Cooking tonight? Alexa knows 60,000 recipies that she can teach you how to make

Thanks to television chefs and their immensely popular televised competition shows (we're looking at you, Gordon Ramsay), cooking has never been so popular. With NFL ratings on the decline, watching someone don a chef's attire and cook a meal from scratch has become a highly rated spectator sport. Year after year FOX renews shows like Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef and Masterchef Junior. Parents love this trend. Instead of their kid risking a concussion on the gridiron, more and more children are spending time in the kitchen.

So where are we going with an opening paragraph like that. Two words: Amazon Echo. The Echo and the Echo Dot connect to a cloud based service called Alexa, which will provide you with hands-free information on topics like the weather, sports scores, and news. Alexa will also stream music, and with the addition of voice based features called skills, the service will also allow AT&T subscribers to dictate and disseminate text messages. Another skill added to Alexa comes from recipe based website Allrecipies.

Thanks to this new addition to Alexa's capabilities, Echo and Echo Dot users can ask Alexa what yummy dish can be made using the ingredients they have at home. Users can also ask Alexa to find a quick meal to make, and receive help on measurements. And since cooking requires a chef's hands to get dirty, those toiling in the kitchen will appreciate the hands-free voice activation employed by the two Amazon Echo devices. All you need to do is search by recipe title, ingredients, or cooking time to receive step-by-step instructions.

Take a look at how Alexa can help you in the kitchen by clicking on the video at the top of this story.

source: Allrecipies via Engadget