MacGourmet News

The new templates for publishing, display and printing have be finalized, so I thought I'd post a sneak peek at what's coming.

New Publishing Templates

First up are the new publishing templates. There are a bunch of colorful new styles to choose from. You can see three of the new ones below.

New Display Templates

The version 2 recipe box also sports a whole new look, one that extends to the templates used to display recipes and notes. Three of the new styles can be glimpsed below, to give you a sense of what's in store. These thumbnails only give you a taste of how great these new templates, done by Jordan Langille of OneToad Design, actually look when MacGourmet is running. Pretty cool.

Hopefully version 2 will enter a closed beta period before too long. I'm currently testing and fine tuning things, and not writing a lot of code, so things are getting close.

Still Looking for Localizers

One of the goals of version 2 was restructuring things so that it'd be easily localizable. With a lot of the version 2 completed, I can now put out a call for people who'd be interested in helping localize MacGourmet 2 for non-English-speaking countries.

What would you get for doing it? Free copies of MacGourmet, mention in the About box, and the undying gratitude of both me, and of all of those MacGourmet users and potential users whose first language is not English. If you are interested, just use the "Send Feedback" menu item in the MacGourmet "Help" menu to send an email message saying what language you'd be interested in doing. The list of languages currently unspoken for includes Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Korean, and Chinese.

I was recently looking for a recipe for carnitas, which is essentially pork simmered in Mexican spices, as I was missing a the burritos from Anna's in Cambridge and Somerville MA. I found a handful of recipes, but lo and behold, the New York Times has a take on making REAL tacos by The Minimalist, Mark Bittman. Check it out (Free subscription required). I've posted a few of the recipes for the fillings here. Enjoy!

Ingredients:Directions:
1. Sliver 4 cloves of the garlic and use a thin-bladed knife to poke holes all over the pork; insert garlic slivers in holes.

2. Combine the peppercorns, oregano, cumin, cinnamon and coriander in a small skillet and turn the heat to medium. Toast, shaking the pan occasionally, until the mixture is fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Combine the toasted spices, salt and remaining garlic in the container of a small food processor or blender. Turn on the machine and gradually add the orange and lemon juice until you have a smooth purée. Rub all over the pork; let the pork sit at room temperature for up to 2 hours or in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

4. At least 2 hours before you plan to eat, turn the oven to 300 degrees or prepare a charcoal or gas grill to cook over low indirect heat. Put the pork in a roasting pan in the oven or directly on the grill rack; if you’re grilling, cover the grill. Cook, checking occasionally and basting with the pan juices if you’re roasting (add water to bottom of pan if mixture dries out), until pork is brown and very, very tender, at least 2 hours. Shred or slice pork and use hot or at room temperature (pork can be refrigerated for up to 2 days).
(Serves 4)

Slow-roasted Pork for Tacos. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

Shredded Chicken for Tacos. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

Grilled Carne Asada for Tacos. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

MacGourmet 1.2.2 has been released to fix a few outstanding bugs in the current version. It includes fixes for problems editing some shopping lists and certain recipes, and fixes some minor user interface issues. The full list of changes can be found here.

The new version can be downloaded here.

Looking for Localizers

One of the goals of version 2 was restructuring things so that it'd be easily localizable. With a lot of the version 2 completed, I can now put out a call for people who'd be interested in helping localize MacGourmet 2 for non-English-speaking countries.

What would you get for doing it? Free copies of MacGourmet, mention in the About box, and the undying gratitude of both me, and of all of those MacGourmet users and potential users whose first language is not English. If you are interested, just use the "Send Feedback" menu item in the MacGourmet "Help" menu to send an email message saying what language you'd be interested in doing. The list of languages currently still needed includes Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Chinese and Russian.