Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks

I finally broke down Santa brought me an iPhone for Christmas, so I am now exploring all the iTunes App Store has to offer. Naturally, I am quite interested in the food apps, as there are so many great possibilities. Here are a couple I have downloaded and tried (all free apps, I am cheap like that):

Epicurious has made my mobile life that much easier with the Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List app, and I have to admit, this was one of the reasons I bought the iPhone. One of my big cooking hassles is when I put together a whole menu, and then go shopping, only to find the ingredients I want (usually a meat protein) are not on sale (or in season). Oh, but something else is. And, I feel stuck, since I don’t have a encyclopedic memory for recipes. The Epicurious app allows me to change things on the fly – Lamb Chops are on sale, I want to cook them for dinner in a Mediterranean style. Great, 13 recipes fit that profile. And I am back in business.

My Shopping List Lite, the free version of My List, is a great grocery shopping tool. As I go through my day, I usually run across one or two things that I need at the store, but going every day is a total time sync. So, I use My List to create a shopping list of reminders. The list is set up by Categories, which helps as you cruise through the store. You can even email the list to someone else (spouse, maybe) for pickup on their way home.

Spring, in my mind, is the start of the strawberry season in California. I should know – my birthday is in the spring and my birthday cake growing up was always Angel Food with fresh strawberries and whip cream. Thankfully, spring is right around the corner and the California Strawberry Commission has just released this STRAWBERRIES app offering a collection of more than 50 hand-selected strawberry recipes from some of the most popular food bloggers and chefs from around the web. My friend Lydia, of the Perfect Pantry, has a recipe in there, for Nutella Quesadillas with Strawberries! I can hardly wait for the first berries of the season!

On those days when I am just not interested in cooking, and looking to make a restaurant reservation while waiting for a kid, OpenTable has just the solution. The app is streamlined from the online tool, and allows you to connect easily to restaurants in your local area with open tables for your desired date. You can also do a more detailed search by region, and add refinements based on cuisine and expense.

Aimee of Greeblemonkey turned me onto AroundMe, an app which helps find services in the immediate area, based on your location. Very handy if you find yourself hungry while in the middle of a walk around downtown San Francisco. With a few quick clicks, you can be on your way to a nearby restaurant for a pick-me-up.

BTW, for more great iPhone apps, go check out Aimee’s End of the Year iPhone App Show ‘N Tell, where she really does show her mastery of this device!

What is your favorite food/cooking/grocery shopping app? Please share…

P.S. Things I had to learn for this post include creating a link to an app in the iTunes store and taking a screen shot with my iPhone. The last worked best by holding down the Sleep/Wake button, then clicking on Home. Love a day with learning!