On "satisfying geeky tendencies to learn", the book "Cooking for Geeks" by Potter is actually quite good. It won't make you a chef in and of itself, but I now know enough to, say, know when to bake something at 375 versus at 350 degrees F based on the desired result rather than on what the recipe tells me. There's a lot of interesting tid bits in there and good a solid base of cooking information. It also has some good 'food experiments' to try, like cooking an egg very slowly wiht constant stirring at low temperatures in a frying pan. After about 20-30 minutes it turns into a custard-like substance. Not very appetizing, but it's really interesting to see how you can control what happens by changing the temperature.