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I grew up in a household that normalized semi-extreme coupon clipping. The level of bargain hunting that I was taught was not extreme enough to deserve a TLC special, but sustainable enough to form life-long habits.

Over the years, my mom has expertly honed her ritual of scanning the inserts in the Sunday paper and gingerly snipping (only relevant!) coupons for any upcoming grocery hauls. To this day, my mother does not leave the house without her handy accordion binder organized by category for quick reference and retrieval. If she accidentally forgets it, she will turn the car around. (I truly believe that she has a sixth sense that can tell when her minivan is five pounds lighter.)

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The perfect soft-boiled egg should have firm, custard-like whites and a warm, runny yolk — this is what my host mother taught me when I lived with her family in France for a summer in high school, and it’s still the standard to which I hold my soft-boiled eggs today. An egg like this is just right for scooping daintily from the shell and eating with buttered toast soldiers, an experience that always feels simultaneously sophisticated and happily childlike to me.

Making soft-boiled eggs might feel slightly trickier than hard-boiled eggs, but it’s nothing that can’t be mastered in the space of a Saturday morning! Here’s a step-by-step tutorial to teach you exactly what to do.

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Don’t you just hate it when you’re trying to make a recipe, but halfway through you realize you’re missing a key ingredient? It’s so frustrating. It happens to the best of us, though. Just this week, Alton Brown found himself with a raw steak, but no oil or butter to cook it in. Rather than give up, or drive to the store to get some more, the Good Eats host decided to improvise, and he cooked his steak in mayonnaise instead. Even he seemed surprised.

“I didn’t have any oil or butter so … #mayo #steak,” he writes on Instagram, alongside a photo of a very large, good-looking steak sizzling in a cast iron pan. The steak is indeed slathered with mayonnaise.

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If you’re sticking to a calorie budget, you likely understand the importance of planning and prepping your meals. Starting the week with a fridge full of packed Tupperware can help you stick within your calorie range and prevent mealtimes from being stressful. But picking and choosing the best recipes to prep? Now that’s where things get tricky.

It’s also where we come in. This Power Hour plan is packed with lean proteins, fresh vegetables, and whole grains to create an entire week’s worth of meals that all clock in at 1,500 calories a day or fewer — a common calorie goal for those looking to lose weight or consume fewer calories.

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During everyone’s most-and-least favorite holiday movie, Love, Actually, Prime Minister Hugh Grant lists all of the reasons why he thinks Great Britain deserves that first part of its name: “We may be a small country, but we’re a great one, too,” he said. “The country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter. David Beckham’s right foot. David Beckham’s left foot, come to that.”

That’s a good start, but he somehow failed to mention Britain’s most impressive contribution to world cuisine: the fry-up. (Variations on the always-massive meal are known as the Full English, Full Scottish, or the Full Irish — there’s a theme here — depending on which country you’re ordering one in). Regardless, the most well-known version has to be the Full English, which traditionally includes eggs, rashers of bacon, bangers, black pudding, grilled tomatoes, grilled mushrooms, baked beans, and toast.

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You likely know Shepherd’s pie as a homey, comforting casserole — one that combines a flavorful stew of ground beef, peas, carrots (and sometimes corn) with mountains of creamy mashed potatoes. This skillet version has all those classic components, but takes less than an hour to make and skips the fresh vegetables (and the prep that comes with them) in favor of the frozen kind — letting you focus your efforts on the creamy potatoes.

This Shepherd’s pie is a complete meal in a single skillet, and just the kind of dinner you want to tuck into as the weather cools. Plus, it’s so easy you can make it on a weeknight.

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Potatoes, in all their many colors, shapes, and textures, are one of the most grabbed-for ingredients in our kitchens. From pancakes and casseroles to soups and side dishes, there are few things these tubers can’t do. But before you get scrubbing, peeling, and chopping, you’ve got to sort through the bin at the store to find the best ones.

No matter what kind of potatoes you plan to pick up, there are some universal tips that will help you always pick the best potatoes and store them properly when you get home.

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As you might imagine, professional chefs rely on a lot of fancy-schmancy tools to do their jobs day in and day out. We’re talking immersion circulators, high-performance blenders, flash chillers, vacuum sealers, blow torches, and beyond. But not every gadget that professional chefs swear by has to cost you an arm and a leg (or look like it belongs in a laboratory).

We reached out to 10 chefs to talk about their favorite cheap kitchen tools that they couldn’t live without. Here are their picks which all cost $10 (ish) bucks or less.

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If you watch U.K. mainstay The Great British Bake Off, the reality competition where 10 amateur bakers duke it out to be crowned best baker in the land, there comes a moment where a tiny part of your brain tells you “maybe I could do this.” This usually happens when one of the 10 contestants makes a rookie mistake and confuses a stroopwafel for a caramel cookie during a technical challenge. But then, when you see the remaining bakers all creating a perfect complex dessert like an entremet or a blancmange, you’re sent back to earth.

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I really dislike artificial fragrances, especially those plug-in types of air fresheners that are full of chemicals. Give me essential oils any day. However, many of the nicer reed diffusers are also pretty pricey. Paying $20 or $30 for a store-bought one seems rather silly when many of us have the raw materials to make our own lying around the house.

Here’s how to DIY a reed diffuser for a hit of natural aromatherapy at home.

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