Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Check out this article that Kenji wrote last year - I've used many of the tips he provided, using only a non-stick pan and even an electric range (le gasp!) and things have turned out pretty well. I just need to let the pan heat up sufficiently before I put the steak on.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/03/the-food-lab-more-tips-for-perfect-steaks.html

Also, does anyone remember that longer article from a couple years back about the science of salting steaks? I can't seem to find it, but it mentions something about the salting process being able to turn the cheapest steaks (e.g., chuck steak, etc) into something that doesn't taste cheap. This is the article that was referenced in the SE article, but I can't find the SE article... http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

Enjoy! (and Happy Birthday, by proxy...!)

Aww man, too bad this didn't happen last week. Otherwise I could have done a double celebration at Pie N' Burger in Pasadena while I was there celebrating Cheeseburger Week...

@ Kelly Bone - I was actually wondering if they were vegan, since nothing I saw on the menu indicated whether items were vegan or just vegetarian. I'd imagine that they would have to make everything vegan just to avoid creating confusion amongst vegan customers who may assume that, being a vegetarian restaurant and all, that everything would have been vegan as well.

Contrary to your recommendations yesterday, I tried Veggie Grill for the first time today (not sure if you have them in NY) and had one of their "burgers" (because it looked fascinating from a scientific point of view, and well, why not, right...?). It's not bad if I don't think of it as meat, but I don't think I'd go back for it again in the future. Maybe try something else on their menu...

@ kakugori - I was thinking the same thing!

Does anyone know if the root beer is actually made here or does it just borrow the name? If the former, do they have it on tap?

While I definitely wouldn't say Ms. Deen is a hypocrite like many others in the press have labeled her, I would definitely say announcing her sponsorship deal at the same time she revealed her disease is in very bad taste.

To say Ms. Deen and her counterparts in food media are in any part responsible for a nationwide obesity epidemic is misplaced at best. Do we also blame food writers who recommend expensive restaurants for our nationwide consumer debt epidemic? We never blame Emeril for using lard - to the contrary, we cheer him on! We are overweight as a nation because we eat at McDonald's twice a week. We are overweight as a nation because unhealthy food as a whole costs less than healthy food. These are real the issues we need to address, and neither Ms. Deen nor Mr. Bourdain nor any other food personality have anything to do with it (well, except maybe Jamie Oliver... ;P). Are we next going to blame Deen/Bourdain for boosting lung cancer to the second highest cause of preventable death because they both openly and heavily smoke?

Ms. Deen is entertainment, pure and simple. She tells us how to cook something, but doesn't tell us we have to eat it - we still have to take responsibility for our own actions and choices. Besides, does anyone seriously watch her show believing that a lifetime of eating her style of cooking is healthy? She's noticeably overweight - and I don't mean any disrespect to her or any other overweight person by saying so (I could certainly do to lose several pounds myself) (that having been said, it's not Kenji's fault, or Adam's fault, or Damon's fault I eat too many burgers - I actively seek out their recommendations for where to eat something I had already decided I was going to eat). She's not a bad example - in fact, she's a very true example that if you eat like this, you're going to look like this. If that's not truth in advertising, I don't know what is...!

Guacamole, or just cut in half with a little salt.

Maybe a bit predictable, but does Garth Brook's "Friends in Low Places" count?

Depending on whether you want to brave the SM Promenade, the newly renovated Santa Monica Place has a Rockenwagner on the top floor that's good for sandwiches and pretzel burgers, as well as a fascinating Latin-Asian fusion small plate place called Zengo. And since you're in Venice already, there's always Baby Blues BBQ.

Baby Blues, Venice, CA.

I just got a French press for Christmas (I'm usually more of a tea drinker, but I started getting into coffee relatively recently), so my resolution is to definitely upgrade my cup, then learn how to make an awesome cup of coffee properly, instead of jury-rigging some ghetto filtering method like I used to...

Rye, and an artisan loaf with a good cell structure.