We've shown you some great tricks for hard-boiling eggs over the years, so now it's time to hone your soft-boiling skills. Check out how to soft-boil a perfect egg.

Unless you are some sort of hyper-organised Kondo type, it is likely your kitchen has a "junk drawer" and, among the tomato sauce packets, that there are a few pairs of chopsticks in there. It's time to fish them out, friends, for chopsticks are an infinitely useful kitchen tool that can be used in almost every stage of making a meal.

Hello, and welcome back to Will It Casserole?, the column where I take your delicious concepts and re-imagine them as delicious casserole creations. This week we are finally making the burrito casserole suggested by one very clever commenter, and we are the better for it.

Mashed potatoes are one of those seemingly simple dishes that can go wrong in a myriad of ways. Without proper care, they can turn lumpy, gluey and bland. There are, however, steps you can take and pitfalls you can avoid to ensure your mashers come out smooth, velvety and delightfully fluffy.

Chicken wings are often a near-mandatory menu item for social gatherings, but they're finicky - never quite right from the oven, with disappointingly soggy skin. One methodical foodie has found the perfect home-cooked solution: an overnight baking powder bath.

Similar to rollerblading, cooking is not something everyone has a knack for. Also like rollerblading, cooking is something that one can learn, and a big part of learning is practice. They say fortune favours the bold, and taking on intimidating challenges will make you a better cook. (This is where I find cooking and rollerblading to diverge, as I once bruised my tailbone severely with bold rollerblading.)

Peeling hard-boiled eggs can be nightmare if you don't cook them right or try to pick off the shell piece by tiny piece. A quick shake in a partially water-filled glass can do the deed cleanly in a matter of seconds.

What's the deal with white onions? I don't think I've ever seen a recipe that explicitly called for them. And yet there they are, in every Aussie supermarket. How are they different? What do people use them for? What is the meaning of life?

The following infographic from MyFood Blog has all the answers you're looking for. (Well, maybe not the last one.)

My favourite part of of interviewing people for How I Eat is bullying them into showing me the inside of their fridge, but my second favourite part is getting delicious advice on how to eat, drink, and live. Choosing my favourite excerpts from each interview was quite a challenge and—though I think I chose well—you should definitely read every interview in its entirety (trust me, it will help you start the new year out right).

Despite its name, the rice cooker is not a single-minded kitchen unitasker. Sure, it is the easiest way to make perfect rice, but it's also a convenient way to cook a wide variety of foods. Here are a few examples that might just convince you to invest in a rice cooker or use yours more often.

I dread cooking with onions. Like many others, doing so makes me weep uncontrollable, stinging tears of frustration. So in a moment of insanity, I decided to test the numerous tricks we’ve posted over the years to tame these tear-jerkers. Here’s what I found.

An over-easy egg on toast is one of my favourite simple breakfasts, but these eggs are equally at home atop a bed of rice, a burger, or even a piece of pizza. Hitting that sweet spot where the whites are fully cooked but the yolk is still nice and runny isn't difficult -- you just have to know what you're doing.

Since they're cheap and come in bulk, we tend to waste a lot of vegetables and herbs in the kitchen. If you'd prefer to cut down on that a bit, some kitchen staples are dead simple to regrow and don't need a full-blown garden. In fact, these ones don't even require dirt.

If there is one kitchen tool that can improve the quality and consistency of your cooking, it's the digital scale. Unlike measuring things by volume, weighing out your ingredients eliminates any doubt you may have about whether you're "doing it right."

Every home baker wants a stand mixer, and they often go on sale just in time for holiday gift-giving. If you’re committed to buying one for yourself or someone you love this year, don’t default to the cheapest Kitchenaid on Amazon. Depending on your needs, a vintage mixer might actually be a better choice.

Naan, kulcha and other oven-baked flatbreads are delicious, but to get them you usually have to go out or order delivery from a spot with a nice tandoor oven. If you have even a little backyard or patio space, you can make your own with a bucket, some terracotta pots, some charcoal and a little elbow grease. You'll have the inside of your backyard tandoor oven covered in baking bread in no time.

Everyone who eats chicken loves a boneless, skinless thigh. Juicy, tender, and well suited to everything from flash-frying to slow braising, they’re the perfect cut for just about any recipe. But all this is common knowledge by now, which means boneless thighs aren’t the budget-friendly hack they were even a few years ago.

Choreographing a lavish meal is a high-pressure project to say the least, and when you’re juggling a dozen-odd dishes, every square inch of stove and oven space is precious real estate. A microwave oven can streamline even the most ambitious prep schedule, as long as you make good choices — some foods just aren’t meant to be zapped.

The difference between restaurant food and homemade is widest when extreme heat is required. Commercial ovens are designed to reach the high temperatures needed for blistered pizza and crusty artisan bread; home ovens just aren’t. But even if you’ve got an ancient, wimpy rental, clever rack positioning can trick your oven into acting hotter than it is.