Did you know that September 26 is Pancake Day? Or that Gumbo Day is October 12? How about Eat What You Want Day on May 11? Never miss out on another food day again with the newly released Food.com Every Day is a Food Holiday. This clever little app fills a need you didn’t even know you had. Each day the app features a food holiday with several recipes, both classic and unusual, to celebrate. Food.com doesn’t stop there, going above and beyond to provide enhanced functionality to help users plan and keep track of food holidays.
Keep up to date on days dedicated to your favorite foods and peruse recipes featuring the honored ingredient. This app is great for planning the theme of your next party, book club meeting, girls (or guys) night in or office potluck.
Have you ever wondered how your friends know it’s International Bacon Day? Keep reading to find out more.
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Getting Started
Launch the app and land on the home screen announcing today’s food holiday (in this case it’s National Filet Mignon Day!). I like how the app doesn’t mess around, throwing you straight into the action. Swipe the photos to view a slideshow of recipes using the celebrated ingredient. Bright, cheerful colors and a schoolhouse chalkboard set the tone for fun.
Launch the app and discover today’s food holiday, National Filet Mignon Day, left. Swipe the screen to view a collection of Classic and Creative recipes celebrating the food holiday, right.
Each food holiday comes with a handful of featured recipes, both Classic and Creative. You’ll notice an ever-present ad banner at the bottom of the screen, which is mildly annoying but worth keeping the app free. If you really need to know when cupcake day arrives you can allow the app to send push notifications so you won’t miss out on anything. It’s convenient to go to your settings and choose to receive notifications every day or only for your favorite food holidays.
Adjust your settings to receive notifications so you won’t miss your favorite food holidays, left. Add Food Holidays to your Favorites list, integrate the app with your device calendar, or share the app with friends, right.
Another clever function that users will appreciate: the ability to integrate the app with your iPhone’s calendar. Food.com understands that some foodies are really serious about planning ahead for food holidays, bringing cupcakes to the office or celebrating Margarita Day with friends at the local Mexican restaurant.
Celebrate 365 Days a Year
To browse the calendar for other food holidays, go to the toolbar at the top of the screen. Tap the calendar icon to view the current month and what food holidays are coming up next. Use the calendar to plan themes for a monthly cooking club or baking circle. It’s fun to discover food holidays you would never have thought of, like Eat a Hoagie Day or Chocolate-Covered Anything Day.
Tap the calendar icon to see what food holidays are coming up next, left. Select a day and view the recipes to plan ahead, right.
It’s also fun to use the search tool to find food holidays. If you’re a chocolate lover you’ve got 16 reasons to celebrate, from Chocolate Cake Day to Chocolate Fondue Day to Chocolate Chip Day and more! It’s fun to enter a word like Ham and see what pops up (Glazed Spiral Ham Day, Hamburger Month, Champagne Day).
Use the search tool to find holidays featuring your favorite foods. I’m a chocoholic and it seems I’ve got plenty of days to celebrate!
Though the app requires an Internet connection, navigation is quick and pretty seamless. Pages load written content first and then fill in the images so you don’t get frustrated waiting around.
Add Holidays and Recipes to your favorites, kept in two separate lists.
It’s great to be able to add Holidays and Recipes to your Favorites in two separate lists. Favorites lists make the app smarter so it knows what holidays are important to you and can give you a heads up. If you come across a recipe that becomes a new family favorite, keep it handy for quick reference in the Recipe Favorites.
The Recipes
Food.com is an online cooking community where users share recipes and review each other’s recipes using a star system. The food holiday recipes in this app are pulled from Food.com users, but sadly, no credit is given. It’s hard to understand why Food.com wouldn’t want to give their users the recognition, but the same line appears at the bottom of every recipe, “submitted by a Food.com user.” The last question is how reliable are the recipes? Food.com depends on users to rate each other’s recipes, so while you may not have cookbook worthy accuracy, you’ll at least walk away with a fun inspiration point to start planning your next food holiday meal.
Every food holiday comes with a selection of recipes to get you inspired, like this rum cake.
It’s good to be able to view each recipe rating at the top of the screen, along with stats on cooking time and servings. Recipes come with one photo (uploaded by the user who wrote the recipe) to show the finished dish. Photos aren’t professional but they do give the app an accessible, community feeling. Ingredients lists and Directions are simple, straightforward and easy to read. You’ll even find a few extra cooking tips from these nameless users. Food.com provides a good user experience by allowing you to share a link to the full recipe via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Email or SMS.
Conclusion
Food.com Every Day is a Food Holiday is a fun little app that fits into a great niche interest for foodies. If you’re already someone who loves to announce, “It’s doughnut day!” on Twitter, you’ll love finding new food holidays to celebrate 365 days a year. If you used to be annoyed by people who proclaim, “It’s doughnut day!” on Twitter, the app might just convert you to the joys of celebrating random foodstuffs. Food.com has done a great job of keeping it simple and easy, while still offering the element of surprise and delight to users. This app is fun and functional; you’ll come back to it again and again throughout the year.
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