Guides for watching TV series

There are many great TV series out there, but some of them take a while to become watchable (“Star Trek: The Next Generation” comes to mind) or have some awful episodes in them. Thankfully, there are people out there who are willing to protect the general public. For example, “How to get into 20 classic science fiction shows” helps with

1. Star Trek: The Original Series


2. Star Trek: The Next Generation


3. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine


4. Star Trek: Voyager


5. Star Trek: Enterprise


6. Doctor Who


7. Torchwood


8. Red Dwarf


9. The Prisoner


10. The Twilight Zone


11. Mystery Science Theater 3000


12. The X-Files


13. Buffy the Vampire Slayer


14. Angel


15. Dollhouse


16. Babylon 5


17. Highlander: The Series


18. Battlestar Galactica


19. Lost


20. The Stargate Franchise

Now, I’d really appreciate it if someone did the same for “Fringe” which has some weak episodes, but also some great ones (and more great ones the more it progresses).



Update 2011-04-17:

• 20 Can’t-Miss Episodes Of Star Trek [TOS]

Simple cooking: chunky scrambled eggs

If you want something simple to cook, you can try this way of preparing scrambled eggs:

• Per person, use 2-4 eggs


• Put all the egg content in a bowl, use a fork to rupture the yolks. Don’t do much more. Not mixing the yolk and the egg white prior to moving the eggs into the pan gives the final result its chunky consistency and makes sure that you don’t destroy the protein.


• Heat the pan at medium heat.
  
  


• Melt butter in the pan (you can also use oil or margarine). The butter is for both limiting how much the egg sticks to the pan and for adding flavor, so you can adjust the amount according to your taste.
  
  


• Put the eggs into the pan. Stir by constantly removing the more solid bottom layer to make way for the softer top layer. Don’t let the eggs become too hard, you want a softer consistency than sunny-side up. Feel free to experiment with any hardness between soft-boiled and sunny-side up.
  
  


• Only salt afterward, to preserve the eggs.
  
  

Cooking thermometers

Following an idea of my brother’s, I’ve used a cooking thermometer today for the first time and it’s great. This is how it works: If you have a big chunk of meat to cook (in the oven, in a pressure cooker, etc.), it is usually difficult to guess when the meat is really done. With a cooking thermometer it is easy: Stick it into the hot meat, measure the temperature at the core and look up in a table how hot the core is when the meat is finished. Digital cooking thermometers can be used for multiple purposes: To measure the temperature of liquids, meat, etc. In contrast to digital thermometers, analog thermometers are left with the meat while it is being heated (useful, because you don’t have to open the container around the meat—if it is transparent). But they cannot measure much else, because it takes them time to pick up the temperature and they are not very sensitive.