posted
It's up at princeclan.org. Right now, only the recipe browsing function is implemented, and there are only two recipes in it. But, it demonstrates the two-level category system and the assignment of recipes to the categories. Right now, recipes can be browsed by category or by user (by clicking on the submitters name in recipe).
I need feedback on three things:
1. The browsing interface. Is this a good way to navigate around recipes?
2. The actual makeup of the categories. Both top level groups and lower level categories can be added very easily. Any additional ideas for categorization are welcome.
3. Let me know if you're willing to be a tester, even if it's just to submit a recipe or two. I'll beed feedback on the user interface.
The categories are set up so that they can be changed (by an administrator) on the fly, with no additional coding. The formatting is bare-bones for now, but set up so that style sheet changes are all that are needed to update it.
Next step: allow adding/editing/deleting of recipes. After that, search functionality.
posted
Rob - I just want to say that you are amazing! I especially wanted to say that before Fugu jumps in here and proceeds to pick apart your project with his fine-tooth comb.
posted
I would suggest organizing by "region" first, then country when you're doing cuisine. For example: a category would be Mediterranean, subcategories Greek, Italian, etc. Second example: category is South American, subcategories Brazilian, Argentinian, etc.
My suggestions for regions to use as categories: Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, South America, Oceania/Australia/New Zealand, with appropriate subcategories that may have subcategories themselves (Central America could be a sub of North America, and countries would be a sub of that, etc.).
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:The "Shannon & Josh's Wedding" header is a little weird, though.
Yeah, until July the front page of my site is dedicated to my sister's wedding, and I haven't figured out how to make the image change when I'm elsewhere in the site. I'm still learning my content management software.
quote:I would suggest organizing by "region" first, then country when you're doing cuisine. For example: a category would be Mediterranean, subcategories Greek, Italian, etc. Second example: category is South American, subcategories Brazilian, Argentinian, etc.
My suggestions for regions to use as categories: Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, North America, South America, Oceania/Australia/New Zealand, with appropriate subcategories that may have subcategories themselves (Central America could be a sub of North America, and countries would be a sub of that, etc.).
Right now the categories are hardcoded as two-level. I could add them as top level categories, and keep them next to each other:
Course Region - Middle East Region - Asia Region - etc. Special Diets
Then the appropriate countries under each region.
Do you all prefer to do it that way, or with a single cuisine grouping?
posted
Looks very easy to browse, and flexible. Definetely looks like it will be easier to use then allrecipes.com, which is what I currently use.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
OK, that's it! Liz's continued allegations have caused me to reconsider this whole thing! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I mean, wouldn't an Asian porn site make more sense?
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Yes. Especially as Yellow Silk apparently went out of business in 1996.
(Hey, love the recipe site! It's fabulous -- a new Hatrack meme, another layer to the glorious mix. And I actually like the surrealism of the wedding banner.Very Fellini, but in an upbeat way.)
posted
Dag, I have a question about your leg of lamb. I think I'm going to make it tonight, but I think my food processor is too small for all that stuff at once. Do you think it's okay to mix half the veggies with half the spices and then do the other half?
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I have a miniprep, so I'm sure your processor is big enough. The vegetables don't go in the food processor - it's better if they are courser than what the processor would do.
I rewrote that step of the recipe to make it clearer that the ingredients from the processor are added to the sauteed ingredients, not the other way around.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Thanks! One more question, if it's okay, since I know nothing about lamb. Does the butcher do the butterflying and all that? Can I get the guy at the grocery store to do it?
I've never used meat that wasn't basically ready in the package at Safeway.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
The butcher at Giant was very nice and did it. I have no idea how to do it myself. She didn't even make me pay for the weight of the bone, which I thought would have been fair to make me do.
I would bet Safeway would do it, too.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Anyone getting into cooking stuff like that, I recommend Julia Child's The Way to Cook. It has step-by-step instructions, with step-by-step photos, on stuff like how to butterfly a rack of lamb, make stock with a turkey carcass, roast poultry, and make classic desserts and sides. I don't usually recommend cookbooks other than The Joy of Cooking, but this is one. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Oh, and Dag, I hate to keep criticizing, I think this is really cool, but you know that that cheese ball isn't Lent-safe for members of some churches who don't eat cheese at Lent, right?
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
And for people whose religion forbids them from eating mushrooms and/or emitting gas, a mushroom-legume soup should probably be flagged.
Seriously, at some point you have to throw up your hands and trust that people with very unusual diet restrictions can read their own ingredients.
Actually, you could probably address this by using major and minor categories in the master ingredient table, assuming you're structuring things that way. So when someone adds feta cheese to your list of ingredients, they flag the feta as a cheese -- and this would make it possible for someone to do a search for "all recipes without cheese."
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I didn't know that, KQ. I was going by the Catholic rules - I didn't know anyone else abstained from meat over Lent.
Tom, I didn't go with the separate ingredients table in this one - it's a single ingredients field parsed by the PHP preg functions to make the list.
kwsni, I'm going to test the edit features and assign usernames to anyone that wants one. In fact, people can sign up for user names on their own. Eaquae Legit already has. Then I'll assign rights to add recipes (and edit any they've entered).
If enough people post recipes, we could publish one of those recipe books like they do for school fundraisers.
posted
You'd have to either get everyone's permission or post a copyright disclaimer, then. Oh, something I think you need: we don't want people posting copyrighted material. As far as I know, changing the wording of the directions and/or tweaking the ingredients is enough to make a recipe copyright-safe. But you might want to check that out.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I'd be willing to do a test-run for ya. I've got several recipes in my head that could be written down somewhere.
Also, will recipes be crosslisted? I have a vegan curry that I love, but it could fit under several categories, for example.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
OK, I haven't written the part where you can add recipes yet. Hopefully I'll get that done today, then I'll let everyone who signed up know that it's ready for testing.
And no copyrighted recipes is a good idea. I'm not going to check, though - just use your own good judgment.
posted
Well, you should post a disclaimer stating that people must change the wording when posting a non-original recipe, that it's proper etiquette on recipe sites to list a source for a non-original recipe, and that if you get a complaint from a copyright holder about something that is posted, it will be removed. That way, you're covered, without having to police it too closely.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Crockpot would be good, but then we're getting into preparation methods; Dag, didn't you say you could only do 3 categories? Maybe there could be a "slow cooker" tag that could go on any recipe?
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Ok. What I've got is a bunch I've collected from various threads, and from a bunch of different people. I can post them all, though, when you get it all figured out.
posted
OK, I believe the add/edit features are working, and I believe I added rights to add new recipes and edit the ones they've posted for everyone who's registered from Hatrack. There was one person whose Hatrack handle I didn't recognize. If you find you can't add recipes, just email me.
A couple of pointers:
1. Right now, the only link to add recipes is at the top of the Recipes main page - the one that lists the category outline and number of recipes for each.
2. You should be able to edit any recipe you add. The edit link shows up above the categories on the page for viewing a single recipe.
3. Title, ingredients, directions, and at least one category are mandatory.
4. I'm the only one who can add categories, so if you have suggestions for a new category (especially under cuisine - I know I missed many), put it in the description field and I'll try to get to it.
5. Please report any errors in this thread, with as explicit instructions for duplicating it as possible. Screenshots would help; you can email those to me.
6. All suggestions are welcome, but I'm prioritizing them based on things that get the recipes in the system and allow users to view them. Discussions, email, printer-friendly, comments, recipe-doubling, etc. all are in the future.
I hope it works, and I hope everyone enjoys it. Remember, you can search recipes in the search box.
posted
I added one and it seems to work. However I decided to spell "the" with a couple of 'e's (I was worried the one 'e' would get lonely) and can't figure out how to edit it.
Also, do you really have a friend who spells their name "Nezhmi\"? The slash is silent, right?
Third, I'm assuming that things like the leg of lamb aren't flagged as kosher because of the butter? They make this great stuff called margarine now . . . Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I did. She came up with the recipe, and I've loved it ever since. The slash appeared magically when I entered the '.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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