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Cook of the Week: Social media specialist turns to apps, websites for recipes

Our Cook of the Week, April M. Williams, runs her own internet marketing company specializing in social media, so it's no surprise to learn that the Algonquin resident has a cyber-enhanced approach to cooking. Not only does she hunt for recipes online, but she also uses her own paperless virtual cookbook.

"I use an app called PepperPlate.com," she explains. "What I like is that you can find a recipe, import it, and it saves the source. It's no big deal to upload your own recipes, too." Pepper Plate categorizes the food for you, and you can add tags to them, so that it is really easy to search for favorite recipes. You can also share recipes and send them to someone else.

"I have it on my computer and my phone, so I can travel with all my recipes. It's a fun little tool, and it's free."

There are several cooking websites that April uses to search for recipes. Because she likes to try 4 or 5 new recipes a month, she was happy when her daughter introduced her to Recipes.com, sweetfreemeatfree.com, and epicurean.com. She visits them all often to look for good vegetarian recipes.

April has been a vegetarian for most of her adult life, but her husband and their grown children are not.

"They're omnivores," she admits. "They eat everything. I usually make a vegetarian meal, and they might add something to it or not. They have no problem eating vegetarian meals."

Her three children are also all well-versed in the kitchen; her middle child has even been to culinary school.

"They're all out of the house and are all very good cooks. I like it when they cook for me," she says.

The Williams family enjoys cooking together, but her children still like it when April cooks for them. They each have their favorites, including her sweet potato soup, a roasted beet and onion dish and her potato salad. April doesn't bake often, but when she does one favorite is her oatmeal cookies, which are chock full of such healthy additions as cranberries, nuts and coconut. She also likes to bake zucchini bread.

  Cook of the Week April M. Williams made sweet potato and garbanzo bean tomato soup. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com

Admittedly, April doesn't find the time to cook every night of the week. She and her husband like to dine out, but she does like to cook two to four times a week so there are plenty of leftovers for lunches.

During the summer, April gets inspired by her Community Supported Agriculture box of produce that she collects weekly at a nearby farm.

"(The produce) has been beautiful. I like that it exposes us to things we're not used to - like different varieties of Choy and radishes, interesting things we don't see in grocery stores. There are a lot of greens like Kale, herbs and rainbow chard; sometimes there are turnips or even kohlrabi." The CSA has an internet link that offers recipes for the produce as well, which is especially welcome when you have never seen a vegetable before.

"I like that it's changing up our diet and encouraging us to eat foods we normally don't eat."

One minor problem, however, is when the children visit and go "shopping" in the refrigerator right after the CSA pickup.

"Well, I guess I'm all for that - I'm not going to tell them they can't eat vegetables!" April says with a laugh.

There's one other place where April often finds recipes we are happy to discover - the newspaper and, luckily, the Daily Herald is also online.

• To suggest someone to be profiled here, send the cook's name, address and phone number to food@dailyherald.com.

Quaker Oats Oatmeal Cookies with Extra Goodies and No Eggs

Sweet Potato and Garbanzo Bean Soup

Pesto and sun-dried tomato baked Brie

Honey Ginger Carrots

Beets with Greens

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