Thanks to a technologically-savvy food lover who needed an easier way to store and transport her favorite recipes, avid cooks and Kindle users can sign up for an account on KindleCooking, a free site that allows users to store recipes and move them to their Kindles (or, now, their iPad) in a single click.
Marina Bernier built KindleCooking in late 2011 using a database and PHP, an open-source scripting language. She maintains the site herself, and continues to add features that hold true to her philosophy of keeping the tool simple and easy to use. Recently, she added a web version for the iPad with a “View eBook” option so users who don’t have a Kindle can still access their collections easily.
The site has nearly 400 members, and they are storing more than 7000 recipes via the site. Users are required to sign up for an account, and they can choose to share certain recipes with other members. Recipes can also be shared on a read-only basis to prevent any changes by anyone other than the primary user.
Bernier lives in Spain most of the time, but also has a home in the United Statesthat’s where all her books, including her cookbooks, are stored. In addition, she had photocopies, and other printed recipes that she wanted to compile. She looked around for a way to collect all her favorite recipes and send them to her Kindle with one click, but came up short.
Her solution: Build her own site, then offer it to others to use for free.
”For me, the Kindle is not a substitute for books,” Bernier said. “It’s simply an add-on, and that’s how I feel about technology: It should complement your other resources.”
Kessa MialCara of Baltimore discovered KindleCooking when she saw a post about it on a forum. The service sounded like exactly what she’d been looking for to help support the plant-based diet she’d adopted to help reverse her diabetes diagnosis.
”I want a lot of recipes to be able to fall back on so I am not eating the same thing all the time,” MialCara said. “I had been collecting recipes and was putting them individually in my Kindle, but it was just a page for each recipe and was quite time-consuming. [KindleCooking] has made collecting recipes so much easier.”
MialCara said she uses at least one recipe off the site and/or her Kindle every day, and recommends it often to people trying to adopt a new way of eating or just trying to add recipes to their e-reader.
Bernier hopes the site’s reach will grow as more people tell their friends about it. “I’d love to see cooking websites with a ‘Add to KindleCooking’ button for people to quickly add those recipes to their collection.”
Do you use your Kindle as a cooking tool? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
Genie blogs about gardening and food at The Inadvertent Gardener, and tells very short tales at 100 Proof Stories. She is also the Food Section Editor for BlogHer.