How often do you use your strainer? You know, that sieve thing, the wire mesh scoopy thing with the handle. That! Maybe you ended up with one as a wedding gift, maybe you bought it yourself, but it has many great uses. Basically, you can use it to separate larger objects from any liquid or powder/sand substance. And not all of those uses are in the kitchen! Here's nine creative ways to use your strainer/sieve. Note: Most of these ideas are for the larger style sieves, around six inches in diameter.

If the only time you pull out your cheese grater is to grate cheese, you're making your grater sad. It's capable of so much more than shredding cheese! And if you've got one of those old, rusting graters you're almost ready to throw out -- don't. You can still use that, too. You'll never guess all the ways you can hack a cheese grater.

Y'all, Southern Living has a new cookbook and it's all about frying! The Way to Fry is the new bible on frying food -- NOT THAT WE'RE DOING THAT ALL THE TIME. (Wink.) Just, you know, in case once every 300 years or so you want to fry your food, here's a handy guide.

One of the cookbook's authors, Southern Living editor Norman King, was on the radio program Hot Grease recently with his top tips for frying food. I ran for my pen to scribble them down -- then went looking for more deep frying wisdom. Here are 10 tips for frying golden deliciousness.

Call me nerdy, but I really like rice. There's a vast variety of rice out there, with actual flavors and all kind of colors. True story! But rice is so much more than that starchy accompaniments to beans or stir-fry. Rice has all sorts of uses that may surprise you. Join us on an exciting journey through the wonders of rice. Here's 7 things you can do with the grains before you even start cooking them.

I've been cooking dinner as a grownup for more years than I care to say. And I've made just about every mistake you can possibly make. It's one thing if dinner turns to disaster when you're single and childless. But when you have hungry children waiting? Ugh, the worst. I've compiled just a few of the biggest dinner-cooking mistakes I've made. And seriously? This post could have been twice as long. Here's what NOT to do in the kitchen.

I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm running a marathon every morning. I roll out of bed, head to the gym for a 45-minute workout, come back and shower, pack lunches, run my son to the school bus, hop on a crowded subway, and fight midtown pedestrian traffic to the office. And then once I'm there, I write seven blog posts for The Stir. Needless to say, I need some energy to do this. ENERGY.

The morning workout helps, but getting a solid breakfast matters even more. Most of the time I try to eat something with lots of protein and complex carbs -- yes, I said it, CARBS. And I avoid anything too sugary or refined. Here are my favorite easy, high-energy breakfasts.

Back in the 1980s, there was this movie called Mr. Mom in which a full-grown man tends to his own children and maintains his own household. Hilarious high jinks ensue, because men caring for kids and doing housework LOLOLOL! It's a total gas -- if you're living in the stone age, as Hollywood apparently was in 1983. But anyway, one thing, besides the rampant gender stereotypes, stood out for me: The scene where the dad grills a cheese sandwich with an iron. (Out of laziness because the kids are hungry and he's busy ironing his wife's shirts.)

Ever since then I've wanted to try grilling a cheese sandwich with my iron.

Some of you may be asking, "Why on earth would you want to do that?!?" Ugh, why must you ask such boring questions? Because! Science. And because I'm curious. Have you never had a moment of curiosity in your life? It's a lot of fun. You should try it some time. And you should try grilling a sandwich with your iron. Here's how.

As a modern, 21st-century, go-getter mom I have to multi-task a lot. For example, at this very moment I'm composing this post, tending a sick child, doing my kegels, and IMing Kate Middleton baby name ideas (really weird how she's not responding to me). So shouldn't my appliances multi-task, too? That's what I asked my dish-washing machine this morning.

See, it does a fine job of washing the dishes for me. But what I could wash the dishes and cook dinner at the same time using the dishwasher?!? Readers, I made that happen. Check it out.