This week falls in between two of the largest planned protests for the environmental movement in recent history: last Saturday’s Earth Day March for Science and this coming Saturday’s People’s Climate March. Being a part of the resistance against an administration of climate change deniers can be a frustrating and…
It turns out that the Empire’s TIE dogfighters can do more than just fly and shoot, they can also grill a mean burger. I present to you the Star Wars TIE Fighter gas grill.
The TIE Fighter’s “wings” fold out for food prep and it uses propane to grill everything from Bantha burgers to Dewback Ribs. It is made of cast aluminum, has 220 square inches of cooking space, and comes with a custom TIE Fighter analog thermometer.
Now you are cooking with the might of the galactic Empire. Sadly it doesn’t have a security system that shoots lasers if someone else tries to steal your steaks off of it. It will cost you $400(USD) from Amazon.
News in the latest Pokemon GO update includes a change in the way the most mysterious Unown is shown in the game. The first step in making this update appear is to capture an Unown – for that, there is no simple solution outside of cheating. For those that are the sort of people who’ve given up on all other … Continue reading
Today, in Trump’s America…
1. Trump has once again changed his mind and won’t pull the US out of NAFTA. To quote Katy Perry, he changes his mind a like a girl changes clothes. More here.
2. Venezuela wants to leave the Organization of American States (OAS) because of how it handled Venezuela’s political crisis. This isn’t good… it could effectively remove Venezuela from having to cooperate with the rest of South and North America. More here.
3. At least nine pro-democracy activists have been arrested in Hong Kong. Presently just 1,200 people of 3.8 million registered voters get to elect the ‘Chief Executive’ of the city. Maybe their city shouldn’t be treated like a corporation. More here.
4. Trump wants to break up the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. You know, the one that blocked his executive order banning travel from several Muslim-majority countries. More here.
5. Exxon Mobil has been fined $21 million for breaking the Clean Air Act 16,386 times. This is the company that wants Trump to be better with protecting the environment. We live in confusing times. More here.
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For Bon Appetit, by Alyse Whitney.
If you think you hate chopping onions, imagine having to prep gallons of them every day. That is the life of a line cook: slicing, dicing, peeling, deboning, and handling all the mise en place that restaurant kitchens need. Some tasks are more tedious than others — especially when you have to do the same thing for hours upon hours — so cooks must find ways to double down on efficiency without losing their minds. Eight seasoned line cooks shared their most-dreaded tasks, and the tricks that make them faster and easier. Next time you’re staring down at a few pounds of shrimp that need to be deveined for scampi or wondering how to perfect deviled eggs for a crowd, these tips will save you.
Victor Clay has worked at Nobu Dallas for six years and can now prep between 15 and 20 shrimp per minute using two key tricks. “Use kitchen shears to split the back of the shrimp, and then run it under cold water remove the vein,” he suggests. “That way you won’t have to go back to soak and rinse them afterward. Water loosens the vein and it cuts down the cleaning time dramatically.” He also says the line cooks sing “Prep, prep, prep, prep, prep, prep” to the tune of Rihanna’s “Work” to pass the time while cleaning, splitting, and pressing shrimp for tempura.
It’s difficult to get the yolk out of a hard-boiled egg perfectly, without leaving a trace behind. But Tanya Buchan of Dudley’s on Short in Lexington, Kentucky does it every time for hundreds of deviled eggs. “Cut a little off the top and bottom of each egg once it’s peeled to keep it from rolling off your cutting board. Then gently roll your knife around the egg without cutting through the yolk, like you would pit an avocado,” she shares. “This way the yolk stays whole and doesn’t get on your knife, and you have a clean egg white to fill.” Buchan also suggests pushing egg yolks through a fine mesh sieve or colander to make a lot of filling quickly and smoothly.
“Slice onions directly into cold water to stop the farty smell,” Sam Schiffer from di Alba in Los Angeles says. “The stuff that’s hurting your eyeballs is gas from inside the cell walls of onions. Five minutes in ice-cold water will draw out all the liquid and gas and keep you from crying. It’s great for any type of allium to make it less pungent and taste better raw, especially in salads.” A sharp knife helps break fewer cells, so make sure your blade is at its sharpest.
Don’t just rinse your rice — soak it! Justin Firmignac of Tin Roof Maui in Kahului, Hawaii suggests soaking rice for at least 10 minutes and then straining to help it cook faster. “This can shave off at least 10 minutes of cook time and make it more fluffy,” he says.
“Peeling your ingredients sometimes takes longer than the actual cooking,” Cooper Weber of Oak at Fourteenth in Boulder notes. “For potatoes, cut off the ends so you don’t have to peel around the corners. Soak cipollini onions in hot water or lightly roast to easily remove the outer layer. And for garlic, peel an entire head by tossing it between two bowls and shaking vigorously.”
”Make kits the night before with already-measured dry ingredients for baking — it’s like a better version of a boxed mix from the store,” Rocco Romeo of Michael’s in Santa Monica, California suggests. “If it’s in containers ready to go, you can just grab and combine with your dairy and eggs. Breaking prep into more than one day is less stressful. I like to do it for biscuits.”
Cleaning artichokes is a tedious process, so Chayse Smith from Cindy’s in Chicago sets up an assembly line. “Each line cook takes off the tops, peels them, and then turns them in acidulated water. Dissolve some citric acid in your water to prevent artichokes from browning — without wasting lemons,” he explains. But there’s one more secret: “The most important tool for the job is old-school Tupac playing on the speaker.”
Having a brunch party? Poach a dozen eggs ahead of time. “After you poach a few eggs at a time in salted water, drain, cool in ice water, and then store them in water in the fridge,” Curran Leeds of Brickwall Tavern in Asbury Park, New Jersey says. “Drop them in hot water for a minute to come to temperature when you’re ready to serve — they should just warm through and not overcook.”
More from Bon Appetit:
When Life Hands You Lemons, Make These Lemon Desserts
No-Cook Pasta Sauces You Should Have Up Your Sleeve at All Times
35 Make-Ahead Breakfasts so You Can Sleep in and Eat Well All Week
Our 50 Favorite Weeknight Dinners
24 Recipes Everyone Should Know How to Cook
75 Fast & Easy Weeknight Dinner Ideas
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
For Bon Appetit, by Chris Morocco.
I enjoy eating steak every so often as long as there is twice as much veg on my plate as meat. This recipe gets that ratio right, a modest amount of super flavorful steak with a skillet full of everything I want to be eating this time of year: asparagus, scallions, and peas.
At the end of my long days in the Bon Appétit test kitchen, I typically pull together dinner for my wife and me (i.e., cook all over again). What I usually crave at the end of a day spent trying virtually every dish made in the Test Kitchen, is fresh salad. Yet I can’t expect my wife to high-five me for putting some lettuce on a plate. The mix of textures and flavors in this fattoush hits the sweet spot between not-too-much work and very-friggin-delicious.
I love making beans at home, but, let’s face it, who has time for that? The key to using canned beans, and actually wanting to eat them is hitting them with tons of flavor. Just salt won’t cut it. Oil, acid, salt, heat, herbs — give them the works, and they will be delicious enough to pile on toast and call dinner.
Sure you could swap in whole-grain pasta in this recipe, as I often do, but as long as there are tons of greens in it, you get a healthyish pass, as far as I’m concerned. So much kale gets packed into every bowl of this super-fast dish that there’s no way it isn’t good for you.
This recipe saves me once a week. When all I have in my fridge is a wilted head of radicchio and other odds and ends, I can make these chickpeas in about 10 minutes and suddenly have a salad with texture and depth.
I’m always making extra grains so that I have leftovers I can stir-fry. This might not sound like health food, but I doubt there’s more oil going into this than what I would normally put in a salad dressing. Swap in some short-grain brown rice for the white rice here and it’s practically spa food.
More from Bon Appetit:
When Life Hands You Lemons, Make These Lemon Desserts
No-Cook Pasta Sauces You Should Have Up Your Sleeve at All Times
35 Make-Ahead Breakfasts so You Can Sleep in and Eat Well All Week
Our 50 Favorite Weeknight Dinners
24 Recipes Everyone Should Know How to Cook
75 Fast & Easy Weeknight Dinner Ideas
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Bill Nye the Science Guy has no time for so-called gay conversion therapy.
On an episode of his Netflix series, “Bill Nye Saves the World,” the 61-year-old science educator blasted the conservative Christian belief that LGBTQ people can be “cured” of their sexuality by using ice cream flavors as an analogy. The hilarious clip, which can be viewed above, depicts an “ice cream conversation therapy” meeting in which a vanilla cone attempts to “convert” strawberry, chocolate and other flavors into being vanilla, too.
“As vanilla, I feel that I am the most natural of the ice creams,” the cone explains, “and therefore, the rest of you should just go ahead and also be vanilla. It’s the one true flavor.” Fortunately, the different cones come to an understanding by the end of the clip because, as Nye explained, “there are lots of flavors to sexuality.”
As lighthearted as it may seem, the video ― which had over 164,000 views as of Thursday morning ― was lampooned by a number of conservative outlets and personalities. On Wednesday, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro posted a video to his official Facebook page criticizing Nye’s analogy, noting, “There is no scientific basis for anything that is in this video… Just on a scientific basis, ice cream does not have genitalia.”
PJ Media columnist Megan Fox felt similarly. “The message here is clear (and not at all scientific): Christian, straight white people are bigots, racists and not even straight,” she wrote in a Tuesday column. “Bill Nye offers no proof of that, other than a poorly drawn cartoon about debauched ice cream.”
A number of Twitter users echoed Shapiro and Fox’s sentiments.
Relax, people. It’s just ice cream.
For more ways to combat bigotry, check out the Queer Voices newsletter.
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George Takei has never hid his contempt for President Donald Trump, so why stop now?
In a promo tweeted Thursday for a Trump roast on “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” the “Star Trek” veteran remarked on a milestone that many Americans would rather forget: “It’s almost been 100 days and Donald Trump is still president? Oh my f**king God.” Takei repeats it in case you miss it the first time. Watch below.
Keep going boldly where no activist has gone before, Sulu.
Full Frontal’s Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, airing Saturday on TBS, is intended as a political mockathon and celebration of a free press on the same night as the traditional White House Correspondents Dinner.
The president will be not be seen at either event.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
We’re sure Ed Sheeran’s a nice guy, but his song “Shape of You” is very concerned about the physical aspects of a woman’s body. What about her mind, Ed? What about the way she treats her grandparents?
Jeff and Dave from The Mystery Hour think women have more important attributes than how they look.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Over the years, Fox News personality Jesse Watters has mocked Asian-Americans in New York City’s Chinatown, shamed homeless people, ambushed journalists at their homes and made a number of offensive comments about immigrants, LGBTQ people and others.
Yet through it all, Fox has stood by him. And even though the network recently fired his mentor, Bill O’Reilly, over numerous allegations of sexual harassment, top executives decided to stick with Watters. In fact, they promoted him to be a host on the primetime show “The Five.”
But on Tuesday, just his second day in his new job, Watters found himself in trouble when he appeared to make an oral sex joke about Ivanka Trump.
The next day, Watters insisted that he did nothing of the sort: “On air I was referring to Ivanka’s voice and how it resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ. This was in no way a joke about anything else.”
Apparently, no one believes him. On Thursday, Watters announced he was taking a vacation with his family but would be back on Monday.
O’Reilly also abruptly took a vacation in the middle of his sexual harassment scandal, right before he was fired from his show.
Watters’ joke about Trump was crass and inappropriate, but it’s standard fare for a man who has said and done worse toward people who are far less powerful. In those instances, he never faced any public repercussions from his network.
In 2009, Watters ambushed me while I was on vacation, claiming that I was causing rape victims pain and suffering because I wrote a post criticizing O’Reilly for implying that a woman was partially responsible for her own rape because of what she had been wearing and how much she had been drinking. O’Reilly then did several segments about me on his show the next week, calling me a villain.
I hope that Watters is able to enjoy his vacation this week in peace, without anyone following him and ambushing him and his family.
Take a survey: Should Fox News fire Jesse Watters?
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— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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