Even though we stored our brown sugar in a supposedly airtight glass canister, it invariably became rock-hard in a few weeks, its natural high level of moisture evaporating into…well, who knows where it went?

The old “Hints From Heloise” on how to soften brown sugar don’t work if you’re in a hurry. They include putting slices of apple or a slice of fresh bread into the airtight container. In a day or so, the moisture from the apple or bread will infuse into the sugar and soften it.

But if you discover, as you’re making a recipe, that your brown sugar is one big hard lump, you need a fast solution.

We subsequently came across these Terra Cotta Brown Sugar Disks. Soak a disk in water for 15 minutes, then add it to the container of brown sugar. The terra cotta (which is porous, unglazed baked clay) holds moisture, and releases it slowly to keep brown sugar or other foods moist for weeks.

You can pick up a set of Terra Cotta Brown Sugar Disks ($8.99 for three) and give the other two to friends.

Should you happen to have a small piece of terra cotta hanging around, you can try it first. We used a shard from a broken flower pot, wrapping it in cheesecloth to ensure that none of the broken surface would come into contact with the sugar.
  

If you have a kitchen with limited storage space, you’re constrained in the number of pots and pans you can keep.

As petite as it is (five inches in diameter), we would never have thought to buy The Egg Expert, a pan whose unique selling proposition is that it can fry two eggs perfectly.

But when tried this little sweetheart sent to us by the folks from GreenPan USA, we fell in love: It’s the perfect pan for making fried eggs—at least, if you want your eggs to come out perfectly round and pretty.

The ceramic coating (Thermolon) in superb searing and creating crispy surfaces.

The heat distributes evenly, it browns food beautifully. The only caveat: The handle does warm up, so you may need a pot holder.

And it cleaned up more easily than any cookware we’ve ever used. After a dozen sets of eggs were fried, the pan still looks brand-new.

In addition to its cooking prowess, GreenPan environmentally responsible cookware.

 
Discover the whole line at Green-Pan.com.

GreenPan products are available at retailers nationwide (store locator).

One of the most elegant bosses we’ve ever had, an old school gent, drank Bourbon and Ginger Beer* as his cocktail of choice.

In those long-ago days, before the runaway popularity of the white-goods-based† Bloody Mary, Martini and Margarita, most people were either Scotch or Bourbon drinkers. They drank their spirit of choice with soda, with water or on the rocks; those who didn’t really like the flavor of the spirit added the sugar and lemon of sour mix.

Back then, Bourbon and Ginger Beer was stylish and different. And delicious.

So we were happy to receive this cocktail suggestion from Maker’s Mark Bourbon. For baseball season, they’ve renamed the classic Bourbon & Ginger Beer and ported it to a Pilsner glass, called the Ballpark Diamond. Those ice cubes look like big, rough diamonds, don’t they?

And it couldn’t be easier to serve to your friends and refill during the game:

BOURBON & GINGER BEER RECIPE

Ingredients Per Cocktail

1. ADD ice cubes to a tall Pilsner (beer) glass.

2. Pour in 1-1/2 parts of Maker’s Mark and fill to the top with ginger beer. Stir lightly and serve.

You can also mix multiple drinks in the pitcher and keep the pitcher in the fridge or in an ice bucket. But don’t add the ice cubes to the drink until you’re ready to serve.
 

FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE COCKTAIL RECIPES.
*Ginger was brewed in England in the mid-18th century as an alcoholic drink. Today it is invariably a soft drink. Think of it as a stronger version of ginger ale.

†In the liquor industry, “brown goods” are the brown spirits, including bourbon, rum and whiskey. White goods are the clear spirits, such as gin, tequila, vodka.