We’re only a few days before Thanksgiving which means it’s time to get ready for tons of great food and fun with family and friends. I hate cooking. Spending a full day inside cooking while others are having fun is not my idea of enjoying a holiday. But I’m willing to take on parts of the cooking detail if I get to play with some cool gadgets. The following are top five gadgets and applications that I think are pretty cool. Comment below with what you are going to use this turkey day.

1. Emerson Wine Bottle Opener: I received this as a wedding gift from my friend Robin and it’s changed my world. As someone with joint issues, this takes all the pain out of opening a wine bottle. You just peel the foil, place it over the top of the bottle push the button and it grabs the cork. Then you press a button to reverse it so the cork falls out of the opener. It’s easy and will be very handy if you have to spend a long time with the in-laws.

2. Turkey Fryer: This may be the most dangerous thing on the list, but is totally worth it. Everything tastes better deep fried right? It’s also a great thing to do for a secondary Thanksgiving with friends. Trust me, you’ll start searching for anything you can deep fry within minutes. Just be very careful. Operator probably should not have wine.

3. Infared Temperature gauge: I love this because then you don’t have to worry about a)getting dirty and b) reading it incorrectly. The only problem is that it’s on backorder right now, but you can order it to be ready next year.

4. Thanksgiving Menu Maker: This free app is for the iPhone and iPad and is really popular for helping to create the perfect Thanksgiving menu. Also it allows you to be daring and try to make one new thing on the menu this year.

"Can I play with you? Can I play with you...please?"

5. Kinect with Dance Central 2: To get out of the food coma you need a Kinect and Dance Central 2. Burn those calories that way you’ll have room for desert guilt free! You didn’t think I could make this list without adding some gaming! Another great group game is You Don’t Know Jack

ESRB: E for Everyone
Genre: Interactive Cookbook
Number of Players: One 
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: March 28, 2010

Buy

Buy it now from Amazon

Spending time in the kitchen is something I both love and dread. Love because I enjoy making good food for my friends and family. Dread due to the inevitable piles of dishes that will be left to clean up, and I’m usually the one doing that, too. There is an entire row of cookbooks in our home covering a wide range of cuisines. We leave shopping lists stuck to our refrigerator and our kitchen table doubles as a prep table and cookbook stand. The kitchen in our apartment is rather small, not much counter space is available, which means its hard for two people to work together.

Enter America’s Test Kitchen the “game”. Not exactly a game but used on the Nintendo DS family of systems, America’s Test Kitchen is an interactive cookbook and kitchen helper, enabling you to make healthy dinners for yourself and your loved ones, with and without their help. It boasts 300 recipes from appetizers to desserts, features video tutorials and walks you step by step through creating each one.

America’s Test Kitchen features a very comprehensive glossary as well. In Cooking A-Z you can learn more about cuts of meat, how to tell when fruits and veggies are ripe, and even which utensils you should have in your arsenal. And if you aren’t sure how to trim asparagus or seed tomatoes, well you can find out how to do that here, too.

Let’s Get Cooking takes you straight to the meat and potatoes of this software. If you have food allergies or just don’t like certain foods, I recommend starting out here with the Excluded Ingredients option. Marking which ingredients you don’t want to use will put Xs on the recipes containing them so you know which ones to avoid. I have a mushroom allergy which I found was super helpful in narrowing down my options early on. Now you are ready to browse through all recipes that meet your dining requirements.

Now, you can’t review the software if you don’t make something from the recipe index. I decided to make Chicken Picata, primarily because I was craving it, but it was also a dish that was easy enough to do in my tiny apartment kitchen. Before starting, I used the ingredient list to see what I needed to pick up from the store, and got out the utensils I would be using for preparation.

The best thing about America’s Test Kitchen is also the only gripe I had while making my entree. You can continue or return to the previous step by speaking clearly enough into the DS microphone. This is great for when your hands are covered in goop and you want to wash your hands while listening to the next step. The downside is that the game kept thinking that I was talking to it, even when I was just closing the fridge door. It would skip ahead on me and keep asking me to repeat myself when I said nothing. It also registered my husband talking to me as receiving commands. So whenever my hands where clean I would listen to the next step then close the DS lid. I can foresee that being a major issue if you were to have a group in the kitchen you or using two systems to make your meal.

Once I completed making the Chicken Picata I was given the chance to stamp my efforts with either a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal. Based on how the dish turned out and the ease of cooking I rated it with a Bronze “Made It!” stamp. I was also able to make a note for the recipe at this point, where I decided to write “Use less lemon juice” in case I made it again.

Even though I ran into issues with the voice commands with America’s Test Kitchen, I will use it again. There are some delicious looking recipes that I want to try out, and when I have a larger kitchen to work with I plan on using the “Send It” function to have my husband help me make meals.

PASS

Nintendo has positioned the DS to be a chic and useful device to moms everywhere. Starwood Hotels & Resorts agrees with Nintendo and is adding a Nintendo DS pre-loaded with Personal Trainer: Cooking software for hotel guests. The software makes it easy for travelers to plan their recipes and cook meals in the fully equipped in-suite kitchens. That leaves very little excuse for ordering in now.

“We know that many of our guests, especially our longer stay guests, don’t necessarily want to eat out every night of the week, but they also don’t have the time to come up with recipes and create shopping lists,” said Brian McGuinness, Senior Vice President of Specialty Select brands for Starwood Hotels. “Providing our guests with this best-selling hardware and intuitive software that serves up healthy meal options at the touch of a button makes it easy for travelers to customize meals that please the palate in their own kitchens.”

The Element Hotel also has an on-site 24 hour a day pantry which has ingredients and pre-prepared meals. To cook when you are away from home check out Element Hotels here.

Cooking Mama 3

The little girl that tries to impress mama with her cooking is coming back to the DS with Cooking Mama 3. This time Mama is trying to fill Christmas stockings with food. Cooking Mama 3 is set to release on November 13.

The title has over 80 recipes, 200 mini-games, and four player multiplayer. There are also three new modes: Let’s Match!, Let’s Shop!, and Cooking Contest.

The release date is for Europe in this press release. No word if it’s getting a US release.

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Anyhow! If cooking is your thing (or even if it isn’t) and you feel like catering to the geek in you, I’d suggest giving the site a hit.