beach

It takes time to find your way about the kitchen. We start off at a young age making peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and then progress from there. Before you know it, we graduate to mac and cheese and then with this introduction to the stovetop, the world becomes the limit. Riding tandem to this development is a constantly growing knowledge of kitchen equipment. As we learn what we can do, we learn what our gear can (and cannot) do. When it comes to food processors, it doesn't take long to figure out that the big bowl is sometimes just too big.… Read more

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is known for hosting the greatest examples of historical automobiles in the world, but this car fest attracts even newer vehicles. Traipsing around the lawn, we found some extraordinarily fast cars, some very expensive cars, and often both qualities at once.

When we first covered the limited-production supercar known as the SSC Ultimate Aero, it had just laid claim to the title of fastest production car in the world. More recently, Shelby SuperCars announced it would install an electric drivetrain and thereby make the SSC the world's fastest electric car as well.

We have yet to see the electric version, and as of late June, the new Bugatti Veyron Super Sport had snatched away the production car speed crown from the Ultimate Aero. But SSC was in Monterey for this year's global pilgrimage of car nuts, and we were able to get some seat time in the car that was the world's fastest for almost two years. It's not an experience for the faint of heart.

SSC was founded in 1998 by lifelong car enthusiast Jerod Shelby, a trained mechanical engineer who had previously helped start a medical-device company. For the record, he is no relation to that other automotive Shelby, but one can be forgiven for assuming a connection based on each company's humble origins as one man's vision, not to mention their penchants for producing seriously hairy-chested machinery.

The Ultimate Aero is a beast by any measure. Its SSC-designed 6.8-liter engine is based on a billet aluminum block, and twin turbochargers boost output to a heady 1,287 horsepower and 1,112 pound-feet of torque, according to current figures on the company's site. Serious rubber is required to keep that power reasonably useful, and that helps push the overall width of the car to nearly 7 feet. Again, the timid or twitchy need not apply. … Read more

A couple days before the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid made its grand entrance to the international car market at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, it got the lay of the land on some twisties in the Carmel Valley foothills. Porsche released a video of the 918 Spyder's first North American miles before showing it off to the tony international car set at Pebble Beach last weekend.

The recently green-lighted Spyder reportedly has a long list of interested buyers will to fork over the anticipated $650,000 for a 500 horsepower 3.4-liter V-8 hybrid that gets 78 mpg. … Read more

In the automotive world, performance lines abound. BMW builds M cars, Mercedes-Benz offers AMG versions of its cars, and Audi puts the RS badge on a few models. Even Lexus got into the game recently with the F version of the IS model.

Among the luxury brands, only Infiniti remained immune from building tuner versions of its cars. Until now.

Enter the Infiniti G37 IPL, being shown for the first time at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. The newly introduced performance brand, IPL, stands for Infiniti Performance Line, and uses, in our opinion, a very un-Infiniti-like graphic design.

As … Read more

Jaguar is reflecting on its past as it looks toward the future. To celebrate its 75th birthday, the company is introducing a faster limited edition 2011 XKR175 at the Pebble Beach Automotive Weekend.

This birthday present of sorts highlights the brand's renewed focus on high-performance engineering and sportier vehicles that reflect its racing heritage from the '50s and '60s, says Jaguar spokesman Stuart Schorr. The limited edition XKR175 features a few aesthetic changes to the car's interior and exterior, and its modified engine management system on the 510hp V8 raises its top speed to 174 mph and drops … Read more

The familiarity of one's own kitchen cannot be beat. Cookware and appliances do what is expected of them, everything is where it is supposed to be, and perhaps, most importantly, efficiency is maximized. As rewarding as tinkering in the kitchen may be, sometimes all you want to do is to get in, get out, and get on with your life; the less distractions the better.

The Hamilton Beach WaveMaker Blender With Touchpad is a simple-to-use appliance that won't bog down your time in the kitchen. The affordable, no-nonsense blender is made with convenience in mind without sacrificing quality. … Read more

It's hard to go wrong with a potluck; chances are something (if not everything) is going to be good to eat. If playing by the rules, you're guaranteed to find something delicious among the table spread. After all, it's a rare occurrence that people bring something they themselves do not find appetizing. So, we bring our favorite dish to share, assured that there will be at least one to our liking--and hopefully others will agree.

One way for certain to make sure your dish stands out is to have the serving device itself stand out. Even if … Read more

Vinyl accounts for less than 1 percent of overall music sales, but it's been making a bit of a comeback: sales almost doubled between 2007 and 2008 and grew another 33 percent in 2009, according to Nielsen. That's only 2.5 million records out of a total of more than 370 million albums sold in all formats, but record companies don't see many growing business areas, so they're suddenly jumping aboard.

New vinyl hasn't been this abundant since the mid-1980s--you can even find it in Best Buy and Wal-Mart. I give particular props to independent … Read more