If you’re storing shoes or handbags in your oven, listen up: Sex and the City was not (!!) a documentary. Kitchens = the place where snacks are born, people! And even the biggest takeout stans need to cook things up from time to time—especially if you’re, um, IDK, dining in for the foreseeable future. Yep. So here are some helpful kitchen hacks ideal for feeding yourself:
1. No ice-cream scooper? No problem. Run a knife under hot water and then serve up a pint in slices instead of scoops. Mind. Blown.
2. Open jars instantly with a bottle opener. Your standard can or bottle opener helps break the airtight seal on jars (just pop ’em underneath the lid), making them easier to open without asking your little sister for help.
3. Don’t you dare throw away those burnt cookies (or toast!). A microplane on the bottom will remove the burnt bits. You’re welcome.
4. Use a jar to peel a lot of garlic cloves quickly. If you’ve got a ton of cloves to peel, place a handful in a mason jar and shake vigorously. The friction will remove the peels easily. Basically, it’s magic.
5. Use a plastic sandwich bag or envelope as a funnel. Liquids, snip a corner off a plastic sandwich bag and pour through the opening. Dry goods, simply roll an envelope into a cone shape and pour. No spills!
6. Cover that leftover cupcake with a wine glass. Don’t have a cake stand? (Honestly, who has a cake stand?) No problem, flip your stemmed wine glass over to store that extra cupcake.
7. Add a slice of bread to keep cookies, muffins, cakes, you name it soft. Baked something so you could post about it on your Insta Story? It happens. Don’t let it go to waste by sticking a piece of bread in its storage container to keep it from getting stale.
8. Make rich hot chocolate by melting supermarket truffles in hot milk. Forget the *artisanal* hot chocolate mix, melt a spare chocolate truffle in hot milk if (LOL, I mean, when) you’re getting a late-night craving.
9. Use a teaspoon to peel ginger. No veggie peeler, no problem. A teaspoon works better to peel the skin off ginger.
10. Separate egg yolks using a water bottle. Remove egg yolks at will by gently placing the mouth of an empty plastic water bottle on the yolk. Squeeze slightly to suction the yolk into the water bottle. You only eat fancy breakfasts now.
11. De-stem strawberries using a plastic straw. When you’re making sangria, you want as much berry as possible. (Just me? Fine.) Push through the bottom and out the top with a straw to leave behind as much strawberry as possible (versus slicing the tops off).
12. Use your pizza cutter to cut herbs fast. Get bite-size pieces of fresh herbs chopped fast by rolling over them with a pizza cutter. Lazy and efficient!
13. Use silicone ice-cube trays to store pesto or fresh herbs in olive oil before they go bad. Who uses an entire container of fresh herbs when you buy them? Save them from the compost bin by dicing them up and adding them to an ice-cube tray filled halfway with olive oil.
14. Clip the corner off a plastic bag to pipe frosting in a pinch. If you need to add some writing to a cake or fill a deviled egg because deviled eggs are deeeee-li-cious, you don’t need a piping bag. Add the filling to the bag, then clip the corner off the bag. Voilà!
15. Freeze grapes to cool wine down. You don’t need any fancy whatevers to chill your glass of rosé. Freeze grapes and pop a few in your glass of wine. Then eat the grapes, duh.
16. Shred chicken easily using a handheld mixer. Sup, Taco Tuesday. Use that hand mixer your mom forced you to buy to shred cooked chicken in minutes. Minutes!
17. Use a wooden spoon over a pot to keep it from boiling over. To keep pasta water from splashing on your stove, place a wooden spoon across the top and it magically keeps the water from boiling over. Yes, I’m serious.
18. Slice soft cheeses with a piece of unscented dental floss. Prep that cheese board like a pro: Unscented dental floss wrapped and then pulled tight helps slice soft cheeses like mozzarella and goat, the GOAT of cheeses, IMHO.
19. Freeze leftover wine to cook with. That last bit of wine that’s been sitting out? Give her a new home inside a plastic bag in the freezer. You can use it to flavor a sauce or stir-fry when you need it. *looks up casting call info for Top Chef*
20. Use tongs to juice citrus. Skip the fancy citrus juicer and squeeze those bbs between a pair of tongs to get as much juice as possible. Your mimosas-for-one just got SO fancy.
