This is where my recipes for cinnamon rolls, fruit pies, lemonade, ginger creams and a myriad of others live.

I'm not an especially well-organized person.
This character trait manifests itself in a multitude of ways; the piles of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, the dirty dishes resting semi-permanently on the kitchen counter, stacks of mail needing to be sorted...
You get the idea.
One area that seems disorganized from the outside-looking-in is my method of recipe storage.
Oh, I own a recipe file. It belonged to my DH for years before we even met. But the only recipes I use from the file are ones not available in my cookbooks, such as my grandmother's recipes for banana bread and oatmeal cookies, my mom's brownie recipe, another grandma's recipes for sugar cookies and gingerbread boys, etc.
No, the recipe file is definitely not my primary organizational tool for recipes.
What do I use?
My brain.
I know, it's hard to believe, but I keep my recipe file in my head.
I know which of my myriad cookbooks holds a particular recipe, despite owning at least 50 or more cookbooks. When we moved here two years ago, I purposely reduced my cookbook collection down to a more manageable size, keeping only those books holding recipes I use.
I love cookbooks, often choosing to read from my collection, usually late in the afternoon. Sometimes I'll grab a cookbook looking for a dinner idea, and get lost amidst the glories of Italian pasta sauces and rich desserts.

This is where my recipes for calzones, oven roasted tomato sauce, rosemary-pear pizza, pizza crust and a super-yummy pasta sauce with goat cheese live.

Of my many Italian cookbooks, I know which one has the recipe for ricotta gnocchi, which one has the rosemary-pear pizza, and in which tome resides my favorite focaccia recipe. I know where to find my blueberry pie recipe, where the pumpkin bread recipe is, and where to locate the zucchini-crusted pizza we enjoy so much in the summer.

Each of these recipes is in a different cookbook, but somehow, I can always find them.

Recipes for eggplant ziti parmesan, whole grain pancakes, my favorite zucchini bread and applesauce muffins live in here.

I've tried a few times to copy recipes onto cards. I dutifully place them in the recipe file, where they rest undisturbed, never again to see the light of day.Instead I'll grab the cookbook, flip open to the right page, and embark upon a familiar culinary journey.

I found my favorite recipe for pumpkin bread in this book. It's the only recipe I use on even a semi-regular basis from it, but I bought it for 25 cents at a book sale nearly as many years ago. Not a bad return, I don't think.
As I age, I figure my family will have a good barometer to measure my mental acuity. All they have to do is ask me to find the recipe for gingerbread muffins...