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Homemade mayo offers flavor and texture unmatched by the store-bought stuff. It’s also a finicky sauce that requires a perfect emulsion. Who knew an immersion circulator would help you make mayo so easy and delicious, you’ll never buy the jar again?

I don’t have a dishwasher right now. My last apartment did, though, and I honestly don’t know how I would’ve maintained my sanity without it. While I currently live in a two-person household, in my last apartment, there was me—a person who cooks a lot—and three twentysomething guys who ate about five meals a day. There were a lot of dirty dishes in that kitchen.

Among all the pointless holiday-related superstitions, the breaking of the wishbone ranks up with the best of the bunch. While the idea that whoever ends up with the larger piece of a dead bird’s furcula will be granted a wish is inherently ridiculous, everyone knows this battle for the larger half of bone is about far more than any unlikely wish fulfillment.

Potatoes are great, especially in the morning. Yum yum, potatoes: You are the president of breakfast. Feel good now, potatoes? OK great, but take a break because it's time for pumpkin to have a turn in the spotlight, and not just in the form of pies, muffins, and pastries.

You’re familiar with vanilla extract; in fact, a teaspoon or so is required in most breakfast bakes. But have you ever widened your extract experience to other flavors? Unlike vanilla (a flavor we’re now accustomed to tasting in everything), a spoonful of almond, orange, or mint extract actually contributes to the flavor of a finished dish.

Prosciutto is a type of Italian dry-cured ham that seems hardy. After all, prosciutto is made by salting a leg of ham then hanging it up in a dark room, unrefrigerated, for months until it's dried out and turns into the salty, complex cured meat you know and love.