How geeked out is your kitchen?

[McAuliflower]

I've been drooling over the ecookbook I downloaded recently from tastingmenu.com. However, I'm not sure how to fit electronic cookbooks into my kitchen.

How do you do it?

Have a laptop on the counter?

What's a poor gal with no laptop to do?

[kitchenmage]

I've been drooling over the ecookbook I downloaded recently from tastingmenu.com.  However, I'm not sure how to fit electronic cookbooks into my kitchen.

How do you do it?

Have a laptop on the counter?

What's a poor gal with no laptop to do?

←

I am geeked out. I've got a laptop that's where I do most of my food-related work and i lives about 15 feet from the main kitchen workspace. I can easily put it on the dining table, although I don't usually because cooking is messy and laptops are delicate. Especially since I do lots of baking, meaning "flour in the air."

I've been printing individual recipes as needed, scribbling notes on them, and then transferring those notes to the electronic version. If I ever win the lottery, I think I'm getting another dedicated machine with all wireless I/O so I can perch the peripherals in the kitchen without risking the expensive stuff on the steam and floating motes of stuff. Until then, I'm biting the cost of paper and toner.

[edsel]

I downloaded that book and printed it. Mostly to read, though I will cook from it as well if I can track down the ingredients for any of those dishes. You'll burn through a lot of paper and toner / ink printing that one, but I think it's worth it. There's a discussion of that book here ← .

My computer is just a few paces away from the kitchen, so I sometimes leave a recipe (or ecgi course) on the screen for reference. If I need the step-by-step instructions or ingredient list in the kitchen, I print it. I'm not ready to buy a computer for the kitchen just yet!

[SuzySushi]

I'm like edsel. My computer is a few feet from the kitchen. If I'm using a recipe that's online or in my own computer files, I'll either print it out or leave the recipe on the screen for reference.

No room for a computer in the kitchen itself, and I'd be afraid of spilling food on it as I work. My home office is close enough!

[jeniac42]

I had, at one point, an entire system set up based on having a device from Palm called an Audrey in my kitchen. This was basically just a small internet PC that used a stylus and some simple buttons for navigation. I wrote up a database for the backend and some PHP interfaces and basically dumped a bunch of recipes into said database; I could then use the Audrey to view them.

Alas, the Audrey was sold some time ago, before I ever got it working with anything besides dial-up. At this point I'm not sure what sort of solution I'd use.

[little ms foodie]

We have Wi Fi in our house so the laptop finds it's way to the kitchen on a regular basis.

We have done cook togethers here in the PNW on the Apple ecookbook and there are plans to do the newest one also.

[McAuliflower]

thanks for the dream-fueling feedback.

I also poked Hillel of tastingmenu for some feedback too.

For using laptops in the kitchen area, do you-all use keyboard protectors of some sort? Thinking of potential dribbles and what nots.

[akebono]

how geeked out is my kitchen?

my fridge makes ice.

the thought still makes me want to

drop to one knee, and weep openly.

-m

[jsolomon]

Sheesh, and I thought I was sad by simply wanting a Unix serial terminal in my kitchen (that I could buy by the lot off of Ebay and just toss when I spill junk on them).

If I had a pc in my kitchen, I'd never cook because I'd spend too much time looking at eG.

akebono, one of my friends has a kitchen magnet that says "Susan is overcome by the little beauties in life" which has a cartoon of a woman crying over an ice cube tray with a thought-bubble stating "Perfect ice cubes every time". Your statement cracked me up by reminding me of that. Stunning!

[chile_peppa]

how geeked out is my kitchen?

my fridge makes ice.

the thought still makes me want to

drop to one knee, and weep openly.

-m

←

Lovely!

Although I am a total geek at work, my home is very low-tech. I don't even have a working ice-maker. After spending many long hours making a living in cyberspace, I like to return to a more tangible plane of existence in my kitchen.

Edited November 1, 2005 by chile_peppa (log)

[Jason Perlow]

I had, at one point, an entire system set up based on having a device from Palm called an Audrey in my kitchen.  This was basically just a small internet PC that used a stylus and some simple buttons for navigation.  I wrote up a database for the backend and some PHP interfaces and basically dumped a bunch of recipes into said database; I could then use the Audrey to view them.

Alas, the Audrey was sold some time ago, before I ever got it working with anything besides dial-up.  At this point I'm not sure what sort of solution I'd use.

←

I had one of those things as well, and I was a beta tester.

http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200011/audrey001.html

It was a cool concept but 3com just couldn't market it very well.

Nowadays with WiFi I just usually have one of my laptops near the kitchen on our dining room table anyway.

[Marlene]

I have wifi and my laptop is usually set up in the kitchen. My kitchen has a built in desk area so I can keep it away from flour and other flying food particles.

[monavano]

I have my laptop on my kitchen island whenever I'm in there. Our desktop and wifi are in an office on the second floor. I've never had problems with spills and such. I just need to set up a printing network so I can send stuff to our office printer wirelessly. Any suggeestions?

[mikeycook]

I've been looking at an iCEBOX setup, but haven't taken the plunge yet. Good way to keep the computer out of the way.

[jsolomon]

The icebox looks very cool, but does it function as a pc? It didn't specify on the literature I saw.

[jsolomon]

What about a Tekpanel pc?

[jsolomon]

You know, what would really be sweet is to have a ruggedized industrial-type pc--you know, one you can splash stuff on--with some built-in temperature probes that you can stick in your oven, etc. Built-in software to do multiple timers for you, and small and inobtrusive. That would be the pc I would want for my kitchen.

Has anyone seen anything like that?

[bilrus]

I have wifi and my laptop is usually set up in the kitchen.  My kitchen has a built in desk area so I can keep it away from flour and other flying food particles.

←

I am getting ready to move into a new house and this is the set up I am planning.

I still like the idea of having my recipes sitting in front of my eyes hanging from my cabinet (like this) but I am planning on making a searchable database of my recipes so I know what binder they are in.

I also want to keep an easy to use spreadsheet to keep a running shopping list.

Besides searching for recipes online, any suggestions for what else could I do on the laptop, kitchenwise?

[fud]

I've been wanting to put all my favorite recipes online so I can access them on my laptop. Ideally I think I'd like to have some kind of location free TV or Laptop around the kitchen so I can type in (for example): "onions, mushrooms, guyere" and have it give me recipes based on those ingredients. I know there are databases which allow you to enter in ingredients and cross search.

I read somewhere about the "kitchens of the future" where most foods come with RF tags which broadcast what they are and where they came from. The concept being that you literally drop your grocery bags on your counter, the counter scans the RFIDs of all the items in the bags and then suggests meals to make based on an online database.

Sick. And in some way I wonder if radio frequencies might change the food

But an interesting idea!

[kitchenmage]

I have my laptop on my kitchen island whenever I'm in there. Our  desktop and wifi are in an office on the second floor. I've never had problems with spills and such. I just need to set up a printing network so I can send stuff to our office printer wirelessly. Any suggeestions?

←

I have my primary laser printer attached to a desktop that is almost always turned on when we're home. That computer (my partner's) sits in a back room office--fairly isolated because it's where he records music--which houses all our network infrastructure (wireless access point (WAP), satellite connection, network hub, printers, scanner) while my office, which is in the "den" next to the dining room has our notebook computers, my other systems, and the public side of our media stuff (TV, music gets played via my desktop which has Dolby, 5.1 speakers, etc). It does a fair job of keeping the food stuff out here and the music stuff back there. We use Netgear's network equipment--WAP, hub, cards--which I recommend to clients, but there are other good vendors out there so buy what you like.

I end up searching for recipes (sometimes mid-stride when I look at the thing and wonder, "is this what it's supposed to look like? or when i am cooking without one but want references), checking technical details (pan size conversions, etc), reading eG or food blogs between stirring/flipping food, making notes on what I am doing, photographic work, etc.

As for the refrigerator that makes ice, mine does ice and filtered water and I am also thrilled. Plus it's not harvest gold!

[Genny]

Now here is some cool info:

Kitchen Techie Stuff

Scroll down to the Super Fridge, the IBM Media Center and Connected Kichen (has a washable keyboard and fold-away screen).

Here is more information on IBM's Smart Kitchen: CLICK

ETA: Oh, I do use the computer from my home office which is just steps away from the kitchen as well to research and print recipes. I also use Master Cook to save to an electronic cookbook, this is a great program if you don't have it already, it has a shopping list function that takes your recipe and converts it into a shopping list, I think it has a "pantry minder" type of function as well.

Edited November 1, 2005 by Genny (log)

[*Deborah*]

I haul the (WiFi) iBook into the kitchen when necessary...instant access to Epicurious and recipes in my gmail or on eG...instant access to google amount conversions or whatever...instant access to email or MSN Mooshmouse or my mum with a "help! what is..." or "should I..." or whatever.

I do think I should get a cover to keep flour (and water splashing from the sink!) off, though.

[Msk]

I have a wifi-connected laptop in a corner of the kitchen, but find it difficult to keep things clean AND convenient.

I saw on one of the "Kitchen Gadgets of the Future" shows on FoodTV. They did a thing on the Microsoft Kitchen of the future. It had some of whats been discussed.

However, the ingenius thing I liked was a "Display" that was light projected from above onto the counter. So it was a display of say, a recipe, that you dont have to worry about getting dirty.

Msk

[McAuliflower]

Man, refrigerators that produce water and ice? I just use that area as a cubby for potholders and the like. Dang campus area rentals...

Regarding recipe databases, my fantasy is to have publishers create searchable indexes of their cookbooks available on a website or as a CD with each book. Or hire monkeys to copy all of my cookbook's indexs into a database for me.

[Marlene]

I have my laptop on my kitchen island whenever I'm in there. Our  desktop and wifi are in an office on the second floor. I've never had problems with spills and such. I just need to set up a printing network so I can send stuff to our office printer wirelessly. Any suggeestions?

←

I know we do this. I think we've got my printer under "shared applications" or something and then when Don wants to send something to my printer, he selects it from the menu in the printer file.

Ok, that's not very technical. Sorry.