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The new kitchen aid

Lots of people have TVs in their kitchens. Maybe it's time to have an iPod handy, too.

By LOGAN KUGLER
Published December 6, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Photo: Apple] Apple iPod

More than 60-million of the portable media systems have been sold since iPod debuted in 2001. We think of them primarily as ways to listen to music with those little buds nestled in our ears, but there is other information iPods can carry. Recipes for dinner parties being one. Here is a collection of Web sites that will get your iPod cooking.

Store recipes

- Whether you're looking for a recipe for manicotti or you want to store a family recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, your iPod can help. Using the Pocket Bar & Grill software, you can load hundreds of recipes onto your iPod and take them with you wherever you go. The program will also show you how to load recipes. At $10, think of it as an investment in good eats.

Get the scoop: www.enrique quinterodesign.com.

- Celebrity chef and restaurateur Emeril Lagasse has 1,000 free recipes plus a handy Emeril's restaurant locator on his iPod-friendly site.

Get the scoop: www.emerils.com. Click on "Fun" at the top and drop down to "Stuff for iPod."

Record recipe changes

Let's say you're an adventurous cook who likes to tinker with recipes. The problem is you aren't so great at writing down the changes, and your masterpieces can't be re-created. Buy a voice recorder for your iPod, then tell it the change you made. The file will be stored electronically. No more lost napkins with the recipes for the best thing since sliced bread.

Get the scoop: Griffin Technology's iTalk, $32.99 from www.amazon.com.

Keep track of inventory

We've all been there. You come back from the grocery store with a trunk full of groceries and a yard-long receipt, only to find you forgot the one thing you went for. With IntelliScanner's Kitchen Companion, you can track the groceries you need and create a list to download to your iPod. Scan the UPC code of every grocery in your house that you need to replenish the next time you hit the market. A handheld scanner comes with the Kitchen Companion. Once the information is transferred to your iPod, just grab your player and start cruising the aisles of your local food market.

Get the scoop: $149; www.intelliscanner.com. Click on "Kitchen Companion."

Dinner party playlists

You've got the food and the table set, and now it's time to set the mood. In less than 10 minutes, you can customize a playlist from your iTunes music library and create a lineup of songs to play during dinner on a portable iPod audio system ($249; iM7, www.alteclansing.com). Or maybe you prefer to get even more creative and download songs from the iTunes Music Store to correlate with the type of meal you're having. Maybe some Ibrahim Ferrar for Cuban, Natacha Atlas for Middle Eastern or Antonio Vivaldi for Italian. Whatever you decide, there's music out there to make any dinner or party you're having fun.

Get the scoop: www.apple.com/itunes/playlists.

Help the bartender

Have a home bar but never use it? Shake things up with iPodBartender and iBar. The iPodBartender allows any iPod owner to take a recipe list of drinks with them wherever they go. The free download packs 230 fantastic drink recipes onto your iPod. But if you're looking to be the main event at the party, try iBar and its more than 1,000 drink recipes.

Here's the scoop: www.electricstate.com/ipodbartender and www.talkingpanda.com/ibar.

Logan Kugler is a freelance writer based in Clearwater.

[Last modified December 5, 2006, 13:15:15]