Switched Keys

As if you didn't have enough to do for Christmas it's now time for Food Network's annual publication of the 12 days of Cookies. This is one of several Food Network newsletters you can sign up for on FoodNetwork.com.

So far the cookies featured are impressive although time consuming and/or expensive to get all the special utensils you need to make them. Today's recipe for Pecan Shortbread for example requires a 9-inch tart fluted pan with a removable bottom. Yesterday's Black and White Tie cookie calls for some piping skills. I usually find those demands disturbingly provocative and except for the time requirements I'd give them a shot.

Food Network has a nice clean site that's easy to navigate and a huge collection of resources from tips equipment and party ideas to well recipes. If you search the recipes for cookies for example you'll find 692 of them almost 2 years worth including other holiday cookies like the Gingerbread People.

Another neat feature of Food Network is the Recipe Box. If you register you can go through the recipes and save up to 50 recipe titles in your on-line recipe box. Of course you can print out any number of recipes. There's even options for the print out. You can Print Full Page a 3x5 Card format or 4x6 Card format from their menu. Try it. I would format them a bit different if it were me.

One thing that it lacks is the ability to export to any of the standard recipe database formats so you'll have to type or copy/paste the instructions into one of them. With the popularity of the site I would imagine they could come up with their own recipe database program and format and gain some more interest. But then if they did that maybe they think they will lose some of their internet traffic.