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This is a guest post from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship.

I’d like to think of myself as a yogurt diva, if you’ll indulge me a moment.  Jenny has me beat in all other things probiotic, and I’ll gladly crown her Get Cultured Queen if she’ll allow me to be the Yogurt Fairy here at Nourished Kitchen.

I make a gallon of yogurt in each batch, about every week and a half or so.  My family is absolutely lost if we run out.  We eat it at breakfast, lunch, and snacks constantly as well as using it in some soaked grain recipes.  It’s imperative to have an easy system when you use a homemade food that often.  I’ve got it down to a science.

You can see my whole tutorial on how to make homemade yogurt, photos and all, if you’re interested in my no dishes, no special equipment, simplified yogurt making method.  For now, here are the top 10 tips I’ve learned over the past four years of making my own yogurt:

1. Don’t burn the milk.  This is key for multitasking mamas and other busy people who have trouble standing around to stir milk.  You can avoid burnt milk by putting glass jars filled with milk into a pot of water and boiling them that way instead of putting the milk right in the pot.  This also saves on dishes, one of my favorite worthwhile pursuits.
   
2. Don’t cool your milk down in the refrigerator. Put it outside in the winter or in a sink of cold water and a few ice packs, or even on the counter if you’re willing to deal with inconsistency, not in the refrigerator which is taxing to the system and ultimately costly.
3. More starter is not better.  Two tablespoons starter per quart of milk is perfect.  Any more, and the bacteria will be too crowded as it tries to culture. Survival of the fittest = runny yogurt.
4. Incubate at around 100 degrees F for maximum creaminess. I used to shoot for about 110, but I have found that slightly less than that seems to get more consistent texture results.
5. Incubate 12-24 hours to allow the bacteria time to predigest the milk proteins.  Nearly all the lactose is converted to lactic acid at this time, and many lactose intolerant people  can eat 24-hour yogurt without repercussion.
6. Place jars in the freezer for the first hour or so after culturing.  This will stop the multiplying  of bacteria quickly, which gives you the best, delightfully creamy consistency.
7. Use free jars. I like to keep my jars from spaghetti sauce, etc. to use for making yogurt.
8. Eat your yogurt with as little sweetener as possible.  I’ve weaned myself down from sweetened yogurt cups to just needing a little bit of honey, or even no sweetener if I mix in homemade applesauce with LOTS of cinnamon.  (See 4 tips for eating less sugar in your yogurt.)
   

   My son demonstrates his love for applesauce and yogurt.

9. The no-thermometer method. I like having one less item to gather when I make my yogurt.  I can tell each temperature now without the thermometer:
   *Up to 180 when a skin forms on top of the milk.
   *Down to 100-110 when (a) I can hold the jar without pain and (b) a drop on my wrist feels warm, within a few degrees of body temp, not painful.
10. Freeze some starter. If you’ve tried Greek yogurt or have a special starter that cost you a lot, freeze some of the first batch right away in baby food jars.  Generally the yogurt will still culture just great after thawing, but I always like to have a few backups just in case.

I am a firm believer in the health benefits of yogurt, and the convenience of always having it on hand makes the never-ending question, “What is nourishing that I can offer my kids for a snack that won’t take long to prepare?” an easy one.  “Yogurt with…” is always answer number one.

My next goal is to figure out how to dehydrate yogurt-n-fruit rolls so I can take it in the car with us without the serious mess factor.

How do you take your yogurt?

Katie Kimball has been delving into the real food/traditional food movement for about a year.  She blogs her successes, failures and goals at Kitchen Stewardship, where the mission is to help people balance their time, money, nutrition and environment in the kitchen, baby step style.

Further Reading:

• The health benefits of yogurt
• Yogurt Recipes
• Jenny’s Homemade Yogurt post

http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/01/12/homemade-yogurt-recipes-so-you-can-eat-it-all-the-time/

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Post tags: homemade yogurt, making yogurt, yogurt

It’s beginning to appear that some of the major labels’ strategy for dealing with the changing structure of the music business — in which overall money is up, but has shifted away from the record labels’ bank accounts — is to simply bleed the old market dry. How else to explain that as Warner Music continued to shrink and fail to respond to market changes in any reasonable manner, its two top executives took home $14 million last year. I guess you could argue that WMG’s stock was up slightly (from deathly ill to just really really sickly — but way, way down from just a couple years ago) over the year, but the company lost a tremendous amount of money each quarter this year (last quarter still hasn’t been reported), and Warner Music has shown little outward effort to suggest it’s adapted or has any idea how to adapt to the changing market.

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Michael Schumacher was unable to fully use his first day of GP2 testing on the Jerez circuit yesterday, as the weather had other plans for the day. According to a press release issued by the Formula One feeders series’ website yesterday evening, the rainy conditions that started to show after the morning session caused the whole testing day to be stopped before schedule.

Although the morning session started in dry conditions and under grey skies, the rain soon came and upset the p… (read more)

Following rumors that Nissan and its luxury brand Infiniti might say pass to the 2010 New York International Auto Show (NYIAS), representatives of the Japanese companies stepped in front of the media and denied reports, saying that both brands will attend the show.

Furthermore, Nissan revealed that it will display the new QX56 SUV at the show, alongside some other models to be sold in the United States.

"Infiniti will unveil the all-new QX56 full-size luxury SU… (read more)

American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla is displaying at the 2010 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) the 1,000th Roadster ever produced. To give it the proper anniversary stance, Tesla badged the Roadster with the unique Vehicle Identification No. 1,000 and gave it a Millennial White paint finish, with a unique interior and carbon fiber accents.

"A year ago right here in Detroit we had delivered about 150 Roadsters, so VIN 1,000 is a humble but important mile… (read more)

Facebook unveiled an exclusive partnership with McAfee to give its 350 million users–those that use PCs, that is–a free six-month subscription to its security software.

The deal with McAfee (MFE) come at a slightly odd time–yesterday’s three-ring circus in the blogosphere about an alleged employee at Facebook, who claimed in an anonymous interview that the social networking powerhouse was rife with internal security abuses.

BoomTown thought the report specious at best, but it certainly brought up valid concerns that pop up regularly about consumer security–especially viruses and spam–on Facebook and on the Internet at large.

That’s been especially heightened by the privacy controversies over the service’s new policies of broadening the availability of Facebook users’ data to the wider Web, unless action is taken.

As Facebook grows, those worries will obviously only get more pronounced.

In any case, the offer with McAfee is also an interesting one, in that Facebook certainly has a great audience for all kinds of companies to market to. It’s nice the first one is so sensible.

According to a McAfee press release, its software “will be available to Facebook users in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Numerous additional countries will be added throughout Q1.”

Here is the Facebook blog post on the deal, as well as the McAfee press release below it:

Better Security through Software

One of the best defenses against security threats is a good offense, and we want to help you take the offensive by having the latest security software installed on your computer. Today, we are announcing a one-year partnership with McAfee to offer all 350 million people who use Facebook the ability to download a six-month subscription to McAfee security software at no cost, along with a special discount once the six months are over.

You can take advantage of this offer by visiting the “Protect Your PC” tab on the McAfee Page on Facebook.

We’re committed to doing everything we can to help you protect your account and make your experience on Facebook as safe and enjoyable as possible. We invest in dedicated teams and advanced technical systems that detect and block suspicious behavior. When we find a message with a link to a fake login page or other malicious website, we prevent it from being sent and delete all instances of it from the site. We also work with third parties to get malicious sites added to browser blacklists or removed completely.

For the rare case in which an account is compromised, we’ve developed a unique process that requires the account owner to take steps to secure the account and learn security best practices. We’ve also incorporated custom McAfee software into this process for people identified as having infected computers. Now, if your computer is infected, you will be asked to run a scan and clean it before accessing Facebook. We’re not aware of another free Internet service that takes this much responsibility for helping its users keep their accounts secure.

We have a lot of control over security measures on Facebook. However, we don’t control other websites and services you visit that might infect your computer. For this reason, we recommend that you install updated security software, which you can now do at no cost through this partnership, and that you always follow these safe practices:

-Don’t open attachments in emails that look suspicious or come from an unknown or untrustworthy source.
-Don’t open attachments unless you know what they are, even if they’re from friends.
-Delete chain mail and spam from your email and Facebook inboxes.
-Be cautious when downloading files from the Internet.
-Be cautious of any message, post or link you see on Facebook that looks suspicious, requires an additional login, or asks you to download or upgrade software.
-Use an up-to-date browser that features an anti-phishing blacklist. Some examples include Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.0.10.
-Choose unique logins and passwords for each of the websites you use.
-Check to see that you’re logging in from a legitimate Facebook page with the facebook.com domain.

Become a fan of the Facebook Security Page to receive more tips, updates on the latest threats and other information to help you protect your computer and online accounts.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(Business Wire) Today McAfee, Inc. (NYSE:MFE), the world’s leading dedicated security company, and Facebook announced an unprecedented collaboration that will provide additional security protection to a significant portion of the Internet population. Through this partnership, the two companies have jointly created security solutions that include McAfee security software, a custom scanning and repair tool, and consumer friendly education materials that Facebook will make available to its more than 350 million users. In total, this is a first-of-its-kind security offering that represents a major milestone in the fight to secure the Internet and reduce global cybercrime.

Under the terms of the partnership, McAfee is Facebook’s exclusive provider of consumer security software, and Facebook users will be eligible for a complimentary six-month subscription of the McAfee Internet Security™ Suite software. Following the six-month period, Facebook users will be eligible for special discount subscription pricing. Facebook is applying all financial incentives from this partnership to the benefit of its users and will not be taking a share of any revenue from user subscriptions. McAfee Internet Security Suite software protects users’ PCs from online threats, viruses, spyware, hackers, online scammers, identity thieves and other cybercriminals, and includes award-winning McAfee® SiteAdvisor® site rating technology.

In the rare instance a Facebook account is compromised, Facebook has developed an innovative process that requires users to take steps to re-secure their Facebook account and learn security best practices. As part of this partnership, this process will now also include custom McAfee technology to clean users’ computers. There is no charge for use of this tool.

To keep users educated about the latest threats, Facebook and McAfee will work together to develop educational content for the Facebook Security Page (http://www.facebook.com/security), Facebook’s principal resource for security-related information with more than one million fans. McAfee will also continuously update its own Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/mcafee), which features the offer on the “Protect Your PC” tab as well as security information on “Protect Your Kids” and “Security Notes” tabs.

“Facebook is very serious about security and has made significant efforts to protect its users and service by investing in dedicated teams and sophisticated systems, and this partnership with McAfee furthers that mission,” said Todd Gebhart, executive vice president and general manager, McAfee Consumer, Mobile and Small Business. “We believe our partnership will make a real difference in the battle to secure the Internet by giving so many more people access to industry leading technology from McAfee.”

Facebook selected McAfee after a competitive review process among the leading security vendors. McAfee is rated the number one vendor in threat detection,1 and McAfee Active Protection™ technology provides protection by blocking both known and unknown online threats almost instantly.

Research has shown that up to 78 percent of consumers do not have updated anti-virus, an enabled firewall and anti-spyware, and 48 percent of them have expired anti-virus, the most fundamental protection2. So many people without even the most basic protection for their computers are an obvious risk to themselves, but also to people with whom they interact online. Thea greement between McAfee and Facebook is designed to address this problem.

“By partnering with a market leader like McAfee, we are taking an unprecedented step towards making the entire Internet more secure and reducing the possibility of threats being brought onto our service by unsuspecting users,” said Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications, marketing and public policy, Facebook. “Keeping the Internet secure requires that users, security vendors and Internet companies all work together. We think we’ve developed an excellent model for this collaboration, and to ensure the greatest possible value to our users, Facebook will not accept any revenue from subscriptions. We hope this is something that other services will emulate.”

Upon launch, McAfee Internet Security Suite software will be available to Facebook users in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Numerous additional countries will be added throughout Q1.

1 Av-Test.org malware detection results published in Computerbild magazine (Issue 26 12/05/09)

2 Source: 2007 McAfee-National Cyber Security Alliance Online Safety Study

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Sally Benson, head of Stanford University’s Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP), said today that the world can meet its future energy needs and control climate change — but the strategy for achieving this goal will inevitably include the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

“We need a fresh look at our energy system,” Benson said at today’s SDForum conference titled “The State of Clean Energy: Global Challenges and Opportunities.”

At current rates, global demand for energy is expected to double to 30 terawatts by 2050, up from 15 terawatts today, given projected population and economic growth, she explained. For context, 30 terawatts is the amount needed to power 30 billion American homes.

By transforming the types of energy used, how it is developed and how emissions can be reduced or contained, the world community will be able to meet its growing needs while simultaneously cutting down on greenhouse gases, Benson asserted.

“At the end of the day, solving the climate change problem is more about transforming our energy systems than limiting greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “If we successfully transform our energy system we will achieve those reductions.”

Benson laid out plans for a new energy mix, and explained how a combination of different sources, on top of conservation efforts, will slow the growth of energy demand while fueling the economy and protecting the environment.

Behavior-based conservation, like deciding to ride a bike instead of driving a car, could reduce the predicted 30 terawatts by 20 percent to 24 terawatts, she said. Improving energy efficiency in designs for buildings and transportation systems could cut projected demand by another 20 percent to 20 terawatts.

If this can be done, a combination of new and existing sources of power could be used to meet the 20 terawatt quota. Here’s Benson’s plan for that future, roughly sketched:

• Petroleum-based fuels would still be needed to provide 4 terawatts of energy. “We have lots of fossil fuels left,” Benson said, along these lines.
• Natural gas could also generate about 4 terawatts in 2050 if production were increased 20 percent over the next 40 years.
• Solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal sources could generate 5 terawatts, but would require a tenfold increase in investment over today.
• Biofuels could contribute 1 terawatt.
• Coal could contribute 3 terawatts of energy, though Benson’s plans call for coal generation generation to be reduced by 17 percent from 2000 levels. She also emphasized the need to invest in carbon capture and sequestration techniques to control emissions. This is a large part of the research she conducts at Stanford.
• Nuclear power could generate 3 terawatts, but would require an eightfold increase in global generation of nuclear power. Benson understands the controversial nature of nuclear power, particularly in the U.S., but says her students are more open to considering it than those in years past.

These sources add up to the 20 terawatts Benson believes the world will need by 2050 if measures are taken to tighten efficiency and trim demand. The world needs “a diverse and robust energy supply,” she said. “The environmental and health benefits will follow.”

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Venture capitalists looking for clean energy investments say that the billions in stimulus grants, tax credits and loan guarantees distributed by the U.S. government, particularly the Department of Energy, have taken a lot of risk out of investing in early-stage startups. While VCs remain skittish following 2008’s economic downturn, this money could go along way toward establishing big companies in solar, wind, and other renewable industries.

“We have a new partners, and that’s the Department of Energy,” said Bruce Pasternack, a venture partner at CMEA Capital during the SDForum’s “State of Clean Energy: Global Challenges and Opportunities” conference hosted today at AMD’s campus in Sunnyvale.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus package, passed during the early weeks of the Barack Obama administration, earmarked $36.7 billion for energy-related investments, according to the Energy Department. Solar, wind, and the Smart Grid have been the major beneficiaries of these programs so far. Biofuel, battery and experimental carbon capture projects have also received healthy amounts of financing.

The government money has proved especially vital in the cleantech sector, where the majority of projects, like power plants, wind farms and fuel refineries, are extremely capital intensive. The stimulus funds have made much more money available for startups and private companies than they could ever cull from private investors. At today’s event, Robert Walker, a principal at Sierra Ventures, estimated the amount of money venture capital firms have invested in clean technology companies to be less than $10 billion.

“The amount of money the federal government has swamps anything we’re doing,” Walker said. “It’s huge.” At the same time, though, it’s unclear how long this federal largess will continue, he added. A venture capital firm may invest in a company for five to seven years — grants and other incentives from the government could easily be changed or discontinued during this time.

“I don’t know who the president is going to be in five to seven years,” Walker said, to this point.

Asked if federal funding mitigates risk for venture capitalists who have shied away from more far-fetched opportunities, Dylan Steeg, a director at Intel Capital, said, “It’s just another variable,” among all of the variables VCs consider when assessing the advantage of one investment over another. “The impact of the federal stimulus remains to be seen in the long-term.”

CMEA’s Pasternack, who has worked with the federal government on energy issues since the mid-1970s, said he is impressed with the caliber of the people making financing decisions in the Department of Energy.

“They have a DOE team there who have a real deep expertise in the technology, and that gives me hope,” he said.

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Underwater Scuba Mask Camera does photos and videos, lets you breathe originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey humans! So Hastings was telling us the truth after all — the Nintendo Wii will be joining the other two game consoles to stream Netflix starting some time in early Spring. Like the PS3, a special Netflix “instant-streaming” disc will be required for the Wii, and it goes without saying that HD’s out of the question since the Wii itself can’t push above 480p. There’ll be no additional fees beyond Netflix’s usual monthly subscription. Time for a game of Mario Kart to celebrate, no?

Wii gets Netflix this Spring, disc required for streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Spartoo.com, the Europe’s version of Zappos.com, has closed a $17.4 million Series B round of funding round led by Highland Capital Partners and Endeavour Vision with A Plus Finance and CM-CIC Capital Privé participating. This brings the online shoe retailer’s total funding to $25.4 million.

Launched in 2006, Spartoo claims over 4 million unique visitors per month (Nielsen, November 2009) and a base of 600,000 regular customers. Spartoo operates sites in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg.

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Every picture is worth at least one thousand words, but maybe you have one worth one thousand dollars. Start looking through your photo album because FizWoz makes it super easy to auction off your pictures. The FizWoz app, which is currently free on the iPhone store, lets you choose as many pictures as you want to auction off. Set your minimum starting price, a selling price, and a reserve price along with a title and description and you’re ready to go. I advise getting on as soon as you can before FizWoz gets flooded with other users also trying to earn on their captures. I was also surprised how quick you can get your picture ready to start earning. The process takes less than a minute per picture. Make sure to fill your titles and descriptions with good keywords. People using the FizWoz website have alerts set up for certain keywords.

You can’t buy pictures, or view other pictures, from the iPhone app as of yet, you’ll need to go to the website for that. But you can track the progress of your auctions from the app. FizWoz uses algorithms based on the category and keywords to determine how long to keep your auction running. They also have features built in to detect if it is an original picture or not. If it’s a doctored image in anyway it will just list as “unoriginal.”

I already put up a few of my pictures up for auction. Now I play the waiting game….Hey, who knows, maybe someone’s really looking for a picture of the Oscar Mayer Weiner truck chilling out in Times Square. Also what’s really neat is that all three of them are up on the fizwoz.com homepage as recently uploaded. I’m not even logged in—cool! Seriously—get your pics up now before it gets flooded and/or becomes a paying service or something. Videos work too!

The new Cadillac XTS Platinum concept revealed at the 2010 Detroit Motor Show is said to replace both the STS and aging DTS models. The vehicle has been designed to provide luxury enough to outshine the German Sedans. The touch screen panel and other electronic facilities have been enclosed inside the sleek and stylish model. By incorporating magnetic ride damping system, similar to that on the CTS-V and Corvette ZR1, and torque vectoring all-wheel-drive system, take it ahead of earlier versions. With its high tech features, developers have tried to integrate philosophy guiding the development of future models with respect to in-car electronics.

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In the £10.5bn bid battle for Cadbury, its chairman Roger Carr has never once been behind his tormentor, Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and chief executive of Kraft.

By Damian Reece, Head of Business
Published: 6:00AM GMT 13 Jan 2010

SPONSOR

He took another stride up the hill yesterday to consolidate the high ground with a second defence document that was able to highlight Cadbury’s own trading as reasons to stay in the stock, rather than simply resort to knocking Kraft’s offer. There was plenty of knocking copy but it wasn’t the main focus. In fact most of the negative spin came from Kraft, upset at what it saw as Cadbury playing fast and loose with the numbers.

One moan was Cadbury’s use of its 2009 figures to compare the value of Kraft’s offer, rather than 2008, which puts the deal in a less favourable light. Given the 2009 figures are now out and are historic, rather than prospective, that looks okay to me.

Kraft was also cross that there was no profit forecast for the first three months of 2010. There is one but Cadbury can’t publish it because no accountant will verify it based on just 12 days of trading, which seems a reasonable defence. Kraft reckons it’s because Cadbury has been deliberately over-trading in the Christmas period, stuffing the retail channel with stock which will be hanging around until Easter, obviously hitting 2010’s first three months’ trading.Cadbury dismisses this and keeps promising “good teen margins” by 2011, which is what shareholders want to hear.

Looking through the Cadbury statement there simply doesn’t seem to be a good reason to sell the company, and Kraft certainly hasn’t been able to come up with one yet. A 10pc rise in Cadbury’s dividend for 2009 summed up the company’s confidence yesterday, with numbers meeting, or beating, the market’s expectations.

It’s possible that Cadbury has peaked but why would Kraft want to buy it if so? It’s obvious Kraft thinks Cadbury has bags of potential but why share it? At least, why share it at the current price being offered by Kraft?

That’s the problem with Rosenfeld’s story. It’s not that it lacks logic for her shareholders but it lacks logic for Cadbury’s.

It’s obvious why Cadbury would be a good buy for Rosenfeld but anyone occupying the same lofty position as Carr can easily see her coming. That leaves price.

Plenty of experts are predicting a higher offer and on that score Rosenfeld should remember three numbers. At 800p and below Carr wins. At 825p it’s more difficult for Carr to defend but with only 20pc of Cadbury shares in the hands of arbitrageurs wanting a quick exit, it’s definitely worth Carr fighting to the death, leaving the outcome uncertain. At 850p she wins, with a blessing from Carr, leaving Rosenfeld the simple task of persuading Warren Buffet, her largest shareholder, of what a great deal he’s got.

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For a company that’s invaded our lives as much (and as well) as Google, the one thing they’ve never had to do is provide customer support—until now. And Nexus One owners are paying the price.

Selling an actual product to actual consumers is a very new game for Google, and if the myriad messageboard complaints and now a New York Times piece are any indication, the company is making the kind of toddler missteps you’d expect. Google sells the Nexus One exclusively, but haven’t set up a system of customer service that’s anywhere near adequate for a product as buzzed-about as the Nexus. There’s no way to contact Google by phone, and email responses are reported to take several days for a response. That’s a huge problem for Nexus One owners.

We like the Nexus One a lot—Jason even called it “the best Android phone” on the market—but if Google doesn’t get their shit together and start providing the kind of service smartphone owners have come to expect, it’ll prove a serious setback for not just Google but Android as a whole. We hope they work it out—they’re working to reduce that several-day delay in email response to a few hours, but it better happen fast if they don’t want people to lose confidence. [NYTimes]

A small (10 meter wide) asteroid will pass by the Earth Wednesday, at 12:47 UT. This tiny rock, called 2010 AL30, will pass us at a safe distance of 130,000 km (80,000 miles). As cosmic encounters go, this is a hair’s breadth, but in human terms it’s a long way off; as this graphic makes clear. It’s about a third of the way to the Moon.

2010 AL30 was only discovered on Monday. It’s escaped our previous notice because it’s dinky. Even when it passes you’ll need a telescope to see it. There has been some speculation that this was a man-made object like a rocket booster, since it’s about the right size, and sometimes near-Earth objects turn out to be space junk. But in this case the orbit doesn’t really match any rocket trajectory, so it’s probably a natural rock.

And since I know someone would ask, if this were aimed at us, it would probably explode high up in the atmosphere and not hit the ground. It would be quite a show, but most likely wouldn’t do any damage on the ground (even if it were iron, at that size it’s unlikely it would make it to the ground, and instead would tear itself to pieces on the way in).

And one last thing: note what I titled this post. Now look around the web to see how other articles are titled. Just sayin’.

Tip o’ the Whipple Shield to Mike Murray for putting that graphic together and letting me know about it.

In the days leading up to CES, I can’t count the number of people who wished me luck and said, under their breath, “Man, I wish I were going. I’m jealous.”

To be honest, it really was like a geek’s fantasy land. Car accessories, cool appliances packing processors and OSes, crazy-thin HDTVs (not to mention 3D TVs, which had one Mr. Noah Kravitz riveted) and — of course — mobile devices and accessories. And much much more.

A CES Newbie in Wonderland

It wasn’t just the variety of categories and the cool factor of next-generation consumer technologies, but it was also the sheer size of the show. I mean, even as a CES newbie, I knew the show was big. Like everyone else, I’ve been watching all the reports on TV or the internet for years. So I was ready for “big.” But crazy, enormous, huge, multiple convention center–occupyingly massive? Not so much. At one point, I was tempted to knock one dude off his Segway, just so I could give my swollen feet a rest and pilfer a ride from one end of the show to the other. (If anyone’s ever been to Comic Con in New York, let me just say that this is at least four times the size of that, probably more.)

There were pre-show announcements and post-show parties, and in between we got a peek at lots of interesting stuff. First off, eReaders are the new black. Seems like everyone and their Hong Kong factory-running grandmas are coming out with them at different price points. And at one point, I was hypnotized by a robotic mop and duster called Mint, which was capable of swiffering your hardwoods from corner to corner automatically. I hate cleaning, so this one really piqued my interest. (Either that, or I just like Jetsons-inspired gadgets.)

The Phones, Good Grief!, the Phones
And of course, there were phones. In fact, the show was like Androidopolis up in there. Is the Backflip an innovative new form factor or a pointless gimmick? (Depends on taste. For me, the latter.) Is Sony Ericsson’s Snapdragon-packing Xperia X10 as cool on the outside as it is on the inside? (Form factor’s nice. They just need to work out the bugs.) What about LG’s new Android phone, the GT540? (Cute-looking phone, but Android’s not quite so sexy on it.) The Nexus One, of course, made a cameo there, as the media huddled around the sleek new handset, oohing and aahing at the live wallpapers.

WebOS fans got some juice at CES as well. Palm and Pixi on Verizon alone is a big deal, but the fact that they’ll both be capable of acting as mobile hotspots for connecting laptops to the web? Sweet! To think, just the news of Pixi getting Wifi and the Pre getting a better keyboard were enough to excite me, but this? That’s like taking a perfectly cooked Filet Mignon and throwing some extra awesome sauce on it.

If anyone ever doubted that this is the year of the touchscreens, a walk through the Las Vegas Convention Center last week would’ve silenced them for good. It seemed like everything had one. Even the little messaging feature phone called the LG Lotus Elite got an external touchscreen.

There were also plenty of handsets that aren’t available in the U.S. — like the LG Chocolate BL40, with its huge 4-inch HD widescreen display — which actually felt a little cruel. Why show us stuff we can’t have? Ah yes, to show off their eye for design and make us drool. That, I guess, is sort of the point of CES.

On my last day, I wandered the iLounge area for hours, making contacts and hoarding products to review for our upcoming network site, TodaysiPhone.com. (I swear, I think 60% of those booths were made up of phone cases. But the others showed off some pretty interesting stuff, so if you’re into iPhone accessories, make sure to check out the new site when it launches.)

Final Thoughts
So in short, there was a lot of great action at the show. And if all there was to this writer’s experience was that I got to see these devices up close, I would’ve been darn happy. But no, two more things happened that elevated this trip from good to gobsmackingly great:

(1) I finally got to meet my crew! Aaron and I are combat buddies, having covered CTIA together, but I’d never met Noah or John in person. And after having worked with them long distance for over a year, it was amazing to rub Noah’s bald head for good luck at the show and gab like childhood friends with John, as we pounded the pavement from one hall to the next. And Aaron, my bud, is as cool as ever. (See? Now if a BlackBerry dude, an Android expert and an iPhone gal can be friends, can’t we all get along?)

(2) And last but not least, I got to meet my hero! As a tech blogger, no one has influenced me more than this man, and I have to admit I was starstruck when I actually got to shake his hand. (I’ll leave this one as a quiz: Can you identify the person below? Your whole geek cred hangs on this.)

So that was my trip in a nutshell. All in all, those few days were amazing. And I’ll need another week to recover from it all. But even on the flight home — as I slept in my crowded plane, with my head sliding against the windows and my knees banging the seat in front of me — I had a huge smile on my face. Thank you, PhoneDog and all you PD readers for making this trip possible. If I could’ve, I would’ve brought every one of you with me. But hopefully the coverage made you feel like you were there, which was the whole point of the trip.

Adriana and her tech journo hero. Can you identify this man?

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cobs of corn
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 2.5 cm / 1 inch piece fresh root ginger peeled and grated
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 1 jalapeno chilli, seeded and finely chopped
• 3 kaffir lime leaves or zest of 1/2 lime
• 120 ml / 4 oz unsweetened coconut milk
• Large handful of fresh basil leaves
• 2 limes, each cut into chunks to serve
  

METHOD:
Scrape the kernels from the cobs with a sharp knife and put the kernels in a bowl. Set aside.

Break each of the cobs into 2-3 pieces, put them in a large saucepan and add 1.5 litres (2 3/4 pints) water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. You will need to skim the foam from the top of the liquid with a large spoon, especially for the first 30 minutes. Strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth.

Heat the oil in a clean saucepan and add the ginger, shallots and chilli. Fry gently for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the shallots are softened. Add the kaffir lime leaves or lime zest, reserved corn stock (or the equivalent volume of vegetable stock) and coconut milk. Bring up to the boil, then reduce heat immediately and simmer for 5 minutes. Add water, if necessary, to achieve the texture you prefer. Add the reserved kernels and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup into warm bowls. Stack about 6 basil leaves together, roll them into a cigar shape and slice thinly. Repeat with the remaining basil. Scatter the basil strips over the soup. Serve with wedges of lime.