Plate Full of Memories                   Newsletter March 2009

                    ______    All the News that fit to Cook and Write about_______

My Soap Box:

What is new for cookbooks is not really all that new — but to most of us it is. From my recent research, I believe the kitchen computer is at least a decade old. Many of us use the Internet for recipes before we go to our old fashioned paper cookbooks, so using a computer is not a novel idea. We all know there are lots of Internet software programs to create our own shopping lists and store our recipes. In fact, you may recall my recent rant about the cell phone being used as a portable device at the grocery store. Today on my grocery trip, I did not have a pen in my purse to scratch through my purchases so I worried that I had left something in the store that would be needed for my dinner tonight. Before I unpacked, I took my pen to the list and was relieved to find that I was able to scratch out the entire list. (Cell phones will not work for me.)

I digress. Kitchens are being designed with computers for your recipes. In one of my recent cooking magazines, they showed a nice little monitor to display on your counter so you could read your recipe while you cooked. I always print recipes from the web and then stored them in my three-ring notebook. I believe that touching the mouse with greasy hands would be a bit like spilling Coke on my keyboard, a nightmare in the making. I often show my most loved cookbooks in my classes with all their stains to demonstrate the level of their love and use. My keyboard and my monitor would not feel loved if they were splattered with grease.

Am I acting too old fashioned, or do some of you see a need for this? Can you tell me how it really works? I read this recent article from i-village and not one person remarked on how to keep the computer clean. Am I missing something? (Computers in Kitchen – Kitchens Forum – Garden Web)

As I did more research, I found an article on a Microsoft page entitled “How Useful Is a Kitchen PC?” (Published July 12, 2004, by Sharon Crawford, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist)

“I thought this the silliest idea since the recipe computer was first offered for a mere $10,600 in 1969… Then a couple of years ago we finally put a notebook PC in the kitchen. Soon we were keeping shopping lists and placing online grocery orders on the kitchen PC…. And since everyone cooks in our house and the atmosphere can become a bit strained when a fellow cook dribbles their demi-glace all over your mother's blackberry pie recipe, we started keeping our favorite recipes in a folder on the kitchen PC desktop.”

The article goes on to tell how to find recipes online, but nowhere does it address the problem of dribbling demi-glace all over the key board of their laptop. I read several articles on how to hook up everything for your kitchen computer, but no one addressed the splatter and splash problem. I confess that I do carry my laptop to the kitchen to read email, but I never cook from the screen. I cook while looking at paper from a cookbook or a piece of paper printed from the computer. So I am really looking for understanding, and how to leave a few trees growing in the forest for my everyday recipes.

I would like to address all the video recipes on the web. I think they would be helpful if I watched them before I went to tackle a recipe, but not as a step-by-step demonstration. I am sure that if I were trying to debone a chicken, a step-by-step video would be more helpful than instructions in a printed book. This would be one time I would open my laptop and keep it within viewing distance. Viewing distance would be far enough away that the splashing juices would not reach the screen.

If Grandma or Great-Grandma are still around to cook their famous dishes, a video session would be nice to document the event for future generations of the family. That would be a great way to honor them and connect all the generations of your family. There are several videos online at YouTube with Grams that will give you ideas on how to shoot and edit that kind of video. This is a bigger project than you think, so start with one recipe and see how it works before contemplating an entire cookbook. It might be a great idea for Mother’s Day!

Here is a video recipe site that you might find helpful in your everyday cooking and a good place to look before trying your own video. You may want to look at some videos for cooking problems that you need to solve. (100% Free Cooking Video, Wide Angle of Free Cooking Videos Professional & Home-style Cooking-How-To-Videos)

I am sure that you will find lots of video on all your favorite recipe sites but here are some links: Betty Crocker, Food Network, Look and Taste, The Recipe to Better Cooking,

   Epicurious, My Family Kitchen

Here is a list of Google links to get you there fast:

My last thoughts about the subject: Maybe I am just a great cook who cooks sloppily! I would love to hear your feeling and thoughts. I will post this as a blog and you can share your comments.