Category Archives: Geek-Chic Gourmet

Easy ways to cook stuff for people that don’t cook stuff.
Featuring simple recipes, product reviews, and game-inspired recipes.

One Stop Stove-Popped Corn

Posted by Operations on January 23, 2011 – 7:50 pm
Filed under Geek-Chic Gourmet

Why would you want to do popcorn this way, when you could just toss a packet of commercial popcorn into the microwave?

I’ll give you five reasons.

1) It’s cheaper this way
2) It’s way less wasteful
3) It’s just as easy
4) It’s way cheaper
5) Because commercial microwave popcorn is coated in so many gross chemicals, it actually gave a guy cancer from eating it every day!

Okay, it’s easy, look. Here’s what you need:
A medium pot with a lid, vegetable oil (not olive oil, it’ll scorch), and popcorn. That’s it. You can even buy the popcorn at the grocery store, usually on the top shelf with the microwave popcorn. But I like to buy it loose in a bag from a “healthy” grocery store, like Earth Fare is where I get mine.

There is no Detailed/Quick version to this one; it’s just easy!

First, pour a little lake of oil into the pot. While cold, it should cover about a quarter of the bottom of the pan just as you pour it out. Set the pan on a small burner and turn it to about medium high-ish. Put three kernels into the oil; they’re your canaries. When they all three pop, you know the oil is hot enough. Put the lid on.

Before the canaries pop, (*paff!*) grab about a handful of corn per person you’re serving, and put it on a plate or in a bowl or something so it’s easy to dump in when the oil is hot enough.

Once the popcorn is in the oil, swirl it good to coat all the kernels, and put the lid on at an angle, leaving a little gap for steam to escape.

Now, just wait for it to pop! Same as microwave, you know it’s done when it slows way down. Don’t let it burn!

Try it a few times, you’ll get a feel for stove temp, amount of corn to put in, how long to leave it on the stove.

Carefully dump the popcorn out, and give it a shake of salt, or butter powder, or melted butter, or cinnamon and sugar…. maybe some chili powder? Anybody got unusual popcorn toppings?

Enjoy your healthy, cheap popcorn!

Geek-Chic Gourmet: Microwegg

Posted by Operations on January 16, 2011 – 7:28 pm
Filed under Geek-Chic Gourmet
Tagged as

Sometimes you just want an egg, but don’t feel like getting out the pan, dealing with all that, for just one egg.

Behold, the Microwegg.

Detailed Version

You will need:

  • One mug.
  • One or two eggs.
  • Butter or your favorite butter-like substance.
  • A fork.
  • A microwave.
  • Seasonings/mixins.
  • Something to be a lid. (more about this later)


Get all your things out and on the counter in front of you so you have them.  You can leave the microwave where it is.

By seasonings/mixins, I mean like salt & pepper, or if you’re feeling spunky, a wee bit of diced onion and green pepper.   I haven’t tried this with cheese, but just guessing, shredded cheese would work, a solid slice of American would cause problems.

Use your fork, and slice/scoop off a little knob of butter into the mug.  Like, the size of the last joint of your pinky finger.  Microwave that for abouuut 10 seconds.  Swirl it around the mug a bit.

Crack the egg into the mug, toss the shell.  Wash your hands, raw egg can be bad.

Use the fork to whip up the egg if you want scrambled egg.  Just poke the yolk once if you don’t want it scrambled.  But if you don’t at least poke the yolk, it could explode in your microwave.

Mix in your mixins. Rinse the fork real good of the raw egg, whether or not you mixedin.

Put the mug into the microwave, and put a lid-like thing on it.  No plastic wrap, no foil.  Nothing tight; you need it to be able to vent a little.  A scrap of paper towel would work.  Today, I used a paper plate with a hole poked in with the tines of my handy dandy fork.

Microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir the egg and chop it up a bit.  Microwave 15 seconds more.  Done! (Timing depends a bit on the power of your microwave, and how done you want it, but be careful not to overdo it; it’ll get rubbery and nasty.)

Funny thing to see is the way the egg pulls up and into a little ball! This will happen less if you put in a bunch of mixins (not that it matters!).

QUICK VERSION

Put a little butter into a mug. Melt the butter in the microwave for 10 seconds. Crack one or two eggs into your mug. Stir it up with seasonings/mixins iffin you want. Put on a vented lid. Zap it for 30 seconds, stir, 15 seconds, stir and done.