Hot Fun (Downloading) in the Summertime

PCWorld.com Downloads Team

1. 100 Proof Cocktail Planner: This interactive, free planner encompasses bar tools, mixers and garnishes, and ingredients for a well-stocked bar. Learn how to make guacamole dip, baked Brie, easy roasted ribs, and flaming drinks, and discover the differences between types of glassware--everything from a brandy snifter to a champagne flute glass. You can e-mail and print your cocktail recipes. It even offers some hangover remedies.

Note: This program is advertising supported, so you'll see a banner ad at the top of its window.

2. AccuChef: Whether you're taking a crash course on cooking to impress a date or you're a natural wizard of fine cuisine, it's always good to have recipe access. Print out double-sided cookbooks or index cards using Rich Text Formatting and change fonts, sizes, colors, and margins. Create Web pages with custom backgrounds and downloadable recipes. You can also perform nutritional analysis, create menus, even calculate the cost of the recipe and the cost per serving.

3. Recipe Calc: Analyze recipes, meals, and daily intake for nutritional value. This program calculates total calories, calories from fat, percent of calories from fat, fat grams, saturated fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, fiber, sodium, and protein. Display the information in the familiar Nutrition Facts label format. Included is a database of more than 3000 of the most common ingredients; you can easily add ingredients to the database as well.

4. Professional Bartender 2000: So, you've finally planned your extravagant cocktail party, complete with dress code and hors d'oeuvres. Don't mess it up by handing your guests a beer. Impress them with your knowledge of more than 250 classic drinks and nonalcoholic mixtures (1000 recipes in the registered version). You can also add your own recipes to the database. Search for a particular mix by liquor, other ingredients, type of drink, glassware, season, or temperature.

If you can't (or don't want to) keep your computer handy during your party, you can print the recipes onto full sheets or index cards. You also get handy charts of bottle sizes, bar measurements, and metric conversions. May you and your guests never thirst.

5. Cookbook Wizard: Maybe you have a pile of recipe books or cards, or you just need an easier way to find and organize your collection of recipes. Sort and find meals and ideas by categories such as cuisine, work effort, food group, occasion, and source. Recipes can be imported from Meal Master, Master Cook, and Recipe Wizard, and an HTML generator creates Web pages for your recipes. Find and reject recipes by ingredients on-hand. You can also use this program to maintain shopping lists and save photos to go along with your recipes.