellaneous, for information on cooking temperature conversions, canning and preserving, nuts, honey, etc.
A colourful red ribbon ties the binder together and only those recipes which have been deemed worthy of keeping and repeating are filed inside. The binder has travelled the world with me, so the recipes inside are as varied as the countries I’ve lived in. Although I have shelves of wonderful cookbooks, it’s the recipe binder I turn to most often for the tried and true recipes that always mean home.
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