"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.

“My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow.” Rita Rudner

We have made another turn around the Sun and have finally come to the time when everyone starts recipe hunting for the best holiday ever, Thanksgiving. I cook every year and enjoy it completely however I do not only read about recipes during November. I am constantly on the prowl for the next best dish. Recipes are everywhere on the net and there is a glut. Some sites are better than others and below I have tried to list some of the ones I go to repeatedly. I may not cook everything I see on these sites but it is fun to see what is possible.
Food blogs

• 101 Cookbooks
• Ramblings of a frantic home cook
• Brownie Points
• Green Avocado
• FXCuisine
• Start Cooking
• Everyday Food

“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.

“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.

“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.