We love standing around a barbecue with an icy cold beverage in hand, enjoying the delicious smell of smoky food and chit-chatting with pals. Grilling season — it's our favorite time of the year.
One of the common complaints about dry pasta is that it lacks depth of flavor. This is why, once cooked, it often pairs best with bold and complexly flavored sauces.
The thought of peeling tomatoes for pasta sauces and soups has long been an overwhelming idea for us, one we often steer clear from when reading recipes or searching out new dishes to create. Even the methods that are supposed to speed up the peeling process (like roasting, poaching, and freezing) are more work than not.
The spice selection at Trader Joe's is both inexpensive and truly top-notch. According to their site, they deal with some of the highest-quality spice manufacturers in the world and, in working with them directly, they eliminate hidden costs spent on promotions, brand-building, and advertising. This allows the customer to experiment with new flavors and build up their spice rack—without the usual limiting factor of high cost. If you don't have access to a Trader's in your culinary neck of the...
En papillote may sound like a difficult French cooking method you'd never use at home, but don't be fooled by its fancy name—it's actually a really easy way to cook food that is moist and flavorful, and all you need is some parchment paper and your oven.
One of the hottest trends in the food world right now is "spiralized" vegetables. I will confess that I am a bit suspicious of any diet or food fad that eliminates an entire food group for anything other than physician-ordered health reasons, but something really good has followed in the wake of the Atkins/paleo/gluten-free movements.
During my time living in dorm rooms and small apartments, I would find myself in need of many different appliances—a food processor for making hummus, a blender for vegetable smoothies, or even a mortar and pestle for muddling mojito-bound mint leaves. Luckily, there was one tiny, inconspicuous tool that solved all of these problems: the coffee grinder.
I may be in the minority when I say this, but I love leftovers. Whenever I'm cooking for less people than the recipe calls for, I cook the full yield anyway. And when I go to a restaurant, I order whatever I want—regardless of how much I can actually eat in one sitting.
Beer isn't just for drinking anymore. There are many useful and surprising things that an ice-cold brewski can help you accomplish, from household chores to better-tasting food. It can even help you look and feel healthier.
It goes without saying that a pizza stone is one of the keys to making a perfect pizza. The science behind pizza stones is relatively simple: the stone conducts and holds heat, which keeps the oven temperature steady even when a cold ingredient (such as an uncooked pizza) is introduced. This not only helps the pizza cook more evenly, but also allows the bottom to get crisp.
Without a doubt, sushi is one of my favorite foods—dainty and delectable, while also fun to make. So let's get started with maki rolls, aka makizushi, probably the most iconic form of sushi. You know, the one filled with rice and your standard sushi ingredients, rolled up in a sheet of dried seaweed.
Your grater and microplane may look like single-purpose tools, but they're actually one of the most diverse appliances in your kitchen. Sure, everyone knows to use a grater on cheese and a microplane on citrus zest, but why stop there? Here are 10 things you may not have thought to grate:
As much as I love eating weird foods, when it comes to my favorite food, there is only one simple choice: cheese. Since cheese is my favorite to eat, it should come as no surprise that it's one of my favorites to make as well.
Welcome back, my aspiring hackers! In many of my earlier tutorials, I mentioned the complementary nature of hacking and forensics. Both disciplines, hacking and forensics, benefit from a knowledge of the other. In many cases, both disciplines will use the same tool. In this tutorial, we will use another tool that can be used in either discipline—Sysinternals—a suite of tools developed by Mark Russinovich.
Kitchen tools are a personal thing. One hard lesson for me to learn is that just because something is popular doesn't mean that it's right for me. Take the slow cooker, for instance. Many rave about it, but I never cottoned to the thing. However, the more research I do, the more I think the pressure cooker might be a game changer for my cooking style.
With the brand new SMS-based ordering service called Magic, anyone with a mobile phone can order whatever they want—really, anything—by sending causal text messages. Who says magic isn't real?
If you're a child of the '70s, then you'll probably remember Pop Rocks, those fizzy little candies that created such a buzz. They went out of style in the States for a while, but now they're back with retro status. I was surprised to see them in my kids' Halloween bags a few years ago, and one taste brought me back to my childhood.
Each flavor of sake, the national spirit of Japan, comes with its own fans, not unlike whiskey aficionados here in the States. While sake is often called "rice wine," it is more akin to a malted beverage like beer.
A good, sharp knife is a cook's best friend, which is why there's so much passionate debate about what kind you should get. Most enthusiastic home cooks opt for a stainless steel knife, but it turns out there's a different option that the pros favor, and that's carbon steel.
Coffee mugs: nothing proliferates more quickly in my kitchen cabinets. People are always handing them out as gifts or as swag, plus I always seem to find a vintage model or two at a garage sale that I'm compelled to buy. I used to do a yearly purge of my excess muggage, but it turns out it's a good idea to hold on to one or two extras.
You're in the middle of cooking and a car alarm, cute kitten, or neighborhood brawl made you step away from the stove for a few minutes longer that you should have. It happens to almost every home cook. Most of the time, nothing dramatic happens, but every now and then, you end up with something like this:
It's common knowledge that certain foods foster brain development, health, and memory. Fish almost always makes the list, as do any foods that are loaded with antioxidants like blueberries, nuts, whole grains, green tea, and dark chocolate. Spices like turmeric are being studied for their ability to prevent Alzheimer's, among other things.
Brining is magic. All you have to do is make a mild saline solution, toss in your protein of choice, let it soak, and cook. You end up with incredibly tender, flavorful meat or tofu for very little effort. So why aren't more of us doing it?
Even if you're a good cook, sometimes home-cooked food just doesn't taste the same as it does in a restaurant. Of course, there are some utensils and appliances in a professional kitchen that the average person doesn't have access to, but it's not just about the tools.
To make soap, you need fat, and if you've seen Fight Club, you're probably well aware of where soapmaker Tyler Durden got his fat from. Liposuction clinics. If you're not willing to go that far for a perfect bar of homemade soap, you can just use some drain cleaner and America's favorite food instead—bacon!
Thor is not just a tool for synthesizing sound. You can also use the Thor software program how to use the filters and effects to patch, route and process audio tracks. This tutorial walks you through precisely how to do that, and even gives you a few patches at the end.
Multiband processing allows you to apply an effect to only those parts of a track that fall within a certain frequency range. This official video guide from James Bernard of Propellerhead will teach you everything you'll need to know to use multiband processing (like multiband compression) in your own Reason & Record sessions. Whether you're new to Propellerhead's virtual music studio application, Reason, or their newer DAW app, Record, you're sure to find much to take away from this brief vi...
This process, called variously French milled, triple milled or rebatch, is a happy medium between the cold process and melt and pour soap making methods. It's easy, and you can do it at home to make clever and creative gifts this holiday season.
In this video from lachoneus87 we learn how to make silly putty. You need 3 small cups or bowls, warm water, a teaspoon of borax, a big bowl to mix it all in, 2 cups of glue, liquid measuring cup, 1 cup measure, a spoon to mix, and a teaspoon to measure. Optional is food coloring.
It is a rainy day and the children are bored. What can they do? Mom has a great idea, make play dough. You have all the ingredients in the house.
In this tutorial, we learn how to make cheap, realistic, fake blood. This is easy and cheap and looks great depending on how well you mix it and follow directions. This is safe and won't hurt you or anyone else. You will need: corn syrup (any brand or kind), cocoa baking powder, red and blue food coloring, water, and vanilla extract (optional). Start out by pouring the corn syrup into a bowl, until half way filled. Next, add in around 5 or six drops of red and mix it together. Then, add in a ...
In this clip, we learn how code processing works within Adobe Flash Professional CS5. Whether you're new to the Adobe's popular Flash authoring application or are a seasoned Flash developer merely looking to better acquaint yourself with Flash Professional CS5, you're sure to be well served by this video guide.
In this clip, you'll learn how to fix an unresponsive Apple iPod Touch by hard resetting it. It's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this how-to can present a complete demonstration of the process in just a minute's time. For complete details, and to learn how to force your own iPod Touch to reset, take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to fix an unresponsive Apple iPod Classic MP3 player by hard resetting it. It's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this how-to can present a complete demonstration of the process in under a minute's time. For complete details, and to learn how to force your own iPod Classic to reset, take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to install and use a Wacom Bamboo pen tablet on an Apple computer running Mac OS X. Happily, it's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this video tutorial can present a complete, step-by-step overview of the process in just under four minutes. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to install and use a Wacom Bamboo digital tablet on a Windows PC. Happily, it's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this video tutorial can present a complete, step-by-step overview of the process in just over three minutes. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to install and use a Wacom Bamboo Fun digital tablet on a Mac OS X computer. Happily, it's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this video tutorial can present a complete, step-by-step overview of the process in just under three minutes. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to install and use a Wacom Bamboo Fun digital tablet on a Windows PC. Happily, it's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this video tutorial can present a complete, step-by-step overview of the process in just under four minutes. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to install a Bamboo Fun tablet on a Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X desktop or laptop computer. Happily, it's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this video tutorial can present a complete, step-by-step overview of the process in just under four minutes. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
In this clip, you'll learn how to install a 2G Bamboo Craft tablet on your Apple Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows desktop or laptop computer. Happily, it's an easy process. So easy, in fact, that this video tutorial can present a complete, step-by-step overview of the process in just under four minutes. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
