Windows/Linux: Spend some time searching for free software to manage recipes, and you'll end up spending a lot of time in your uninstaller utility, removing the cruft of bad interfaces, weak features, and general abandonware. Gourmet Recipe Manager, a free, open-source download for Linux and Windows systems, is easy to navigate, imports and exports in a wide array of formats, and can generate nutritional data and shopping lists from your favourite home cooking recipes. The app has a lot of small but convenient features, like a list maker that understands you just need "potatoes," not "diced potatoes," an ingredient entry form that allows for no-look typing, and an attractive recipe card maker. It can also import recipes from Epicurious.com, Recipezaar, and other web sites with little problem. Gourmet Recipe Manager is a free download for Windows and Linux systems. It's included in many Linux repositories, while Windows users should look through the stable releases for the most recent .exe package. Know of another free, robust recipe manager? Tell us about it in the comments.

The Google Reader Blog offers up one enthusiast's handy technique for using RSS feeds to keep track of recipe ideas. Ann Verbin, a dedicated reader of cooking blogs, using Google Reader's stars to identify recipe ideas she likes, then tags them with meal categories and key ingredients so she can easily find new meal ideas. She also uses "cooked" and "cooked-good" tags While you could just star items and then use Reader's general search, the discipline of tagging helps find ideas "when you don't have anything too specific in mind", Verbin writes.

Salon interviews Jennifer McLagan, author of Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes, and comes away with the message that animal fat is not the death of your health, or your arteries. Noting that most people now eat less animal fat, but more fat overall, McLagan authors this tidbit to mull over when considering your next seemingly sinful recipe:

Animal fats have lots of good fatty acids that fight disease, help absorb vitamins and lower cholesterol. Your body burns the short-chained fatty acids found in animal fats and stores the long-chained ones found in polyunsaturated fat. It is a myth that eating animal fat makes you fat.

That's not an endorsement for making bacon-wrapped duck a part of your weekly diet, but next time you're thinking about shying away from recipes with lard or animal fat just on principal, it might pay reconsider. Photo by WordRidden.

Today marks the start of National Vegetarian Week when we're all encouraged to go meatless for a week. If you're more tempted by the joke "If God meant us to be vegetarian, then why did he make animals out of food?" than the thought of a meat-free diet, then the site has some recipes to get you started. For more ideas, check out meatless dishes that satisfy meaty eaters.

If you're a veteran vegetarian, or just live with one, you've probably got a cache of great, hearty, no-meat-required dishes at hand. If you're a meat eater hosting vegetarians, however, you might be a little hard up for entrees. The Wise Bread blog has a helping of eight dish ideas that are hearty and tasty to keep bookmarked for a rainy, meatless day. Some won't make the cut for vegan, but a few, including spaghetti squash in red sauce, can be kept to a version with no animals involved whatsoever. What recipes do you pull out for vegetarian guests, or for your own household? Share the menu in the comments. Photo by Noonch.

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The problem with Saturday night is Sunday morning. Yes, I'm talking about the hangover. I'm talking about fuzz in your mouth and ringing in your ears. I'm talking about that "did I really say that?" feeling and that "OMFG, I did" reaction. The solution to Sunday morning (or at least those Sunday mornings that start like this) is the perfect Bloody Mary. Photo by cote.

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Got a sudden urge for a slice of cake, but don't want to head out to the local bakery or risk dietary ruin by cooking an entire cake which you know you'll end up gorging on? Blogger Dizzy Dee offers up a handy recipe for a single-serve cake which you can make in a mug in your microwave. (Don't stress about the reference to cake flour; as the Australian Women's Weekly Test Kitchen points out, you can use plain flour as a substitute, just reduce the quantity by a teaspoon or so.)

If you're suffering from Starbucks' recent closure of three-quarters of its Australian stores, then the Ultimate Starbucks Recipe Book free PDF download might help sate your frappuccino urges. Quantities are in US imperial measurements, but for most of the coffee recipes that shouldn't make a major difference. (Sadly, we can't do much about the reduced Wi-Fi footprint those closures also represent.) [Coffee Fair via OzBargain]

Looking for some warm food ideas for the colder months? Download Coles Winter Magazine as a free PDF for 40 recipe ideas. (Don't stress about the Coles branding, all the ingredients are standard pantry fare.) Some of the ideas are a tad basic (omelette, anyone?), but there should be something here to get you stimulated -- I especially like the sound of the lazy man's chicken and corn soup. [Coles Winter Magazine]

Food writer and uber-cook Mark Bittman keeps it timely with 101 picnic-friendly dishes that can be made, he claims, in 20 minutes or less. As with his other 101-item lists of 20-minute party appetisers and 10-minute meals, there's bound to be a few fudges on the timing (especially with anything involving boiling noodles), but the list is bound to inspire a great picnic idea. Photo by Miss Pupik.

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