Store Recipes
Your installation of Home Cookin comes with an entire virtual cookbook of its own, so you can easily get started using the software without doing any extra work. The recipes range from basic cookies and breads to more unique ethnic dishes (fried beaver tail, anyone?). The software already has a set of categories installed and each one has dozens of recipes listed. The drawback to this is that the categories may not make sense to you, but you can easily create new ones and move things around.
When you’re ready to add your own favorite recipes, the process is simple. For traditional cook-book or magazine meals, you can type the information directly into a simple form and even upload a picture of the finished product. No more storing stacks of old magazines because you don’t want to lose the recipes inside!
If you’re a fan of searching online for new ideas, it’s just as easy to add things to the software. With a simple cut-and-paste, you’ve copied the information to your cookbook. It only takes a few moments more to tell the software where to store the information you’ve added. The process requires highlighting part of the recipe, such as the ingredients, and then clicking the button to label it appropriately. The first time you go through this process, it might be a bit confusing, but once you’ve seen how it’s done, it’s easy to do.
For those who are converting from other cooking software packages, Home Cookin allows you to import their files. It does all of the conversion for you, so you have an easy and fast transition.
Locate Just the Right Meal
Did you ever have a night where the fridge and cabinets seemed empty? You might have sent out for pizza rather than try to find something to feed your family. Home Cookin allows you to search for recipes based on certain ingredients, so you can be creative when your food stock is low. You can also exclude ingredients if you have allergies, or if you’ve simply run out of sugar.
Share Your Favorite Recipes
If people are always requesting a copy of your famous cookie recipe, Home Cookin might be just the right choice for you. It allows you to easily email recipes, or print recipe cards and cookbook pages. You can even create a custom cookbook as a wedding or shower gift by printing family recipes on some nice paper and placing them in a binder.
Save Time
One of the biggest time-saving features on Home Cookin is a meal planner. Schedule your family meals for the next two months using the recipes in your cookbook. Then, head to the shopping list and create a customized list based on the meals you’ll be preparing. There is an option to add other items to the list creator, so it’s a one-step way to create grocery list for the week. On a budget? Home Cookin has a space for the cost of each item so you can make sure your planned meals fit within your price range.
Overall, Home Cookin is exactly what the name implies. There’s nothing fancy about this software, but it does what it’s supposed to do and does it well. It’s available for Windows-based machines from Windows 98 through Windows Vista. A trial version is available for download.
