Up Hill, Both Ways, In The Snow

The world has come so very far in the past few decades. I mean technology will change just while you were napping. This guy perhaps can explain it best how exactly I feel about all of this technology and just how extreme it's become. I've even found myself fighting technology lately. Sort of like an old lady. For example; I feel it's my duty to keep buying literature in paper form just to keep them alive. Sure I can get most of it on line, but I'm resisting completely.

Key Ingredient informed me a while ago about their super nifty digital recipe reader, the Demy. I was happy to submit recipes to them to load on their new product, but it was one of those things that I seriously thought wasn't going to be for me. My inner old lady was screaming in defiance.

Saturday the Demy showed up at my door for a 3 day trial run and I couldn't wait to see it. I was excited to see how it worked, but was planning on just peeking and setting aside some time to read through the directions thoroughly and figure it all out. I opened the package and the instructions were just on one little sheet of paper. One little paper for all the functions. Surely these people were underestimating the need to clearly walk me through every process. Now, I'm not completely void of technical know how, but I do need directions. Clear and precise directions.

I turned the machine on and just started touching around getting my barrings. I was so amazed at how easy it was to use. The small page of directions were more than enough to get me deep in to the use of the machine. I was already choosing out some recipes that were preloaded onto the reader.

The next day I left it on the counter and turned it on while I was cooking. It fit lovely on my counter in the space where I usually do all my chopping and prep work. The screen was easy to read even at different angles. If I knew the machine was mine I probably wouldn't be so apprehensive to touch the screen even with garlic juice on my fingers, but I knew it was being sent to some other lucky Joe and was scared. However my directions said I could easily wipe the screen away. It was even easy to read at a side angle. The picture didn't look as good, but I could still read the words.



Here it is next to my cutting board, and those papers are my usual "recipe readers". I have them all over my kitchen, but we'll get more to my usual later.

Next up I decided to check out just how easy it is to sync up the Demy to my recipes on Key Ingredient. Key Ingredient is a very nice web site where you keep and organize your collection of recipes. They make it so very easy over there. You can even use Key Ingredient to help you organize all those great recipes you find while surfing. You can import the recipe and they will keep the tag on it from the site you found it. From there you can slip it into any one of your custom cookbooks.

Now let's say that you want to make something you found and imported into your Key Ingredient cookbook. You now would like it on your handy dandy, easy to use, one page of instructions Demy. First I had to download the Demy software from their site (2 seconds). Then I logged into my free Key Ingredient page and hit this nice sync button. I kept waiting for more prompts, or something else to do, but that was it. My collections were now loaded on to the Demy and I could go cook. Without all my little scraps of paper.

Then I thought about all the changes I make to recipes. More of this, less that, this would taste so good with strawberries. How much of a pain is it going to be to update a recipe? I changed one word in one of my recipes and then hit sync again. I was again prepared to tell it what recipe I changed, but nothing. Then I thought for sure it didn't change it. It didn't get it. I'm going to have to hate this thing now because it doesn't know to change one stinkin' wor- Oh it changed my one word. I didn't tell it a thing. It just did it. My granny like tendencies were becoming mere whispers, and I was really starting to like this gadget.

I have this pseudo anal organizing method for all of my recipes. It involves a binder with magazine collections of keepers, to try, parties and desserts. It's actually a mess. Then I have a very cute little book of handwritten recipes. Most are my creations, some from others blogs. I also have a recipe box full of odds and ends mostly from family. Then there are those handwritten scrap papers that are either me scribbling down hurried thoughts and amounts to make it to my blog, or quick notes off the computer in the middle of a cooking frenzy. I was thinking that with the Demy it would be a real time sucker to enter in all those recipes I have laying around. Then I noticed this. These people thought of everything.

So by now you're probably saying to yourself I just have nothing negative to say, or I'm getting paid a nice lump sum, or even a free one of these things to say all this. I wish. But I do have some thoughts that aren't in the category of gushing love. But I almost hasten to mention them, because they sound so very lazy and part of that undeserving group of people with some over inflated sense of self entitlement. I'll list them anyway.

The indexing feature could be bumped up a bit. There is a index feature that allows you to search for the recipe title by beginning letter. This is nice, but many times I forget the name of a recipe if it isn't straight forward. For instance, say you loaded up this super awesome recipe for a chicken salad with butternut squash and Tahini dressing. But let's say it's named something goofy like Fabulous Fall Salad (I don't know why I do these things). Well if the indexing had more key wording it would make it much easier to find it by looking under chicken salad, or butternut squash or anything besides the dorky name I gave it. Not that big of a deal right?

The pre-loaded recipes are locked in and you can't get them off. This isn't a huge deal but perhaps you have some allergies in the family that render at least half of them useless. Sure they look good, but if I bought it myself I think I would want the free space. Again that seems like an absurd negative when the Demy will hold 2,500 recipes.

My last negative statement makes me feel like a very lazy kitchen geek. If you could make changes to recipes or leave notes directly on it my heart would explode with joy. Especially when I'm developing recipes it would be nice to tweak things right on the machine. However walking 4 feet to my computer and switching the recipe on Key Ingredient and re-syncing is not going to break my legs or require a large block of time from my day.

The other features on the Demy are also great. Timers, conversion calculator, and even ingredient alternatives. If I still had my personal chef business I would pay the ticket price for this in a heartbeat. It would have made my load to and from clients' homes much lighter.



This morning I sadly packed up my new love and sent it on it's way to be tested by some other lucky foodie. The only sound from the little old lady inside when I opened up my jumbled binder later was a small whimper.