There’s nothing like homegrown vegetables, and there’s no vegetable easier to grow than one that regenerates itself. Onions are one of the easiest and useful vegetable to grow. They provide flavor to many dishes, and can be used clean your grill and soothe bee stings! So there’s no reason not to have a full bed growing in your kitchen at all times.

All you need is an onion, a knife, a cutting board, and dirt. The process is extremely easy, and really just involves putting an old onion bottom in the ground and letting it regenerate its roots—after which you remove the old onion and let those roots grow.

For complete instructions on growing your own onions, check out Instructables.com.

Did you know that the average American throws away 14 percent of food they purchase from the grocery store? Money is something many of us are short on these day and if you can’t afford that kind of waste anymore, you may want to check out some sites that help you use what you’ve got before it goes bad!

Supercook is a site that will pull up easy to do recipes based on what you’ve got on hand. Just type in the ingredients you have around the house and you will be given a list of dishes you can cook based on what you’ve got! You can also narrow your searches down by starters, entrées, and dessert. There are some yummy dishes on there and it makes for a great solution when you can’t decide what to have for dinner.

Visit Supercook.com and get cooking!

As onions are sliced, cells are broken, allowing enzymes called alliinases to break down amino acid sulphoxides and generate sulphenic acids. Sulphenic acids are unstable and spontaneously rearrange into a volatile gas called syn-propanethial-S-oxide. The gas diffuses through the air and eventually reaches the eye, where it binds to sensory neurons, creating a stinging sensation. Tear glands produce tears to dilute and flush out the irritant.

Here are some solutions to avoid shedding tears when cutting onions:

1. Use a small table fan nearby when you cut onions.
2. Keep your onions in the refrigerator.
3. Chop the root end first, since it contains the highest amount of irritants, then you can proceed with the rest.
4. Wear goggles like the swimmers do.
5. Light a couple of candles near the cutting board it will draw the chemicals away.
6. Chop the onions near the cooking flames.
7. Slice through the end and remove the root before you start cutting the onions.
8. Stick a matchstick in the mouth before cutting suggested from southern oldwives methods.
9. Keep the onions cut sides down before cutting, so the juices won’t harm your eyes.
10. Some suggest use white onions only don’t use yellow onions, which is not a practical solution.
11. Put onions in a bowl of water and cut onions there.
12. Use a good knife and well sharpened. Some suggest Japanese cooking knives.
13. Put a spoon in your mouth before cutting onions.

For more tips on cutting onions without crying, check out Yahoo! Answers.

Chocolate-dipped treats are really easy to make and great for the holidays! You can dip just about anything like strawberries, green apples, bananas, grapes and pretzels! Here’s how to achieve gourmet chocolate-dipped treats at home for much less than retail price.

You will need 16 oz of sweet, semi-sweet, bitter sweet, milk and/or white chocolate. I like to use chocolate chips because they’re the easiest to melt but chocolate bars coarsely chopped works too.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate over medium-high heat and stir occasionally until smooth. What is a double boiler you ask? I was pretty lost too without my friend’s help (thanks Mikey!)… A double boiler is a stove top apparatus used to melt chocolate without burning or seizing. It consists of an upper vessel containing the substance to be cooked which is situated above a lower pot of water. I simply used a metal bowl for the chocolate chips over a large pot with steaming water. When brought to a boil, the steam released in the lower pot provides heat against the bottom of the upper one, thus melting the chocolate!

Don’t overheat the chocolate because it will become grainy! Once the chocolate is ready, hold your treats and dip them into the chocolate mixture until they are 3/4 covered. You have to work fast because once the chocolate starts to cool, it’s harder to dip consistently!

Place your treats on a sheet of waxed paper for the chocolate to cool and harden for at least an hour. Have a little fun and sprinkle a little bit of nuts and coconut flakes to dress them up! If you’re really crafty, use a toothpick to paint buttons and a bow tie to create a tuxedo effect. The possibilities are endless!

Shabu-shabu, hot pot, Chinese fondue, steamboat — whatever you call it, its perfect for friends and family to gather around the table and enjoy on a cold winter night. Throw in a little sake or beer and if this isn’t heaven, it’s darn close!

Shabu-shabu is a Japanese style of cooking at the table. The dish is prepared by submerging a very thin slice of meat or a piece of vegetable in a pot of boiling water or broth. Swishing it back and forth several times to cook, the familiar swishing sound is where the dish gets its name because shabu-shabu directly translates to “swish-swish”. Cooked meat and vegetables are usually dipped in ponzu or sesame seed sauce before eating with a bowl of steamed white rice. You can also combine the broth with the remaining rice once the meat and vegetables have been eaten.

My dad and I used to have shabu-shabu nights when I was a kid. He told me that shabu-shabu originated from Chinese hot pot which had origins in the region of Mongolia before the rise of the Mongols. It was rumored to have originated around the 13th century as a way for Genghis Khan to efficiently feed his soldiers.

As a kid, I didn’t know any other family who ate like that. I remember thinking to myself, normal families wouldn’t hoover around a boiling pot and cook their own food, that’s ghetto! It wasn’t until I was invited to a friend’s house to shabu-shabu that I realized this style of cooking was popular with families from any culture.

One of the reasons why I love shabu-shabu is the health factor. What could be better than top quality beef and fresh vegetables swirled through a simmering savory broth? You select exactly what you’d like to eat and the meats are of the highest quality. Plus, all the cooking is done in broth, not oil.

Today, shabu-shabu is the newest trend in dining. Jacqueline Church, author of Beyond Sushi: Shabu Shabu, declares it as “the new sushi”. Shabu-shabu allows family and friends to slow down, cook, eat and spend time together in this ever changing fast-pace lifestyle.

To learn how to cook and eat shabu-shabu, check out About.com: Japanese Food.