Spa treatment

Spa treatment
Both rice and dried beans often require long soaks to soften them before cooking. If you're having trouble pouring off the water afterward without losing half your rice, soak it in a fine-holed sieve or colander placed inside a pot of water. Then just pull out the colander when ready to cook.
Popping the cork
Now that New Year's is upon us, we're going to be opening the bubbly. Though the loud pop can be festive, it lets out a lot of the gas, meaning your champagne will go flat more rapidly than otherwise.
Here's how to do it properly:
First, the bottle should be very cold. The colder the bottle, the lower your chances of the wine bubbling over. If necessary, speed-chill the bottle by immersing it in a bowl of salted ice water. We'd recommend against using the freezer; it's too easy to forget you have Champagne in there until you hear the cork pop out, at which point you'll have to clean the whole freezer.
When your Champagne is appropriately cold, remove the foil from the top. There should be a small perforation there to make it easier. Then, untwist the wire cage from atop the cork and remove it. As soon as the cage is taken off the cork, keep your thumb held firmly on top so that it doesn't pop out by accident. Hold the bottle at a 45-degree angle (but don't point it at anyone!) and grab the cork. Rotate the bottle until you feel the cork loosen; if you've done everything right so far, you should hear a gentle exhalation from the bottle, not a violent pop.