I remember the first time I used coconut oil; the whole kitchen was filled with a fragrant aroma that reminded me of the tropics. After learning it was a healthier alternative to traditional cooking oil—not to mention a great source of the good-for-you saturated fat—I was hooked.
Whether you are vegan, lactose-intolerant, or cooking for someone who is, standing before the non-dairy milk shelf in the grocery store can be daunting. Instead of playing it safe with the two most common milk alternatives—soy and almond—perhaps you should explore a few other choices that tend to be overlooked.
Most home bakers rely on vanilla extract as a flavor component to their cakes and cookies, but little do they know what they are missing until they trade in their extract for whole vanilla beans. The rich complexity and different notes of flavor of a true vanilla bean are often washed out and distilled into a one-note sweetness, especially if the extract is cheap or imitation. If you want to get more serious about baking, you need to get serious about using vanilla beans.
It should come as no surprise that, according to Details Magazine, nearly half of all people who make New Year's resolutions pledge to lose weight, eat healthier, and/or get fit. There are innumerable companies out there that are ready and willing to take advantage of this momentum: from those hocking "magic bullet" pills that will increase your energy or reduce your belly fat to the myriad shake- and juice-based diets that put you at a near-starvation calorie input—and will probably have you...
Be it happy hour, a Super Bowl party, or just a gathering of friends, buffalo wings are a universal favorite. Since they're usually prepared for large groups, there is always a mix of both those that aren't counting their calories and others who are.
I'm not ashamed to admit it: I love Gatorade. It's probably from all of those times I watched Michael Jordan chug it during basketball games when I was a kid. But I'm not the only one that loves Gatorade—a large percentage of people who work out regularly choose to replenish their electrolytes with sports drinks.
3D Touch is a new feature on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus that's reinventing the way we interact with our smartphones. With just a little bit of added pressure when tapping on the display, you can perform Quick Actions from an app's home screen icon, "Peek" at emails, stories, and photos in-app, as well as perform other app-specific gestures. Since 3D Touch is such a new concept, here are some of the apps that currently support it, along with the shortcuts you can use.
One of my favorite things about American Chinese food is how easy it is to eat: the pieces are bite-sized, the flavors are addictive, and the meat is always tender and easy to chew. But if you've ever tried to replicate any of your favorite takeout in the kitchen, you've likely noticed that the high heat required for most recipes thoroughly dries out the meat that you're trying to cook.
When I was younger, my best friend's dad would always give us a lollipop on long car rides. I remember three things about those lollipops: they were bright green, tasted delicious, and had a cricket in the center. You know, like a Tootsie Roll Pop... only instead of a Tootsie Roll, a cricket.
Sriracha has quickly become one of the country's most universally loved condiments. The addictive and affordable chili sauce seemingly goes on anything, and with anything, and never seems to get old. To wit: when I studied abroad, all of our food was boring, pre-packaged Sysco shipments; for three months, I smothered every breakfast, lunch, and dinner with Sriracha. And after all of that, I still eat it almost religiously.
For the most part, when you're copying text on your Android device, it's because you intend on pasting it into a different app than the one you're currently using. For instance, you might be looking at a posting on Craigslist. So you copy the seller's phone number, then head to your home screen, switch over to your phone app, paste it into your dialer, and finally make the call.
Cheese might be one of the most satisfying snacks around, whether you prefer a slice of snappy Irish cheddar or a creamy, rich portion of Brie. It's been called "dairy crack" by a respected physician and for good reason: eating cheese produces casomorphins, which effect the human body like opiates. It also contains trace amounts of actual morphine.
Google's Chrome Web Store is packed to the brim with extensions that do everything from letting you customize Facebook to improving your Google+ experience. While there are thousands of extensions for basically anything you can think of, the problem is sifting through them all.
The buttery scent of crescent rolls bring me back to my childhood, but those tubes that open with such a satisfying pop are more than just retro reminders. Crescent rolls can morph and serve as the base for hundreds of creative and cool dishes.
Unlike wine, you can't re-cork or stopper leftover bubbly after you've opened it, but all is not lost even if you haven't managed to finish every last drop. You can use your leftover champagne to make light-as-air crêpes or pancakes, to create a detox face mask, to cook seafood and rice, or to make dips and salad dressings.
I once had a collection of over 300 different wallpapers for my MacBook, set to randomly change every 30 minutes. Needless to say, my desktop never got boring. Wallpapers can facilitate a mood, imply a political stance, or just add aesthetic appeal, so having to manually change them on my iPhone is a bummer because of how many times I want a new home or lock screen look.
Okay, it's true: even the highest quality instant coffee is never going to replace really good fresh beans (and properly cleaning your coffee maker) when it comes to creating a great cup of joe. However, instant coffee does have all kinds of uses in the kitchen, as the smart folks over at Reddit observed.
Although your friends might roll their eyes every time you talk about playing Clash of Clans, Call of Duty, or Candy Crush Saga, your excessive gaming habits might actually be making you healthier than everyone else.
This is evil and it destroys people. Let's just get that out of the way. Nonetheless, suppose you need to make someone distrust their own memory and perception of reality. Suppose you want someone to believe in you more than they believe in themselves.
I've been on a customizing kick over the past few weeks, showing you sweet mods for your Samsung Galaxy Note 2 like interactive live wallpapers, app and settings backgrounds, status bar tweaks, and more. But, I'm not done yet. There's still plenty to softMod on your Note 2, and today I'm going to show you how to customize your Quick Settings toggles.
Google Reader is soon to be no more. Yesterday, the company announced that the service will be shutting down as of July 1, 2013, as part of Google's second "Spring Cleaning."
Notes: My guides are setup like old Lego instruction booklets; picture intense/text lacking. Just remember you're building from the ground up, each step is a layer to go onto the previous layer.
With OS X, you can use Automator to automate several functions. This nifty little how-to by macmost shows you how to sort files into sub-folders using Automator. You can use Automator to alter what happens when a file is added to a folder. In this example, new files added to a folder are then sorted into subfolders according to their type. You can add multiple actions to a folder and then determine which order they are used.
Apple's iMovie 11 comes with some great new video effects and this quick tutorial shows you how to put them to use. Whether you want to slow down, speed up, fade to dream, or replay your video sequence, iMovie 11 has the tools to make it happen. Slow motion, fast motino, replay, fade and flash & hold are all at your disposal. Ready... and... action!
Whoever invented dessert hybrids is our hero. From French toast cupcakes to Coke-flavored ice cream, there's nothing like a little 2 in 1 dessert action to quickly get our sugar fix! Here's yet another dessert hybrid that'll have your tastebuds aching for more: A root beer flavored cupcake, topped with root beer frosting and adorned with a cute little straw to simulate the real drinks.
Add music content to your website! If you want to add a scrollable, clickable playist to your Flash-based website (like to show off your band's music), this tutorial shows you a step by step process to building this interactive .mp3 player using Adobe Flash CS3 and Action Script
The next chapter in Halo: Reach, New Alexandria! If you've just gotten the game and are a little lost, or if you couldn't quite string the cash together to get the game but really want to see the action, you've come to the right place! In this video you will get a complete walkthrough of mission 3, New Alexandria, with all objectives completed on Normal difficulty!
Correct your course of action in Dead Space for the PlayStation 3 and follow along with NextGenTactics to learn how to beat the third chapter in Dead Space, called Course Correction. If this level is kicking your butt, then the only way for you to win is to watch and learn. Gaming ain't for everyone. Either is space. Check out the other chapters in Dead Space:
In this video, we learn how to use reflexive verbs in Spanish. All of the reflexive verbs are related. Once you have your verb changed, you will have to change how you are saying the different words in the sentence. If you are talking about yourself, you will have to make sure you take out "es", so you aren't saying the sentence incorrectly. If you are calling yourself something, you are reflecting the verb back to yourself. I you want to say "I talk", you will say "yo habo", because you are ...
At the end of last year Google released Chromium OS, the source code to their soon-to-be-released operating system Google Chrome OS. This has allowed millions of people to preview the new OS and make suggestions. Do you want in on that action? This video will show you how to install and run Google Chrome OS on a Mac using a virtual machine like VMWare or Virtual Box. Now you can be a part of the future of operating systems. Maybe.
Here's a news flash for you: Celebrities don't just wake up every morning with a head of Pantene commercial hair, a full face of perfectly airbrushed makeup, and a 1000 watt smile. In fact, they wake up a bit more like us: Groggy, major clow slick, and looking more like a sleepy mole person than a high paid action star.
To give you an indication of what you're getting yourself into, drawing a jumping figure is about as difficult as it is to get up from the couch after a long day of work and doing 100 jumping jacks and push-ups. It sure isn't fun and it sure isn't easy, but both will make you a stronger individual in the long run. While exercise of any sort helps you get fit, drawing figures in motion will help you greatly advance as an artist. That's because sketching out moving figures forces you to take in...
We're addicted to "True Blood." And, if we're going to be honest here, it's not just because the show has labyrinthine plot lines and exciting vampire vs. human vs. werewolf action. With hot chicks and hot guys, the show seems to be a breeding ground of good looks. And we're not complaining.
In this video, we learn how to film skateboarding. First, get a camera that fits your price range and you will be ready to start filming. Next, use a long lens so you capture the best shots of people on their boards and in motion. Next, make sure you capture the lines that the skateboarder is skating on. Use different angles to get the best shot possible. You want to get close to the action, so you will need a fish eye lens. Use your skateboard to follow the skater around. Using these simple ...
This simple After Effects tutorial from Laurence Grayson will show you how to use CC Ball Action effect in AE to create a realistic scrolling LED signboard effect, like the ones you see at conference centers and football stadiums. Then end result can be altered to suit your project, and corner-pinned into a scene. There are no plug-ins required, and this method uses the standard toolset in CS3, CS4, and CS5.
The NERF Reactor isn't you're ordinary NERF gun. It launches a powerful blast of balls thanks to the pump and pull rapid fire action. The Reactor launcher blasts out tons of NERF Ballistic Balls everywhere! But sometimes, that's just never enough.
The silent film era ended long before anyone had conceived of something like machinima, so your machinima movie had better have some talking! This movie will teach you how to use morph target in 3DS MAX to give your imported World of Warcraft characters facial expressions and animate their mouths to make them appear to be talking. You'll also learn how to make your model sneer, smile, and perform other facial actions.
Paper. It's usually just for writing, but for origamists, there's no lead or ink involved. It's all about the precision of the hand, the delicate touch. It's origami, not hunting with buckshot.
Do you want to make your own action movies? Do you feel like your artistic vision would be enhanced by having a car with a rocket launcher on top of it in the film? You aren't alone. This video will show you how to make a car-mounted rocket launcher for $20 dollars out of simple materials. It won't blow up another car, but it will look really cool.
Night vision goggles are one of the iconic pieces of equipment of the modern military. Getting a real pair is prohibitively expensive, especially if you just want to use it as a prop in your film instead of actually seeing at night. This video features instructions for making your own set of prop night vision goggles for cheap, giving any action or spy movie that you are making a much more modern, authentic feel. Also, now your characters can see at night, opening up all sorts of potential sc...
