My mother and I making gnocchi - Dec 2009

My mother and I making gnocchi - Dec 2009

At my parents’ house, there is a chalkboard hanging in the pantry where my mother writes her shopping list so that she won’t forget.  Then she writes everything down on a piece of paper when she goes into town to go shopping, a trip that takes at the very least an hour and a half.  My mother cooks every day, so the list can be quite lengthy if she can only make it to the store once a week.

I’ve developed her habit of going to the grocery about once per week, even though I live in the city and could theoretically go every day without much inconvenience.  I generally dislike standing in line, so I avoid the grocery store as much as possible.  When I do go, I like to spend a lot of time wandering the aisles, examining products I haven’t seen before… a bit like a kid in a candy store.

It was through my love for cooking and lack of a paycheck as a full-time student that I first began using Epicurious.  If you aren’t already familiar with the website, it’s from the folks at Condé Nast Publications.  It’s a huge compilation of recipes from Bon Appétit, SELF, Gourmet and others.  In short, it is an amazing free cookbook!  There are even video cooking lessons, ideas for entertaining and special parties and cocktail recipes, among many other features.

About a year ago, I saw an ad on Epicurious.com for their iPhone app.  It was free (my main requirement), so I checked it out.  Not only does it allow you to search and browse recipes by ingredients, cuisine, course, etc., it makes your shopping list! Talk about a time saver!  There are even options called “I Can Barely Cook” and “I Cook Like a Pro” to help you find recipes that are suited to your skills.  As with Epicurious.com, you can also save your favorite recipes.  My only complaint is that my favorites on Epicurious.com don’t link up with my favorites on the iPhone app.

And just in case you thought that both the Epicurious website and the iPhone app were unbeatable, the company came out with one of the first iPad apps, and it is phenomenal!  It turns your iPad into a full-page sized digital cookbook.  You can see a nice screenshot here.

But wait, there’s more!  For those of you who don’t own the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone, you’re in luck!  Last Tuesday, the Epicurious app was released for Android!

So for this week, happy cooking!