23 Genius Summer Kitchen Hacks (23 Photos)

When it's hot out in the summer, spending hours slaving over a hot stove is the last thing anyone wants to do. Social media users have shared some brilliant workarounds—from easy ways to slice watermelon and hull strawberries to keeping ice cream soft and even cooking bacon without dirtying a skillet. Necessity really is the mother of invention!





When it's hot out in the summer, spending hours slaving over a hot stove is the last thing anyone wants to do. Social media users have shared some brilliant workarounds—from easy ways to slice watermelon and hull strawberries to keeping ice cream soft and even cooking bacon without dirtying a skillet. Necessity really is the mother of invention...



To keep your salad greens fresh longer, pop a paper towel inside the container to absorb excess moisture.





An inverted muffin tin makes a perfect taco holder while you assemble them.



Eating watermelon is much easier if you cut it into sticks and put them on skewers like popsicles.



Stick a wooden stick straight through the lid of a fruit yogurt cup and freeze it for an instant homemade ice pop.



To save time, you can bake two pizzas at once by cutting them in half to fit all four halves on a single oven rack.



If you spot veggies on sale or cheap in-season produce at the market, go ahead and stock up. Just slice them, toss them into freezer bags, and freeze them. They’ll keep perfectly, so nothing goes to waste.



To keep your iced coffee from getting watered down, use ice cubes made out of leftover coffee.



Here’s a quick way to peel and scoop a ripe mango using a drinking glass.



To keep cupcake bottoms from getting soggy while baking, put a few grains of uncooked rice at the bottom of each muffin cup slot.



You can easily separate egg yolks from whites using an empty plastic bottle as a suction tool.



To avoid making a mess all over the kitchen, pour your pancake batter into a clean squeeze bottle for easy pouring.



You can cook crispy bacon inside a waffle maker without all the stovetop splatter.



An essential hack: if your butter is frozen solid, cover it with a hot glass to soften it in minutes without melting it.



Craving pancakes? You can actually cook them right on the heating plate of a drip coffee maker.



If your cookies are too wide to dunk into a glass of milk, pour the milk right into one of the empty slots in the cookie packaging tray.



An empty fruit jelly container and a screw-top jar make a great combo for packing a healthy snack on the go instead of relying on vending machines.



If you accidentally added too much liquid to your oatmeal, stir in a teaspoon of chia seeds—it absorbs the excess liquid and makes breakfast extra nutritious.



To avoid bending or snapping your spoon on rock-hard ice cream, seal the tub in a Ziploc bag before putting it in the freezer. Next time, it'll be perfectly scoopable right away.



To cover your sandwich bread evenly with deli meat, all it takes is cutting the round slices the right way.



A sturdy plastic straw is all you need to quickly hull a whole batch of strawberries.



Asparagus stays fresh much longer if you store it in the fridge in a jar of water, just like a bouquet of flowers.



And here is how to make the ultimate ice cream sandwich in seconds.