About this binder
The strip of wallpaper at the top of every page came from the front panel of a three-ring binder.
In the 1980s, my parents collected the family recipes — their own, their parents’, things friends had served at potlucks and dinner parties — and typed them up. Each recipe a single page, short story up top, ingredients in the middle, method below. The strip of wallpaper across the top was the only flourish: it ran along the front cover of the binder they assembled, a narrow band of ochre and forest green and magenta thistle.
They photocopied the pages, three-hole-punched them, and mailed them in matching binders to the relatives. Nieces, nephews, in-laws, cousins. That was how the cookbook traveled: by post, by hand, by photocopy.
The voices in here
There are 124 recipes, and 107 of them carry a story along with the ingredients. The voices are direct, dry, specific. Ned thinks the nachos are nutritious. Della served the artichoke hors d’oeuvres in Kansas City in April 1981, and Dorothy and Allan raved. Multiple batches have been served to wrinkled relatives as they emerged from the hot tub.
The story above each recipe is part of the recipe. We’ve preserved every word as it was typed, typos and all. Pot Stickers/Chinese Dumplings stays on one line. Lemon M1lk Sherbet keeps its 1.
This digital edition
This is The Original Binder — the canonical edition. It doesn’t change. Every recipe shipped here is dated to the original 1981–2017 collection window and attributed to the original binder. What we’ve added is findability: search across all 124 at once, browse by the family member who’s mentioned, by the occasion, by the regional origin. A random-recipe button if you don’t know what to make. Saved bookmarks for the ones you’ll keep coming back to.
Editions
The binder was always meant to travel. This site is a starting point, not the only point. Anyone in the family can make their own edition — their own binder — by forking this one. Curate which recipes you keep. Modify the ones you’ve made your own (with a note saying what you changed, and a link back to the original). Add your own. Pass it on to your kids. Read about making it yours →
The Original Binder is the reference; every edition descends from it. You can always trace the lineage. See all binders →
The corrections to this About page belong with the family. If you have one to make, the page is a fork away.