I will admit, I may have a slight addiction to recipe applications. I just love the ease of using my iPhone while cooking (though, I am occasionally concerned for it’s safety!). So, when I came across a relatively new application titled Mixing Bowl, I installed it on the spot! The Mixing Bowl application is based off the website MixingBowl.com (which I had not indulged in prior to installing the iPhone application). I found MixingBowl.com to be an upbeat, social cooking website that is largely member maintained.

In order to use the Mixing Bowl iPhone application, you will need to become a member of MixingBowl.com. Normally I’m not big on apps that require you to become a member in order to use them but, I make exceptions for cooking apps!

After becoming a member (a painless process), I found the app to have many of the same features the website offers. The main menu allows you to view Recipes, Groups, Friends and Blogs. Since I am mainly interested in the Recipes, I headed there. I found the recipes to broken into a few main categories (Course, Foods, Popular Topics, Holidays, Level of Difficulty and Special Diets) and quite a few subcategories.

After making my way to the Dessert category… yep, that’s right, the dessert category! I was greeted by a decent array of recipes. Because the website is largely member maintained I did find that quite a few of the recipes did not contain images. A slight disappointment, I’m a stickler for pictures! However, you are able to quickly see the ratings for each recipe which is helpful.

There are a few things I like about this application, it allow you to easily; save a recipe to your favorites, read the reviews for the recipe, add a review to the recipe, rate the recipe, view more recipes by that member, add a photo to the recipe… etc. At times I do feel like it is all a bit too “social” for me. Many times the comments are things like… “This sounds yummy” or “Can’t wait to try this” instead of helpful comments from people who have actually tried the recipe. Also, because the recipes can be uploaded by anyone who is a member, you will run into a few duds.

Overall, I found the recipes easy to navigate, the design to be user friendly and the amount of recipes to be plentiful (if not overwhelming at times!). If you are a stickler for cooking applications, Mixing Bowl is definitely worth checking out.

ScreenShots:

App Store Description:

As a member of MixingBowl.com, food and friends are made fresh daily. Once you join, we’ll deliver a customized food experience just for you. You’ll be able to meet like-minded cooks and bakers, swap recipes, share photos, get cooking tips, read (and write) blogs, and much more.

Friends are just one click away on MixingBowl.com, the first social network centered on food.

From the new-nest neophyte just learning how to turn on a stove to the young mom holding a baby in one arm and cooking with the other to the passionate baker looking for kindred spirits, Mixing Bowl unites everyday home cooks. Once you join, we deliver a customized food experience just for you. You can meet others like you, swap recipes, share photos, get cooking tips, read (and write) blogs, and much more.

Have you ever wanted to learn how to make authentic pho or bouillabaisse? We’ve got hundreds of ethnic recipes from home cooks around the world. Want to start your own restaurant? Get advice from someone who already owns one. Need dinner ideas for picky eaters? Ask another Mom. Starting a special diet? Let someone who’s on that diet help guide your way.

This application gives you the power to create and access your own personal cooking network from anywhere. Simply key in a member name and password, or log in using your Facebook credentials, and join. You can share everything that you post with the whole community, or just a few close friends. You decide.

Facebook integration allows you to easily share your latest culinary triumphs (and trials), as well as the gems you discover on Mixing Bowl, with all of your friends.

It’s hard at times to choose my favorite hobby. Technology or Food. Gadgets or Gourmet. iPhone or Chocolate Lava Cake. Well, with iFood Assistant, my two loves are merged into one $0.99 app. Ever since I purchased the iPhone, I’ve been on the lookout for a solid native app that would allow me to search recipes, save favorites in a recipe box, and create a shopping list or better yet, integrate with my lists on Remember the Milk. Unfortunately, the search continues (BigOven is the closest so far), even after this attempt from iFood Assistant.

Overview
With iFood Assistant, you can browse recipes, take suggestions for dinner, and view cooking videos. In addition, with a login to kraftfoods.com, you can add items to your shopping list from recipes, as well as store favorites into an online recipe box. If you have a particular idea of what you’re looking for, the search function is available, or you can just roll the dice with the Recipe of the Day. Under the “more” button is a settings menu as well as a grocery store locator.

Yum-O!
Visually, iFood assistant is very easy on the eyes. Menus are well laid out, pictures are vibrant, and each recipe is well organized. Since I usually prep all of my ingredients in advance (mise en place, if you will), I liked seeing the ingredients on one tab and the directions on a separate tab. The ability to add recipes to either your shopping list and/or the recipe box is handy and similar to what I already do with my online account at allrecipes.com. Most of the recipes that I viewed were very simple and easy to follow. I also enjoyed having access to cooking videos, both demonstrational for a recipe (How to make an Enchilada Bake) and for technique (Basic Knife Skills). If Kraft continues to add to their library, this could be a great resource.

A Limited Palette
Unfortunately, iFood Assistant and I didn’t get off to a great start. The program did not load initially, so I chalked it up to a needed restart. Unfortunately, I had the same problem again later, so I’m officially calling it a bit “buggy”. Loading times varied, and this was on WiFi, so I can only imagine what it would be like living on the Edge. However, what frustrated me the most was the rather limited recipe collection. For example, while a search for “salmon” brought up numerous recipes, typing in “tilapia” produced no results. I wondered why, but then I noticed a pattern among all the recipes that came up. Each recipe highlighted one or more Kraft products, and thus, if your recipe doesn’t contain Kraft, I’m betting that your recipe won’t show up here. Plus, there are ads for Kraft products on many pages, including before each video, so I suppose the $0.99 price did not cover an ad-free app.

“Please pack your knives and leave.”
Overall, I really like the interface of iFood Assistant. It’s almost exactly what I would want for a recipe and cooking iPhone native app. Now, all I want are the recipes. The ones that I find online at Allrecipes, Epicurious, and Food Network. Now that I have iFood Assistant, I’ll probably browse through their included recipes every now and then for ideas, and if additional instructional videos are added, I’ll probably check those out as well. For $0.99, you can do the same, but I’d recommend holding off for something more polished from one of the aforementioned sites.

Plan your trip in seconds – Once you have entered an item into your grocery list, it will stay. Meaning the next time you need that item all you have to do is select it!

Your favorite recipes – Here is what the list of recipes looks like. The next time you want to make a certain meal, just tap on the recipe and it will add all the ingredients you need to your list! YAY!

Your list rewrites itself – Your grocery list stays organized by product. This is great because then all your Produce items are together and all your Dairy items are together. No more going back through the store because you forgot an item!

Aisle by aisle – This is another feature that I really like. You can rearrange the product categories based on your grocery store. You can move produce first and cereal second if that is how your grocery store is set-up.

For more info head over to groceryzen.com.