MacGourmet.com

Macworld Gives MacGourmet Glowing Review

2009-06-06T09:55:00.004-04:00

Macworld just reviewed MacGourmet as a "Mac Gem" giving it 4.5 mice out of 5!

According to the reviewer:

If you’re a recipe geek and need a place to store, organize, and categorize your current and potential meals, look no further than MacGourmet. From the program’s recipe box metaphor to its flexible visuals, plug-in architecture, auto import functions, and smart searching, this is one of the most versatile and extensible programs available for any cook.

The review is pretty extensive and hits on just about everything. It's a great read for even current users: you may find out about things in the product you didn't even know were there!

The reviewer sums up her review with:

If you work extensively at cooking or event planning, or you’re just intensely organized and interested in exploring the subject, MacGourmet should be in your shopping cart. Its functionality and extensibility add convenience and ease to tasks that can become mundane over time. Its automated features and flexible presentation are appealing, and the core program is priced attractively. If you want to add features like nutritional information, meal planning, and cookbook publishing, you can add on the items you’re interested in piecemeal or just purchase the Deluxe version.

You can read the entire review here: MacGourmet organizes and helps find new recipes

Food & Wine Site Import Plug-in Updated

2009-05-12T15:13:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note: the optional Food & Wine site importer has been updated to version 1.1.2. You can download the latest version from the web site importer page.

This new version accommodates changes made in their latest site redesign.

New Versions of Mealplan, Cookbook, Nutrition Now Available

2009-04-27T09:34:00.001-04:00

Released today are updates to all 3 MacGourmet add-on plug-ins:

Mealplan 1.1 is now available. It resolves printing issues for Leopard users, and fixes a handful of issues. For a full list of the changes, please see the release notes.

MacGourmet:Mealplan can be downloaded from the Mealplan page.

Cookbook 1.1 is now available. It resolves some cookbook creation problems, an occasional crasher and fixes a handful of issues. For a full list of the changes, please see the release notes.

MacGourmet:Cookbook can be downloaded from the Cookbook page.

Nutrition 1.3 is now available. It fixes a couple of calculation errors. For a full list of the changes, please see the release notes.

MacGourmet:Nutrition can be downloaded from the Nutrition page.

For MacGourmet Deluxe users, you don't need to worry about these individual updates. You will be able to receive Deluxe 1.2 using the built-in software updater, or from Mariner Software when it becomes available shortly.

MacGourmet Tweets...

2009-04-08T13:43:00.004-04:00

There's a LOT of really cool things in the MacGourmet pipeline, and to that end, I've created the MacGourmet Twitter account, so that those interested can get "tweets" about some of the new things being worked on.

To follow along, just click the Twitter logo or this link to become a follower.

MacGourmet "Featured" in Latest "Office" iPhone Ad

2009-04-06T21:28:00.005-04:00

Ok, so it's only installed on the iPhone in the ad, but I think it's still pretty darned cool...

New to the Test Kitchen: Betas for Mealplan, Cookbook and Nutrition

2009-04-03T09:23:00.001-04:00

The latest versions of Mealplan, Cookbook and Nutrition are now available for testing in the Test Kitchen. The details can be found on the main Test Kitchen page.

So If you're interested in helping test the new versions, just head on over to the Test Kitchen and grab the files. If you find any problems, please send a quick report to macgourmet [at] advenio.com. Thanks!

MacGourmet touch 1.0.2 Submitted to App Store

2009-02-16T10:24:00.004-05:00

I've submitted 1.0.2 to Apple, typical turnaround has been 5 days or so. It includes bug fixes for the following:

- The "+ icon can now be tapped to add a new shopping list item.

- When editing a new item, the blinking cursor now shows that an editing session has been started.

- Shopping list aisle items are now sorted in a case-insensitive manner.

- More than one sync per session should be now possible without quitting or leaving the sync tab.

- Search now works over all item text fields, instead of just the item names.

- New shopping lists now start with a default item, allowing other items to be added without adding a recipe.

- Shopping list items now have disclosure buttons that allow the detail to be seen when not editing.

- Minor user interface and graphical tweaks for usability.

You should get notified of the update when it's available.

Feedback Wanted: Is this a Better Chef View?

2009-02-12T17:54:00.002-05:00

The "chef view" in MacGourmet touch was kind of added in at the last minute, and I'm not sure that I'm happy with it.

I'd like some opinions, does this version work any better for people?

Note that the ingredients and directions scroll separately in this version, and that the directions text is also now larger, and the ingredients text smaller.

MacGourmet touch Syncing Tips and Tricks

2009-02-03T15:58:00.003-05:00

I understand that while some people are having few or no issues getting their data from their Mac to their iPhone, others are having various kinds of issues.

I'm doing my best to resolve them, and I am in the process of trying to add another means of transferring your data, one that will also work for Mac OS X 10.4 users, but please remember that this is the very first version of the product and even though I filled all of the beta slots during testing and did a pretty extensive beta test, with the way Apple does things right now, we're not really allowed to do a proper (by my standards) closed or even open beta. So the first time a lot of people see an app, there are bound to be issues.

It doesn't help that Apple also doesn't give us a way to let you try before you buy, which is really unfortunate if for some reason you can't get things to work with your configuration.

That said, here are some tips and tricks that may resolve problems you may be having:

Transferring your Data from Your Mac to Your iPhone/iPod touch

To sync your data with an existing Wi-Fi network:

Start up MacGourmet 2.4 or Deluxe 1.1

Open Preferences > Sharing

Make sure sharing is set to be enabled at start up.

Specify each list that you want to sync by selecting the list from each pop up menu.

Close Preferences. You should be set to sync now.

To sync your data:

Open MacGourmet touch and select the Sync tab.

Select or unselect each list by clicking on its entry in the table.

Choose the name of the Mac running MacGourmet from the sync source list to begin your data transfer.

You should see each of your selected lists synced one at a time, until all are completed. Once complete, you should be able to find your that your data has replaced the sample data in each section.

If for some reason syncing doesn't seem to work, restarting both MacGourmet and MacGourmet Touch and trying again should fix things.

Congratulations! You should now have your MacGourmet data on your iPhone or iPod!

Creating a Wireless Network for Syncing

If you don't have a wireless network, or you are having issues transferring your data, but you do have a wireless Mac, you can create a limited wireless network for syncing.

Go into System Preferences > Network and turn Airport on if it's not on, and check "Show Airport status in menu bar"

Close System Preferences and go to the Airport status menu in your menu bar. Choose "Create Network..." to create your own network. Now you should be able to follow the instructions above, under "Transferring Your Data".

Note: If you already have MacGourmet running when you do this, it won't work. So create the network and THEN start MacGourmet.

Resolving Firewall Issues

The following error:

Error 47: Operations could not be completed. Address family not supported by protocol family

is usually a firewall issue that can be resolved by either turning the firewall off if you don't need it on, or by allowing MacGourmet to get through it and not blocking connections from it.

Other Problems and Solutions

Sometimes, and I'm not sure why, uninstalling and reinstalling the app will resolve problems. Version 1.0 also has a couple of crashing issues, but those should be resolved by the 1.0.1 version that will be out as soon as it's approved by Apple for release.

There are also some solutions to problems listed on the MacGourmet touch FAQ page (which will eventually get updated with this information as well.

Please note the images FAQ item in particular. For some reason, you might need to reduce the image quality to do your transfer, you'll probably have to do this if your sync seems to get hung up on a particular recipe.

Finally you can find some additional setup information, with images, starting here: MacGourmet touch Setup.

About Those MacGourmet touch Sample Recipes...

2009-02-02T14:31:00.003-05:00

I had a surprising (to me anyway) amount of interest in retaining the sample recipes that come with MacGourmet touch. I included them in the touch build for demo purposes, but I've received a lot of requests from people who wanted to keep them. Because of this, I'm making them available to everyone to load into MacGourmet, after which you can sync the ones you like to your phone in the current manner.

First, let me remind people of the free sample packs already available at macgourmet.com. They include a vegan recipe pack, ice cream recipes, and one of the packs used in the iPhone sample pack the "Pork: The Other White Meat" pack.

The other sample recipes are made up of selections from the following additional packs:

National Chicken Cooking Contest 2003
Winning chicken recipes from the 2003 National Chicken Cooking Contest. (51 recipes)
[Download]

National Beef Cook-Off 2005
Winning beef recipes from the 2005 National Beef Cook-Off (20 recipes)
[Download]

The rest already come with a copy of MacGourmet, so you should already have them. If not, they can be found as parts of the various packs available on the sample page.

MacGourmet touch 1.0.1 Submitted to App Store

2009-02-02T13:30:00.002-05:00

I've submitted 1.0.1 to Apple, typical turnaround has been 3 days or so. It includes bug fixes for the following:

- Fixed a problem deleting images on sync. Re-syncing at any point will clean up the orphaned items.

- Fixed a crash that would occur if you synced one or more items without a name.

- Fixed a crash that could occur if you selected the Sync tab after a successful sync.

You should get notified of the update when it's available.

MacGourmet touch: What's Next?

2009-02-01T11:45:00.001-05:00

Now that the first version of MacGourmet touch is out, which covers basic syncing between MacGourmet and your iPhone/iPod touch, I know people want to know, "What's next?"

The next steps are obvious I think:

- Editing information on the phone and syncing changes between your iPhone and Mac

- Multiple lists of your items instead of just one for each type

- More robust on-device shopping list support

- Maybe some basic meal planning functionality

- Etc...

These are all at the forefront and are probably the most requested additions right now. I'm sure there will be others as I get more feedback from people.

I know that on-phone editing is important, but it's also the most complex thing to do, If I made everyone wait until that was done and 100% reliable (didn't screw up your MacGourmet data, etc.) the wait for ANY MacGourmet iPhone app would have been much longer than it already has been. Because of this, version 1 is picking the "low hanging fruit" and providing you with some basic functionality, rather than none at all. Honestly, if Apple can't seem to get syncing right, you know it's not easy (iSync still will screw up my data sometimes).

I recognize that there also needs to be more ways added to actually GET your information to your iPhone. Wi-Fi syncing is nice, but it's not the only way that should be offered as it doesn't always work. Large images right now are a problem (for reasons I haven't exactly figured out) and syncing over Wi-Fi can be slow. I do have some ideas about providing an additional way to get data on your phone, which will allow Mac OS X 10.4 users to sync as well...

MacGourmet touch is brand new and still very early in its development, targeted at a platform itself that is still new, and very early in its development. There's still work to be done, thanks for your patience while the app develops. I am listening to your suggestions so keep them coming!

Announcing: MacGourmet touch - Take Your Recipes with You!

2009-01-30T07:04:00.003-05:00

MacGourmet touch is now available exclusively from the iPhone App Store for $4.99.

With its simple, intuitive interface, MacGourmet touch, now available from the iPhone App Store, lets MacGourmet users transfer their recipes, shopping lists, wine notes and cooking notes from their desktop to their iPhone or iPod touch. Browsing recipes at a friends house, bringing shopping lists to the grocery store, these are just some of the great things that can now be done with MacGourmet and MacGourmet touch.

Minimum Requirements:

- iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS 2.2 or later
- MacGourmet 2.4/MacGourmet Deluxe 1.1 or later running on Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard or later
- Wi-Fi connection or Wi-Fi equipped Mac for syncing

You can find more information, including setup help, on the MacGourmet touch page.

If you buy MacGourmet touch, and like it, a short positive App Store review would be appreciated. I don't normally solicit comments, but reviews in the App Store have tended to be "spotty" at best, so real, positive reviews that balance out any of those would help cut down on that potential "noise."

I'll have a follow up post about what to expect next for this app shortly, so keep an eye out here for that!

MacGourmet Updated to 2.4: Adds iPhone and iPod touch support, bug fixes

2009-01-29T13:03:00.001-05:00

MacGourmet 2.4, a free minor update, is now available.

This version adds support for syncing your information with your iPhone/iPod touch using MacGourmet touch, available now exclusively from the iPhone App Store. For a full list of changes, please see the release notes.

As always, MacGourmet can be downloaded from the MacGourmet download page or by using the built-in software update service.

MacGourmet Deluxe version 1.1, which includes MacGourmet 2.4, can be downloaded from the Mariner Software download page as soon as they make it available.

This new release is primarily targeted at the iPhone/iPod touch support so, what, you may be wondering, is coming next? I plan to have long overdue updates for Mealplan, Cookbook and Nutrition out before too long, changes are already underway, hopefully due out over the next month or so. They've seen a delay because of how much work developing MacGourmet touch took.

Then, after that, it's head down and into development for version 3. I've got a very long list of requests and new features planned, so stay tuned for that, as well as updates to MacGourmet touch in the coming year!

MacGourmet touch has been submitted to the App Store!

2009-01-14T10:48:00.013-05:00

Just a quick update: MacGourmet touch is now in Apple's hands, and I'm awaiting App Store approval. Hopefully that won't take too long! Once it gets through that milestone, look for the release of that and MacGourmet 2.4, which will be required for syncing. Stay tuned!

NOTE: MacGourmet touch will require Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and MacGourmet 2.4 or MacGourmet Deluxe 1.1 for syncing.

[Updated 1/16] Apple rejected the first version, because I apparently didn't handle correctly the case where you don't have a network to connect to, which was a human interfaces guideline violation (yes they are that picky). I quickly made the change and resubmitted, so hopefully the wait won't be too much longer now.

[Updated 1/19] Apple rejected the app, again... The problem this time? No "login information provided" which should make users here scratch their heads... login information??? Why didn't they even ask for this LAST time? *sigh* Clearly different people with different agendas are doing the reviews, and this one didn't understand the product and what it's trying to accomplish. The loss of product release control is really extremely frustrating. But of course we'll have to wait ANOTHER 3 days for the next "problem".

[Updated 1/23] Apple rejected it again... Why this time? [Correction: The wrong version of the application was hastily uploaded to the server for them, but the 30 second fix was still met with a 6+ day turnaround]. Frustration reigns.

[Updated 1/28] Approved! Look for it in the App Store tomorrow or Friday!

Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies 2008

2008-12-12T13:08:00.012-05:00

Every year, maybe because I have this thing about collecting cookie recipes, I look forward to FoodNetwork.com's 12 Days of Cookies leading up to Christmas. You can watch the video for and find out more about each of this year's cookies at the above link.

Sine I've already grabbed them, you can download all 12 already in MacGourmet format, below. You can also grab the cookies from last year.

Merry Christmas!

Food Network 12 Days of Cookies 2008

Food Network 12 Days of Cookies 2007

If you like these, consider signing up for their service. I've found that it's well worth handing over an email address.

(Note MacGourmet is not affiliated with Food Network in any way, I just really look forward to this every year and thought others here might like it as well.)

MacGourmet Touch Beta is Underway!

2008-12-08T13:58:00.005-05:00

The beta for MacGourmet Touch is FINALLY under way. The first, small group of email messages went out today. Once I confirm that the basics are working, and that there aren't any problems, I'll send out information to the whole list, so keep a look out for yours!

[Note: If you don't receive one and you sent a request, it's probably because either you didn't get in under the limit Apple imposes on testing (100) or it's because you didn't provide the correct information that was requested in the initial beta post. Depending on how testing goes, the beta may be expanded as people are dropped to make room for new testers.]

MacGourmet Touch Beta Delayed Until After the Thanksgiving Holiday

2008-11-25T12:50:00.002-05:00

First, thanks to all those who have offered to beta test so far, I'm still in the process of building the full beta list.

I had intended to start the beta at the beginning of this week, but Apple's "surprise" (at least to me) release of iPhone 2.2 has pushed that back, because I found some problems when testing with the new version and I wanted to take care of those before the first beta. I hope to have them resolved before too long, so stay tuned for the beta instructions email message, which should be coming soon...

MacGourmet Updated to 2.3.6, Deluxe to 1.0.5

2008-11-25T12:48:00.000-05:00

MacGourmet 2.3.6, another free, minor update is now available.

This update fixes the web importers for Epicurious.com and improves the FoodNetwork.com importer. For a full list of changes, please see the release notes.

As always, MacGourmet can be downloaded from the MacGourmet download page. MacGourmet Deluxe can be downloaded from Mariner's download page as soon as it's ready.

MacGourmet Deluxe Gets 4 out of 5 mice from MacUser

2008-11-22T15:55:00.001-05:00

Check out this month's MacUser magazine for a 4 mouse review of MacGourmet Deluxe! They have this to say: "MacGourmet Deluxe is packed with features and is a real boon to amateur chefs. We'll be making a lot of use of it." You can read the full review online here.

Beta Test MacGourmet Touch

2008-11-21T09:30:00.002-05:00

Yes, that time has FINALLY arrived! I'm looking for some brave souls to beta test the first version of MacGourmet for the iPhone/iPod touch: MacGourmet Touch.

What I need from people interested: Just your name and the id of your iPhone or iPod touch. The requirements are that you have a WiFi network, or WiFi-capable Mac, and are running Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

To get your phone id, sync your iPhone to your Mac, which will start up iTunes if it's not already running. Then, select your iPhone in iTunes and choose the Summary tab. Click directly on the "Serial number" label. This will toggle the display to show you the 40 character phone identifier. Without selecting anything, choose Edit > Copy and then paste the contents of the clip board into an email message (or just click this link to open a new email message), and send that off to macgourmet [at] advenio.com with a subject of "MacGourmet iPhone Beta". The beta test should get underway soon. Thanks!

Food & Wine Site Import Plug-in Updated

2008-11-13T12:58:00.001-05:00

Just another quick note: the Food & Wine site importer has been updated to version 1.2. You can download the latest version from the web importer page.

This new version accommodates changes made in their latest site redesign.

Cook's Illustrated Site Import Plug-in Updated

2008-11-13T09:39:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note: the Cook's Illustrated site importer has been updated to version 1.2. You can download the latest version from the web importer page.

This new version accommodates changes made in their latest site redesign.

MacGourmet: To Go - A Status Update

2008-10-17T11:35:00.001-04:00

I know, it's been a while since the last preview, but I've been hard at work on the iPhone version of MacGourmet, believe me. Contrary to what you may think, developing iPhone apps that sync with desktop applications is no piece of cake. Apple doesn't give us any way to easily pass information back and forth between the two platforms, which means that as developers, we are all forced to come up with our own ways of doing things. The iPhone also has many limitations, and very different ways of doing things from how we do things on the Mac.

To sync data right now, developers really only have two options: One is to sync with a web site. That's great if you already have an existing, scalable, and compatible web site out there, not so good if you don't. I'm a Mac developer, not a web developer, so that wasn't a great option for me.

The other option is to use Bonjour and a wireless connection to swap data between the iPhone/iPod touch. This also isn't an easy path, as it requires knowledge of networking and streams programing. It also requires the user to have a wireless network, or at least a wireless capable Mac.

For MacGourmet, I've chosen the Bonjour/wireless path. This is definitely going to be a limitation for some at first, but I had to choose one. I expect connectivity options to change or expand in the future though.

In the interest of time, the first version of MacGourmet: To Go will only offer one way syncing of data for your recipes, wine notes and cooking notes. You will, however, be able to create and edit shopping lists on the fly as well as sync them from your Mac. Why this limitation? Time. Syncing is incredibly difficult. Apple does it, and even they can't seem to get it right (if the information that regularly gets messed up on my phone is any indication). If the first version included full blown on-phone editing, and back and forth syncing support, the release would take much, much longer. I think that the first version will hopefully meet the needs of most people: the ability to take the recipes, notes and shopping lists that they have entered into MacGourmet on their Mac, with them.

I still don't have a release date for the app. I wish I did, and I'm working on getting it out as soon as I can. These things just take time, and I don't want to rush things just to get something out. It's also not the only thing I'm working on of course, as MacGourmet continues to see development, bug fixes, etc. and takes a significant amount of my time each day.

[You can find the first preview post, if you haven't seen it yet, here: MacGourmet:To Go Sneak Peek]

MacGourmet Updated to 2.3.5, Deluxe to 1.0.4

2008-10-17T10:30:00.004-04:00

MacGourmet 2.3.5, another free, minor update is now available.

This update fixes the web importers for FoodNetwork.com, YahooFood and Epicurious.com. For a full list of changes, please see the release notes.

As always, MacGourmet can be downloaded from the MacGourmet download page. MacGourmet Deluxe can be downloaded from Mariner's download page.

I also just noticed that Cook's Illustrated completely redesigned their web site, so I plan to update that importer, assuming their changes allow it, as soon as I get a chance.