Kindle to the Kitchen

Long have Starr and I resisted the siren call of advancing technology for the sake of the advancement. Smart phones? Got rid of them. Netbook? Got one just as they're on the decline with the rise of the tablet. 

Tablet? Nope, the simple Kindle is a sufficient consumption device. Its limitation is its strength. Nothing else about the device distracts from what you're reading.

Now, Starr once lamented to me the fact that she had no easy way to get into the kitchen with these lovely recipes she'd find all over the internets, except by killing a tree with the printer or scribbling the recipe in shorthand on the back of a discarded envelope, which would necessitate repeat visits back to the computer to figure out what the heck she actually meant. 

The issue was forgotten for a while, then recently, I happened to be installing the Kindle Cloud app for Chrome so I could read the Hunger Games books (which Starr had already devoured) on my Netbook. Whilst searching, I spotted an app called Send to Kindle that was rated higher than the official Kindle app. 

Intrigued, I looked closer. Send to Kindle is a magnificently simple plug-in that lets you highlight text on any web page and shoot it to your Kindle instantly in a nicely-formatted document. I tested it out with Starr's Kindle account, and it worked so easily she actually started using it right away for recipes. Now, Starr hates things that are unnecessarily complicated, inelegant, or just plain sloppy, so the fact that she will use this is a testament to its excellence.

These dinner rolls are fantastic!

If you've got a Kindle and, like us, refuse to buy any actual computing device simpler than a laptop, or if you want to keep your $5mil iDevice away from grease splatters and wayward spices, here are some comprehensive instructions, courtesy of a technical writer I know who specializes in such things (UPDATED!):

1. In Chrome, open a new tab and at the bottom of the page, click Apps.
2. Click Chrome Web Store.
3. Use the search box at the top left of the page to search for Kindle.
4. In the list, find the application called Send to Kindle, then click the blue + ADD TO CHROME button (don't worry, it's free!). 
5. Agree to all of the little dialog boxes that pop up, and a blue K icon will appear in the upper right corner of Chrome. 
6. Right click on the blue K icon, and select Options.
   Disregard the instructions on this page --they're outdated and wrong. Read on
7. In a new tab, log in to your Amazon account and go to your Kindle management page. 
8. On the left side, find the section called Your Kindle Account. Click the link in that section called Personal Document Settings.
9. At the end of the Personal Document Settings list, click the link called Add a new approved e-mail address, and add kindle@klip.me.
   That's it for your account settings. 
10. Make a note of your kindle's email address; you'll need it for the next step.
11. Go back to the Send to Kindle Options tab, and in the email address section, type your kindle email address.
    Also, pay attention to all that stuff about 3G data charges if you have a 3G Kindle. Make sure you put in the right email domain.
12. Ignore the other settings, unless any of them sound good to you. They're pretty self-explanatory, I think.
13. Scroll down until you see SAVE, then click that.

You're all set! To send text to your Kindle:

1. On any website, highlight the text you want to send. 
2. Click the blue K icon. A message pops up to confirm you sent the text to your Kindle. As soon as you turn on wifi and let it sync, your Kindle will download the text.

Okay, so maybe that was a little complex to set up, but once you've got it done, it works brilliantly.

Brilliantly, I tell you.