cooking

There is something special about pancakes. Somehow hearty yet impossibly fluffy at the same time, pancakes are a perfect component of practically any breakfast. Certainly sausages drowned in maple syrup wouldn't be quite the same without them. Even when served alone, pancakes offer a filling deliciousness that cannot be equaled by any other breakfast food. Unfortunately for pancake fans, they just don't seem to find their way onto plates enough.

Whether pancake scarcity is due to the amount of time needed, difficulty level, or both, there is no reason to get worked up into a pancake panic. The … Read more

Your grandma had a mechanical egg timer that dinged a bell. Your granddad had a stopwatch from his track-and-field days. You can still buy either new, but it's probably quicker and easier and certainly cheaper to download Cook Timer, a free desktop timer for Windows. That's great for the kitchen, you say, where you use your laptop for recipes. But what about out and about? What takes the place of granddad's stopwatch? Cook Timer, that's what. At 239.5 KB, it's smaller than some ringtones, and it has no dependencies so it's completely portable … Read more

A bowl is a bowl is a bowl. You put stuff into it, and then you eat out of it. Or perhaps you prep food in it and then transfer the food into another bowl. And glass bowls certainly aren't unknown to ovens; they make remarkable vessels for cooking food in. Usually however, one bowl isn't meant for all three tasks at once.

One bowl that can go from prep to oven to table is the Lekue Steam Roaster Bowl. The remarkably convenient vessel owes its versatility to a simple tab and slot arrangement along with silicone construction. … Read more

Turns out, you get punished for being a cute girl on Facebook ... at least that's our speculation about the bug that was disabling some women's profiles. Also, Google Voice debuts in the iTunes app store, Hulu Plus drops to $7.99, and we watch the Green Lantern trailer live and ... we're not impressed. Plus, Cooks Source Magazine elects to go quietly and passive-aggressively into this dark publishing night. --Molly

Following a huge public outcry that lighted up the Internet last week, food magazine Cooks Source has apologized for its actions in publishing a writer's online story without her permission.

In a statement that appeared this week on its Web site, the magazine acknowledged that the online article by writer Monica Gaudio was published in Cooks Source without her approval. The magazine apologized for the error, claiming it was the "oversight of a small, overworked staff." Per Gaudio's instructions, Cooks Source said that it made a donation to the Columbia School of Journalism as well as … Read more

It didn't take very long for 70 Holdings--and a similar site tied to a Los Angeles-based search-engine optimization company--to start spamming Google News again.

Last week, after CNET pointed out that a company called 70 Holdings Inc. was spamming Google News under the moniker of Red Label News, Google pulled that content from its site. However, over the weekend 70 Holdings popped back up using one of the 44 domains it owns to once again flood Google News with the same type of nearly empty stories tied to search-friendly keywords and advertising.

Brooke Crothers, our chip correspondent, spotted a … Read more

The big Apple iPhone news this week involved a new app approved in the iTunes App Store called Skyfire Web Browser (link will open iTunes). This new Web browser's claim to fame is that it can display Flash content by using an interesting workaround. The browser sends Flash content to its own server, converts it to HTML5, then streams the content back to your iPhone. Jessica Dolcourt wrote about Skyfire's shaky launch here.

Apparently, within 5 hours, Skyfire's servers were overloaded (imagine that!) as people swarmed to a new way to view Flash on the iPhone. To be honest, I haven't run into many problems with not having Flash, but I definitely hope that Apple and Adobe or someone can come to an agreement so any smartphone user can get ALL the Web content available.

As of right now, Skyfire is still available at the iTunes App Store, but I have to wonder how it could not know there would be an onslaught of traffic and prepare accordingly. It also makes me wonder if it's really worth the trouble.

What do you think? Are you content waiting for developers to convert everything to HTML5 (if that's even possible)? Should Apple just throw caution to the wind and make it so Flash works (and open the platform to those alleged dangers)? Let me know in the comments!

This week, get cooking with chefs from the Food Network and play a fun arcade baseball game.… Read more

A magazine accused of publishing a blogger's story without permission has seen a dramatic rise in the number of its Facebook friends, although they're not all that friendly.

The tale of writer Monica Gaudio hit the Web on Wednesday after she reported that her story, "A Tale of Two Tarts," was apparently lifted and published by the print magazine Cooks Source with her byline, but without her knowledge or any compensation. After tracking down the editor at the magazine, Gaudio asked for an apology on Facebook and in the magazine, as well as a $130 donation … Read more

This week, a very special pre-Thanksgiving episode, "Hacking Thanksgiving," with two special guests: Jeff Potter, the author of "Cooking for Geeks," and Roxanne Webber of our sister site Chow. Today's show is for you if you can re-flash a router but always burn the biscuits. If you can assemble a PC from the motherboard up blindfolded but go screaming to your own mama when it's time to boil a chicken. Get the idea? Listen up if you want to bring leet skillz to the kitchen.

Also, I'm sorry to announce that CNET to the Rescue regular co-host Josh Lowensohn isn't going to be a regular on this show anymore. Josh is now on the Microsoft beat on the News team, which is a full-time gig to say the least. Josh will be back from time to time to talk about Microsoft tips, but I'll have rotating co-hosts on to replace him.

We will return to regular tech topics next week with the first of our rotating hosts, Kent German, who covers mobile phones and cellular carriers. If you have a tech question on this topic for CNET to the Rescue, CALL US to get on next week's show: 877-438-6688. No question is too basic. Or e-mail rescue@cnet.com.

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