Translating a recipe from Spanish or Russian into English on CookEatShare is now as easy as a click of a button.  English speakers who know a little Spanish can now add Spanish as a language preference and browse Spanish recipes.  If they understand some of the recipe, but not all, they can see it translated into English with a click of a button.  If there are some errors with the machine translation, which there usually are, a user can then edit the translation and save it.  This will benefit future users who want to see a translated version of that recipe.

CookEatShare is just beginning to take off in Spanish speaking countries.  As it does, the “Translate” functionality will ensure that English speakers get access to the phenomenal recipes that are added in Spanish speaking countries, and vice-versa!

When I looked at the finalists for the CookEatShare-KitchenAid Thanksgiving Recipe contest, there was one that I thought had little chance of winning.  How could a simple cranberry sauce, with only seven ingredients, possibly stand up to some of the other complex and interesting recipes?  Well, I was as surprised as the other judges when I voted Connie McMillan’s Cranberry Yogurt Relish as the grand prize winner.  Simply put, it is a unique and delish take on a classic Thanksgiving side dish.

Try it this year and you wont’ be disappointed.  Cranberry Yogurt Relish Recipe

See the other winnng recipes here:  CookEatShare - KitchenAid Thanksgiving Recipe Finalists

Think you’ve got the world’s best cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie recipe?  Put it to the test in the CookEatShare’s first annual Thanksgiving Recipe Contest.  You’ll have a chance to win one of several must-have prizes from KitchenAid.

Now through Sunday, November 9th you can submit your recipe by going to the KitchenAid Thanksgiving Recipe Contest page on CookEatShare.  Finalists will be chosen based on the number and quality of ratings each receives on CookEatShare.  So make sure you invite friends and family to vote for you!

Once the top eight recipes are selected through visitor-votes, a team of professional chefs will prepare the winning recipes for an exclusive tasting event and judging panel hosted by Chef Alex Marsh at San Francisco’s popular Brick Restaurant on Tuesday, November 11th.  The tasting and judging will feature a panel including Chef Marsh, Chef Nate Appleman of A16 fame, Chef Jeremy Cheng of Town, and Chef Bill Hutton of Draeger’s Cooking School.

Enter now at http://www.cookeatshare.com/contests/1

Ever wanted to see the full size picture of a dinner, dessert or another member featured on CookEatShare?  Well now you can with the newly released Lightbox functionality.  Just click on any picture (except small thumbnails) and the full size photo will show up in a Lightbox. You can then page through any other photos in the lightbox.  For very large images it can take some time for your browser to load the full image.  But be patient because the results are worth it!  To see an example follow this link and click on the image.

http://cookeatshare.com/recipes/dungeness-chili-crab-420

Thanks to the members who requested this and to our awesome developer who put this together in his spare time!

It’s been a while since we updated you on new professional chefs on CookEatShare.  There have been so many!  We’re overwhelmed by the extraordinarily positive response we’ve gotten.  Here are a few of the more recent additions:

Mark Gordon of Terzo in San Francisco
Wendy& Michael Jordan of Rosemary’s in Las Vegas
Jose Garces of Amada in Philadelphia
Alex Marsh of Brick and Solstice restaurants in San Francisco
Robbie Lewis of Bacar in San Francisco
Dmitry Elperin of the Village Pub in Woodside

Some of the recipes look fantastic!

Want to be alerted when your friends and chefs you’ve subscribed to have added new recipes, or when recipes have been added to groups that you belong to?  CookEatShare will now send you email updates on your activities you are interested in.   These updates can be received real time, as a daily digest, or as a weekly digest.  Of course, if you don’t want to receive email updates at all, that is also an option.  You can manage and control your email updates here:  http://www.cookeatshare.com/my/preferences  (this page is accessible only to members).

We hope you enjoy keeping closer tabs on what you friends are cooking and raving about!

It’s been a while since we last posted…been busy working on the site! Last week we launched our Spanish version. If you know any Spanish speakers who are looking for a great place to find and share recipes, and interact with other passionate foodies, please send them to www.cocinarcomercompartir.com! That’s CookEatShare in Spanish. We’ve already got quite a few recipes posted, and more coming every day.

If you’ve already got a cookie from CookEatShare, you can still see the Spanish version by clicking on the Globe icon on the top navigation bar right next to the members login/logout button. You’ll see that we already have English, Spanish, and Russian verisons, with more coming soon.

Thanks for you involvement with CookEatShare and please spread the word! Adios!

Hope many of you have had a chance to check out our new Dinner Party Themes. The idea for Themes came from Lisa, a good friend and frequent entertainer. Lisa likes to throw dinner parties for her friends, and is always looking for new ideas. She hasn’t found a good place on the web for this yet, so we decided to create one!

Creating a dinner party Theme is almost as easy as creating a Recipe. Just provide a summary, categorize your theme so others can find it, and start linking to recipes. You can break recipes down into courses (appetizers, entree, dessert), and add comments along the way. There is room for Tips and Tricks at the end, as well as an easy way to add links to other places on the web.

Some of the themes added so far include:

Bastille Day Recipes and Ideas!
Cinco de Mayo Party!
Cupcake Party

Take a look, add your own Theme, and let us know what you think!

It’s St. Patrick’s Day today. Having grown up with a Scottish Irish grandfather, I am a huge fan of traditional corned beef and cabbage! My grandmother made a delicious version of it, and my wife has her own special Japanese-American version of it. As it turns out, corned beef and cabbage is similar to various stews served in Japan, so Japanese-Americans are very fond of it.

My grandmother traditionally served the corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots, and sometimes other root vegetables like turnips, parsnips, etc. on a plate with just a little bit of juice and butter. She served mustard on the side for the corned beef. My wife, on the otherhand, serves the whole mixture in a large bowl with spicy brown mustard on the side. It took me a while to get used to this stew/soup version of corned beef and cabbage, but now I am a huge fan of it. If you haven’t tried it before, you really should. She typically will also make a pot of mixed brown and white Japanese rice, and put a scoop of rice in the bottom of each bowl before spooning the soup/stew over it. Personally, I leave the rice out (that’s just straying too far from tradition!). But my kids love it with the rice in.

In fact, as I’ve learned, Corned Beef and Cabbage seems to be more of an American invention, though from Irish roots, than a true part of Irish culture. Read an interesting description here.

If you don’t already have a great family recipe, or are looking to try something new, give one of these recipes a shot.

http://homecooking.about.com/od/beefrecipes/r/blbeef156.htm
http://www.jimsdeli.com/food/corned-beef.htm
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/corned-beef-and-cabbage-recipe

For an added bonus, here is a great Irish Soda bread recipe I found on Elise.com. This makes a great side dish to corned beef and cabbage if you haven’t had it yet.

I’ll add a link to our family Japanese-American corned beef and cabbage recipe soon. In the meantime, enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day!