Review of 'How to Cook Everything' App

Mark Bittman, whose How to Cook Everything cookbook (and its vegetarian counterpart) have been on my shortlist of coveted cookbooks for forever, released an iPad app of the same title early this year. Here's the short version: I love it!

I thought the iPad would be a nice kitchen companion, and bought a frame and stand for it with this in mind. I was right (go me). I have a few cooking-type apps that carried over from my iPhone and they are pretty handy. But this app, designed especially for the iPad (he has ones for the iPhone as well), is awesome. It's super interactive, and it gets down to basics with each of its 2,000 recipes, which if you are familiar with his work tend to be on the healthier side. You can search or browse based on ingredient, ease of recipe, or type of recipe. If the recipe calls for a certain technique to be used, the app breaks it down with diagrams and instructions. These instructions can be as basic as using a knife, so this could be a great app to send a kid off to college with if he has yet to take any interest in the kitchen. There's also a section in each recipe where you can add notes, which is super handy.

Downsides? Well, obviously frying and iPads don't mix too well, so there's that. Keep it clear from the stove or fry daddy though and you should be fine. Also, the app is cooking oriented, so don't expect too many baking or sweet recipes.

At $10, this is certainly the priciest app I have ever bought. But at less than half the price of the cookbook, it's a real bargain. In my opinion, it was money well spent. If he does the vegetarian edition for iPad, I will be buying that as well. Now, if only Alton Brown would follow suit.

This week's menu

This week I am going to try a couple new recipes from my iPad app, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I plan to review the app later this week, but for now, if you haven't heard of Mark Bittman then you probably have been out of country a while, or at least removed from popular media. Anyway, here's this week's menu:

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Stir-fried chicken with cabbage (from the app), rice, side salad. Because colored bell peppers are on sale this week and the recipe suggested them as a potential substitute item, I will be adding a chopped one to this.

Wednesday: Fried Rice. I'll post the recipe later, but we had some ham in the freezer that was needing to be eaten, so this recipe should be just the ticket. It's filling, but if you need a little extra food you could do a side salad with some Japanese sesame dressing, some frozen egg rolls or potstickers, or a bowl of miso soup (super quick with a mix) to fill it out.

Thursday: Taco Salad. Salad mix is on sale this week so we will be eating lots of the green leafies.

Friday: Beans and Greens (also from the iPad app). I plan to add the remainder of the ham from the freezer to this. If you are into the Meatless Monday thing, this would be a likely candidate (minus the ham, of course). Organic greens are on sale as well this week, which is unusual for my local supermarkets.