"A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness." Elsa Schiaparelli

A passion of mine that I speak about often and use as analogies in my computer training is cooking. Whether it is a comparison to holding a good knife to using the mouse or the difference between Word and Excel (stir fry Vs. Baking) I am always up for a new cooking/recipe site. Thanks to Lifehacker I discovered the site Supercook. Now I do use my cookbooks frequently and foodie websites as well to give me new inspiration for the next meal but this particular site does something very different than the others. You input all the foods you have in the fridge and pantry and then it spits out a huge amounts of recipes. You have the option of choosing specific foods to be in your next meal. As an example I told it I wanted to cook with some spinach, it needed to be cooked or tossed, and then it went through all the other ingredients that I had and gave me a rather nice Spinach Pasta Pie recipe. It tells you if you have all the ingredients. It will also make ingredient suggestions to get the next time. There is even a printout grocery list. Everything about the site is easy and smooth. I heartily recommend it. Give it a try.

“I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with variation.” Jehane Benoit

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes with me knows that my entire life is in pursuit of the next meal. I sometimes have (want) to cook that meal but where do I search for a recipe besides my cookbooks? I usually head to Google to start and get hit with a bunch of irrelevant sites and then I end up at a site like Epicurous or Food network. I recently tried FoodieView. It is a recipe search engine. It searches most of the major recipe sites like Google but it pulls out the junk stuff. I like this cooking search engine but I do have a couple of gripes. No matter what I search I seem to get recipes from the same site first. This is not bad as long as you really like recipezaar. A quick pull down list of all of the sites it searches would be easy and would be a nice feature. Their cooking resources page is nice for discovering some sites that may need to be gone through for future cooking. If you have a meal to get ready give this one try.

“My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor” Phyllis Diller

Cooking and food are obsessions of mine. I love to go to recipe sites and see what there is to be made and then finally eaten. Sites with recipes and the ability to rate them has been out there for a long time. Bigoven however seems to mix the web 2.0 and cooking idea perfectly. They allow sharing and posting of recipes and they have some really wonderful other features.
I started to summarize they are all about and then I realized I could not interpret it easier than they put it. Head on over and give it a try.

• Search 160,000+ recipes and see ratings and tips from other cooks
• Enter ingredients you've got in your fridge and find out what you can make
• Find out what's freshest now
• Publish your favorite recipes online -- get photos and tips
• Get your free cooking page on the Internet that keeps track of your favorites
• Easily tag and link recipes together -- suggest pairings or use of leftovers
• Create your own "Try Soon" list -- never again be stuck for dinner
• Suggest recipes for your friends, earn cooking medals... much more!

“Leftovers in their less visible form are called memories. Stored in the refrigerator of the mind and the cupboard of the heart.” Thomas Fuller

Another Thanksgiving is under our belt (both figuratively and literally) and it is time to figure out what to do with all the leftovers. Last year I provided a site that had a list of recipes and help. This year it seems appropriate to keep up the tradition. I personally recommend a leftover party for everyone. I also ask people to bring the carcass if they are going to get rid of it so I can make a turkey stock out of it. As far as the actual meat and the rest of the dinner CdKitchen seems to have our backs with a long list of recipes. Everything is segmented into categories for all your grand turkey experiences. As far as party ideas head to Better Homes and Gardens for all sorts of ideas. So when you have finally digested the first meal and getting ready for the next give this one a try.

“I just hate health food” Julia Child

The purpose of the blog has always been to show how useful the computer and the Internet can be in our normal lives. The are some sites that will help us work faster or better, more efficient, but what about our bodies? Eat Better America is a nice site that tries to help with the issue of nutrition. It is a great site with lots of info. The recipes seem to be straight forward and look delicious. I might try some tonight. They also have targeted fitness routines depending on what you are looking for. I chose to get the beat on the heart as they put it so they steered me towards foods that will help my heart. It had examples along with pictures for all of them. I really like the you are what you eat section. As they put it nutritional information should not be as dry as Melba Toast. Give it a try.

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.” Fran Lebowitz

Many environmentalist recommend buying local produce and other food stuff to not only support agriculture in your area but because it reduces the need to fly in foods from around the world increasing pollution. I believe these are all sound reasons but I buy locally for one main greedy reason, the taste is usually better. Now where to find these local farms? There are two great sites. One is Farm Fresh Rhode Island. There are a lot of features like the maps showing all the Farmers' Markets in RI. Also the categorization here is very nice. There is a lot to explore on this here so take your time. Massachusetts has a similar site but not as user friendly. I would still check it out though.I figure you might as well eat better tasting foods while you save the environment.

“We are inclined to think that if we watch a football game or a baseball game, we have taken part in it” JFK

Now if you have been reading this for a while you know I am not a sports buff. I had to ask yesterday if the Superbowl was this weekend. For many the game is a sideshow while the commercials are the real attraction. So today I give you two places to watch those ads without the TV and the distracting game. One is Google Video and the other is AOL video. However you will have to wait a little while before you see the new ones. Now if you want to actually see information about the game check their site. Finally to roundup this rambling post, I have eaten many a snack during this game in the past and I usually leave with a chest full of heartburn so I give you a site for some better recipes. To anyone watching the game, have a good time and enjoy yourself. As for me, I will be on the net. Give these a try!

The real holiday

So it is the next day and you have a fridge that looks like it is prepared to handle radiation with all the tinfoil. But do you eat the same meal over and over again? It is, as far as I am concerned, the real holiday, El Dia De Leftovers. (Everything sounds better in fake Spanish.) So here are some websites to deal with the glut. Try:

Busycooks

Best Turkey Leftover Recipes

Cooks

Have a good time with all the possibilities and give them a try.

Quail Eggs???

As the big banquet approaches I have not done any grocery shopping because I know I will be doing it next week. This leaves me in a quandary of what to eat. I have a pantry full of interesting items I have picked up but I look at it with uninterested eyes. There are way too many choices that don’t seem to go with one another like canned quail eggs. Yes that is true! A site was started not too long ago to help with this complex decision of what to eat. It is called Snacksby. First there is a search button that you can input seemingly random foods and then it will come up with a list of possible items. Also you can start a free account and store all your food items there so you don’t have to do it twice. Their motto is “like MacGyver, but for food.” Don’t order out give it a try!

Looks edible

Anyone who has taken a class with me knows I use cooking as an analogy for computers because it works well and I am always hungry. I plan to do some posts on recipes and other cooking subjects but today is a different one. Many times I wander through the Asian markets for something new and interesting. The problem is half the time I don’t have a clue what it is like a durian. This is a fruit that is so sweet on the inside but so horrendously bad smelling on the outside that it is banned in some subways. Now I don’t have a clue what to do with this so I check the Cook's Thesaurus. This site is strange one. It gives a picture and description of foods from all over the planet. This stops people like myself from cooking the most poisonous part of a plant and throwing away the good stuff. Give it a try.