Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader

I’m not sure this is a solution to the recipe storage problem, and since it will cost  three Benjamin Franklins ,  chances are  I’m not likely to find out. The Demy, claimed to be the first and only kitchen-safe recipe reader and will be available before Christmas  2009.  What does kitchen safe mean…exactly?  Microwave-proof? Oven safe up to 400 degrees?  Wipeable? And in whose kitchen was it tested in?  Perhaps the Kitchens of the Culinary Institute  of America are more demanding that my simply kitchen…….

Cited as a  November 2009 “Good Thing”, a monthly column in the  Martha Stewart Living magazine, this device can store  up to 2500 recipes, and is sync-worthy with your account at keyingredient.com.  Crafted by Key Ingredient, this device contains a sealed 7-inch display, storage for up to 2,500 recipes and USB connectivity for syncing with your PC. Furthermore, it provides three kitchen timers, a measurement conversion calculator and an ingredient substitution dictionary to get cooks out of a pinch if they are one special ingredient short. Yes, but does it wash the dishes  and take out the garbage?

As I have cited in a previous blog, I love my cookbooks; they are my guilty pleasure in life. Some cookbooks bindings have collapsed under repetitive consultation  on a given page.  Many of them are stained from  grease spatters, flour sprinkles and such over the years, and in the case of a few books in my collection, over the generations.   Many are even  written on  index cards, in  my Grandmother Rivier’s careful handwriting.  Part of the cooking experience, is  in re-experiencing her handwriting  and reliving the memories of  preparing that particular recipe with her in my childhood.   Much of my  treasured recipes are mostly not online.

In the current rush to  make documents available on-line, e-books , Kindles , e-readers and now the nook, I do not feel motivated to give up on my  cherished cookbooks in their traditional form.   Not until someone explains  the term kitchen-safe to me, anyway……..
inspired by http://www.popgadget.net/2009/03/demy_the_digita.php

 

My guilty pleasure … my cook bookshelf

Like many people, I try to read for pleasure during the summer months.  As professional hazard,  I am addicted to books and read and  basically how literacy has become a lifelong learning tool.   Through the many books which pass through my hands, I have travelled to many places and eras in history via my imagination. As a result, I tend to borrow  books from either the local library, or the library in which I am working it at that point in my life.     Could you imagine  what my house would look like it I actually purchased the many books  I read?  My home would be a real life version of Sarah Stewart’s The Library! Yikes!

As I am enjoying Julie and Julia, I find myself scanning my personal book shelf….which is located in my kitchen.  While I purchase very few books  for my own personal ownership,  I do succumb to purchasing cookbooks.  Many wonderful Christmas gifts sit on these shelves calling to me when my busy schedule permits. A number of my students have kindly given me book shoppe gift cards  at Christmas time.  The purchase resulting from these gift cards  are normally cook books.   So many great books have travelled with me over the years, during my many moves motivates by employment and marriage.  While I cannot claim to be on par with Martha Stewart, Bonnie Stern, James Barber,  Julia Child’s, nor Julie Powell, I do find enjoyment in the kitchen when creating a dish.  So many great books which have enhanced our Christmas celebrations.  The Joy of Cooking’s Christmas Cookie book can fall open on the counter to  the gingerbread recipe. (I swear by this recipe… always successful!). The lemon curd bar recipe provides a lovely light zing  option to   the popular chocolate flavorings of the season.

My stay in the state of Vermont has brought a profound appreciation for the quality of King Arthur  Flour company’s flour as well as its award winning cookbooks.  I proudly own the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion (2003), The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (2004) and the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking (2006). This  company has been around since1790 and produces a both a find quality of flour as well as trustworthy cookbook.

And most importantly, one cookbook on my shelf hold a position of reverence.   Another flour company (with yet another medieval theme) sponsored cookbook The Robin Hood Flour Cook book. While I can remember my mother cooking from this book, I am honored to possess my Grandmother Rivier’s copy of this very book. In Canada, it was a popular manual to cooking for many home makers in the the 50s through to the 70s. So many recipes,  which are not fashionable by today’s nutritional standards,  it is an artifact of my childhood.  Many pages are gritty under my fingers  as I feel flour, egg yolk stains  and other stray kitchen counter ingredients.  All bring back memories  of my childhood, booking with my Grandmother, recipes which taught me  how to measure properly, how to not over beat an egg, how  to cook.

M.F. K. Fisher

As food commentary novels, M.F.K.  Fisher’s The Art of Eating,  How to cook a wolf and Gastronomical Me document Fisher’s  food experiences in France. Much like Child’s, Fisher was an American living in Paris.  Fisher’s writings depict food as not only a personal taste but as a social and emotional force within life. These volumes exist on my shelf as that they transport me to another time and place, where food is viewed a not a means to sustain life, but as an enhancement of one’ s life experiences.

My eyes also stop scanning my cookbook shelf at the Rose Levy Beranbaum series: The Cake Bible (1993), The Pie and Pastry Bible ( 1998)  and more recently , the award winning Bread Bible (2003). Ms. Beranbaum’s first book, The Cake Bible makes for an interesting read.  While it is a cook book, it came about  as part of her Master’s Degree in Home Economics —- wrote her master’s thesis on the effects of sifting on the quality of yellow cake..   As a kitchen chemist extraordinaire , the author  includes lengthy discussions on ingredients and equipment and concludes with a special section on the chemistry of cake baking. I will  confess that my autographed copy of The Pie and Pastry Bible comes off the shelf as a confirmation that , yes, indeed, I can make the need pastry to  fashion my Christmas tourtiere pies. ( Or ‘torture pies’, as my non French Canadian husband calls them). Pastry making is a skill which has eluded me.

In this regard, I can relate to Julie  Powell, author of Julie and Julia .  Her desire to create is great, a motivation to connect to the cookbook author by recreating their recipes.  The journey in which to learn is never perfect, though is a learning process neither the less.  Culinary failures are  still positive learning experiences about cooking as well as herself. Cooking has always given me  a comfort of place. .. of being in my kitchen, of creating, sometimes successfully, other times not.  Much like Julie Powell, I have learned much about myself  though the journey of cooking in my kitchen.  And my cook book shelf is a testament to this journey.

 

Transcending Julia Childs

My mantra in life is to read the book before seeing the movie version. In anticipation of the August release of  Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Stanley Tucci, I am currently enjoying Julie and Julia (2005) by Julie Powell.  Vaguely, I can remember the author being interviewed on Oprah a few years ago.  Of course, I have given it little thought since then. While I have not finished reading this fiction novel, I am enjoying the  the author’s determination. As a mediocre cook, I am  joining in with the author’s  culinary successes and heartbreaking food  failures.  The reader cannot help but admire Powell’s ambitious endeavor to cook her way through Julia Child’s  536 recipes as listed in  Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) in 365 days in her small cramped  New York -Queen’s borough kitchen. Unlike Martha, the Barefoot Contessa,  Paula Dean and other current Food Network  cooking stars, Powell is not afraid to admit that her kitchen gets dirty. She has  cooking failures.  She often transcends Julia Child, as the diary format reverts back to Julia’s own experiences and philosophies in her Cramped French apartment  with a kitchen on the third floor.   In the end, I surmise, Powell will find an element of satisfaction in her life by  completing this project, diverting her focus on a mid  30s crisis of self belief.

Julia Childs

While Powell has become a bit of an Internet celebrity, her current blog documents  her work within the foodie community, her interest in foods.  And the blog entry which started it all seems much less polished. Powell’s increased technology skills and polished writing skills are more evident. One cannot help but celebrate her successes.