Just A Pinch Recipe Club Draws Cooks into the Kitchen Conversation

FRANKLIN, Tenn., March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- There are no worries about too many cooks spoiling the broth at Just A Pinch Recipe Club (http://www.justapinch.com). In fact, swapping and commenting on recipes is encouraged.

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The new online recipe community has cooks across America joining the kitchen conversation.  They are sharing and chatting about recipes, building meal plans, creating grocery lists and accessing hundreds of free coupons from national brands like General Mills, Hershey's, Land O Lakes and Betty Crocker.  

"Unlike the celebrity food shows and Web sites, Just A Pinch Recipe Club is fed and nurtured by people in towns across America," said L. Daniel Hammond, CEO and founder of Just A Pinch Recipe Club.  

"It's an old-fashioned recipe swap that extends to blue-ribbon cooks across the map," Hammond added. "However, the programming behind this warm and friendly site is extremely robust and features greater capabilities than any other food, recipe and coupon site on the Internet."

Members create a profile, describing their culinary expertise as "well-seasoned," "cooked to perfection," "full-flavored" or "lightly salted."  And, then the swapping begins.  Vicky from Winona, Miss., shares her Grandmother Taylor's Southern Chess Pie.  Dana from Riverside, Calif., posts French Market Soup, which she says fulfills her late mother's New Year's "good luck" menu.  Jane from Clarkston, Mich., shares the Best Carrot Cake Ever from her collection of vintage family recipes.

Janet Tharpe is the hostess for this worldwide kitchen.  With help from her daughter-in-law, she prepares and samples the various recipes.  Outstanding recipes receive blue ribbons and special acknowledgement on the Club's site.

Just A Pinch Recipe Club has three levels of access: guests and friends (both have free memberships) and premium memberships.  Guests can search, view and print recipes, view club discussions and cooking tips and print coupons.  Friends get to interact as full club members – set up a profile, post and comment on recipes, and set up and use an online recipe box.  Premium members pay just $3.49 a month and have access to the entire site, including an integrated recipe box organizer capable of organizing and filing all recipes, a meal planner and a shopping list generator.  They also receive a weekly Coupon Gram email with $5 of prized coupons, a 20 percent discount in the Club store and a free club apron.

"Site visitors and members are telling us the site is fun and easy to use," said Hammond.  "They love being able to pose cooking and ingredient questions directly to a recipe submitter or going to the Town Square where they can chat with other cooks about everything from Sunday dinners to fresh veggies. And, the online coupons more than pay for the monthly membership."

Founders Hammond and Steve Young know hometown America and are using that expertise for this new digital venture.  Just A Pinch Recipe Club is based on their highly successful experience breaking through traditional publishing barriers to bring national advertisers to rural American consumers.  

In 2000, Hammond and Young launched Publishing Group of America (PGA); American Profile, a weekly magazine for community newspapers dedicated to covering the good news about life in America's hometowns; and Home Town Content, the first syndicated content provider strictly for community newspapers.  American Profile was the largest successful magazine launch in United States history.  Today, it is the third largest publication in the country delivered to more than 10 million households and 32 million readers each week.  

The duo's company also created Relish, the largest monthly food magazine in the country and fourth largest publication in the country with a circulation of 15 million plus households.

Subsequent to selling PGA to Bain Capital and Shamrock Capital Partners, Hammond and Young launched American Hometown Publishing, a growing network of weekly and small daily community newspapers that preserves local editorial independence.  Just A Pinch Recipe Club is a subsidiary of American Hometown Publishing.

SOURCE Just A Pinch Recipe Club