On an upcoming episode of the show, associate producer Hannah Classen will be looking at ways to food-proof your computer when you’re cooking in the kitchen.
Here’s Hannah:
“I really love to cook, and even though I own approximately 426 cookbooks, I cook from food blogs all the time. I find the fact that people can comment on whether recipes are any good, suggest adaptations or substitutions, and actually show you the process via video really awesome. But what to do when you’re a really messy cook and your very expensive laptop is your most-used recipe book? Do you cover the entire thing with saran wrap (my solution) or write out the recipe by hand or run back and forth from the kitchen to the computer?”
Do you have a solution for keeping the flour, water and chili flakes out of your computer?
Post your suggestions below or send us an email, and Hannah will try to work your comments into her story.
original photo by striatic
I personally don’t use cookbooks or anything like that. I just make it up. But i did see a cool blog on how one guy did it. Kitchenmac.com- very cool and interesting idea.
P.S Like the new site too.
Glad you like the site. I'm hoping these threaded comments get some use!
They are pretty neat. Like the idea.
Have a look at the youtube posting about whether I use a laptop in MY tiny kitchen!
LOL
George
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=c4c66sJ5GDQ&feature=channel_page
As a recipe book? No. As a kitchen radio, yes.
I use my laptop as a recipe book all the time. My kitchen has a counter and a small freezer in it. I usually prepare food on the counter and leave the laptop on the freezer. Food doesn’t get into the computer but I do have to do some walking to get things done!
To date, an open concept kitchen and an S-video cable have been my saving grace. My galley kitchen has a ridiculously large island, which separates the kitchen from the main living area. I place the laptop next to the 42 inch big screen TV and connect it with an S-Video cable. Voila – a screen big enough to read from 10-15 feet (which is farther from the spray of a Kitchen-Ais mixer at high speed…usually).
My alternative solution is incredibly low-tech and hit or miss depending on kitchen ligting.
- Identify recipe(s)
- Print off
- Slip recipes into sheet protectors
- Prop up on counter, tape to kitchen cabinet / fridge / counter.
Cheers!
I use my iPhone (my daughter uses her iPod Touch while cooking all the time). Dry ingredients don't hurt it, and it's small and doesn't get in the way. I love it! Check out this handy FREE recipe app: All Recipes (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa…)
I use my iPhone all the time too! Recipes apps plus a kitchen converter app. The voice-activated Google search is especially handy when I'm stuck on how to deal with a certain ingredient.
I do the same thing with my iPod Touch! Reading recipes with the tiny screen can sometimes be a challenge, but it's more portable than a laptop, and as long as I can zoom in on the ingredient list or the next step in the recipe, it does the job nicely.
I know it isn't very environmentally friendly, or particularly inspired, but I just print it off… my laptop is work supplied and I would be devastated (and fired…) if I wrecked it so…
Love the show
I also use my iPod touch for following internet recipes. Perfect!
I use the laptop as a recipebook. It is a wonderful way to get recipes from some of my favourite magazines without having to dig through the pile in my house. In addition, some of the websites let you can adjust totals with the click of a button.
Frequently, my husband is using the laptop while I cook and he yells out the next step/ingredient from the living room. I also use it to write my grocery list and menu for the week, with the former beign emailed to my husband's Treo. Then at the grocery store, I delete stuff once I have put it in the cart. This allows me to organize my grocery list according to the sections of the supermarket, making shopping a much quicker trip. A good thing when you have a nine-month old.
I'm still a search-and-print cook (epicurious.com is my usuall resource). I also use the digitized copies of cookbooks that the University of Guelph library has posted from their massive collection of cookbooks.
I have not used it yet, but Sous Chef for the Mac ( by Acacia Tree Software) looks useful. I especially like the 10 ft mode that allows the laptop to stay a safe distance away from the messy part of culinary experimentation. The developer claims that Sous Chef also does a good job of importing recipes from Web sites. Also has a "what's in my fridge" feature to help use up what's in the fridge…I should give it a try (my fridge is a very expensive composter at times).
Wow, great tip on the U of Guelph collection. Sounds like something we could follow up on for the show. Thanks!
Remember in the old pre-web days when manufacturers were first marketing computers to households, and the line was always "store your recipes on it" but of course no one did?
My grandmother has a hand-me-down computer in her spare bedroom. I think my father convinced her to put it in there with the promise of a huge recipe database. I doubt that she ever turns it on.
I'm far too protective of my laptop to bring into my tiny kitchen, but I do use it for researching recipes. Because I'm the kind of cook that almost never follows recipes step-by-step, I look for a variety of recipes for the same dish. When I get the gist of the dish, I start cooking and rarely run back to glance at the screen. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Usually it works out, sometimes it doesn't. To keep track of recipes I'll come back to, I save them to my browser's bookmarks. I guess that's my recipe book.
Access to recipe websites has changed the way I cook, actually, because you can look up recipes so much more easily according to the ingredients that you have on hand at the time. Of course, that means I've made a lot of things I never otherwise would have.
In other news, aren't these new "threaded comments" great!?
Yes, I like everything about the new site…there's something about its design that makes me happy when I look at it. I think it's the rounded corners. Great work, Team Spark!
"Yes!" he said (in a threaded reply).
I initially used my laptop as a recipe book but decided to put my Mac Mini in the kitchen instead. I mounted a 19" monitor to the side of the cupboards, installed the Mini underneath, and use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard to eliminate cable clutter. The set up has worked out well, leaving me counter space to make a mess of whatever recipe I find online. It has also been helpful when I need to Google how may tablespoons make a 1/4 cup for those times when I'm looking to cut the recipe in half.
Once my wife Allison and I decided to make tacos for dinner and as soon as the meat was ready to go we realised that we had no taco seasonings. We decided to try and figure out how to make homemade tacos that very minute. I ran upstairs and got a recipe while Allison tended to the meat and attempted to collect what she thought would be right. I ran back down, went through what she had picked and we made the meal. It was the greatest taco night ever thanks to the Internets huge selection of crazy recipes. We've stopped buying taco mix since.
I use my lap top for recipe guidance and as a stereo while i'm cooking… to keep it clear of flour, chili flakes etc I just place it on the toaster – its out of the way (unless I am adding liquid to my stand mixer) and its at eye level for easy referencing…
I was actually in the kitchen in my laptop while I listened to this.
It makes the mundane task of chopping veggies for minnestrone easier
I mean with my laptop
Sure ben, everyone one of us wants to be "in" our laptop. otherwise we won't be here. But making Minestrone is mundane to make.
I have most of my recipes in Evernote. That way, I can access them on my notebook, on my iPod Touch, or on my iPhone. There's no need to drag the laptop into the kitchen that way.
Laptops in the kitchen? That's so last season Nora!! For shame! I take my iPhone, use the «dinnerspinner» from Allrecipes.com, and it's all protected by that thin film of plastic that came with my iPhone silicon skin.
Hell, if newspapers are making a comeback, can recipe cards and boxes be far behind??
I own three 3-COM Audrey's [http://www.ideo.com/work/item/audrey/“target=”_blank”>http://http://www.ideo.com/work/item/audrey/andone is wireless and is sitting on my kitchen counter. I can view a specifically formatted recipes (640×480) that are stored as web pages off of a USB stick. Because the recipe web pages have a URL I can access them anywhere online and cook a meal for family or friends. There is no paper in my life. Have been doing this for 6 years now and have my recipes categorized and most are replete with pictures.
Hi Nora,
Something that has saved me a lot of money on repair costs on more than one occasion is my iSkin – a thin piece of rubber that fits over each key on my MacBook. It keeps food and liquid from getting embedded under the keys and pulls off for easy soap-and water washing. I can't believe how dirty it gets – everything from dust to coffee to food bits all gets washed off. And yes, I use my laptop in the kitchen while chopping, preparing food, or following recipes (i use allrecipes and epicurious mostly), and the iSkin helps then, too, because if I need to scroll around while I've got the recipe up, if I happen to have anything on my hands it just gets on the rubber, not on the keyboard itself. While I'm careful around my laptop, the iSkin just adds more protection (which, given the cost of a Macbook, I'll happily invest in).
Ohh, that's smart. As someone who often eats lunch at my desk, I can relate!
I'm a stay-at-home dad (part time social media consultant) and since I decided to be at home a year and a half ago, I've found the kitchen computer an irreplaceable cornerstone to my hectic life. It ties me in with work when necessary, allows me to pursue my new-found love for cooking on epicurious and even lets me keep the kids busy once in a while with a DVD, broadband video or video game.
Like the guy in kitchenmac.com above, I find the mac the best kitchen appliance because of its 10-foot user interface. But I also love the mac Mini because it's the size of a DVD jewel case, has no fan (no noise) and did NOT come with monitor or keyboard, meaning that I could buy precisely the LCD screen size needed to fit neatly under my cupboards – and bluetooth keyboard/mouse that can be moved down the counter to whomever wants to use it.
I have a 2 year old who regularly bashes the keys and I've even dripped stuff on it but it hasn't stopped working yet!
There is a wireless 3-COM Audrey http://www.ideo.com/work/item/audrey/on my kitchen counter that has a 640×480 display. I had converted all my recipes by either scanning or typing them out to web page format and categorizing them. They all reside on a USB key that has a URL. My Audrey can display these webpage recipes and while I am @ friends or family's house I can gain access to my online recipes. Bought an AeroGarden and now have fresh herbs and the Aud on the counter not taking up too much room. I have been displaying recipes online for 6 years now through the Audrey. The Audrey plays MP3 streamed from my MAC Mini and cycles through images when not in use like a screen saver. It truly is an Internet Appliance but it came out before its time. I have 3 of them.
I love using recipe books, but for convinience and something new, I often use my macbook in the kitchen. Here's how it usually goes down:
I'm sitting at work, and its 4:45pm…my stomach is speaking to me…I call my girfriend while I go online and do a quick google search with some ingredients I know we have at home…after checking a few recipes, I email them to myself and start looking forward to getting home. Once home I unplug the laptop and bring it into the kitchen with it still sitting on its lap pillow thingy and place it on the table. Time to get started….ok, into the fridge and pantry for ingredients…wait…how many teaspoons was it? Oh no…. we're out of _____…ok…google a substitute… Now if the recipe's a bit harder I end up running back and forth checking the finer points….but since its running on battery power and power save, the screen keeps blacking out….ahh my hands and fingers are too sticky with food…hmm maybe my nose on the trackpad will get the screen back up… later… Dinner's ready…. wanna watch an episode online?
I keep my laptop as far away from the prep area as possible, walking back and forth to check and re-check the recipe. I usually have multiple versions of a recipe up at once, and take the best of all worlds. Invariably I end up with chocolate fingerprints and the like all over my nice, white mac!
…Following is a great site for poor students like me; you tell them what you have in your cupboard and fridge, and they tell you what you can make! They even show recipes that you're missing ingredients for, in case you can find a substitution, or are able to get along without it. http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/“target=”_blank”>http://www.cookingbynumbers.com/
I was all excited about trying that website you linked, because in theory it's amazing … but the actual website isn't that great. The ingredients aren't specific enough (ie. chicken – what kind of chicken… ground, breast, whole, wings? etc..) nor extensive enough.
I listed a bunch of ingredients, but the first bunch of recipes it gave me were pretty lame … just egg and bread recipes, even though I had chicken, pasta, milk, herbs, rice, and a bunch more selected as ingredients I had. (It couldn't even have come up with a simple chicken pasta recipe??).
Then after the first bunch, it would list recipes that I was missing one or more ingredients of (like some kind of fish dish).
So in conclusion… I think it's a great idea, but doesn't live up to my expectations.
Of course I use laptop in the kitchen. When I work on the counter it sits on the table away from the stove with two things running: web browser with a recipe, and either a podcast (Spark, The age of Persuasion, etc..), or some show that I watch. All thought I am thinking to invest into an LCD monitor to hang in the kitchen with an ASUS B202 compact computer that can be attached there permanently.
If you are looking for a way to protect your computer from splashes and accidental drops into water (or intentional), , there is a company called Golden Shellback (http://www.golden-shellback.com/). You can apply it to laptop, cell phone, ipod and so on.
You can even use the device underwater with it on which is pretty cool to show off.
I think the only downside is that once sealed you can't take it apart for major repairs without breaking the water proofing.
For anyone with a Nintendo DS, you can pick up a "game" called Personal Trainer: Cooking. It comes with something like 250 recipes and is programmed with easy instructions and accompanying video, voice recognition if your hands are full (or covered in goop) and an in-game shopping list so that you can mark off the things that you need to buy. Simple and portable… I don't think that you can add more recipes (yet) but it is still a pretty useful tool.
Yet another example of Nintendo trying to make out lives better, lol
If you are looking for a way to protect your computer from splashes and accidental drops into water (or intentional), , there is a company called Golden Shellback (http://www.golden-shellback.com/). You can apply it to laptop, cell phone, ipod and so on.