miBook puts you in charge of the cooking

So Rachael Ray has inspired you to whip up an exciting new dish for the family. You print a recipe and then wonder what exactly julienne means. So you race to the DVR and watch a few minutes of the segment and spend the next 2 hours running between the family room and the kitchen, dirtying the remote, the floor, the sofa, and nearly every dish in the house in the process. Whatever happened to 30-minute meals?

A truly useful sous chef.

(Credit: PhotoCo)

The miBook (pronounced My Book), a multimedia cookbook and more, offers a better solution. The 7-inch portable player offers Food Network content and an innovative concept to help amateur chefs work like the pros.

Start by selecting a main ingredient--chicken, beef, fish, pasta, whatever--and a cooking method (grilling, pan-frying, broiling, and so on) and let miBook offer you a choice of recipes that match your settings. Then, follow the step-by-step video instructions. The miBook's strength is that each time a step is presented, the video automatically pauses to give you time to copy what you just saw. Use the kitchen-friendly remote to continue the video when you're ready.

You'll see how your meal should look the whole way through, so you'll be able to follow along precisely and match your masterpiece to the one on the screen. Each cookbook title comes on a removable memory card and features 150 recipes from Food Network names like Rachael Ray, Robin Miller, Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay, and more.

The miBook's built-in stand lets it rest upright on the counter. When you're not cooking, it functions as a portable digital photo frame. Or, load it with other titles on home repair, gardening, and parenting. The miBook player comes with two titles and retails for about $130. Additional titles run about $20 each.