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While traditional alchemy relied on the alembic, vials, and lead, my alchemy relies on a different set of tools to perform the arcane culinary arts. While the end results of cooking are much more related to the ingredients used and the skill of the chef, the process of cooking is affected significantly by the equipment at hand. Like any mad scientist, I'm into the geeky gadgets that make my job easier, be that job dominating the world or just the taste buds of my guests.
Almost any chef will tell you that virtually any preparation can be made with a simple pan, a single knife, and a wooden spoon. In the spirit of Alton Brown I'm not a fan of uni-tasking kitchen gadgets, but having a few additional versatile tools in addition to those three will certainly make the alchemical arts easier. Click through the jump to see some of my favorites.
posted by Chris on June 29, 2009 6:41 PM in Podcast
At what point does a game stop being fun and start being work? This week, Ross Rosenberg, Jinny, Ryan G Biv and I focus on the theme of satisfaction. What makes us continue playing a game even if it kicks our ass all over the room? Why do we persevere in the face of ridiculous difficulty and unfair game mechanics? We also touch on game and movie news, from the new Heavy Metal movie, to a Facebook movie, Miyazaki's new movie, a rumored PS3 operating system refresh, Nintendo's new auto-play help system, Michael Jackson's death (and how it affected the internets), along with some great iPhone games to download. And then we answer some questions from the mailbag.
Chroma Key (or Green Screen) is one of the most popularly known compositing techniques in our film-literate society. The concept is simple: put a pure-color in places where you want to be transparent later on. It sounds simple in theory, but can be very complex in practice. Fear not though, for it is not out of reach of the average geek! I'll show you how it's done.
For your approval, a steam engine of enthusiasm in black, defining light source replaced with twin beaming orbs framed in plastic. I give you mine own Muse, Adam Savage.
A while back the nefarious Ross linked Mr. Savage's talk on Obsession, in which our hero reveals not one but two rainy-day craft projects gone awry that exemplify his own power of focus and palpable will of force. He proceeds to make something out of nothing.
It's times as these, sinking in a pool of writer's block and isolated at a timeless swamp, that I listen to Savage talk and find inspiration. In the above clip he speaks on Failure, an odd topic in light of his own widely recognized success in model production, special effects, and, of course, television.
Still Savage's relation of professional failure, often in the grip of a crushing deadline, only makes me like him more. If he has failed, and persevered, then maybe so can I.
Both talks bear watching. If not now then perhaps later when you need a lift, a middle-aged fiery-haired catalyst to jump start your creative doings. Save this on your iPod, a virtual defibrillator to be applied in case of emergency.
posted by Sparky on June 23, 2009 10:30 AM in Food
While the Practical Alchemy archives consist of a scant six entries, it's understandable that you'd feel as though it's not your end-all be-all resource when it comes to making a meal. I've got a couple other great Sparky-approved™ websites that I browse through for recipes, pairing ideas, or just general inspiration to give my creativity the jump start it need sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean always.
Click through to see a listing of some of my favorite online cooking resources, and then share your own in the comments!
posted by Chris on June 22, 2009 6:50 PM in Podcast
Bringing you the week in geekery, it's Jinny, me and the super famous Ross Rosenberg. We talk about the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland remake, Fallout 3's new Point Lookout DLC, the iPhone 3GS and Ngmoco's new Plus+ network, a life-sized Gundam statue finally finished in Japan (and set to become our new overlord), Lord of the Rings coming to Blu-Ray, 1vs100 and how dirty Bob Saget is as a stand-up comedian, Pixar granting a dying girl's last wish... look, if I tell you that this podcast is epic you have to believe it. It. Is. Epic. How can you possibly distill all this information on your own? I say, you cannot! That is why we are here, to bring you all of these good things in the span of an hour and ten minutes or so.
Fruit cobblers are a sweet and easy way to finish a meal. A fresh, hot dumpling of dough and fruit — straight out of the oven — ready to be topped with vanilla ice cream or another sweet creamy sauce of your choice. Cobblers are great dessert recipes for any cook's arsenal, given both how quickly they can be thrown together and how many endless variations can be created on the theme.
Cobblers consist of 2 or 3 main parts: the biscuit-like cobbler dough, fresh fruit, and an optional sweet syrup to mix with the fruit. Since the dough takes 5-8 minutes to toss together and dicing fresh fruit is as easy as introducing your favorite fruits to your collection of knives, a cobbler can be in the oven in as little as 10 minutes flat &emdash; tossed in just before a meal begins and ready to eat when the main course has been consumed.
Click through to learn how to cobble together a cobbler.
posted by Chris on June 15, 2009 6:18 PM in Podcast
If you were on a deserted island and the only game you can bring with you is either Prototype or InFAMOUS, which would you bring? Why not let The Weekly Geek help you decide? In this week's podcast, we talk about the two very similar sandbox games and the pros and cons of each. We talk a bit about the Ghostbusters game coming out this week, more Metroid Other M details (or lack of details), Scribblenauts and its crazy database of functional imaginary objects, the devs of Darwinia+ opening all their documents and bug reports to the public, EverQuest's legacy, and how to properly season meat. We also touch on the current craziness in Iran, and how Twitter is helping get the word out. All the weird stuff that is currently impacting our world. Just a normal Monday.
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