Jason and The Recipe for Danger

We've got a couple of Catch Up weeks in Learning 2.0, and that makes me think of ketchup, which makes me think of tomatoes, which makes me think this is the worst segue way to ever make my fingers dance across a keyboard. Sigh.

When I was a younger man, full of promise and potential, I ate like crap. Seriously, if it wasn't Ramen noodles, Macaroni and Cheese and ______ (tuna, frozen veggies, sawdust, etc.) , or some horrible concoction derived of hamburger, pasta, and whatever was left of the bloody mary mix in my fridge, then I probably wasn't eating.

It wasn't until I started cooking for a fine dining establishment and wanting to keep a girlfriend for more than, say, two weeks that I really started looking into being a better chef in my kitchen. Nowadays, I get excited about cooking and eat a lot better. Or just a lot. Whatever. And you know what helps me come up with new and exciting ideas for über-tasty meals?

That's right, kids. Web 2.0. If you're a foodie, here's a few web sites you might want to look into.

First up is Tastespotting.

Tastespotting is a kind of blog aggregator. Folks find good looking recipes on the various food blogs all over the 'net and send them Tastespotting's way. Tastespotting then takes all those suggestions and posts a description of the recipe and a photo of the finished product. Just click on the photo of the food stuff that interests you and voila! The recipe is right there for your perusal.

Tastespotting also makes it easy to bookmark the entries you want for future use. Say I'm interested in trying my hand at making this beast:

You'll notice at the bottom right corner is a little star marked "Delicious" (no, this has nothing to do with the social bookmarking system we learned of previous). Now, let's say I want to save this recipe for a special occasion, like a Thursday or something. I just click that corner so that it looks just like it does in the picture above. When I come back to the site, all I have to do is go up to the search bar on the top right corner of the screen:

If I click on "Stars" in the "Sort By" section, Tastespotting will bring up any recipe I've marked. Conversely, I can click the other corner of any photo to "86" the recipe and report any problems.
You'll also notice there's an RSS feed for your feed reader, should you want constant tasty updates. If you find you really like it, I suggest signing up for an account so that your starred recipes don't go away if you do something like clear you browser cache or something.

Epicurious is another Web 2.0 recipe and food site, only this one is packed to the gills with features. Run by the publishers of Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines, Epicurious offers you a ton of recipes and cooking tips, plus wine and food dictionaries, How To videos, RSS feeds for everything from what you're having for dinner tonight to brand new recipes and food news, email newsletters... It's got the works. HIGHLY recommended.

Actually, the Internet is flooded with food sites ranging from every taste and kind. Here's a few more to take a look at during the next couple weeks of Catch Up & Play:

All Recipes
Indian Food Forever
Group Recipes
The Food Network
Simply Recipes
BakeSpace

Good luck, and good eatin'.