Food

We had many items we just didn't get a chance to post in 2009 but just didn't have the time.  So here they are in summary form, all the stuff we thought you should know, because it is best for men!

School's back in session, and at the same time, walks to restaurants and outdoor lunches are becoming a summer memory. The Washington Post has some great ideas on making frugal, healthy, fun, and vegan lunches from what you've got handy.

Love spending time in the kitchen? The SmartMeasure Cup ought to be your cup of tea (no pun intended), where it is pretty much self-explanatory.

The first digital measuring cup and scale combination. The unit measures in weight and volume as the recipe dictates.The 3890 digitally weighs dry ingredients as well as liquid ingredients. Preprogrammed to convert weight to

If you want to flavor your next cup of hot chocolate without pre-made mixes, throw in a tea bag or two and infuse it with flavor.

Photo by Just SallyRye.

Over at cooking and dining centered blog TheKitchn, they've been experimenting with using flavored tea to add a twist to hot chocolate—similar to our experiment on doing the same thing with coffee.

Photos by Rich Hein/Sun-Times

We're always looking for a great article and advice on what to tell first time kitchen owners to put in their kitchen. What knives do you really need? What pots and pans will give your friends kitchen envy? Well this article at the Chicago Sun Times does the trick and provides insights into these and other questions of kitchen stocking.

Some highlights include:

You might have seen, or heard about, a front-page New York Times story about ground beef, one that definitely raises a few health and safety questions about your standard burger. One solution, then, is to grind your own beef.

Photo by VirtualErn.

No meat is perfect, of course, and ground beef in particular has a lot of surface area, and needs to be closely looked after to hit the right internal temperature while cooking. But buying a whole cut of meat that you know the quality and source of eliminates a vast number of variables that commercial products leave you guessing at.

It's a perfect time of year to try your hand at turning some apple cider into hard cider, apple cider's rabble-rousing older brother. With just a few supplies and a jug of cider, you can brew your own at home.

Armed with a jug or two of apple cider and some easily acquired homebrew gear like a vapor lock and a packet of yeast, you'll be ready to start the brewing process. Your total cash outlay should be under $10 to get started, though you can certainly obtain higher-spec brewing supplies.

Many Lifehacker readers turn to In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan's practical, no-nonsense advice when they're looking to eat better and healthier. Over at the New York Times, Pollan has pulled together 20 solid—sometimes silly—eating rules of thumb.

Photo by Shahram Sharif.

Pollan asked his readers to submit the food rules they live by, and over 2,500 responses later, he culled together 20

Image from allboutbeer.com

I never would’ve even thought of brewing beer in a coffee maker until I found this article. What a great idea! The process of brewing coffee is very similar to the way beer is brewed. This mini-homebrew recipe below only produces a small batch of beer, but very worth it since you most likely have most of these supplies in your kitchen already!

You need the following equipment:

We've been looking for a new can opener.  Although paying $20 for this thing seems a little steep, it will certainly pay off when you don't color your corn crimson with a cut.

It also secures the cap so it doesn't careen into your cream corn.

At Kuhn Rikon Safety Can Opener