quick tips

When looking to round out a meal come brunch, lunch, or dinnertime, I stick to a simple motto: put an egg on it (not to be confused with "put a bird on it" . . . ). While fried and scrambled are nice, I hold a special place in my heart for the oozing yolks of a perfectly poached egg, but until now I hadn't thought of them as portable. It turns out, with an ingenious kitchen hack, these luscious eggs can become a protein-packed part of the brown-bag lunch rotation. Keep reading to find out the simple secret.

Before my nose fully reached the countertop, my grandmother would show me how to fry up a piece of bacon just to render the bacon fat for my favorite lady pea recipe. After all, the Southern attitude is of the "who needs spices or herbs when bacon's flavor will saturate and perfect just about any dish?" mentality. I've maintained that perspective in my kitchen today, and urge you to do the same. If you've been prone to toss out the liquid gold after frying up a few pieces of bacon, for goodness' sake, stop! Let me show you how to handle, store, and use bacon grease.

Rolled oats, while creamy, soothing, and convenient, often verge on mushy or even gluey in texture. Steel-cut oats, while nutty and toothsome, take nearly double the time to prepare as rolled, and if undercooked come off a bit gravelly. The question arises, then: how can we glean the benefits of both and simmer up a bowl of oatmeal that has exceptional texture and flavor and is convenient to boot?

Thankfully, the answer couldn't be simpler: instead of sticking to one variety or another, use equal parts steel-cut and rolled the next time you start your day off the oaten way. I've been a steadfast convert ever since I tried this ridiculously simple tip gleaned from April Bloomfield's much-loved cookbook, and I suspect once you try it for yourself, you'll follow suit. The resulting texture is simultaneously creamy and chewy, toeing the line perfectly between the pros and cons of each variety.

When making a rhubarb galette recently, I had a lot of leftover syrup from cooking down the rhubarb. There was no way that I was letting that ruby red sauce, full of concentrated rhubarb flavor, go down the drain. Determined to figure out a solution, I ventured to try a refreshing glass of rhubarb soda. I poured about three tablespoons of the syrup per glass (although you can use less if you prefer a less-sweet beverage) over tall glasses full of ice.

Next, in went the sparkling soda water. If you plan to serve this at a party, don't stir it up, because the pink and clear layers are quite eye-catching.

Keep reading to see what it tastes like.

Picnics, brunches, and tea parties call for tea sandwiches, but those delicate bites tend to dry out in a flash. What's the solution? Dampen a paper towel, wring out any excess water, and cover the tops of the sandwiches before you store them in an airtight container and pop them into the fridge. The damp paper towel will keep the bread hydrated plus it acts as a protective barrier from the air. Keeping the tea sandwiches wrapped until the second you plan to serve or eat them will also prevent them from drying out.

Unless you're working with asparagus that's freshly harvested from the garden — and sometimes even then — one must discard the woody, slightly dried out ends for enticingly tender results. The problem is knowing how much to discard in order to waste as little of the oft-pricey vegetable as possible. Conventional wisdom will have you bend each stalk till it snaps, as they're more flexible in their tender parts, but this can become tedious fast. Instead, snap two stalks out of the bundle, line up the remaining asparagus with their tips flush, and cut through with a sharp knife between the snapping point of the two. If your stalks are particularly thick, take a few passes with a vegetable peeler on the ends, otherwise you're good to go whether the asparagus will be blanched, roasted, ribboned, or steamed.

Ever find yourself needing just a bit of one or a few ingredients? Us, too. (Adding some cranberries to apple pie comes to mind.) The next time you're in that situation, consider heading to the grocery store salad bar. Rather than spending — and potentially wasting — more on larger quantities, hit up your local supermarket's salad spread for specific, small amounts of items like grilled chicken or sunflower seeds. The best part is they're already cooked and cut, which saves you time on your recipe prep.

We use the salad-bar drive-by trick for hard-boiled eggs, blanched green beans, and potatoes in Nicoise salad, or for queso and pico de gallo in tacos for two. But remember to keep a few things in mind: You'll pay per pound, so try to avoid heavy items that might be cheaper if you bought them whole or fresh. Lighter toppings, like cheeses and bacon bits, are the safest bet. Lastly, don't forget to separate your items into different boxes so as not to mix them together.

How's that for a new kind of takeout?

I recently learned that making homemade hard candy isn't as easy as it looks. It's all about timing and temperature to make sure the candy reaches the proper consistency. To complicate matters further, it's stretched and pulled while still hundreds of degrees hot. Keep these three tips in mind for a smoother candy-making experience.

• Use a probe thermometer instead of a candy thermometer. The digital reading allows you to monitor the current temperature as well as set a desired temperature, so the thermometer will beep when the candy has reached the set temperature. Scorched pans, begone!
• Wear rubber welding gloves. It seems silly, but candy has the potential to seriously singe your fingertips. Since candy hardens so quickly, you really need to work with it while it's molten lava hot. Wearing thick gloves is the only way to make that happen safely.
• Keep the candy warm with a heating lamp or an electric stove. In my kitchen, I placed the candy atop a Silpat-lined metal cookie sheet, then placed the cookie sheet atop the electric stove. Set the temperature to the lowest setting ("1" or "Melt" on most stoves). It keeps the candy warmer and thus malleable longer, so the candy doesn't harden before you have a chance to stretch and cut all of the pieces.

If you've ever had the misfortune to slice into a fresh knob of ginger only to find a bland, unappealing, and fibrous gray ring within, you may have surmised that ginger (like most produce) has a defined season. From August till November (and through February, thanks to cold storage), fresh may be the way to go; the rest of the year, try substituting store-bought ginger juice 1:1 for grated or minced ginger for the tastiest results.

While its texture isn't quite the same as minced ginger, ginger juice is literally just juiced and strained gingerroot, so it serves as a near-exact analogue in beverages, anything pureed, or as part of a sauce or marinade. I also like to keep a bottle in my fridge even when ginger is in season for when I only need a small quantity of ginger and don't feel like busting out my Microplane.