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Mangia! The Cook's Best Friend



Author: Lynn Hunsinger
Date: April, 1994
Keywords: Upstill Software recipies recipe database kitchen cooking
Text: Mangia! The Cook's Best Friend... and the ultimate software review My friends all know that a TV dinner and a microwave is my idea of high tech cooking. I think that it is precisely because of this disposition and not in spite of it, that I offered to review Mangia! Actually, I am a good cook when I need to be, but I thought that this program might help my cooking style. Mangia! The Cook's Best Friend, is a recipe handler that will do much of the work for you. It comes with two selections of uncom-mon recipes. They are Cook's Redux, and Mangia Miscellany. Cook's Redux consists of recipes from Cook's Magazine. Mangia Miscellany contains additional recipes not found in Cook's. More recipes are available from Upstill Software. You can modify or enter recipes at will, and Mangia! will allow you to reorganize these recipes if you desire. Mangia! will also print out the recipes in a variety of formats. A nice feature is a series of gauges rating the recipes on everything from ease of preparation to spiciness. All of the recipes that I tried were excellent, although they are on the gourmet side. I find them too elaborate for my everyday use, but they would be great for special occasions. Mangia!, The hard working cook's assistant, will help you find recipes, plan meals, write shopping lists, and more. It will let you choose recipes according to ingredients. Not only can you tell it to find a recipe using one or more special ingredients, but you can tell it to omit recipes containing certain foods. You can tell it what you have on hand, and it will suggest recipes for you and print out a shopping list for any additional ingredients needed. Or you can tell it that you don't want to shop, and it will suggest recipes using only the ingredients you already have in your pantry. It can even group the items on the shopping list by their store locations. When I first started using computers, people kept telling me that computers are a good place to keep addresses and phone numbers-I'm afraid that I've told that to people also. But after a short time, I decided that it wasn't convenient. A small book could be carried anywhere, and was faster than booting a computer, loading a database, and searching for an entry. It was also easier to enter names in the book. A computer just wasn't the right tool for the job. I have similar feelings about Mangia!. If it is merely a recipe that you want, unless your computer is run-ning, and is near the kitchen, or you have a PowerBook, a recipe book or file would be more convenient. However, if you want to take advantage of the special features that Mangia! provides, it is a terrific program and a marvelous tool. Mangia! will make a demo copy which may be passed around freely, ethically and legally. It does every-thing the regular Mangia! does, except make a demo, and it expires in two months. I have made that demo and it is ready to be sent to the SMUGgler's BBS. I will send it when the review is in print. Thus the ULTIMATE software review is the meal you make while actually using the software with your own preferences in mind. In Short: Mangia! Directions: A well written manual, On-line & Balloon help Packaging: Boxed w/one 800K disk and a discount coupon for a Cook's Magazine subscription. Retail: $49.93 Street (Mac Connection): $33.95 Requirements: 800K floppy drive, hard disk with 1.5 MB free Mangia is published by Upstill Software, 1442 Walnut Ste.#A, Berkeley, CA 94709-9938, (800) 568-3696 [(800) JOT-DOWN].

Copyright © april, 1994 by Lynn Hunsinger


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