MacGourmet: One cookbook to rule them all
How many personal organizer, planning and cookbook applications have you bought over the years? I’ve downloaded, tried and purchased plenty of self-improvement software, though most rarely get even a proper first look let alone any long term usage. This time ’round, however, I’m pretty sure my multi-year quest for a recipe management solution, i.e. a cookbook, is finally over.
Last Christmas I bought myself a present—the MacUpdate Holiday Bundle—which is really a whole bunch of presents wrapped up into one. It’s your standard pay $50 and get hundreds of dollars worth of software—a bargain by any measure.
Therein was a copy of Advenio’s MacGourmet Deluxe ($24.95) and, although between then and now I had tried a number of recipes and some of this application’s features, I hadn’t really bonded with the application though it is easy-to-use and generally easy on the eyes.
Like chocolate and peanut butter…
Whereas I was using the MacGourmet sporadically and generally enjoying it, something was missing. It turns out that something was MacGourmet touch (iTunes, $4.99), which completes the desktop application in many ways.
First, setting up MacGourmet to interact with MG touch requires one keyboard shortcut (”⌘ + 8″) and one mouse click. Thereupon, all of my recipes, notes and shopping lists are now available on my iPod touch, which I have been using as an electronic (Notes) shopping list already. Integrating shopping with meal planning and a growing crib book of recipes really pulls things together for me.
Also, because my iPod touch is pretty much a constant companion, the bundled recipes are a great source of menu inspirations as they include photos and ingredient lists as well as clear, concise directions, so it’s pretty easy to pick a new dish and then get it all together there in the store. Likewise, preloading MG touch with recipes culled from the web (MacGourmet has automagical web import, notes creation features; ⌘ + Shift + R, ⌘ + Shift + M, respectively) and then having them handy, again, when you’re out shopping is simply brilliant.
Conclusions
However, and there’s almost always a “but,” MacGourmet plus MG touch would be well nigh “perfect” if one could use the latter to create and edit notes and shopping lists, and then sync those changes back to the desktop copy of application. After all, Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch are really excellent ultra-portable computers, so delivering MacGourmet functionality in a seamless, 360 degree format would really rock.
Nevertheless, MacGourmet’s easy web integration plus MG touch syncing makes choosing, planning and cooking interesting new meals a virtual snap—this package is a very good value at $30 for both the Mac and handheld versions of MacGourmet. I’m lovin’ it!
What’s your take?
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May 9th, 2009
Whoa, that review made me hungry!