The summer officially starts in the United States on June 20th, and that typically means barbecue. However, if you’ve never barbecued before or you’re looking for new inspiration, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of recipes you can find online!

We’re here to help you out. Whether you’re looking for salty or sweet, sides, or main dishes, we have all the necessities listed below.

Read on for our top five smoker recipes for you to try out this summer!

1. Sweet Smoked Pork Ribs 

The summer isn’t complete without some smoked pork ribs, and if you’re a fan of a little sweet with your salty, then this is the recipe for you.

The sweetness of these ribs comes from the brown sugar and white sugar that the recipe calls for. There’s also the surprising element of tanginess that the apple juice ends.

This is balanced out with onion, garlic, and chili powder, followed by some ground paprika and cumin. The rub balances out all of that sweetness and creates an extra layer of suprising flavor.

This recipe receives 4.5 stars out of 138 ratings. Users stated that the aroma and look of the ribs are just as good as the taste, and the rub can even be used with chicken or fish.

2. Smoked Mac and Cheese

No barbeque is really complete without great sides, and mac and cheese will always take the top spot as the ultimate comfort food. Cutsandcrumbles.com posted a great foundational recipe because you can add as many different toppings as you want.

The trick is to create a smooth roux, or a mixture of flour and butter, before you add cheese to the saucepan. They recommend a full 24 ounces of grated cheese for the cheesiest, creamiest result. In the recipe, they used 12 ounces of Colby Jack and 12 ounces of Sharp Cheddar, but it all depends on you.

Once the elbow macaroni and cheese has been prepped, they recommend adding them to an aluminum tray and cooking on indirect heat at 225 degrees Fahrenheit for about two hours.

Here are a few toppings ideas once your mac and cheese are all cooked:

• Hot sauce
• Grilled chicken
• Green onions
• Bread crumbs
• Crumbled bacon
• Lobster

3. Smoked Salmon

If you’re a pescatarian or you simply want a change of pace from the usual chicken, pork, and beef dishes, then this recipe from Honest-food.net is for you. It has a delicious sweet and savory flavor profile due to the addition of birch or maple syrup to baste your salmon.

It’s important that you plan ahead for four to eight hours to brine your salmon, but don’t exceed 48 hours or your fish will taste too salty. Once it’s out of the brine, you’ll want to dry your fish in a cool, breezy place for up to two hours. Next, you’ll use oil to peel off the skin.

Once you start cooking the fish, you’ll want it in the smoker for about an hour at 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. If the heat is too high, your fish will dry out.

We like this recipe because it shares the foundational knowledge you need in order to properly smoke a fish. Users that had never smoked a fish before were happily surprised by how well their fish turned out after following the recipe.

4. Smoked Veggies

Smoked vegetables may not be as exciting as your main meat dish, but they make a healthier barbecue while also adding a burst of variety that makes your barbeque taste all the better. We liked this recipe from Gimmesomegrilling.com because of how easy it is to prepare the ingredients.

Prep and toss all your veggies in a bowl, then add some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, garlic, sea salt, and black pepper. Then, it’s as simple as tossing your veggies in a grilling basket and keeping them on the smoker for about 30 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here are some veggies you can use:

• Red onion
• Red pepper
• Zucchini
• Yellow squash
• Eggplant
• Carrots
• Mushrooms
• Brussels sprouts

5. Semi-Smoked Apple Crumble Crisp

A barbeque without a little dessert just isn’t complete, and this smoked apple crumble will go well with a big scoop of cold ice cream on a warm summer day. This recipe of perfect for people who own a grill but not a smoker but still want that slight smokey flavor. If you’re looking to invest in a smoker, you can use a Masterbuilt electric smoker.

It’s recommended to use a cast iron pan for this and to place it over indirect heat. They recommend cast iron since it can hold up to extremely high heat, which is necessary on a grill or smoker where you don’t have complete control over the temperature.

If you notice the fire going down, add more wood chips. However, you should always have a grill thermometer on hand so you can keep track.

Keep the dish covered for the first fifteen minutes, then uncover it and finish it up. The topping contains delicious oatmeal and brown sugar, while the filling has apples, orange zest, lemon zest, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

The addition of citrus ingredients adds a nice acidic balance to all the sweetness.

Smoker Recipes: The Key is Variety

You may have noticed that these smoker recipes all have variety. Having a great barbeque is more than just cooking the best meat dish and calling it a day; they also come with great sides and desserts.

No matter if you have a grill or a smoker, these recipes are also flexible enough to adapt to the tools you have on hand. Want more barbeque tips for this summer? Keep reading our blog for more tips and tricks!

What’s Gun Fu and How is it Impacting the Action Genre?

What’s Gun Fu and How is it Impacting the Action Genre?

Modern American culture has been affected in so many ways by Kung Fu, and nothing has been more influenced than American cinema.

The action genre is more alive than ever thanks to innovative directors like John Woo and their innovative visions to create more fantastical fight scenes on screen. It has even led to the creation of a term called “Gun Fu”.

But what is Gun Fu, and how is this new term affecting the action genre and our modern American silver screen?

If you want to know how blockbusters like John Wick get to be so great, here’s your chance to find out.

The Term: Gun Fu

Everyone these days knows the terms of martial arts and especially Kung Fu, a coined term made famous by Hong Kong and Chinese action movie stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and so many others over the latter half of the 20th century.

But Gun Fu, also known as Gun Kata, is now widely recognized as well. Gun Fu is a portmanteau word that fuses the term Kung Fu with Gun. But it has a meaning that is a bit deeper than just the term

The Meaning

Where Kung Fu focuses on the techniques and mostly unarmed combat of individuals using Chinese martial arts, Gun Fu mixes the elements of graceful, ballet-like martial arts combat with the blood and brutality of firearms.

It is intentionally choreographed to look almost superhuman. So there isn’t much difference in realism of Gun Fu between movies like John Wick or The Matrix.

The Impact

You can find Gun Fu and its influences all over the entertainment industry these days. Since its introduction as the “Heroic Bloodshed” genre by directors like Ringo Lam and John Woo, it hasn’t been uncommon to see our action stars running around dual-wielding an STI Staccato R, kicking ass and taking names.

Many that pioneered this genre in Hong Kong were also attached to the American movies that made the Gun Fu genre famous.

Some came on as choreographers, such as the acclaimed Yuen Woo-Ping who was the mastermind behind many of the Gun Fu hits that we know and love today.

The Future

With Gun Fu firmly planted in the entertainment industry, it is only reaching astronomical heights. John Wick and all its Gun Fu, gory splendor went from being a standalone film to an entire franchise with a cult following.

You even see glimpses of Gun Fu in the superhero genre. Characters such as the Winter Soldier and Deadpool could not exist on the big screen, nor could movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine or the Underworld series have been possible without Gun Fu.

“Yeah, I’m Thinking I’m Back”

Action movies have always been interesting, but Gun Fu has made watching American action movies fun again. It may be unrealistic, it may be bloody, but there is a certain appreciation to be had when watching them.

We know you’ll probably never see this in real life. But who cares? Watching Gun Fu movies allow you to appreciate how far cinema has come and how far it’s willing to go. And you can only imagine where it’ll be headed next.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show because Gun Fu is here to stay. Go ahead and get in on the action!

Did you know that you can make a battery out of a potato? Maybe it’s not the longest-lasting battery, but at least you get a cool experiment!

However, if you’re looking for the longest-lasting battery brand, you’ve come to the right place. There are tons of options out there when it comes to picking batteries, so why not pick the best option possible?

Lots of factors contribute to the longevity of a battery; lithium batteries usually perform better than alkaline batteries but cost more money, and batteries differ in AA and AAA. On this list, most of the batteries are alkaline and all of them are AA in order to provide a general idea of battery performance that you’ll use most in everyday life.

So without further ado, here is the ultimate countdown when it comes to which battery brands last the longest.

1. Sunbeam

Sometimes you’re in a bind and just need to buy good batteries for sale. Maybe that means going to the dollar store or doing some online searching.

If it’s the former, one of the dollar store brands that lasts a long time is Sunbeam. Sunbeam batteries usually come in a pack of four and, if you’re at your local Dollar Tree, only will cost you a buck.

The Sunbeam battery brand when tested lasted four hours and thirty minutes. That’s a pretty solid battery life considering other dollar store brands can end up lasting only around two hours!

2. Walgreens’ Brand

Next up on the list is the Walgreens brand of battery. We’re moving from the dollar store to your local drug stores, which surprisingly provide batteries that last a pretty long time!

Walgreens brand of batteries lasted four hours and thirty-nine minutes, which is only nine minutes more than the Sunbeam brand from the dollar store. What’s interesting is the price difference, where the Sunbeams cost $1.00 for a pack of four compared to the $3.99 pack of four that Walgreens offers.

So technically the Walgreens batteries do last longer, but they cost three times more than the Sunbeams for only nine minutes more of use. Is it worth it? That’s up to you!

3. CVS’s Brand

Lasting thirty minutes longer than Walgreens is the next drugstore brand of batteries: CVS. CVS batteries lasted around five hours and nine minutes when tested, which is a pretty notable difference.

However, another notable difference is the price point for four of these batteries. A pack of four batteries at CVS for the CVS brand is $4.39, meaning each battery would cost over a dollar.

Again, you need to ask the question, is that price worth the thirty extra minutes of use? Maybe!

It all comes down to what you prefer. At the end of the day though, this battery does last longer than both the Walgreens brand and the Sunbeam batteries from the dollar store.

4. Energizers

The next longest battery may come as a surprise to you depending on your expectations for big name brands. The Energizer brand’s battery lasted five hours and eleven minutes when tested.

That’s only two minutes longer than CVS’s brand of batteries! Over five hours is a pretty long time, but only two minutes longer than a drugstore brand is a pretty interesting result from a big brand like Energizer.

However, a pack of four Energizer batteries at somewhere like Walmart is only $3.77 compared to the price of CVS’ batteries.

5. Rite Aid’s Brand

The final drugstore brand of batteries is the Rite Aid brand. These batteries last around five hours and twenty-seven minutes, almost twenty minutes more than the Energizer batteries.

By now we’ve learned not to underestimate the power in longevity that drugstore brand batteries carry! However, like CVS, the cost of four AA batteries is pretty steep: $4.49.

Ten cents more than the previous most expensive battery on the list, Rite Aid takes the lead with both the cost of the battery as well as how long the battery lasts.

6. Costco’s Kirklands

Our penultimate battery is the Costco Kirkland brand. These batteries lasted a whopping five hours and fifty-one minutes, just nine minutes short of six hours!

And because Costco sells everything in bulk, these batteries give you a great bang for your buck selling in packs of 48 for around $12.79. It seems like a big investment for batteries, but the cost per battery in this pack is actually under thirty cents, making them one of the cheaper batteries on this countdown.

Granted, you do need a Costco membership to shop at Costco, so there is that limitation with this option. But otherwise, these batteries really come out of the shadows on this list.

7. Duracells

Finally, the longest lasting battery comes in the Duracell brand. These are name-brand batteries that seemingly prove their power, being the longest lasting batteries on this list, but the time may surprise you.

In fact, the Duracell brand lasted five hours and fifty-six minutes, which is only five minutes longer than Costco’s Kirklands. They cost about the same as the Energizers too, making them more expensive in a pack of four for five more minutes.

Of course, if you don’t have a membership at Costco, these last about thirty minutes more than the Rite Aids at a cheaper price point!

Everlasting Energizer Bunny With The Longest Lasting Battery

Whether you’ve given up on your potato clock or are just looking to replace the batteries in your kids’ toys, now you know what you should be picking! This ultimate countdown shows you the longest lasting AA battery for all of your everyday needs.

Don’t forget that there’s other work to do when it comes to battery purchase. Remember to think about what you prioritize in batteries, like cost per pair for your budget, accessibility, storage care, and if having lithium or alkaline is more important to you.

So what are you waiting for? Get to using your appliances again with the best batteries in your hands.

If you enjoyed reading this post, why not check out some of our others? And don’t forget to come back for new content!

CBD for Healing: 10 Surprising Health Benefits of CBD Oil

The use of CBD oil and other CBD products is becoming more and more popular in the United States. In fact, one in seven American adults use CBD products regularly.

Unlike their cannabis cousins, CBD oil products are used less for their recreational properties. Instead, most people use CBD for healing a huge number of ailments.

Want to know how CBD oil could help you? Then you’ve come to the right place! Read on to find out ten amazing health benefits of CBD oil.

1. CBD Reduces Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety and depression affect about 40 million adults in the US. These can be extremely debilitating and even life-threatening.

Fortunately, there are lots of treatment options for people suffering from these conditions and CBD oil can help!

Taking CBD oil can reduce symptoms of anxiety or depression. This can provide the room you need to engage with other forms of treatment, such as therapy. Or it may just be enough to keep you going through a mental health crisis.

2. CBD Oil Fights Chronic Pain

There are lots of different types of chronic pain, including arthritis and neuropathic pain. These can massively reduce your quality of life and have an adverse effect on your mental health.

One of the best CBD health benefits is the oil’s anti-inflammatory qualities. Because of these, CBD oil can help to reduce certain kinds of chronic pain. To be most effective, you should take it regularly.

3. It May Prevent Diabetes

Studies into how CBD oil can help prevent diabetes are on-going. However, the most recent research suggests it could help lower the likelihood of developing diabetes by 56%!

This may be possible as CBD can help prevent insulitis. This is a condition that damages and destroys pancreatic beta cells. Insulitis contributes to the development of Type I diabetes, so fighting it could lower your chances of developing this condition.

On top of this, CBD oil can also help to reduce the side effects of diabetes, such as memory difficulties or neuroinflammation, if it does develop.

4. CBD Support Drug Addiction Recovery

Long-term drug use creates addiction because it affects your neurological circuits. This causes you to feel dependent on whichever drug you have been using. The stronger the drug and the longer the use, the harder these circuits will be to break.

However, CBD can help by restoring your neurological circuits to their natural settings. This won’t cure you of your addiction immediately but it can reduce the strength of your cravings. This means that CBD oil benefits can make the road to recovery a lot easier.

5. Taking CBD Oil Prevents Acne

Taking CBD oil reduces the production of sebum, which is a natural oil in your skin. When too much sebum is produced can block the pores in your skin, causing acne.

By keeping your sebum levels low, CBD oil helps to prevent acne. It will also help eliminate any acne that you already have.

6. It Reduces Symptoms of Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological condition that affects people as they age. One of the biggest causes of it is neuroinflammation.

However, CBD oil helps to shield your neurons from elements that would destroy them and cause neuroinflammation. Taking it over a long period of time lowers your likelihood of developing this disease.

If you do develop Alzheimer’s then CBD can help to reduce the symptoms you experience and slow the spread of the disease.

7. CBD Oil Reduces Symptoms of Cancer and Chemotherapy

Anyone going through cancer will tell you that it really takes its toll on you both physically and mentally. Whether the illness itself is leaving you feeling sick or the chemotherapy has got you beat, CBD oil can help to relieve your symptoms.

This includes reducing your neuropathic pain and feelings of nausea. Taking CBD oil can also increase your appetite, which often suffers during chemotherapy. This is great as it means you’ll be able to eat more and keep your strength up, which is vital for your recovery.

8. It Can Manage Your Allergies

Allergies of any kind can be a huge pain to live with, especially as they are chronic. This means your best bet is managing your symptoms to improve your quality of life.

CBD oil has immunosuppressant qualities that mean it can really help some of the irritating symptoms of allergies. Taking it regularly can reduce skin irritations caused by allergies, such as rashing or redness.

On top of this, it can help manage other conditions affected by allergies. These include asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

If this sounds like something you could benefit from and you want more information, view more here!

9. CBD Lowers Blood Pressure

Managing your blood pressure is vital if you want to prevent serious cardiovascular diseases. These include suffering from a stroke or a heart attack.

Taking daily doses of CBD oil can help to lower and maintain your blood pressure. In doing so, your cardiovascular and long-term health will massively improve.

10. Taking CBD Oil Helps Insomnia

Suffering from insomnia and other sleep disturbances can be a huge pain. These can affect your social life, your work life, and your personal relationships. If you go without quality sleep for too long then this can also have a huge impact on the rest of your physical and mental health.

There are two health benefits of CBD oil for your sleep.

It can reduce your feelings of anxiety, which often cause sleep disturbances. On top of this, CBD works with the serotonin receptors in your brain to improve the quality of your sleep as well.

This allows your body to get back into its natural sleep rhythms so that you can get the rest you need.

Start Using CBD for Healing Today!

As you can see, there are loads of ways to use CBD for healing that can benefit you. Whatever your condition, a regular dose of CBD oil could help!

For more amazing tips on using CBD in your life, keep scrolling.

Telling your partner about your kink (or kinks) can be a daunting experience, to put it lightly. Maybe you’ve started to develop a new fetish that you want to explore, or you have a longstanding fantasy that you’ve never felt comfortable asking someone to explore with you. Either way, having that first conversation about it can be terrifying.

Even in the most open relationships, it’s normal to be a little shy about certain quirks we have. However, kinks are often deep-rooted in our sexual needs, and not taking the time to discuss them can leave us feeling dissatisfied in the long-term.

If you find yourself struggling to breach the topic with your significant other, try these tips to help break the ice. You never know; you might find out that you have even more in common than you thought!

1. Explain to Them That You’re Sharing From a Place of Trust

A common strategy that people might use to crack jokes about a fetish, either to ease tension or to gauge their partner’s reaction. While the idea of using humor as a disarming tactic is understandable, it might not be the best move.

For one, this is a conversation that rewards an upfront and honest approach. Leading with jokes obfuscates your intentions, which isn’t productive. Plus if they end up having the same fetish or even would just be open to it, you’re unknowingly shaming them and putting them on the defensive.

Instead, just be honest and upfront about the conversation, and explain to them you are having this conversation because they make you feel comfortable and safe enough to share it with them.

2. If You Are Nervous About Being Judged, Let Them Know

Having anxiety or fear about the conversation is normal, and it is important to communicate that if that’s what you’re experiencing. After all, why even have this chat if you’re doing it from the position of a tough guy who doesn’t care about their opinion?

This is a much better disarming tactic than using humor. As opposed to encouraging them to take the matter lightly and crack jokes about it, a considerate partner will understand the vulnerability that you’re feeling and make an attempt to be more open and understanding. Hopefully, they’ll likewise understand that hasty judgments will only hurt your feelings and not accomplish anything.

3. Use Context to Help Break the Ice

If you’ve had a particular fantasy for a long time, explaining your relationship to it can help them to understand your position. This way, even if they have a negative view of what you’re proposing they’ll be less likely to lump you in with their negative impression of people with the kink.

If it’s a new fetish without much grounding in your personal experience, media and pop culture can be a helpful means of contextualizing what you’re talking about. There have been plenty of movies exploring a variety of kinks, odds are good that you’ll be able to find at least one to validate your fantasy.

Just do yourself a favor and view that material first before using it as an example. You don’t want to pop in something like Salò if you’re just into a little light bondage and power play!

4. Discuss Ways to Gradually Introduce New Elements to Your Sex Lives

If your partner expresses an open mind, the conversation will eventually turn to how, or even if you want to integrate a new fetish into your sex lives.

Some fetishes are easier to get into than others. Starter bondage kits, for example, are easy enough to find at any sex store. However, some may be impractical or undesirable to ever actually try to act out.

This is the conversation that you need to have.

For example, group sex is a very common fantasy. But realistically, many couples just can’t handle seeing their partner being intimate with another person, even if they’re also involved. A solution to this could be integrating multi-partner porn into your foreplay, or even using sex dolls to help simulate the experience.

Some suggestions your partner might shoot down outright but would be open to a simulated version of the experience. Someone who wants to try watersports-related play, but whose partner was dead against it, might buy the Whizzinator for use in simulated scenes as a compromise.

7. No Matter Their Reaction, Emphasize That This Won’t Change Your Relationship

Right out of the gate, try to avoid treating your kink or fetish like a secret that you’ve been keeping from them. No matter your intention, no one likes feeling like someone that they trust has been hiding something from them.

If you’re into spanking, choking, or something harder than that, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person. And it doesn’t mean that you’re not interested in them if they don’t reciprocate your interest.

And that’s what’s most important to understand. You have a right, to be honest about your desires without judgment, but that’s it. Your partner isn’t obligated to act out a fantasy that they’re uninterested in or dead against.

It’s also not unusual for partners to be worried that you’ve grown bored with your sex life and that they need to do this to retain your interest. The onus is on you to explain to them that this is not the case.

Finally, thank them for having this conversation. Let them know that you’re sharing it because it’s a part of your identity that you don’t show just anyone and that you’re thankful that you could be open with them.

Integrating a New Fetish Can Revitalize Your Sex Life

This can be a tough conversation to have.

You have to be prepared for the possibility that your partner may not reciprocate your desire to experiment with a new fetish. At the same time, you have the right to be honest about your desires without fear of judgment or humiliation.

But so long as clear and respectful, the conversation can be a benefit to your relationship. Intimacy requires vulnerability, and by allowing yourself to be vulnerable in this very personal way, you provide an opportunity for you and partner to grow closer.

And more often than not, the conversation will get your partner to open up, too. They might even turn you on to something new in turn!

Looking for another way to add some excitement to a night in? Check out the latest news and reviews from City on Fire for all the latest cinema to get your blood pumping.