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Filed under: Beta, Search, Web

Food.com is a 21st century recipe box, with recipes from around the web

Food.com
Web sites with recipes are a dime a dozen. But the new Food.com isn't just a recipe web site. It's a recipe aggregator, search engine, and storage tool.

Here's how it works. You enter a search term and Food.com will look for matching recipes from Recipezaar, epicurious, Food & Wine, Chow, and other sites. The search results page shows some basic information including an ingredient list. If you visit the original page for the complete recipe, Food.com displays a toolbar that you can use to go back to your search results, but you can close the toolbar if you don't like it.

While I'm not generally a big fan of this type of toolbar, it does make searching for recipes a lot easier, since odds are you're going to be flipping back and forth looking for the recipe that best meets your needs. And Food.com does have one killer feature that's not quite integrated into the toolbar, but which shows up on the bottom of the page when you're sifting throuh search results. You can drag and drop any recipe to a "recipe box" that you can use to find your favorite recipes again later.

The new Food.com is still in beta, so there may be some kinks to work out. But it's already one of the best resources I've seen for finding and saving recipes online.

[via Lifehacker]

Filed under: iPhone, Search

Find local food in season with the Locavore iPhone app

There are lots of iPhone apps that help you find nearby places to eat or shop, but Locavore offers a totally different twist. It tells you which foods are in season and available locally, and also helps you find farmers' markets where you can pick them up. It also links to information and recipes for each of the ingredients in its database.

The search is by state, so some of the markets that come up might not be as close as you'd like. On the plus side, Locavore does use the iPhone's location features to show the closest markets first. If you're a serious foodie, Locavore looks like the app you want in your pocket when you plan a shopping trip. The pricetag is a reasonable $3.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Social Software

Feed your face at Open Source Food

Open Source Food
When we first wrote about Open Source Food, we said we loved the idea but the site needed some love. Well, it seems that OSF's creator, Jon Yongfook Cockle, thought the same thing because he's overhauled the whole enchilada and it's tastier than ever.

Navigation is much more intuitive and background is minimalist so pictures of the delicious dishes really stand out (warning: some of the food pictures will make you want to lick your screen). More than just a Web site, it's a social network and members are encouraged to share photos, recipes, and meal ideas . Of course, tagging, voting, and commenting are also part of the fun.

The thing we really like about this site is that there are plenty of basic recipes for novices -- butter baked cabbage, chocolate chip cookies -- along with a ton of recipes for advanced cooks. Since the site's members are all over the globe, OSF also has the international flair thing going on. Hot Thai fish curry, anyone?

Bottom line: if you can't find a fabulous recipe somewhere on this site, then you're not really trying.

Filed under: E-mail, Google

Need a spam recipe? Just check your Gmail spam box

spam recipes
How often have you found yourself with a can of Spam and no good recipe for Spam Breakfast Burritos, Spam Swiss Pie, or Spam Hashbrown Bake? It happens to us all the time. And while we could go search any of the thousands of recipe sites that populate the internet, Google's decided to make it easy to find all your Spam-related recipes in one place: your Gmail box box.

Now, we're well aware that the fine folks at Hormel don't approve of the practice of calling junk email messages "Spam." But since that's pretty much what everyone calls them, Google's making the best of a bad situation.

You see, there's a little space above the Gmail toolbar that Google typically uses to share "web clips." Typically web clips are links to news headlines and blog posts. You know, useful stuff. But the last thing you're usually looking for in your Spam filter are useful links. So Google had a choice: eliminate the space when you're viewing your spam filter or have a little fun. The Gmail team chose the latter.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

CookThink: Discover recipes based on cravings

CookThink
Ever have a craving for fish, but no recipe handy for turning your craving into dinner? CookThink can help. Well, almost. The idea is that you enter an ingredient, dish, cuisines, or other keyword and CookThink will find an appropriate recipe, some cooking tips, and a list of alternate recipes that might meet your needs.

As a keyword/tag based recipe finder, CookThink is excellent. But it's a bit disingenuous to say that you can really find recipes that meet your cravings. Because honestly, when was the last time you found any recipe online that didn't require running out and picking up a few extra ingredients? And if you've got a craving for miso soup, but no miso paste in the house, there's a pretty good chance your craving will have passed by the time you get back from the grocery store.

But CookThink is still a great site. When you enter your first word, a tag cloud pops up suggesting related terms. Or you can just click the ingredient, dish, cuisine, and mood buttons for a list of suggested tags. Each recipe has an attractive photo and list of other dishes that would compliment the meal.

[via AppScout]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Beta

Make your own cookbook with TasteBook

TastebookSay you've got a few dozen recipes bookmarked from various websites. Then there's that stack of recipes you inherited from mom. You could print out your online recipes and slap them in a binder along with your index card collection. Or you could use TasteBook to create a professional-looking cookbook.

The site just launched a public beta. You can save recipes from partner sites including Epicurious and add your own. When you're done, you can order a printed copy of a 100-recipe book for $35. If you have fewer than 100 recipes, you still have to pay $35, but you get a credit toward future recipe books.

[via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

Open Source Food: a social network for food lovers


MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are great if you're looking for general interest social networking. But Open Source Food shows that sometimes niche is where it's at.

Open Source Food is a community site for food lovers and cooks, both amateur and professional. If you're looking for a little inspiration, you can browse through the beautifully photographed images or search the site for recipes. It's a little baffling that you have to click on the "food" tab to get a search bar, but since the site is as focused on community as it is on food, maybe that makes some sense.

Registered users can upload images and recipes, comment on others' recipes, ask questions, or add suggestions. Open Source Food is like a Web 2.0 cookbook, and we mean that in the best possible way.

[via AppScout]

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Social Software

Move over Martha, its time for GroupRecipes

grouprecipesTired of the same old meals you always seem to make? Looking for something good and different to cook tonight besides what Martha suggests?

GroupRecipes is a place for food lovers to congregate and share recipes through a useful online resource. It's aimed at food lovers everywhere, and promotes the interaction with other users through showing off creations, and meeting people that might have the same food interests.

GroupRecipes users can also share places to eat, organize recipe collections through a Recipe Manager, and create their very own cooking TV show.

[Thanks Eliot!]

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Video, News, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Yahoo!, Freeware

Yahoo launches their food site

Yahoo Food
That's right, Yahoo now has their brand spankin' new food site up with a recipe search, restaurants, celebrity appearances, videos, and segments of the quintessential Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart. One feature I like is the "Recent Activity" area that will keep track of the latest things you've searched for, much like Amazon's "the page you made" feature. Yahoo Answers is even in on the new food fun with food questions and answers. The site's content doesn't interest me much, besides the technology in use here, but my wife will love it. My wife will download about half the recipes and make me eat most of them so I don't really have a choice, but perhaps you can save yourself if you hurry, run!

P.S. For the record, my wife is an amazing cook (and she made me say that, or she says I don't get dinner). Cheers!

Filed under: Fun, Web services

Extratasty: Drinking the Web 2.0 way

ExtratastyThere are a lot of drink recipe sites and some of them will give you a list of drinks you can make based on your list of what your bar is stocked with. However, none of them were quite able to get it right until Extratasty. From skinnyCorp, the makers of Threadless, Extratasty has all the Web 2.0 fixins: pastel colors, big fonts, tags, RSS feeds, and AJAX. But beyond all that, it's social software that works really well. Its "My Bar" Google-Suggest-alike interface makes it easy to create a list of what ingredients you have, and it's smart enough to know that, for example, Pepsi and Coke can be substituted in most recipes, or that Goldschlager and Firewater are both cinnamon schnapps. It also suggests common bar items that you probably have but forgot about, like water or lemon juice. Drinks that you can make with what you've got can be displayed in a nice recipe card list, and of course you can rate drinks, leave comments, and even suggest alternate recipes. Brilliant!

Filed under: News

Slashfood joins the Weblogs, Inc. family

SlashfoodPlease help us welcome Weblogs, Inc.'s newest blog, Slashfood, to our big family. Slashfood, as perhaps you've already guessed, is a blog for those who love food, be it eating, preparing, having it prepared for you, or just wandering the aisles of the grocery store, dizzy with awe. They're off to a great start, with posts like Top 25 food hacks, The Cookie Sutra, and Spaghetti Eating 101. And, if you're a foodie yourself and can write a blog post, they're looking for bloggers to join their team.

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