Recipe Holder

My wife, Colleen, comes from a tradition of great cooking. In our family over the years the cookbook or recipe card was placed on the counter amidst the ingredients. As a result, our cookbooks and cards are smudged with lots of character.

I have recently taken on cooking dinner and found I had to keep moving the cookbook and recipe card. Though I didn’t want another item on the counter, I felt we needed a recipe holder.

That night in thinking about a space saving cookbook/card holder I realized I could incorporate our angled knife rack as a support for a cookbook without increasing the footprint size by much more than the original knife rack.  

I began with a single sketch of a cradle that fit the back of the knife rack.

After scavenging 4 pieces of 8”x 8” vertical grain fir and laminating them together I ended up with a block of wood 3”x 8”x 8”. That is not much material. I jointed a flat face and working edge. One thing led to another and soon I had this holder that integrated with the knife rack.

Colleen loves it and it is one of the best Christmas gifts I have given her. It is conservative and functional.  It provides value and satisfaction and cost me relatively nothing but my time. 

And the true test is how quick Colleen took to it. After using it we wondered how we ever did without it.