In my opinion, spices are the key to a successful kitchen. With a healthy array of spices and spice mixes, you have the foundation for nearly any dish that you want to make; the culinary world is your oyster. With a depleted cupboard of spices, however, nearly every recipe looks intimidating and unattainable.
One of the first orders of business after purchasing a new smartphone is to load up your shiny new toy with phone numbers, email addresses, and general contact information for all the important people in your life.
A friend of mine is a classically trained chef, and she often invites me over to her house to eat whatever goodies she has concocted. A few years ago I asked her the cliché question that every chef is sick of answering: "What's your favorite food?"
No offense to water, but if I could survive on coffee alone, I would. I swear I'm not addicted... I just really, really, really love the taste of a cuppa joe, whether it's hot, cold, frothed, milked, flavored, plain, whatever! And while my favorite thing to do with coffee will always be to drink it, recently I've become crazy about using coffee in cooking.
There are many reasons to root Android, but for me, the most important one is to have the Xposed Framework. Xposed gives you access to hundreds of modules, which take away the need to manually modify core system files to add new features and functionality to your Android device.
Single-serve yogurt cartons are so much fun. They're delicious, convenient, and the perfect size; no wonder it's so fun to open a new container of yogurt every morning. Yet as awesome as single-serve yogurt cartons are, there's something you really need to do: stop buying them!
I've never met a person who doesn't love French fries. And, to be frank, I have no desire to meet such a person.
Whites are the hardest color to keep looking bright and new after just a few months' time. Your sweat and oils quickly become stains, and colors from other clothes will eventually bleed into the fabric, discoloring your bright whites into something merely whitish. But before you reach for the bleach, the ultimate chemical cleaner, try some a few of these safer, less-toxic DIY solutions out instead.
For foods that encompass both tastiness and convenience, it's hard to beat boxed mac and cheese. Mac and cheese in a box takes 15 minutes to make, dirties only one dish, requires no skill, costs only two bucks, and is, despite all of the above, wildly delicious. Yet it can get even more delicious just by adding a few more ingredients.
While I frown upon any form of uneaten cookie, sometimes we overestimate our late-night cravings for baked goods leaving us with extra cookie dough at 4 a.m. If you're in the privileged dilemma of not having enough excess dough to make another batch of cookies but just enough left over that you can't justify tossing it, don't fret. Here are five effortless and unexpected ways to salvage it.
The fridge is the heart of the kitchen; take it away, and the whole operation falls apart. Yet, despite this, the fridge is also one of the most overlooked appliances in any kitchen. Most people organize their drawers and shelves for maximum efficiency, while many others buy islands simply to make their culinary playground more space efficient. Heck, I know some people who have passed up on otherwise great apartments because the counter space simply wasn't large enough.
We are visual animals. So when it comes to food, presentation is everything. In deciding what to eat, certain colors and textures instantly turn us off or on. Think of runny sautéed spinach versus a salad of fresh vibrant spinach. Which one would you reach for first?
Most of the time we only use the microwave to reheat or defrost, but you can actually save a lot of time by using it for cooking. These genius recipes make the most of this underused appliance, and also turn out some pretty tasty dishes.
Salt is one of my favorite ingredients, by far, and also one of the most overlooked foods in the kitchen. This is probably due to the fact that it's an essential component of almost any recipe; because salt is a necessity, it's easy to forget how dynamic and versatile it can be as well.
Any beer aficionado who's been to Ireland will always talk about how the Guinness there "just tastes different." But save your eye rolls, skeptics: it turns out your favorite lagerhead actually has a valid point.
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.
Cheesecake is pretty awesome. It's super versatile, allowing you to change crust bases and toppings quite dramatically and still end up with something that's elegant and delicious. Which is why it's a great dish to add to your dessert repertoire! There are a number of approaches to making a cheesecake base: classic, new york style and no-bake. Today we're going to go down the more classic route.
Even if you've put aside your percolator and have gone the way of the pod coffeemaker, there are still dozens of ways to use your leftover coffee filters. Incredibly cheap, absorbent, and shaped with a ruffle, coffee filters are useful in the kitchen, garden, and around the house.
Now that the Super Bowl is over, you might find that you have an econo-sized bag or two of opened potato chips slowly going stale in your pantry. After all, there are only so many bowls of Buffalo Chicken Pizza Beer Dip you can eat with 'em—and you definitely don't want them to get so old that you have to throw them out.
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.
Among the many gifts that Italy has bestowed upon the world, culinary and otherwise, pesto stands alone. The exact birthplace of pesto, that herby sauce made of pine nuts and olive oil, is an area of Italy called Liguria, whose microclimate is particularly kind to basil, one of pesto's key ingredients.
I know people who hate mayonnaise. I know people who detest ketchup. But I know almost no one that hates mustard, and that's because mustard has a complexity and depth that bland mayo and ketchup do not. Mustard runs the gamut from smooth and subtle to sharp and spicy, especially when you know how to make your own.
Somehow, we end up with a pile of leftover candy canes at the end of every December. Yet just because the enthusiastic holiday commercials are gone and the Christmas cards are on discount doesn't mean you have to let the minty sweets go to waste.
Like cigars and whiskey, Lapsang Souchong tea is an acquired taste. Some people never get over the pungent, tarry flavor and intense smell of the beverage, but using it as a rub, marinade, or other seasoning is totally smart. The tea adds a smoky yet not overwhelming flavor to dishes of all kinds. With it, you can easily get barbecue-like results for meats and vegetables, all without breaking out the grill. Lapsang Souchong tea smells like a dry campfire and tastes like a smoked sausage cooke...
We always want to find more ways to help brilliantly lazy cooks make great-tasting food and save money and time in the process. Luckily, our Facebook fans are invaluable sources of information when it comes to getting cool tips, behind-the-scenes info, and more.
One of the more talked-about features of Google's new flagship device is the fact that all of the data on the Nexus 6 is encrypted by default. At face value, this certainly seems like an added bonus for the 6-inch phablet, especially in this day and age with growing security concerns abound. It's definitely something that the FBI is none too pleased about.
I became a big fan of polenta while studying Italian cooking. Previously, it never occurred to me that ground corn could create a dish that could rival the best pastas or potatoes. Those rich, golden bowls of cornmeal, cooked until tender and flavored with good olive oil, butter, sea salt, and fresh herbs soon became one of my favorite things to eat.
The Galaxy S5's fingerprint scanner feels like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. Giving you the ability to lock your device without having to fuss with a PIN or password every time you go to use it, the feature is definitely one of the device's main selling points, especially now that you can use it to unlock individual apps.
Listen, I'm not disparaging using really good knives—they can literally change your life, or at the very least, the way you work in the kitchen. However, there are many cutting and slicing tasks where you're better off using a sturdy pair of kitchen shears rather than a chef's or even a paring knife.
Broccoli is super. Not only is it jam-packed with nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin A, folic acid, calcium and fibre, but it's one veggie that refuses to be just a side-dish. Nobody puts broccoli in the corner.
Can you cook a steak or salmon filet that's straight out of the freezer and get good results? Ordinarily, I would say no. Usually your steak ends up a sad grey mass fit only for the family dog and the fish is burned on the outside with an icy, undercooked center.
Any pizza lover knows that a quality crust is crucial to the whole experience. Good pizza crust should be delicious on its own, for once you get to the edge, it will be without any toppings, sauce, or cheese to disguise a bad character. It should be redolent of fresh, good wheat and taste full-bodied, rather than flat, flabby, or metallic, the way so many big chain and frozen pizza crusts do. The exterior should be crisp, while the interior contains an airy crumb as well as having a tender, s...
The Moto X introduced tons of cool features that have slowly been ported over to other phones, like Peek notifications and always listening "OK, Google" detection. Another such feature allows you to twist your wrist to bring up the camera app from any screen—even with the display turned off.
Boozing it up at work might have been okay back in the days of Mad Men, but today, employers prefer that their workers stay sober. What you and your bosses probably don't know is that a little drinking on the job can actually increase your creative capacity and problem-solving skills. Alcohol Can Enhance Your Creativity at Work
Apple just unveiled iOS 8 at the Worldwide Developer's Conference, and it has a lot of exciting features to play around with. Unfortunately, it won't be available to the public until this coming fall—but that doesn't mean you can't get it right now.
Most people give their fruits and veggies a cursory rinse under the faucet before eating or cooking them, but is that few seconds under running water really enough to remove any remaining dirt, pesticides, or wax clinging to the surface?
Even though I often end the workday exhausted and just want to wrap rotisserie chicken parts in a store-bought tortilla and shove it in my eating hole, I generally try and take a couple of minutes to warm up said tortillas before I begin my meal. But if you're starving, do you really need to take the time? Do warm tortillas really make that much of a difference?
Sometimes, stock just doesn't cut it. When you're sick of the limitations in Sense on your HTC One, a new ROM can be a ray of sunshine. By installing a custom ROM, you can add or unlock new features in Sense, or you can get a pure Android experience instead. It's all up to you.
I own two aprons—a cute one for company, and another for the hard-core cooking duties, like cutting up chicken and making stock. The sad truth is that I almost never remember to wear either of them. So, much of my clothing ends up spattered with grease, liquid, and bits of fruit and vegetable. While stain-removing sprays, sticks, and pens are all effective to a certain extent, they have two drawbacks—they're expensive and sometimes I need to use them in large quantity, like when a piece of eg...
Cleaning a blender thoroughly is a pain in the ass, especially when you try and get all the goop out from underneath the sharp blades without nicking your knuckles. Alas, it is a necessary chore, otherwise you end up with disgusting dried gunk that ends up in your next batch of pureed foods. Fortunately, there's an easier way to get your blender sparkling clean besides using easier-to-clean mason jars as you main jar, and the best part is that the appliance literally does all the work for you.
