There are three sets of chopsticks and holders, in all, named after actual 17th century samurai. Those who can't wait until May can pre-order here. Don't be fooled: they may call it a toy, but you and I both know that in the right hands it's a tool for righteousness. Or at least for fatty tuna. [Nerd Approved]

Appearances aside, the Food Pod looks like it would be very effective—plus, it's made of flexible silicone, which won't rust up on you like a cheap stainless steel collapsible steamer might. [Fusionbrands and Amazon via RGS]

Hit the link for full instructions. Just be careful with that knife, please. Some of those cuts look like they could get complicated, especially on a Saturday morning. [Mathematically Correct Breakfast via Serious Eats: New York via Didn't You Hear]

Create Your Own Sun Jar: Lifehacker Edition

Inspired by a tutorial we posted last year, we decided to make our own DIY sun jars. The trendy summer time lighting accessory retails for $30+ but we were able to make ours for around $10 each. The sun jars proved to be our most popular non-computer DIY of the entire year and readers shared their own creations with us.

The First-Timer's Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch

Building your own computer is a great way to get exactly what you want, the way you want it, without being constrained by the limits and high-prices of mass produced computers. We showed you how to build a computer from start to finish and have fun doing it.

Turn a Sharpie into a Liquid Fueled Rocket

What's standing between you and some office mayhem? Certainly not a lack of Sharpie markers and keyboard dusting spray. Combine the two with this fun DIY project and you've got one of the most awesome pieces of office-machinery we've ever featured.

Properly Erase Your Physical Media

You need to be properly erasing your physical media: all the time, every time. Our guide will show you how to get the job done and done right whether you use software to scrub your disks or you send them to the great data mine in the sky with a 21-gun salute.

Turn an Old Laptop into a Wall-Mounted Computer

Why settle for a digital picture frame when, in the same wall space, you could mount an entirely functional computer/slideshow player/TV tuner? One Lifehacker reader turned an old laptop into a super-charged digital frame.

$8 DIY Aluminum Laptop Stand

We've always been keen on DIY laptop stands, but reader Aaron Kravitz—inspired by an attractive $50 stand—went above and beyond, creating one of the most attractive DIY laptop stands we've featured to date.

Build an IKEA NAS On the Cheap

If the Hive Five on best home server software got you excited about setting up a home server but you're not keen on another unsightly PC in your home, check out this DIY IKEA NAS.

Build a DIY Portable Air Conditioner

We've shown you how to make an air conditioner (even for as low as $30), but what if you wanted something you can put in your car and take with you? While it's no substitute for a fully-charged and factory-fresh AC system, it'll keep you cool.

Turn a Bookshelf into a Secret Passage

Who hasn't dreamed of having a mystery-story-style secret passageway? While a trick bookshelf is pretty awesome in itself, this secret passage hides a home office with clever style. One industrious Lifehacker reader and his girlfriend had grown tired of seeing their office from their living space, so they hid it behind a wall of books.

Wire Your House with Ethernet Cable

You've ripped a movie on your laptop, and now want it on that fancy new home theater PC next to your TV. If you've got the time, wiring your house with Cat-5e cable could make transfer times a distant memory.

Rain Gutters as Cable Management Tools

We're all about creative cable management here at Lifehacker, so we were instantly drawn to reader Seandavid010's rain-gutter cable management setup. He was awesome enough to send detailed photos and step by step instructions to help other readers recreate his setup.

Build Your Own DTV Antenna

The lights went out on analog television this year and we were there with a guide to help you build a great DIY antenna for boosting your reception and getting that crisp digital picture you crave.

DIY Laptop Rack Hack Turns Your Monitor into an iMac

Lifehacker reader Matt Lumpkin saw our monitor stand from door stoppers post and thought we might like his laptop rack hack as another space-saving desktop solution for laptop-lovers. He was right.

Build Your Own Pizza Oven

Suppose you were inspired by the cheap DIY home pizza oven—but weren't so sure your home insurance would cover oven modifications. It's time to build a safer, more eye-pleasing oven, and we've got a thorough guide.

Crack a Master Combination Padlock Redux

Two years ago we highlighted how to crack a Master combination padlock for those of you who may have lost the combination to your bulletproof lock; now designer Mark Campos has turned the tried-and-true instructions into an easier-to-follow visual guide.

DIY Invisible Floating Bookshelves

We've covered the invisible floating bookshelf once or twice before, but if you liked the idea but weren't keen on ruining a book in the process, weblog May December Home's got you covered.

DIY Inverted Bookshelf

Instead of storing your books upright on top of the shelf, the inverted bookshelf holds all of your books in place using elastic webbing so you can hang them below the shelf—all the while allowing you to still take them out and put them back on as needed.

Build an Under-the-Cabinet Kitchen PC from an Old Laptop

Inspired by our guide to giving an old laptop new life with cheap or free projects, Lifehacker reader Brian turned his aging Dell laptop into an incredible under-the-cabinet kitchen PC.

Turn Storage Containers into Self Watering Tomato Planters

If you'd like to have delicious home-grown tomatoes but lack a garden to grow them in, you'll definitely want to check out this ingenious and inexpensive self-watering system.

Deter Thieves by Uglifying Your Camera

A few years ago, blogger Jimmie Rodgers's camera was stolen while volunteering in an impoverished Brazilian community, so he did what any sane person would do: He bought a new camera and made it ugly. With his uglified camera, Rodgers was able to snap pictures freely during the rest of his trip without worrying too much that his ostensibly crappy camera would end up stolen.

DIY TV or Monitor Stand from Door Stoppers

Nothing adds space to a desk or home theater setup like a simple monitor or TV stand, and weblog IKEA Hacker details how to build your own stand on-the-cheap with a few inexpensive items from IKEA.

Repurpose Your Analog Television

You don't need to run out and buy a new TV because of the DTV switchover. If you did anyways, Make Magazine has put together quite a guide to giving old TVs new life.

Use Ping-Pong Balls to Create Diffused Party Lights

If you need some cheap and novel ambient lighting for your next party, you're only a box of ping-pong balls and a string of lights away from solving your lighting worries.

Build a Custom-Made BoxeeBox

DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum, inspired by the cheaper set-top boxes, made his own higher-powered "BoxeeBox" for the free, open-source media center. He posted all the parts, the how-to details, and lots of pictures.

Build a Sturdy Cardboard Laptop Stand

You already shelled out your hard earned cash for a swanky laptop, why drop more cash on an overpriced laptop stand? Cardboard alone can do the trick, as detailed in this step-by-step tutorial.

Install Snow Leopard on Your Hackintosh PC, No Hacking Required

Earlier this year we put together a wildly popular guide to building a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, start to finish, and then followed it up with an even easier guide to install Snow Leopard on your Hackintosh PC, no hacking required. Computers + DIY is all sorts of geeky fun waiting to happen.

Have a favorite DIY from 2009 that wasn't highlighted here? Sound off in the comments with a link to your favorite project. Want to see more popular DIY guides courtesy of the ghost of Lifehacker past? Check out our huge DIY guide roundup from 2008.

Oh yes. [Twitter]

In the middle of a relentlessly gray winter, can you imagine anything more wonderful? I cannot.

For those of you who prefer the temptations of caffeine, the $99 Bialetti Hot Chocolate Maker also makes teas and cappuccino, puddings and "cold milk beverages." But today isn't a cold milk day, is it? [Williams Sonoma via Unplggd]

Michael Ruhlman, cookbook author demigod and Gizmodo Food Week contributor, is bringing his excellent book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking to the App Store. Ratio takes sometimes-threatening elements of cooking like doughs, cakes, sauces, sausages, stocks and batters and breaks them down into more versatile ratios (bread is five parts flour to three parts water, for example). The app looks really great, actually: It has all 32 of the "critical ratios" in cooking, plus a calculator (to figure out exactly how much of everything you need), recipe ideas for each ratio, and ways to both store and share recipes (via Facebook and Twitter).

The app should be coming out soon, for an undisclosed price. My guess is that it probably won't be free—it's a licensed product and also available as a book—but I personally am really excited about it. Baking's always been a weak point of mine and if I can learn to bake and cover my iPod Touch in floury fingerprints at the same time, I'll give it a try. [Ruhlman]

What they made this time is what they're calling "soggy pork," which is fake pig muscle that's pretty gross because it's never been exercised. But once they figure out how to tone it up in the lab, you'll be looking at guilt-free pork chops.

And it's amazing news, really. Not only will vegetarians get to enjoy the deliciousness that is meat without guilt, but it'll do wonders for the environment. Do you realize how horrible the beef industry is for ol' Mother Nature? Very, very horrible. If we could replace all those factory farmed animals with slabs of meat rolling off an assembly line, we'd be doing the planet and animals a whole lot of good.

That is, provided it tastes good. If it doesn't, no one will eat it, and this will all be for naught. So make sure it's succulent, scientists! [Telegraph via Boing Boing]

You simply push a button on the bottle and wait 60 seconds. The milk will be heated to the perfect, baby-friendly temperature.

But unlike, say, those self-heating mocha lattes you can buy at the store, the heating element can be "recharged" by tossing it in boiling water. The liquid inside becomes solid, and the chemical reaction renews for next time. (This works about 100 times before you need another heating pack.)

The Yoomi is on sale in the UK now for $35, though I expect we'll see it reach more retailers over time. And before I get any strange looks from relatives who are reading this post, no, Liz isn't pregnant. I just think the bottle is neat. [MailOnline]

BTW, if you hate the gallery format as much as the Grinch hated Christmas, click here.

Portable Induction Cooktop: I always assumed getting into induction cooking meant gutting your kitchen and calling in some expensive Euro gear. But the truth is, getting a plug-in induction burner is an easy, affordable way to get into a cooking science that's already taken off in other parts of the world. Wired's Mark McClusky told us that Max Burton was a good 'un, and you know, I'm actually pretty tempted to buy one for myself. Just make sure your gift recipient has steel pots and pans, cuz aluminum doesn't do the magical magnetic thing. $75 [Company Page; Amazon]

All-Edge Brownie Pan: For anyone who loves the crunchy-chewy edge of the brownies that touch the pan's outer wall, this is absolutely the gift. However, as we learned, there are legions who feel the exact opposite, that edges should be soft and knife-cut only. For them, this gift would be a hand-holdable version of hell itself. $35 [ThinkGeek]

Stick Blender: Good lord what would I do without my stick blender? Soups sure wouldn't be the same, nor jams, nor sauces. It saves you from having to transfer hot ingredients to and from your blender, where you risk 12 different kinds of third-degree burn. Of course, it takes a steady hand, and someone smart enough to not stick their finger where the spinning blade is, so choose your gift recipient wisely. I found out while researching this that my own 400-watt Braun may well be discontinued, and if it's not, it costs an arm and a leg. (I think it was a wedding present.) In lieu of that, go with the Cuisinart CSB-76 Smart Stick. It's both cheap and highly rated, at least by Amazon customers—a much better gift. $30 [Amazon]

A Window Fan, Air Filters and Bungie Cords: What better experience to offer your favorite food nerd than a DIY home dehydrator, the most foolproof Alton Brown hack we know of? Throw some meat in between the filters, run the fan overnight, and in the morning you got jerky. And we know for certain it's foolproof because our own Macgyver Chef tried it out and didn't die! Our only recommendation is to find out what your recipient already has—if they have it all, just buy the meat and point them to the guide. $30 to $40 [Alton Brown's Recipe; Our MacGyver Chef Experience]

My Weigh KD-7000 Digital Scale: Don't let the corny Frank Sinatra reference fool you, this scale is what pros favor (at least for their home cooking). The My Weigh line is a tad confusing, but our friend Michael Ruhlman says the KD-7000 is the one with "percentage" weighing, so you can bake in precise weight ratios rather than imprecise volume measurements. Best of all, for what it does, it's really not expensive. $38 [My Weigh; Amazon]

Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown: The commander-in-chief of food nerds just published a cookbook that mirrors his show, so you can skim to find the tips and recipes in episodes like "Squid Pro Quo" and "American Pickle." It's way better than trying to recreate things by looking at the Brown's barebones Food Network recipe listings. The book covers the first 80 shows, so it's got a crazy variety of themes to get the apprentice kitchen whiz on your list started. $22 [Book Review; Amazon]

PolyScience Immersion Circulator plus a Vacuum Sealer for Sous Vide Cooking When I asked Alinea co-owner Nick Kokonas what a great long-shot fantasy kitchen gift would be, he said, without hesitating, a sous vide setup. This style of "cooking in a vacuum" relies on a precision water bath to get your meat or other ingredients to exactly the right temperature, with zero risk of overcooking. The setup is insanely expensive, and if you don't know what you're doing, you could risk sharing some food-borne illnesses. But what does all that amount to against the spirit of holiday gift giving? $1000 and Up [ Circulator Kit with Thomas Keller's Guide; Vacuum Sealer]

DON'T BUY a Knife Sharpener: Confession: Two years ago for Christmas I gave my in-laws a knife sharpener, and that same year I got one from my wife. We thought we were the coolest. But now we know the truth, in the form of dull knives. When I interviewed Alton Brown this summer and asked him if he'd ever use one, he replied, "If I had any knives I hated that bad, sure." This year, I have asked my wife for professional knife sharpening. I'll let you know how that turns out. [Good and Bad Kitchen Gadgets]

This list is by no means comprehensive, so go ahead and comment on any potential kitchen-oriented gift that strikes you as a good idea. Better still if you included a pic and price.

All Giz Wants is our annual round-up of favorite gift ideas, including amazing attainable objects and a few far-out fantasies. We'll be popping guides catered to different interests several times per day for the next week, so keep checking back.

If you have nothing better to do, it looks like you could easily imitate this project at home. Just keep in mind that chicken and fish apparently don't "present an easily-readable image" on the screen. [Eat Me Daily via Kottke]