The iPhone could not access the Web from my neighborhood Giant. The manager said I could try standing out in the parking lot to see if I could pick up someone else's Wi-Fi network signal.
And Starbucks interfered with the signal at the Whole Foods store that is right next door. I kept getting coffee ads and music selections instead of recipes and ingredients.
I knew there was a way to solve this problem; I just didn't know what it was. So I used the souped-up cell phone, which picked up a signal even when I was way back in the meat department.
But by the time my grocery shopping was finished, I had tendinitis in my elbow from holding the cell phone just so in order to hold onto my Web-generated grocery list without having to repeatedly navigate the log-in gantlet for Epi to Go or for Ray's special application.
Worse, I ran into all sorts of friends who kept asking me the same question: "Why would you want to do it that way?"
The ingredient list from epitogo.com was consolidated, so I knew just how much butter I needed for everything I wanted to make from the site. Ray's ingredient list was a little more troublesome. I had to return to the recipe to see that "jumbo shrimp" meant "16, uncooked."
By the time I got home, I was in such a fury that my husband fled the house.
It only got worse when my computer decided that the recipes I was trying to print out were unwanted "pop-ups" and refused to provide me with copies.
I was, literally, cooking with my cell phone when my daughter came into the kitchen.
"Why would you do it that way?" asked the tech-savvy next generation.
susan.reimer@baltsun.com
Help from the Internet
Here is a look at a couple of the mobile cooking applications out there - and more are arriving every day.
Epi to Go
How it works:
Epicurious.com, with more than 25,000 recipes, including those from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, is one of the oldest culinary Web sites, but it has had a makeover to make it mobile-ready.
Cost:
Free, but cell-phone data package fees, including texting and Web access, apply.
What we liked:
You can create a consolidated grocery list from the recipes you choose.
What we didn't like:
You have to enter your cell-phone number to unlock your recipe box. That's not a problem on an iPhone, but on a regular cell phone, you have to navigate the entire process again if you happen to close your phone.
