Something New

This post would be a lot more fun if I could tell you I started a new quilting project. That's not what I did though. Yesterday was a no sewing day...rare in these parts. Instead I submitted to a torture treatment at the hands of my hairdresser. It's sort of a two-day ordeal since I now have to sit under my stinky permy hair until tomorrow morning when I can wash it. Looks good, no?

Instead of sewing, I continued on with a daunting task, started the day before, of going through the stacks and stacks and stacks of recipes I've printed off. Honestly, if I tried a new recipe morning, noon, and night from now until my dying day, I still don't think I could get through them all. The only thing that exceeds my stacks of recipes is the stacks of embroidery patterns I have purchased. Actually, that's not true...fake news, you might say...but it sounds good.

Since I don't have anything to show you sewing-wise, it seemed like a good time to tell you about a miracle app my friend Susan told me about. The only thing that would make this app any better would be if it would give me a recipe for turning my fine straight hair into lustrous, flowing locks. That's not going to happen, so you'll have to settle for what it can do, which is a lot. It's an app for managing recipes, both tried and untried, and I sat taking a bunch of screen shots as I used it yesterday so that I could extol its virtues. The app is called Paprika (link to the website there) and it's available for both iOS and Android devices. There is also a version for your computer. One thing I love about it is the database exists on your own device, and so you don't need internet access to gain access to your recipe...kind of important if you travel around in an RV, as we do.

So here's how it looks when you open it on your computer:

If you look at the top and just to the left of center in the image above, you can see that mine has 1,780 recipes in it. Yes, I'm a hoarder when it comes to recipes.

Before I say anything else about it, I'm going to tell you my favorite thing: It will download recipes from the internet right into the database...no typing required, except for typing the name into the search box. Look below:

On the left, click on "browser," which brings up a search box. There, you type in the name of the recipe you're looking for. Hit "enter," and you'll see a page that looks just like it does when you search The Google (blessed be its name):

The one I wanted is right there at the top in the image above. When I click on the link, it brings up the web version, just as if I were in Google. You can see it in the image below. (Sounds good, huh?)

Next, I click "save recipe" in the lower right-hand corner:

And voila! Most times, it even picks up the picture accompanying the recipe. This actually happens to be a good one because it gives me an opportunity to show you the one weakness of the app. Sometimes, it picks up something weird on the page you're saving from and puts the wrong title in the "name" box. The recipe comes up in "edit" mode, and so it's simple enough to type in the correct name.

Below, there...that looks better. Your recipe will come up as "Uncategorized" in the list of categories, and there, you'll be able to put it in whatever category you like. You can even add your own categories. In my case, I've added a bunch of "Untested" categories.

When you have it the way you want it, click "Save" in the lower right-hand corner, and the recipe will be added to your existing database. Clicking on "Recipes" on the left side of the screen, and then "Most Recent" just to the right, you'll see it there.

Click on that recipe in the list, and it brings up your recipe as it was downloaded from the internet with the changes you've made to it.

And here's the truly miraculous thing about this...it'll search the text of a blog post and find a recipe within the paragraphs and download it accurately. Honestly, how does it work? It's amazing, I'm telling you!

If you want to type in a new recipe...maybe one from a cookbook that can't be downloaded...it's simple enough to "add new," which brings up the template where you can type.

Here's what I love most about it. In the image below, you can see the search box at the top and just right of center. You can search for recipes by name:

But you can also search by ingredient. This is particularly helpful if you have an ingredient left over. I happen to love it for when we get some odd CSA veggie and I don't know what to do with it. Enter my stacks and stacks and stacks of recipes. I've saved them all the years of our CSA participation. Sometimes we get veggies in our CSA that are unfamiliar or seldom purchased (if ever), and I'm at a loss about how to prepare them. Over time, I've collected a fair number of recipes for those kinds of things...think kale, chicory, Swiss chard, bok choy, and oh yes, let's not forget my favorite, kohlrabi. So let's just see what's in my database for kohlrabi. I click on the box to say I'm searching by ingredient, and then type in kohlrabi. Boom...all my saved recipes for kohlrabi appear.

Cool, huh? It has some other features for creating grocery lists, meal planning, and menus, but I haven't really spent any time exploring those yet.

So...I hope this has been helpful to you. If you're a recipe hoarder like I am, you'll love this app. Up until Susan told me about Paprika, I was using Mastercook. It was fine, but I couldn't download recipes the way I can with this one. On the other hand, I was able to transfer my existing Mastercook database into the Paprika app with no problems whatsoever.

And that's all I have for you today. I know...it's not as much fun as cats or quilts, but it's something that makes my life significantly easier...not to mention making my desk a lot less messy.

Today I have to go to the grocery store. It occurs to me that I've weaponized my hair with my stinky perm, and so if anyone crosses me today, I'll just stand real close to them and they'll keel over dead from the fumes. A few days ago, I saw a meme on social media that fit my grocery-shopping self perfectly:

There should be plenty of time for sewing this afternoon. Get ready for some quilting alley cats.