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How To: Cut a Perfect Bowl Full of Watermelon
Watermelons scream summer like no other fruit, and there's nothing like biting into a sweet one on a hot summer day. Although there's no exact right way to cut watermelon, there are many occasions when you might not want to cut it into wedges. It may be the classic cut, but the triangular shape insures that you'll always get some on your face. And for parties, there's always the messy problem of leftover rinds.
How To: Why You Should Always Save Parmesan Rinds
There are certain ingredients that chefs regularly use to elevate their food beyond the status of what us mere mortals can create. Shallots are one. Good, real Parmesan cheese is another. And the rind of that real Parmesan cheese just so happens to be one of the culinary world's biggest kept secrets.
How To: Make the World's Easiest Salad Dressing (No Seeding or Peeling Necessary)
In my family, if a food could be made instead of bought, it was made. It wasn't until I went to college and started eating dorm food that I tasted the store-bought versions of many kitchen staples. I quickly learned that there is an enormous quality difference between homemade dressing and the kind that comes in a bottle at the supermarket.
How To: 7 Tips for Making the Best Burgers Ever
Summer's coming, and that means burger season. Okay, never mind... every season is burger season. Burgers are universally loved; they're the one meal you can find at numerous fast food shacks and haute cuisine spots.
How To: Cut Tomatoes the Right Way
Tomatoes are the perfect barometer for kitchen knives and knife skills. If you've ever watched an infomercial for a set of knives, you've surely seen the enthusiastic host waxing about how well the knives cut tomatoes. And if you've ever had your knives sharpened, you've most likely tested them out on a tomato.
How To: Turn Spaghetti into Ramen
Ramen has always been a go-to meal for frugal foodies, college students, and anyone else who loves a soothing, cheap, and easy meal. And while instant ramen is delicious (and can easily be improved), making a simple homemade ramen is even better, and nearly as easy.
How To: Why You Should Always Keep Canned Pumpkin in Your Pantry
Canned pumpkin is something I always stock up on and keep in my pantry, because it's endlessly useful when cooking or baking. Sweet, creamy, and mild, pumpkin can be folded into baked goods and savory dishes with ease.
Mayo to the Rescue: 10 Unexpected Non-Food Uses for Mayonnaise
If you're anything like me, you probably think it's borderline sacrilege to even think about a sandwich or a burger that doesn't have a layer of smooth mayonnaise. But I don't just keep a jar of it in my fridge for lunch—it's also there for practical purposes.
Dishwasher Cooking: Delicious Recipes You Can Make While Cleaning Your Dishes
This sounds a little crazy, and it is—in a good way. Cooking food in the dishwasher while it cleans your dishes multitasks your appliance and saves time and energy. And who doesn't want to spend less time over a hot stove? How Dishwasher Cooking Works
How To: Make 2-Ingredient Pancakes That Are High Protein, Low-Carb & Gluten-Free
You only need eggs and bananas to make these tasty pancakes that fit almost every hyphenated category: dairy-free, Paleo-friendly, grain-free, gluten-free, low-carb, and high-protein. It sounds too good be true, but these pancakes are easier to make than traditional pancakes and don't have any of that troublesome white flour. I've also included a three-ingredient recipe below for a slightly thicker pancake recipe.
The No-Salad Zone: How to Cook with Lettuce
Lettuce is not just for salads, it's a versatile green that you can use in hundreds of different ways. So many people in America toss their lettuce when it starts to wilt, thinking that it's too far gone to make a nice, crisp salad. But you can cook with lettuce like you would any other green, and the French and Chinese have been doing it forever.
How To: Cut Back on Calories with These Easy, Tasty, & Healthy Cheese Alternatives
Cheese might be one of the most satisfying snacks around, whether you prefer a slice of snappy Irish cheddar or a creamy, rich portion of Brie. It's been called "dairy crack" by a respected physician and for good reason: eating cheese produces casomorphins, which effect the human body like opiates. It also contains trace amounts of actual morphine.
How To: Make Tater Tots Even More Delicious
Tater tots have a bad rap as a soggy cafeteria staple, but bake them at home and they crisp up nicely in the oven. Drain any unwanted oil from them on paper towels and they become perfectly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
How To: Unlock Your Oven's Secrets to Bake, Broil, & Roast Like a Pro
The oven is arguably our most essential kitchen appliance (right alongside the fridge, freezer, and yes, even the microwave). But even though we've been using them for a few millennia, many of us know so little about our ovens that our cooking or baking can feel like a roll of the dice sometimes.
How To: Make Custom-Shaped Chocolates at Home
It is a truth universally acknowledged that food molded into fancy shapes somehow seems tastier. That's true even with chocolate, which is inherently delicious. Now, while you can buy chocolate that's been pre-molded into fancy shapes, you can have a lot of fun and save a few bucks by making your own specialty chocolate molds. All you need to get started are items you most likely already own.
How To: 6 Delicious Ways to Use Up Leftover Champagne
Unlike wine, you can't re-cork or stopper leftover bubbly after you've opened it, but all is not lost even if you haven't managed to finish every last drop. You can use your leftover champagne to make light-as-air crêpes or pancakes, to create a detox face mask, to cook seafood and rice, or to make dips and salad dressings.
How To: Make Hasselback Potatoes (& Other Amazing Baked Spuds)
Potatoes are one of cheapest, most nutritious whole foods that you can make and eat. Is it any wonder you can find budget-friendly, low-fat potatoes in every cuisine in the world?
How To: 4 Easy Tweaks for Tastier Grains & Pasta
Cooking rice, pasta, and other grains in water is so boring. There is a much better way to guarantee they will have your mouth chewing something seriously tasty: cook them in something that isn't water. Alternative liquids such as stock, milk, juice, or even tea will give bland dishes a fresh new flavor boost. If you're not sure how your dishes might taste, never fear: we tested them out. Before getting started, be sure to read this article first so that you know why it's important to rinse y...
How To: Easily Peel Garlic Using the Twist & Snap Method
Peeling garlic is one kitchen task that every cook, from the newbie to the experienced, is always trying to make easier. Methods vary, from shaking heads of garlic inside a container to using the microwave to help peels slide right off.
How To: 6 Easy Edible Bowls You Can Make at Home
Even though we love taco salads and bread bowl soups, edible bowls and dishes have now gone far beyond those oldies-but-goodies. Using food as serving dishes helps with cleanup, reduces food waste, and makes your spread more creative and interesting.
How To: Chill Any Drink in 1 Minute
Here is how to cool any desired drink to a nice and cold temperature in just one minute. Whatever the reason why you need a cool drink fast, whether it's because you don't have a fridge or freezer on hand, or that you just want to make your drink cold fast, this method is awesome.
How To: Keep Garlic from Sticking to Your Hands & Knife
It's a shame that one of the world's tastiest foods can be such a pain to prep. Most cooks are familiar with this conundrum: chopping or crushing garlic releases a pungent liquid that causes bits of garlic to stick your knife and hands, creating a messy affair. So what is going on here? The common assumption is that the garlic is releasing some kind of oil, but the truth is that this liquid rinses away easily in water. Yet one of the basic precepts of chemistry is that oil and water don't mix.
How To: Cook Polenta in 15 Minutes Instead of 40
I became a big fan of polenta while studying Italian cooking. Previously, it never occurred to me that ground corn could create a dish that could rival the best pastas or potatoes. Those rich, golden bowls of cornmeal, cooked until tender and flavored with good olive oil, butter, sea salt, and fresh herbs soon became one of my favorite things to eat.
How To: The Tricks to Making Delicious & Tender Kale Salads Every Time
Kale is the new baby spinach: it's taken over salads everywhere, and for good reason. This nutrient-dense vegetable is a member of the brassica family, which also includes cabbage, broccoli, and watercress. Recent studies show that people who eat more brassicas tend to have less cancer. Not only that, but kale and other brassicas can actually clear air pollutants from your body.
How To: 12 Food Hacks for Perfect French Toast, Every Time
French toast is one of those things that everybody kind of knows how to make, but few people know how to do really well. And while the dish originally does hail from France (its original name, pain perdu, means lost or wasted bread), it has become a beloved American breakfast dish.
How To: Fix Runny Fruit Pies with These Two Surprising Food Hacks
Pies and soufflés: these are two dishes that can try even the most experienced cook. Berry pies can be especially challenging, since the high water content of cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries often leads to a big, leaky mess once you cut into your beautiful pie.
How To: Rid Your Kitchen of Fruit Flies Once and for All
Even the best-maintained kitchens occasionally get a fruit fly infestation. These critters descend, lay eggs (up to 500 at a time!), and then disappear usually only after extreme cleaning efforts (i.e., finally attacking that weird puddle of goo behind your refrigerator).
How To: Why Bananas, Flax, Chia, & Even Blood Make Great Egg Substitutes
Eggs are incredibly important to cooks, and not just because they're tasty and a complete protein (many erratic genius/artist types make a point of eating an egg or two for breakfast). Yes, they are great when perfectly poached, scrambled, hard-boiled, and even scram-boiled, but they serve literally dozens of functions when used in recipes, especially baked goods.
How To: Cook Broccoli, Kale, & Other Brassicas So They Actually Taste Good
It's universally known that broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and all cruciferous vegetables (also known as brassicas) are good for you—but you probably don't know exactly how good they really are.
How To: Make Salad Greens Last Longer… Using Your Breath or Homemade CO2
Salad greens are a staple in my house and for good reason: they're cheap, nutritious, and work as a base or an accompaniment for almost all meals. However, it's all too easy to forget about them and then pull out a bag filled with sludgy dark goo or yellow, inedible leaves.
How To: The Trick to Peeling & Grating Stubborn Ginger More Easily
Ginger root is one of the most underappreciated and versatile spices around. It's simultaneously hot, sweet, and piquant. It's also a pain in the tush to peel, thanks to its thin, fragile skin and the thick, knotty rhizome that contains all the flavor.
How To: Avoid Caffeine Crashes, No Matter What Kind of Coffee Drinker You Are
Fifty-four percent of Americans 18 and older drink coffee every day, and why not? With 100 milligrams of caffeine per six ounces of drip coffee, it's just the morning beverage to wake you up and kickstart your day. You can feel the caffeine surge through your body like the Holy Ghost, making you aware, focused, and ready for action.
Slurping's Mandatory: Why Getting Messy with Ramen Makes It Taste Better
Sometimes when non-Asians go to ramen bars, they're mildly weirded out by watching the patrons eat. To the uninitiated, the eating behaviors can seem kind of extreme. Why are people hovering over their bowls like animals at a feeding trough? Why do they let endless lengths of noodles dangle from their maw as they slurp—very, very loudly—over their bowls of broth?
How To: The Simple Trick to No-Mess Fry Dipping on the Go
You're in your car. You've got a bag of piping-hot French fries with you. You want those fries in your mouth ASAP, but you also want to dip them in ketchup. So what do you do?
How To: Prevent Kitchen Spills with This DIY Resealable Grain Dispenser
I love cheap, nutritious food: lentils, rice, toor dal, and other beans and grains. Even popcorn. The only problem is that they usually come in floppy plastic bags that make measuring ingredients more difficult. I usually open up one corner of the bag only to have everything come spilling out all at once whenever I try to pour out measured amounts.
How To: For Great Pan-Fried Steak, Salt the Skillet First
There are a lot of techniques out there for how to cook the perfect steak, from flipping it multiple times to applying a spice rub or dry brine to aging the beef. But it turns out that there's a super-easy way to make a great steak at home, and all you need is a good cast-iron skillet and some salt.
How To: Make Pizza Dough with Only Two Ingredients & Why It Works
Any pizza lover knows that a quality crust is crucial to the whole experience. Good pizza crust should be delicious on its own, for once you get to the edge, it will be without any toppings, sauce, or cheese to disguise a bad character. It should be redolent of fresh, good wheat and taste full-bodied, rather than flat, flabby, or metallic, the way so many big chain and frozen pizza crusts do. The exterior should be crisp, while the interior contains an airy crumb as well as having a tender, s...
How To: Make 'Dirt' You Can Actually Eat
Want to show all your foodie friends that you're really in the know? Then it's time to master the art of making edible dirt. Chefs out there are finding ways to take various foodstuffs and dry, char, and combine them to give the appearance of actual dirt—only with a rich, savory taste.
How To: Everything You Know About Microwave Ovens Is a Lie
Chances are that you've been using your microwave just to nuke leftovers, but they can do so much more than heat up last night's dinner—microwaves can help you peel garlic more quickly, get more juice out of lemons, disinfect your kitchen, dry out herbs, give beauty products new life, cause exciting explosions, and even arc weld.
How To: Use Your Thumb for Perfectly Shaped Burger Patties Every Time
A homemade burger is a delicious thing, but it can be hard to load up with all the fixings. Why? Because said burger is usually wider in the middle and thinner around the edges, like so: Chances are that patty will still be delicious, but your lettuce, tomato, et al. are going to slide off the surface because of this patty's dome shape.