In the Kitchen
How To: Make Your Own Sweetened Condensed Milk at Home
To make your own sweetened condensed milk at home, all you need are milk, sugar, butter, and about two hours of your time.
How To: Delicious One-Pot Dinner Recipes Using 5 Ingredients or Less
If you can't stand the idea of using multiple pots and pans for preparing meals because of all the dishwashing that would be required, check out the one-pot recipes below that require minimal cooking equipment and use only five ingredients or less (excluding cooking oil, water, salt, and pepper).
How To: 5 Detox Drink Recipes for Reducing & Eliminating Toxins from Your Body
Detoxing with natural drinks made out of organic fruits, vegetables, and spices is a great way to help your body eliminate toxins and absorb vital nutrients that will help you feel healthier and more energized throughout the day. Making them yourself at home will save you both a trip to your local health smoothie bar and money in your wallet.
How To: Your Illustrated Guide to Gluten-Free Substitutions
Whether you know you have gluten sensitivity or simply want to see how you feel if you cut wheat products completely out of your diet, going gluten-free is actually not as difficult as you would think.
How To: Make Your Own Delicious Hummus
Stop buying hummus from the grocery store. If you have a food processor and ten minutes to spare, you can easily whip up your own super-delicious, super-cheap hummus that will taste a million times better than whatever you can buy from the supermarket.
How To: Make Flavor-Infused Vodka
It may sound complicated, but making your own flavor-infused vodka is effortlessly easy with delicious results, and it makes for a great last-minute holiday gift. All you need are some fresh fruit and herbs, a quart-sized mason jar, a bottle of vodka (make sure it isn't the super-cheap kind), and a few days of waiting time.
How To: 14 Non-Cookie Uses for Cookie Cutters
In addition to turning boring sheets of cookie dough into fun and whimsical shapes, cookie cutters can be used to make fruits, vegetables, cheeses, sandwiches, and popsicles look more interesting, to name just a few.
How To: Speedy Spaghetti, Faux Pho, & Other Ingenious Instant Ramen Hacks
Instant ramen noodles are hardly gourmet dining, but with a little extra time, effort, and ingredients, this humble staple of college dormitory dining can be elevated at least a little bit to resemble a more hearty and appetizing meal.
The Tea Cheat Sheet: Steeping Times & Temps for the Perfect Cup
While making your own cup of tea may seem as simple as adding a tea bag to a mug of boiling water, the best flavor for every tea type requires a specific temperature point for the hot water and a specific time frame for steeping the tea before removing it.
How To: 4 DIY Methods for Removing Burned-On Food from Pots & Pans
Even the most seasoned kitchen cooks experience the annoyance of accidentally burning food on their pots, pans, and casserole dishes. When dishwashing soap and water doesn't work, what is the best way to remove burned-on gunk from your cookware?
How To: 6 Cheap & Easy Ways to Clean Your Garbage Disposal
With all the kitchen sink debris that goes down the drain, it should be no surprise that your garbage disposal sometimes gets a little smelly and needs some extra cleaning. Using common household items from your kitchen or medicine cabinet, you can easily clean your garbage disposal in ten minutes or less using one of the following six DIY methods listed below.
How To: Organize Your Fridge More Efficiently for Longer Lasting Foods
Though it may seem straightforward to place perishable foods in your refrigerator, there is actually a system of organization you should follow to store the right food items in the right places to ensure that they last for as long as possible.
How To: Your Illustrated Guide to Different Types of Carbonated Water
Unless you're a bartender or a hardcore drink aficionado, understanding the different types of carbonated water and their best uses can get confusing. This is especially true since most people use the terms "club soda," "sparkling water," and "seltzer water" interchangeably when ordering drinks.
How To: 9 Non-Baking Reasons Why Everyone Should Have Silicone Muffin Cups at Home
Even if you don't ever plan on baking cupcakes or muffins for the rest of your life, you should still invest in a set of silicone muffin cups for your home and cooking needs. They're not just for baking!
How To: Make Homemade Ketchup, Mustard, & Other Common BBQ Condiments
Planning a BBQ this summer? While it may be tempting to buy your ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, and mayonnaise from the store, it's actually really easy to whip up your own homemade versions in your own kitchen.
The Dried Beans Cheat Sheet: Soaking & Cooking Times for 15 Different Beans
While it may be tempting to rely on canned beans to save time, going through the process of preparing dried beans for cooking can actually be better for you in the long run—for both your physical and financial health.
How To: Make the Perfect Scrambled Eggs
Scrambled eggs may seem like the easiest breakfast dish to whip up in the kitchen, but in order to make them truly perfect, several details in the cooking process are important to keep in mind.
How To: 9 Easy Tricks for Upgrading Oreos from Delicious to Irresistible
Bored of eating Oreo cookies on their own? Stick a jumbo marshmallow and a Hershey square in-between the cookies and melt in the microwave to make Oreo s'mores. For a savory-sweet snack, crush them into small pieces and mix with a bag of freshly popped popcorn.
How To: 9 Ways to Cool Down Your Burning Hot Mouth After Eating Really Spicy Foods
Mouth burning with pain from eating too much hot sauce or some seriously "spicy" food? Well, ignore your first instinct and steer clear of that cup of cold water — it won't help. Instead, reach for a glass of milk, a lemon slice, a spoonful of sugar, or some starchy bread to dilute the painful heat on your tongue.
How To: Make Chocolate Dessert Bowls Using Inflated Balloons
What better way to serve dessert than to place it in a bowl that is also a dessert in itself? Using a balloon, melted chocolate chips, and a few other simple tools, you can easily craft together a fancy-looking dessert bowl made completely out of chocolate.
How To: 6 Ways to Disinfect Your Cutting Board—From All-Natural to Chemically Potent
After cutting fruits, veggies, and especially meats, it's good idea to regularly disinfect and deodorize your cutting board thoroughly. From using kitchen chemicals, to all-natural ingredients you probably have around, there are several ways to do it.
How To: 9 More Double-Duty Kitchen Tools
Need to slice corn kernels off a cob without making a mess? Place the corn cob upright on the elevated portion of a Bundt pan and slice downward against the kernels with a knife so the kernels fall within the bowl to use for later.
How To: 10 Ways to Engineer Perfect Home-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies
Your perfect home-baked chocolate chip cookie may be thick and chewy, or crispy and thin, or something in-between. With a little cooking know-how and experimentation, you can adjust the different ingredients and cooking steps in the baking process to create the perfect chocolate chip cookie that best suits your particular sweet tooth preferences.
How To: 6 Meals You Can Cook in the Microwave
Whether you live in the dorms with no access to a kitchen or simply too lazy to cook on a stovetop, you can "cook" up some amazing meals on a microwave that aren't bags of buttered popcorn or frozen burritos.
How To: 10 Surprising Things You Can Do with Nutella
You may have enjoyed Nutella-covered toast or Nutella-covered banana slices in the past, but you haven't really enjoyed the full potential of Nutella's hazel-nutty, chocolatey goodness until 've had Nutella-covered bacon for breakfast.
How To: 13 Ways to Make Hot Chocolate Even Better Than It Already Is
Hot chocolate is great and all (especially when made at home with real dark chocolate bars and whole milk), but sometimes even old holiday classics need a taste upgrade from time to time.
How To: Make the Perfect Cup of Hot Chocolate Using Real Chocolate Bars
Though making hot chocolate out of instant mix is pretty easy, there is no comparison when it comes to making your own homemade hot chocolate out of quality dark chocolate bars, whole milk, brown sugar, and your own favorite fresh spices.
How To: Eggs Expiring Soon? Make These Pickled Eggs in a Jar & Enjoy Them Later
If you ever end up with an excess of raw eggs in your refrigerator, but don't know how to use them all up before their expiration date, the solution is simple. Hard-boil and peel them, place them in a sterilized jar, add pickling brine solution, and store in the refrigerator for up to one month—even more.
How To: Make Your Own Delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
To make your own sinfully delicious chocolate peanut butter cups in the comfort of your own home, all you need are chocolate chips, peanut butter, butter, and sugar.
How To: Make Homemade "Dry Ice" Ice Cream
In addition to making homemade ice cream in an empty coffee can and ziplock freezer bag, you can also make your own ice cream very quickly by using dry ice.
Cooking Oil Cheat Sheet: How to Choose the Right Oil for the Job
Which cooking oil is best for baking cookies? Sautéing vegetables? Deep-frying chicken? With the plethora of different cooking oils out there, it can get pretty confusing choosing the best one for your next cooking adventure.
How To: Use & Properly Maintain Your Precious Cast Iron Skillet
Want to sear the perfect restaurant-quality steak in the comforts of your own kitchen? Use a cast iron skillet.
How To: Make Your Own Peanut Butter at Home
Enjoy the deliciousness of a peanut butter sandwich without the artificial chemicals that comes in store-bought jars. To make your own peanut butter at home, all you need are pre-roasted peanuts, peanut oil, and a little bit of salt and sugar.
How To: Make Candied Bacon (For True Baconphiliacs Only)
If eating bacon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner isn't enough to satiate your love for rashers, then how about eating it for dessert too? It's what a true baconphiliac would do.
How To: 8 Practical Ways to Use Bacon Grease
Need to get a painful splinter out of your skin? Apply some bacon grease onto the affected area and place a band-aid on it overnight. The bacon grease will soften the skin tissue and draw out the splinter, making it easier to remove with tweezers the next day.
Tell If It's Ripe or Not: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Tricky Fruits
How can you tell if a coconut is ready to eat? The entire fruit is covered by a rock-hard exterior, so you can't really squeeze them to test their ripeness. Instead, feel the three "eyes" at the bottom of the coconut. If they feel slightly soft and dry, that's a good sign that the fruit is mature.
How To: Cold-Brew Perfectly Refreshing Iced Coffee at Home
Iced coffee may not be as simple as brewing hot coffee and sticking it in the fridge until it cools down, but it's still very simple to make if you plan ahead.
How To: Chill a Lukewarm Can of Soda in Less Than 5 Minutes
A lukewarm can of soda placed in a refrigerator can take about 45 minutes to chill. On the other hand, a lukewarm can of soda placed in a bowl of ice, water, and table salt can take less than 5 minutes.
How To: 14 Handy Hacks for Making Your Produce & Perishables Last as Long as Possible
Each year, about 40% of all food produced in the United States goes uneaten and gets thrown away. Become a part of the solution and not the problem by practicing the following simple hacks to make your produce and perishables from the supermarket last for as long as possible.
How To: 3 More Ways to Make Homemade Ice Cream on a Hot Summer Day
Ice cream never gets old in hot weather, especially if it's super cheap and made within the comforts of your own home!