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Recently a friend gave me two dozen eggs from her homegrown chickens. Since farm fresh eggs are one of life's little pleasures, I didn't want to waste any part of these eggs. I also wanted to do more with the eggs than eat them fried.

I wound up preparing a pavlova, a dessert that requires egg whites to create a fluffy and marshmallowy meringue. However, I couldn't throw away the precious yolks, so I came up with five ways to use them. Find out what they are after the break.

Eye-catching and almost sculptural, bundt cakes are a beauty to behold when unmolded from their pans unscathed. Unfortunately, if the correct precautions aren't taken, what makes these cakes so visually appealing — their intricate ridges and valleys — can be a downfall. Thankfully, with a little know-how, this problem becomes a nuisance of the past.

• While we understand the appeal of a vintage bundt pan, generally these are best relegated as kitchen decor, as most are thin, don't promote heat evenly, and are less likely to unmold cleanly. Use these at your own risk, and take extra care with pan prep. Our favorite pan is sturdy and has a light-colored (for less-intense browning) nonstick coating for added insurance, though other options will work as well.
• Brush the entire interior of the pan (get into those nooks and crannies!) with a thin coat of melted butter. To make sure you didn't miss a spot, examine the pan under a bright light, which will reflect off the butter's sheen and highlight any ungreased areas.

Keep reading for three more easy steps.

If you follow the cooking instructions scribed across the box or bag of quinoa, then chances are you're doing it wrong. Though nutty, toothsome, and all-around lovely when steamed properly, cooked quinoa can often fall short, resulting in a mushy, mealy, or even unpalatably bitter mess. Avoid these problems with a few easy steps.

1. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, thoroughly rinse the quinoa. Most quinoa sold is "prerinsed" but could use some extra help to ensure that all of the naturally occurring, bitter, soapy-tasting coating present on all unprocessed quinoa is washed away. Add the uncooked quinoa to a fine mesh strainer, and rinse it under cool water until all the kernels are dampened.
3. Add the rinsed quinoa to the boiling water and cook for 6-8 minutes, or until the quinoa is just barely al dente. Strain it using a fine-mesh strainer.
4. Add an inch of water to the quinoa pot, set the fine-mesh strainer (with the cooked quinoa still in it) inside the pot; make sure the quinoa doesn't touch the water. Cover with a dish towel and the pot's lid, turn the heat up to high, and steam for 3-5 minutes, or until the quinoa is tender and no longer waterlogged.
5. Turn the quinoa out into a bowl, fluff it up with a fork, and use as desired in any recipe.

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.

When building salads, it's far too easy to get stuck in a rut. You know what works, buy the same ingredients, and inevitably eat green leaf lettuce with black olives, sliced tomatoes, and shredded carrots everyday. However, with a little creativity and an open mind at the grocery store, you can enjoy a fabulous variety of healthful yet crave-worthy salads on a regular basis. To get inspired, take a walk around the produce section and be inspired by the vegetables and fruits you come across. Try a new lettuce or pick up a veggie you're unfamiliar with. Just remember: from crunchy to creamy to crispy, a good salad has an assortment of textures (and colors). Here are a few ways to shake things up in the salad department.

Filling Proteins

• Think beyond grilled chicken: Sliced steak, chunks of pork, and flaked fish are excellent additions. Deli meats, like salami, ham, and turkey are easily shreddable, too.
• Don't forget cheese and nuts:To achieve the aforementioned crunchy and creamy textures, toss in goat or feta cheese and almonds or pine nuts. Hard cheeses, like manchego and parmesan, can be shaved onto the salad, or finely grated into the vinaigrette.
• Grains are all important: Protein-rich grains like quinoa, brown rice, and barley add vegan heft to greens.
• Repurpose leftovers: Toss leftover vegetables, grains, and proteins with greens the next day to make a one-of-a-kind salad.

See more salad-making ideas.

Summer travel is around the corner. Are you planning to drown yourself in love, wine, and delicious California cuisine in wine country? Looking to escape to New York to find the beauty in the urban jungle and each other? Maybe you're setting out to sea or have designs for the ultimate romantic getaway to Paris. No matter where you are headed, you'll want to keep fighting at bay. To see four common travel pitfalls that every couple faces and solutions to help you avoid them, just keep reading.

Wasting food in general is frustrating but particularly irksome when working with precious and pricey asparagus. Fed up with throwing away nearly half the snappy stalks in the name of more palatable results, I was thrilled to find a simple solution from food scientist Harold McGee. After prepping asparagus per usual, reserve the woody ends; much more can be utilized than conventional wisdom suggests.

How to Salvage Asparagus Ends

• Trim away the last inch of irretrievably dried-out, extra-woody ends.
• Slice the remainder of the asparagus ends into thin (between 1/8- and 1/4-inch) coins. Slicing these less-tender parts breaks up the fibrous grain, much like thinly slicing celery; the coins become nearly as tender as the tips.
• Sauté, steam, blanch, roast, or even serve the coins raw as part of a salad. They can be used in nearly any application one would use the tips; just make certain to reduce their cook time, if heating them at all.