Out of Control--The Perfect Gift for the Process Automation Engineer Who Likes to Cook . . .

or is too cheap to buy his wife her own sous-vide cooker. Eric Byres of Tofino Security is a man of many parts.

Not only is he a process systems security expert, but he enjoys gourmet food and is familiar enough with fine dining to know the term "sous-vide," and clever enough to figure out a work-around for this expensive piece of kitchen equipment.

In his "2nd Annual Controls Engineer Holiday Gift Suggestion" blog post, he not only explains what sous-vide is to those of you who never watch either The Food Network or The Cooking Channel, but also explains how a sous-vide cooker works and then gives instructions for building your own using a "crock pot or rice cooker, a PID controller, a temperature probe and a few odds and ends."

And if that's not cool and geeky enough for you, he also provides a link to the sous-vide app  for your smart phone.

Merry Christmas, Eric. When you get yours running, do we get an invitation to dinner?