Measurement Conversions
When cooking or baking, it’s always nice to know what the conversions are for various measurements, like how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon or how many cups are in a gallon. Those are basic conversions that are common knowledge for a lot of people, but if you don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, you can ask Alexa for help.
For example, you can say “Alexa, how many tablespoons are in a cup?” or “Alexa, how many pints are in a gallon?”. Alexa can convert pretty much anything into anything, and give you the units you need without having to Google it on your phone.
Set a Timer
Simply say “Alexa, set a timer for 20 minutes” and it will begin counting down. When the timer reaches zero, it’ll blare out a noticeable, yet calm alarm sound that won’t make you jump like a loud beeping noise would.
Add Stuff to Your Grocery List
Simply say “Alexa, add [item] to my shopping list”. From there, whenever you go to the store, you can open up the Alexa app on your phone and view your shopping list in the app, crossing off items as you grab them off the shelves. Or, you can send your shopping list to your email, or another to-do app like Wunderlist with IFTTT.
Play Music
You can say something like “Alexa, play some 90s music.” You can also mention a specific artist to play, or pick a station on Pandora. You can even connect your Spotify account to the Echo and play one of your playlists on the third-party music service by saying “Alexa, play (playlist name) playlist on Spotify.”
Learn How to Make Mixed Drinks
If you’re feeling creative and want to put together some exotic alcoholic mixed drinks, you can do so with Alexa guiding you through the process.
The Bartender is a cool third-party Alexa Skill that you can install and it includes over 12,000 drink recipes to choose from. Simply say something like “Alexa, ask The Bartender how do I make a Tom Collins.” Alexa will then tell you what ingredients you need and how to make the drink.
Learn How to Make Certain Dishes
Another useful third-party Alexa Skill is called Recipe Buddy, and it was one of the only third-party skills that I could find that was able to do what it does. Basically, you can say something like “Alexa, ask Recipe Buddy how do I make chicken picatta.”
Alexa will tell you what ingredients you need and take you through the steps. However, one issue I’ve come across is that while it pauses a bit in between steps, you have to completely start over if you take too long, which can be a bit of a pain. But if you wanted to, you could simply just jot down notes while you listen and then go off of that.
