Stuff Geeks Want

Kitchen connoisseurs are often skeptical of new fangled contraptions. But when it comes to grilling stuffed chile peppers those in the know will tell you it’s not easy to get ‘em to come out perfect every time.

In comes the Chile Grill. It’s a 12-inch by six-inch, stainless steel grill that holds 12 jalapeno peppers.

Core ‘em, stuff ‘em and them bake ‘em based on your recipe and they come out evenly baked and not burned on one side. The grill holds the peppers nicely and conveniently. There is no slipping, no mess, no attempting to balance the peppers on the stick. The grill is durable and washes easily.

And if Martha Stewart-like presentation is important to you, you can’t go wrong pulling this grill out of the oven and taking it right to the table.

Buy for $25 from Amazon

So you’re throwing this party and you’d rather not have a slow cooker on the table full of spinach dip (certainly not).

The answer is a heated dip and chip tray. Easily thought of, but hard to find. But eureka, we found one! It’s the Kitchen Selectives ECD-88 Electric Heated Chip and Dip Tray made buy Select Brands, Inc.

It’s got four sides to throw in chips and such with a heated center section that’s removable to clean and will automatically shut off when it’s removed. It’s AC powered so it’ll keep warm till dawn.

Buy for $40 from Amazon

Aunt Jemima would have been proud. It’s the “first automatic pancake machine intropduced into the U.S.”, or so says Seattle, Washington-based ChefStack. It’s the ChefStack automatic pancake machine and while it’s mainly for restaurants and commercial operations, a company spokesman told us by phone today, “we’ll starting selling to the public later this year.”

The microwave-sized unit uses pre-made batter that comes in pouches and cranks out four-inch diameter pancakes in about 30 seconds that are 97 percent fat-free.

The company says it’s perfect timing to introduce this $3,500 pancake shooter the America. They claim pancakes are a “comfort food” that has “experienced a resurgence over the last twelve months as a result of the economic downturn.” I’m not seeing people eating pancakes in the car like a Quarter-Pounder, but we’ll let that slide.

Buy for $3500 from ChefStack

Alright, fatties, this Thanksgiving let’s give thanks to chocolate.

How are we going to do that?

By buying a lot of it!

But let’s not be gluttons, let’s be smart about this. Fortunately, Amazon is going to make this really easy.

We like Toblerone, and so should you. It’s fun to say and one of the few chocolates that comes in the shape of a triangle. Oh, and it tastes delicious.

Amazon is currently selling 12-packs of the 3.52 ounce Toblerone bars for just $18.76 (retail: $27). Pick from Dark Chocolate with Honey and Almond Nougat, White Chocolate, or Swiss Milk Chocolate with Honey and Almond Nougat.

Keep in mind these are the bigger bars of Toblerone, not the size that you see at the checkout counter at CVS.

Put 4 of these 12-packs in your shopping cart (you can mix and match flavors), then use promotion code Q4DEAL25 to take $25 off the total order.

What you’re left with is 10.5 pounds of delicious Swiss chocolate for $50.04. Which is pretty ridiculous, but a damn good deal (and don’t forget, dark chocolate is actually good for you!).

Fastest. Biggest. Coolest. Sleekest. Geeks like adjectives that end with -est.

So let’s throw “hottest” into the mix and point you to The Source Hot Sauce because, we assure you, nothing even comes close.

If the near-$100 price tag for a 1 oz. bottle doesn’t have you convinced, allow us to refer you to the scoville rating: 7,100,00.

That’s right, Dr. Evil, seven-point-one million.

For comparison’s sake, the world’s hottest chilli pepper is the Naga Jolokia pepper (commonly called the Ghost Pepper). A friend who enjoys tasting the ghost explained that experience like this: “the first time I chopped one up it was like someone set off pepper spray in the kitchen.”

And the Ghost carries a scoville rating of just around 1 million.

Pick up The Source—if you dare—for $87.69 from Hot Sauce World and add your experience to some of these reviews:

“This stuff almost sent my brother to the emergency room!”
“It’s like someone shot me in the face. It’s an incredible experience.”
“I like hot stuff but this thing was a killer. I put a tiny dab of it on a toothpick and was sick the rest of the day.”

Or, if you want something you can actually consume undilluted, check out the Mad Dog 357 Silver Collector’s Edition, which packs 750,000 scoville units (a jalapeno measures about 7,000, by the way) and will only set you back $15.89.

This article over at Wired.com about how to do bar tricks reminded me that every Geek needs a little alcohol every once and a while.

And what better alcohol than wine (especially considering one of the tricks in the article above mentions getting a wine cork out of a bottle). I love a good glass of cabernet savignon or even merlot from time to time. And there’s nothing like coding while drinking. Heh…

One of the best places on the web to get wine is PersonalWine.com. Why you might ask? I shall answer:

a) They’re based out of Austin, Texas.
b) I know the owner, and he’s one cool dude.
c) They sell pretty much any wine you want, with your own personal label on it!

So, not only could you order a great bottle of wine from them, but for not much more money, you can get it personalized with your own wording and images. Your own personal wine is probably the coolest gift you can buy anyone… even for a Geek… And if you are the one that’s the Geek, you can’t go wrong ordering your own wine for someone else. PersonalWine.com.