You know that every few months I love to find really good hacks for you guys and share them. I found several good ones I learned about recently that I thought were perfect for summertime. We are talking about grilling food, light summer salads, 

Turn your gas grill into a smoker

I don’t know if you have had the pleasure of watching videos from “everyone’s favorite grandma on Instagram”, @BrunchWithBabs, who has all kinds of tips and tricks and is an energetic, adorable woman with a New York accent. In one of her Instagram videos, she shared how every summer she will make a beer can chicken on the grill for her husband on her gas grill. However, she likes to give it the smoky flavor we all know and love by creating her own kind of DIY smoker. Here is how Babs turns her gas grill into a smoker:

1. Pick up a bag of wood chips at your local hardware store. They come in a variety of flavors.
2. Pour the wood chips in a big bowl and cover with water.
3. Let the wood chips soak for an hour then drain the water and put the wood chips in a disposable aluminum or other metal pan.
4. Cover with aluminum foil and poke lots of holes in the top for the smoke to escape.
5. Place your smoker box on the bottom rack of your cold grill. Light all the burners and turn to high, cover and heat until the chips are smoking heavily and you see blue smoke. 
6. When blue smoke appears from the grill you are ready to smoke. Open the grill and scrape the cooking grate clean with a grill brush. 
7. Turn the primary burner down to medium and turn off the other burner(s) and it’s time to smoke your food! 

Easy hack for no-peel eggs

If you are someone who loves hard-boiled eggs but finds them a bit of a pain in the rear to make, there is an easier way you can achieve this same kind of egg without all the fuss. Did you know that you can actually bake cracked eggs and they end up almost exactly the same texture as hard-boiled eggs. You can chop them up and you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference. Actually you might be able to because with this method, you won’t have that gray ring around the yolk you sometimes get when boiling them, or the crumbly yolks you sometimes get. What a dream!

To bake your “no-peel eggs”, start by greasing a loaf pan with oil on a paper towel. Crack the eggs into the loaf pan and place the loaf pan into a 9x13 baking dish. Fill the 9x13 pan with water for the water line to be the same height as the eggs. Place the large baking 

Easy Hack for Juicy burgers

Mix together 1 tablespoon of beef stock and ½ teaspoon A1 steak sauce and put into an ice cube tray. When the ice is set, pop out an ice cube, form your burger patty around the ice cube, season to your liking and grill until done. The ice cube not only brings moisture so your burger doesn’t get overcooked and dry while grilling, but also brings a lot of flavor as well. 

Removing the core of a head of lettuce

To get the core easily out of a head of lettuce for all your summer salads, simply bang it on the countertop really hard with the core side down and it will pop right down into the head of the lettuce, where you can easily pull that core right out.

Have you tried any of these hacks before? Please feel free to share any other little tips or tricks you might have for us if these tips made you think of any other little hacks that might make our lives just a little easier and summer foods more tasty.