My New Kitchen Toy -- Demy

About 2 weeks before Christmas, Susan Sellew, the famed Monterey Chevre maven, emailed me to ask me about Demy, a small electronic device for recipes.  Her daughter Tarsi wanted a collection of family recipes, and Susan had found Demy in her search for an appropriate recipe storage machine.  I'd never heard of it, so I googled it right away and within 20 minutes I'd ordered one for myself.

It's small, about the length and width of a Kindle, and can move around your kitchen with you as you prepare whatever.  Recipes are easily loaded onto a computer program called keyingredient.com.  Once the recipes are in place on that site, it takes just a minute or two to sync keyrecipe.com with your Demy.  So it seemed as if it would be a cinch to use.

"Seemed" is the operative term here.  If you're the type, like me, who has clipped recipes for years and stashed them in files and boxes, and you want to clean up your act, the Demy gives you good reason to do so.  The kicker is that you have "to do so."  Luckily I'm a fast typist so it didn't take me too long.  And since I live alone and don't have access to television, I have lots of time to engage in such mindless activity.

Both Demy and keyingredient.com have significant glitches, but their online help staff is patient and helpful.  The major drawback, about which I've yet to get an answer, is why the screen jumps back to the menu list if you're not using the recipe after a few minutes.  If your hands are wet or dough-smeared or bloody from dicing meat or whatever, it's not a good idea to start punching away at the Demy screen.  Perhaps the device is just a bit too new, and once users like me and Susan bombard them with questions, they'll clean up their act.

Nonetheless, I like having the Demy by my side to make sure I'm following the recipe correctly.I did a lot of cooking over the holidays, and have had several dinner parties to enliven the darkness of winter.  So I've had time to experience the Demy.  Although I'm glad I own one, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to everyone.  They're not inexpensive (close to $300), take a lot of time to get ready to use, and suffer from the inevitable glitches of new technology.  Still and all, though, it's fun to have.  More later.