cooking

How will Apple fare without CEO Steve Jobs at the helm for six months? History provides some indication.

Clearly, Apple will miss its legendary CEO while he takes a leave of absence to recuperate from health problems that are apparently much more serious than previously thought. But Apple is in far better shape in January 2009 than it was in August 2004, when Jobs announced he had undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer and would have to take a few months off.

These days the company has three strong product lines, a worldwide network of retail stores and, with $24 billion … Read more

Steve Jobs' medical leave puts the spotlight back on the other members of Apple's executive ranks, in particular Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, financial chief Peter Oppenheimer, and marketing chief Phil Schiller.

Tim Cook A one-time Compaq executive, Cook has run much of Apple's operations for some time. He also was the man tapped by the board when Jobs previously went on leave for cancer treatment.

Much of Cook's career has been spent handling manufacturing and procurement duties, although he took over responsibility for sales at Apple, before adding the COO title in 2005. In addition to … Read more

Several months ago, I wrote about the MagiCook Kitchen by Little Tikes, which won't help anyone actually create any meals, but will help to inspire a love for cooking in kids before they're old enough to start dealing with actual culinary hardware. The PlayStation and Xbox generation of kids, however, can be a bit harder to please in the toy department, and may require more high tech coaxing into loving the kitchen.

With games like Cooking Mama for the Nintendo Wii, game developers are trying to do just that. The game allows you to create food from recipes … Read more

Apple awarded three key members of its executive team with $100,000 raises to kick off its 2009 fiscal year.

Chief operating officer Tim Cook, chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer, and senior vice president of Mac hardware engineering Bob Mansfield will have a little more cash in their pockets this year courtesy of Apple's board of directors, the company revealed in a proxy filing Wednesday. Cook now makes $800,000 a year, while Oppenheimer makes $700,000, and Mansfield makes $600,000.

This was the first raise for Cook and Oppenheimer since October 2005. Mansfield received a raise just … Read more

Even in the midst of holiday chaos, you can fake a little serenity with a beautifully set table. With four kids underfoot and in the way spreading good cheer around the house, things can get a little hectic here. So I'm always looking for shortcuts, which is one reason I love WiltonArmetale pieces.

These platters and other pieces can go from fridge to oven to table. So I can arrange my salad, then serve it in a bowl that will keep it freshly chilled. Or I can set up my trays of hors d'oeuvres the night before, slide … Read more

Thanksgiving is approaching fast, and if you're the one hosting this year's dinner (like I am), it's coming at light speed. While I look forward to spending time with the family and musing over what we're thankful for, I'd be thankful to have the help of at least one of these gadgets.

Sanitizing wand: Though I'm not a germaphobe, I've heard one too many salmonella and e-coli stories. This CleanWave Sanitizing Wand actually gets rid of bacteria, germs, and dust mites. Dust mites?! After de-germing my cutting boards, countertops, and towels, I can … Read more

Justin kicks off the show with some fresh haterade for Fox "personality" Bill O'Reilly and his views on the godless liberal city of San Francisco. Also on the show, Wilson goes hands on with the Blackberry Storm, an inmate gets $300 K for his lost genitals, NASA installs a fart detector in the space station, same sex couples can join eHarmony and PETA releases "Cooking Mama: Mama kills animals." We conclude with a geeked out discussion about X-Men.

Dan the Mantern here. In case you haven't seen it already, you should check out the above "documentary" from the O'Reilly Factor that claims that, should the Christian right not remain vigilant, all of America will begin to resemble San Francisco, the modern-day Sodom. If you analyze the video, you'll notice that several interviews were conducted with homeless people and burnt-out hippies, precisely the type of people who would make any city seem like an undesirable place to live. Obviously O'Reilly is running out of material. You better watch your back, Bill, because I know a 130-lb. Asian man who loves skinny jeans and ass-whupping, and his skinny jeans are in the wash...

UPDATE: If you're having problems listening to today's episode of the show, please re-download the episode. We apologize, but there was an error in the MP3 encoding, which caused the file to not play passed the 7 minute mark.

Here's a rundown of some of the Apple news making the rounds this Wednesday:

Apple may launch most aggressive Black Friday pricing yet--AppleInsider: On a day when the stock market tanked once again on news of shifting priorities in the government's bailout plan, coupled with pessimistic forecasts from huge retailers like Best Buy, this notion doesn't seem all that far-fetched. Last year, Apple offered $101 discounts on MacBooks and other discounts on iPods on Black Friday, and Ben Reitzes of UBS thinks similar discounts could be applied more broadly across Apple's product line on that particular … Read more

I like a little precision when I cook: I like being sure that my chicken reaches the 165 degrees Fahrenheit that guarantees I won't have any problems after dinner. Being precise is a lot easier if you know what temperature you're dealing with. ThinkGeek's Digital Thermometer Pan can provide that information. The pan itself is a normal nonstick skillet on the outside, but it has a thermometer on the inside and a digital readout in the handle.

The thermometer has some basic controls: it can be set to notify you when dinner reaches that perfect temperature and … Read more