My apologies if this is incredibly obvious to you, but this little tip has made my life 10,000 times easier. I hate cleaning up pasta and rice water boil over.

To prevent water from boiling over, place a wooden spoon across the top of the pot. Easy, right?

But what happens when you're making rice and you have to cover the pot? What then?

Well, I cut a bamboo skewer to fit just inside the pan and cover. <em>Voila</em>!