Everyone talks about how great sliced bread is, but there's nothing better than the taste of a just-baked loaf of crusty French bread. Like most beautiful things in life, however, the beauty of the baguette doesn't last. The next day, it's rock-hard, and good for very little except for croutons or breadcrumbs. But there is a trick to make it like fresh again.
If you're anything like me, you probably think it's borderline sacrilege to even think about a sandwich or a burger that doesn't have a layer of smooth mayonnaise. But I don't just keep a jar of it in my fridge for lunch—it's also there for practical purposes.
Whether you live in foggy California or icy Massachusetts, you've more than likely struggled with a cloudy, vision-impairing window that makes even the shortest commute impossible.
One of the best things about talking to other people who love food is that they point you to weirdly beautiful ingredients, like this: No, that's not an escapee from Middle Earth you're seeing. It's one of Mother Nature's best attempts at making fractals come alive into a golden spiral: the Romanesco (sometimes called fractal broccoli, broccoflower, or Romanesque cauliflower). Here's another view: So Just What Is It & What Does It Taste Like?
Meat tenderizers are absolutely necessary when dealing with leaner, tougher cuts like flank or skirt steaks. And while fruit like papaya, kiwi, and pineapple contain enzymes that can tenderize meat, the results can be hit-or-miss, and impart a fruity flavor that you may not always want.
I have a weird fondness for the texture, if not the taste of Velveeta (and Kraft American cheese slices). No other cheese has quite the same amount of slip or smoothness and manages to stay that way, undoubtedly because Velveeta contains sodium alginate, an algae derivative that helps it stay so silky-smooth even as it heats up. It also contains a high level of protein-to-fat ratios, which is what makes it a champion melter.
We're a little butter-obsessed here, and that includes topics on why butter should always be browned, the rationale behind clarifying butter, and even how to make a DIY butter candle. And while some may consider the problem strictly one for the first world, we're always very interested in ways to spread cold butter on toast without ripping the bread to shreds. If you read that post, you know the ingenious solutions are many and range from grating your butter to buying a heated butter knife.
This year's biggest film certainly didn't come as a surprise: with another incredible comic book creation, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy wowed audiences more than any other movie. With its unique team of heroes, Guardians provided a set of ready-made Halloween costumes.
Every now and then, you'll bite into the end piece of a perfectly good cucumber only to get an unwelcome bitter and acrid taste. This happened to me for years, no matter how carefully I selected my cukes, although I generally had better luck with ones I got from local growers and the farmer's market.
Break out the office supplies and kitchen utensils, because improving your morning makeup routine is about to get a lot easier. Some of the things you have lying around the house can provide the perfect solution for some of the most common beauty problems. We've collected 10 of our favorites.
Because of Android's massive array of supported smartphones that carry vastly different display sizes and resolutions, the operating system uses a value known as DPI to determine the size of icons and visual assets that will best suit a given screen.
Android uses a set of permissions that apps can request to perform certain actions, and you're notified of these permissions each time you install an app. The problem here is the fact that you aren't given any built-in way to deny apps these permissions (although Danny just showed a workaround for this).
There are a lot of techniques out there for how to cook the perfect steak, from flipping it multiple times to applying a spice rub or dry brine to aging the beef. But it turns out that there's a super-easy way to make a great steak at home, and all you need is a good cast-iron skillet and some salt.
I love making stock. It's thrifty because you get extra use out of poultry bones and vegetable peelings, plus having homemade stock on hand makes so many things taste better, from soup to stews to pasta sauces. If you deglaze a pan, homemade turkey stock, booze of some kind, and butter will create an eye-rollingly good sauce in mere moments. One task I do not love? Figuring out how to skim the damn fat off the stock (or soup) after I've made it. It's necessary to skim the fat as you boil down...
Netflix has received a lot of publicity lately, and not because of its impressive worldwide library. From blog wars with Comcast to streaming deals with Verizon, it's easy to forget that the company exists for our entertainment, but sometimes that entertainment has drawbacks.
It's so nice to be able to reuse old glass jars for food storage. Occasionally, though, even the sturdiest container has to be recycled because it retains the smell of its previous contents. Usually the culprit was garlic, garlic-based, or something pickled, and you're certainly not going to store your fresh herbs or fruit in that. There is, however, a quick and easy way to get that old stink out of your jar and make it usable again. You just need two things...
The old "my battery is dead" excuse for not calling your mother may soon be a thing of the past. A team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), led by Professor Jo Byeong-jin, has developed a "wearable thermo-element" that can be built into clothing to power your electronic devices. The science behind the innovation converts body heat (thermal energy) into usable electric energy. Made with lightweight glass fiber, this small thermo-element strip can produce about ...
Mashed potatoes are universally beloved, and for a good reason — they're cheap, tasty, and relatively easy to make. What's more, they're adaptable to just about every dietary regimen, whether you're vegan, gluten-free, or lactose-intolerant. And they're a staple for holidays such as Thanksgiving.
I've already shown you an easy last-minute prank involving toothpaste-filled Oreos, now here's a great joke involving an integral part of the cookie-eating experience—milk.
Rock-hard ice cream is the bane of my culinary existence. If I try and scoop it out with a spoon, the spoon invariably bends. If I use a traditional ice cream scooper, I end up with a torqued wrist and one or two pathetic curls of ice cream for my efforts.
Seemingly lost in the fanfare of the numerous features and specs of the Nexus 5 were a few highly innovative and handy add-ons—a low-power step detector and step-counting sensor—useful for tracking fitness data.
Welcome back, my budding hackers! As you know, I firmly believe that to be a true professional hacker, you need to be proficient in Linux. This is for a number of good reasons.
Let's just say it's been a pretty bad year for spies and government agencies and an even worse one for the privacy of U.S. citizens. Edward Snowden blew the lid off the NSA's spy program, and the FBI was recently discovered to have the ability to access your webcam any time they want—without triggering the "camera on" light. Yeah, that means those Justin Bieber lip sync videos you recorded weren't just for your private collection.
Despite being disgusting, houseflies are actually beneficial to humans in a few ways. As scavengers, they help the environment by eating rotting organic matter, and make great food for pet tarantulas. Regardless of the advantages to their existence, having them in your home can be infuriating. There are countless sprays, traps and devices made to kill or deter the little pests, one of the most common being flypaper that hangs from the ceiling. These sticky strips are incredibly easy to make a...
Love or hate 'em, you've got to admit that cupcakes really had their moment. They started rising in popularity back in 2003 with the opening of Crumbs Bake Shop in Manhattan, and quickly became one of the most annoyingly ubiquitous food trends to date. Seriously. Type "cupcake" into Google. While I wouldn't turn it down if you put one in front of me (red velvet, please), I can't say that I was particularly disappointed to hear that the cupcake trend is coming to an end. I'm more of a cheeseca...
There are two options when it comes to a dent in your car — live with it, cringing each time it enters your view, or get rid of it. While the latter is obviously the best option, most of us will probably just live with dents and dings since spare money is better spent on the actual functionality of the vehicle. However, there is a way to knock out automobile dents yourself with relatively little cash in the bank.
A few months ago I was driving around trying to find a store using Apple Maps (a terrible situation in and of itself), when my iPhone decided to shut off in the middle of giving me directions. I had no idea what happened, and when I looked at the screen, I saw this: My phone had never overheated and I really didn't know what to do. Needless to say, I couldn't really get to where I was trying to go without those directions. I pulled over and waited for the phone to cool back down, which took a...
The gold standard of great foods on a stick is reserved for honey battered corn dogs and shish kabob (which is surprisingly spelled just like it sounds). But when I saw this absolutely amazing concoction of breakfast food combined with the queen of meats, I fell in love. Now, if you are looking at this picture and still don't know what it is, you are definitely not a chicken and waffles fan, otherwise you would have figured it out right away. I mean, what else goes well with syrup-drenched wa...
First of all, I would like you all to meet my good friend Iggy. There he is, in all his scaly reptilian glory. As you can see, he spends a lot more time on top of his cage than inside of it. You see, Iggy here doesn't deal well AT ALL with confinement. I don't know if it's possible for a lizard to be claustrophobic, but if it is possible, then Iggy definitely is. When his previous owner gave him to me, I tried to keep him in the cage, but I quickly realized that it was a bad idea. When confin...
When a phone has only one main button, it can be pretty frustrating when that one button doesn't really work anymore. If you have an iPhone 4 or 4S, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Yep, the Home button, which is prone to unresponsiveness and lag. Most users blame the Home button issues on either dirt, moisture, or misalignment. No matter what the reason, having a busted Home button sucks, especially for those of you no longer under warranty. But that's okay, because there are a few t...
Inductive charging is already a reality on popular smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S III and Google Nexus 4, and Apple has recently published a patent that would make inductive chargers a reality for the iPhone. There are also several phones that have the capability for wireless charging, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note II.
Not many people fly kites anymore. Most of us don't have the patience or attention span because, let's face it, we're used to smartphones and other gadgets that have games and apps galore to entertain us. Heck, you can even fly a kite on them if you really want.
Here's a technique I used to whip up a batch of super cheap and easy to make smoke flares! WARNING: Ignition of an incendiary or explosive material may not be legal in your area, so check local laws before attempting. Use of this video content is at your own risk.
With presidential voting going down on Tuesday, November 6th, voters are beginning to anchor down on their choice for president. But with the way the media works, this may be difficult for some people because the news sites they listen to give conflicting and sporadic information on the candidates.
With the microwave oven transformer (M.O.T.) salvaged in a previous project, a simple electrical circuit can be rigged to get high voltage arcs to fly outward and upward along a "V" shaped spark gap.
Having a flash drive is more or less a must, but the biggest downside is that they often get stolen, and it's not hard to figure out why. They're small, so they easily fit into pockets, and a lot of people store valuable information on them. Want to pretty much guarantee no one takes yours? Disguise it as a broken USB cable like Windell Oskay of Evil Mad Science Labs so it just looks like a piece of junk to would-be thieves. The materials are pretty simple: a flash drive (the smaller the bett...
If you're a Breaking Bad junkie who can't wait for the next episode, satisfy your craving with a little at-home chemistry and make some blue DIY smash-glow crystals! No, this is not Walter White's so-called "Big Sky" or even the subpar cringe-worthy product of his competitors. It's not even the same kind of crystals, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. This is totally legal, even kid-friendly if you play it safe, though it actually requires more safety precautions than the potassium nitra...
As a pale white boy growing up in Florida, you learn how to deal with sunburns. Most people will say to take cool showers to relieve the heat, but that only temporarily alleviates symptoms. The problem is that the sun has evaporated the moisture from the skin. The answer to relieve the stinging and pain is to re-moisturize the skin. I've done this countless times and it always works.
What’s better in the summer than playing around in the water? Lounging in the pool, water balloon fights, and playing in the sprinklers helps us forget how much it sucks to be outside in 100+ degree weather.
Thanks to everyone who submitted ideas in last month's Mad Science contest. The question called for your best idea for using Sugru, a temporarily malleable silicone modeling clay that self cures for a soft-touch permanent bond. It's a marvelous product for at-home quick fixes and for even making some cool DIY bumpers and grips for your electronics. William scoured through all of the comments and chose the two winners he felt best deserved a pack of Sugru.
