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57 Things You Can Do to Be a Better Cook Right Now

You don’t need culinary school. You don’t need expensive equipment. You don’t even need that much experience. All you need to be a better cook today is a little bit of knowledge. Or, in the case of this list, 57 little bits.

1. BUY AN INSTANT-READ DIGITAL MEAT THERMOMETER.

The quickest way to ruin a perfectly marbled $25 steak? Cutting into it to figure out if it’s medium rare. Yes, the Thermapen is $95, but four steaks later, you’ve broken even.

2. WRITE IN YOUR COOKBOOKS.

Soup could have used more tomato? Chicken needed ten more minutes in the oven? Make a note of it and you’ll never make that mistake again.

3. MASTER THE QUICK-PICKLE.

Whisk a little salt and sugar into some white vinegar. Pour over thinly sliced raw vegetables. Wait 20 minutes. Eat.

4. GET YOUR KNIVES PROFESSIONALLY SHARPENED.

You may have a steel or a sharpener at home, but once a year, get a pro to revive those knives. Your chopping will get faster, more precise—and, believe it or not, safer.

5. FOUR WORDS TO LIVE BY: CHICKEN THIGH FAMILY PACK.

Chicken breasts are expensive and can get dull after a while; thighs are juicier, cheaper, and more flavorful.

6. TOSS MOST OF YOUR SPICES—ESPECIALLY THAT GROUND CUMIN.

Ground spices die quickly. So give them a whiff—if they don’t smell like anything, they won’t taste like anything. And if they don’t taste like anything, you’re cooking with a flavorless, brown powder.

7. JOIN A CSA.

At a minimum, you’ll learn how to cook kale fifteen ways. At a maximum, you’ll broaden your culinary horizons by finding ways to use up all that fresh produce.

8. REPLACE YOUR NON-STICK SKILLET.

Do your scrambled eggs slide off the pan if you don’t use oil or butter? They should. Might be time for an upgrade.

9. TREAT YOUR HERBS LIKE FLOWERS.

There’s nothing worse than limp herbs. Next time, trim the stems and put the parsley in a glass of water, fit a plastic bag over it, and stash it in the refrigerator.

10. GET A MANDOLINE AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO USE IT.

Want gorgeous scalloped potatoes or perfectly julienned carrots? Buy a mandoline. Are you a scaredycat? Wear a cut-resistant safety glove until you feel comfortable bare-handed.

11. DOUBLE THAT BATCH OF RICE (OR QUINOA, OR BULGAR, OR…)

Having cooked grains in your fridge means that fried rice, pilafs, rice bowls and robust salads are just minutes away.

12. MAKE SURE YOUR WORK AREA IS WELL LIT.

Look, the 40-watt lightbulb in your oven hood isn’t going to cut it. Get a cheap clamp light from a hardware store so you can see what you’re doing.

13. BUY PARCHMENT PAPER.

What else are you going to roast your vegetables on? How else are you going to make quick dinners of fish en papillote?

14. STOCK UP ON SUPER-CHEAP, RANDOM CUTS OF MEAT.

A freezer full of roasted turkey necks and bony beef cuts will ensure you always have what you need to make broth.

15. KEEP YOUR PARMESAN RINDS AND FREEZE THEM FOR LATER.

Remember that thing about super-cheap cuts of meat? Think of rinds as cheese bones.

16. BUY A NEW KITCHEN SPONGE.

Existential question time. If your sponge is filthy and smells, how can you expect it get your dishes clean?

17. PUT THE LID ON THE POT TO MAKE YOUR WATER BOIL FASTER.

Seems obvious, but if you don’t know, now you know.

18. DRY YOUR SALAD GREENS USING A KITCHEN TOWEL.

Salad spinners? So bulky and annoying. Instead, pile your just-washed greens into a clean dish towel, gather it by the ends, and swing that sucker around until your salad is dry (or your arm is tired).

19. SAVE THE SCHMALTZ.

Chicken fat is amazing stuff, whether you’re frying onions in it, sautéing greens in it or spreading it on toast. So after eating your roast chicken dinner, drain the now-cooled liquid fat into a plastic container and store it in your freezer. (Pro tip: This also holds true forbacon fat.)

20. USE A GARBAGE BOWL.

Hat tip to Rachael Ray. Buy a large bowl and keep it at the ready to fill up with egg shells and other trash generated while cooking.

21. BUY A NEW Y PEELER.

Like anecdotes about high school football games, peelers get dull, especially after a couple years. We recommend the Kuhn Rikon Swiss Peeler, which is just seven bucks.

22. FIND THE BIGGEST MIXING BOWL YOU CAN AND BUY IT.

You cannot toss a salad or mix cookies or make meatballs in a tiny cereal bowl. All you can do is make a bigger mess.

23. AVOID EVIL GLASS CUTTING BOARDS.

And they’re all evil. Glass cutting boards send shivers down your spine when you use them. They dull your knives. They’re slippery. And they’re hard to use. Use wood, bamboo or plastic instead.

24. BUY TWO LOAVES OF THAT AWESOME BREAD AND FREEZE ONE.

Bread keeps really well in the freezer. And there are always plenty of uses for it. Just remember: Air is the enemy! Wrap that loaf in foil (sliced or unsliced) and put it in a freezer bag before stashing.

25. STOP CROWDING YOUR PANS.

Food that’s crowded into a cast-iron skillet or sheet tray gets steamed—and soggy—instead of crisp.

26. TOAST YOUR SPICES…

A quick stint in a dry skillet over medium heat wakes dry spices up and releases their oils, which means your paprika will taste a lot more paprika-y. Use whole spices, watch the pan like a hawk, and stir constantly until the spices are fragrant, then transfer to a plate to cool before using.

27. …AND YOUR NUTS.

“These nuts are too crunchy,” said nobody ever.

28. …AND ALSO YOUR GRAINS.

It’s the first step to building roasty, warm flavor. (Using quinoa? Toast it before you rinse it.)

29. SEASON (SOME OF) YOUR VEGETABLES WITH SUGAR.

Carrots, squash, tomatoes—these vegetables have a natural sweetness that’s enhanced by a dash (just a dash!) of sugar.

30. DON’T BE AFRAID TO SET OFF THE SMOKE ALARM.

Especially when cooking meat. Smoke equals char, and char is delicious.

31. PUT A DAMP PAPER OR KITCHEN TOWEL UNDER YOUR CUTTING BOARD.

That way, your board won’t slip around as you chop.

32. WHEN A RECIPE CALLS FOR CHOCOLATE CHIPS, BREAK OUT A BAR OF CHOCOLATE INSTEAD.

Chopping your own chips creates pockets of melty chocolate throughout your cookies—some small, some large, all delicious.

33. SALT YOUR SALADS.

It adds texture. It makes the dressing pop. It’s proof that there’s nothing—nothing—you shouldn’t be salting.

34. COOL YOUR FOOD BEFORE PUTTING IT IN THE FRIDGE OR FREEZER.

If you don’t, the temperature in the refrigerator will rise. And the only thing that benefits is mold.

35. DON’T TOAST YOUR TOAST. FRY IT.

Warm some butter or olive oil over medium-high heat. Lay in bread and fry until golden on both sides. Sell your toaster.

36. BUY YOUR AVOCADOS AT A MEXICAN GROCERY STORE.

Those are the stores that sell them ripe.

37. ALWAYS KEEP LEMONS IN THE FRIDGE.

They’ll keep longer that way, so you’ll always be able to add fresh lemon juice to everything from dressings to cocktails. Plus, you can use the squeezed rinds to clean and deodorize your wooden cutting boards.

38. CARAMELIZE MORE ONIONS THAN YOU NEED TO.

A lot more—you’ll use the extras in omelets and sandwiches; on chicken, steak and pork; in pastas and stews.

39. GET A MICROPLANE.

Sick of shredding your knuckles instead of cheese? Buy a Microplane, which will provide years of shredding power for about $15.

40. SWITCH TO METAL MEASURING CUPS AND SPOONS.

Plastic warps over time, making them less precise.

41. STORE SALAD GREENS IN A RESEALABLE PLASTIC BAG WITH A PAPER TOWEL.

The towel is there to absorb moisture, which keeps your greens crisper, longer.

42. FIND (AND BUY) PROFESSIONAL-GRADE KITCHEN TOWELS.

Oh look, we just found them for you.

43. SOFTEN YOUR BUTTER…

Serving it cold and hard on toast—on anything, really—is the one way to make butter bad. (Need it soft in a hurry? Here are four ways.)

44. …AND MIX SOMETHING INTO IT.

A little shallot, some chopped herbs, maybe some lemon zest—boom. You just made compound butter.

45. MICROFIBER DISH-DRYING MATS ARE BETTER THAN DISH RACKS.

So is a decent dish towel. Who has space for a dish rack?

46. BUY BROWN SUGAR AS YOU NEED IT, IN AS SMALL A QUANTITY AS POSSIBLE.

The stuff just doesn’t keep very long.

47. BUT IF YOUR BROWN SUGAR IS ROCK-HARD, DON’T THROW IT OUT.

Revive it with a minute or so in the microwave.

48. ESTABLISH A SALT BOWL.

Having a stash of salt always within arm’s reach when you’re at the stove is the first step to better seasoner (see tip 57).

49. BAKE PIES IN GLASS PIE PANS.

It heats more evenly than tin, and when your pie is perfectly golden-brown everywhere, you’ll know it.

50. OIL, SALT, ROAST—IN THAT ORDER.

When roasting vegetables, toss them in oil, then season them with salt and pepper and toss again. This way, the seasoning actually sticks to your food.

51. KEEP YOUR VEGETABLE SCRAPS.

Toss fennel fronds, carrot ends and other vegetable scraps into a resealable plastic bag you keep in the freezer. When you reach critical mass, make vegetable stock.

52. MAKE YOUR OWN CROUTONS.

Toss cubed bread on a rimmed baking sheet with oil, salt, pepper and whatever other tasty thing you fancy. Bake at 350, tossing once or twice, until golden brown. Now see if any actually make it to your salad.

53. AIR-DRY YOUR CHICKENS.

After you’ve unwrapped and rinsed your bird, pat it dry, salt it generously, and let it stand in the refrigerator, uncovered, for a few hours before roasting. The bone-dry skin will cook up to a crackly, crunchy, golden brown.

54. PEEL GINGER AND KEEP IT IN THE FREEZER.

Not only will it last longer, it will grate it more easily.

55. MARINATE YOUR CHEESE.

Mozzarella, feta, and fresh goat cheese? Delicious. Mozz, feta and goat cheese marinated in olive oil, chile flakes, and fresh herbs? More delicious.

56. BUY A BETTER ICE CUBE TRAY.

The ice cubes that come out of the dispenser in your fridge? They’re watering down your cocktails. Cubes made in silicone ice trays are denser and keep your Bourbon cold for hours (or, you know, however long it lasts).

57. TASTE—AND SEASON—AT EVERY STAGE OF COOKING.

Because if you wait until the end, it’s probably too late.

LINK

Really nice recipes. Every hour.

Show me what you cooked!

imagine your icon tucking you into bed and reading to you

im having a hard time thinking of poses to draw????? cn you help maybe>???????/

UMM for me it’s easier to come up with poses if I think of my character as doing an ACTION not a pose idk if that makes sense?

So instead of thinking of a fixed pose, I think of an action that my char could be doing e.g eating a piece of pie

it’s easier for me to visualize a pose if there’s some context YEAH

ALSO I like to draw sequences? of a certain action, and then pick the one I like best e.g. if my OC is reading

1) Standard pose > 2 & 3 poses that might follow after if this is moving 

or if they’re frying an egg

 I don’t draw it out in full all the time ofc, sometimes I just draw like really sketchy sequences yeah idk if that makes sense, but it helps me figure out poses besides the most obvious one!

WHEN YOU DON”T KNOW where to put the hands always go back to: WHAT WOULD YOU DO if you’re doing this particular action?? And if all things fail, you can always go to sites like pixelovely for poses

I did some physical therapy for my wrist this year & I haven’t had pain in 3 months now! I thought I’d share some tips I learned. 

YOU NIQQAS WANNA LEARN ELVISH?! HERE YA GO!

I’ve been thinking about making this post for a while, and I finally decided to make it.

At a certain point in my life as a pro-choicer, I discovered something: In order to be intellectually honest in my pro-choice thinking, I had to be willing to look around at all of the people I knew—my family, my friends—and be willing to say, “It would be okay if you had never been born.” And I had to be willing to say the same about myself, too.

And I actually was willing to say this. While my mother was pregnant with me, my father tried to pressure her into an abortion, and you know what I thought when I found out? I thought, “She should have gone through with it.” I was a burden; I made everyone’s lives difficult; I wasn’t worth loving or sacrificing for; I didn’t matter. I had so completely internalized this message about myself that finding out that I had almost been killed in my mother’s womb was no big deal. I mean, hey, it would have saved us all a lot of suffering. The cost-benefit analysis seemed perfectly clear: I just wasn’t worth it.

I wasn’t quite so obviously callous in my estimation of other people’s worth, but, had they asked me if I believed that they mattered in any real way—mattered in some way which did not include some reference to my thoughts or feelings about them—I would have had to say no. I would have had to say, “I am overjoyed that you were born because you have contributed so much to my life, and you make me so happy, and I think you’re wonderful, and look at all of the people who love you, but, ultimately, if you had not been born, it would have been okay. At the end of the day, there is nothing necessary about your existence. You are replaceable.” Those were the consequences of my worldview—the worldview which says that each and every child conceived in his mother’s womb is theoretically disposable; the worldview which can talk about “what you have to offer” and how “useful” you are, but can say nothing about the worth of the “useless.”

And I think our society has done a pretty decent job at living out that vision: the Vision of Replaceability. We don’t just treat the unborn this way. We treat the born this way, too. We give up on our spouses when our marriages stop being “useful” contributions to our lives. We give up on our families when the going gets too tough. We give up on our romantic partners when “the spark is gone.” We give up on our friends when we’re not getting what we “need” from them. We’re a culture of quitters. We love when it’s convenient for us. And people are often inconvenient; they demand our time and attention and care; they’re not perfectly suited to our desires the way objects are. So, we objectify them. We pay attention when it suits us and then tuck them away on a shelf somewhere where we keep the rest of our “toys.”

Is it any wonder that we don’t think that we matter? We’ve never seen it. Is it any wonder that many of us cannot even conceive of true selflessness? That the notion that someone might actually want good things for you and might actually not expect anything in return and might actually not just be doing it because “it feels good to do good things” seems so foreign and strange? Should we be surprised? It’s all we know.

And this is the root of the culture of death. This is where death starts. It doesn’t start in war zones or brothels or abusive homes or abortion clinics or execution chambers. Those are its manifestations, but that’s not where death starts. Death starts with people as things. It starts with “you are only as necessary as you are useful.” It starts with “you are not precious; you are replaceable.”

So, we leave ourselves with no resources when we are truly confronted with death. We have nothing real to offer to the suicidal, the eating disordered, the self-injuring, the depressed, the lonely, the abused. Nothing but empty words. We may say, “You are irreplaceable,” but do we mean it? Do we know what it would mean to truly mean those words? I don’t think we do. Not as long as we see each other as “choices,” as “options” in a sea of options. Not as long as we cannot honestly look one another in the eye and say, “It would not have been okay if you had never been born. You belong alive, and you matter, not because of what you do, but because you are you.” 

And for those of us who call ourselves pro-life, that has to mean something. It has to mean that we see people as people; that we treat them like people; that we love them. Maybe the reason that the pro-choice movement so often accuses us of “only caring about fetuses” isn’t all unwarranted hyperbole; maybe they’re responding to the very real lack of true, genuine, selfless love in our society, and maybe we’re all in that battle together. How on earth are any of us supposed to know that that’s possible—that we could matter in that way—unless someone shows us? That’s where the culture of life starts: the moment when we discover that we’re loved.

A crossover between Portal and Princess Tutu. This was fun! Maybe clean up later?.....Maybe.

I’m taking apart my piano on semi-impulse