You know that horrible feeling. That moment when you realize you (or your partner or roommate or child) forgot to take something out of the fridge for dinner. Much worse if that thing was supposed to be taken out of the freezer the night before. We've all been there and we're all fools to our own absentmindedness or other circumstances beyond our control. Here I'm going to lay out some simple tricks to make things that are icy melted from the back of whatever frozen hell they were currently visiting.
While it is very tempting to go visit the microwave for this one, I have found that the best method is a bit slow, but it works without fail: hot water. Just water from the tap being poured on the frozen item or in a container that the frozen item is in, aiming the water onto the coldest part seems to thaw with ease. It may take a bit (10-30 minutes, depends on how cold we're talking, how thick the item, and a few other factors), so this is the time to prep anything else you need to do for dinner (like, in my case, that pile of dishes in the corner that could use some love).
Yet do not just forget it, the biggest way to make sure it actually thaws is to replace the water as it gets cold. See, there is this beautiful concept called “thermal equilibrium” which states that if you have two things of different temperatures touching, they will try to become the same temperature (ie, hot thing tries to cool while cold thing tries to heat up). Because of this, if you just leave the hot water and the frozen food chilling out together, they water will eventually cool enough to slow down the thawing process. So, if you want to make the thawing process go faster, replace the colder water with some fresh hot water every few minutes.
Another thawing trick to note is the one I have had trouble with since I was a kid: ice cream. That stuff is so good but it tends to turn into an ice brick after a while in those containers. When it starts to feel like you'll bend the spoon even attempting to get in, get yourself a metal spoon and run it under hot water for about a minute. Metal (especially stainless steel), as we all learned in science class, is an amazing conductor of heat, and will easily begin to melt the ice cream, parting the seas of sweetness.
One final thawing note is melting butter. This is where you do want your friend the microwave most times but what do you do if your microwave is busy or you don't have one with you? Heat up a glass with hot water until its warm to the touch and then empty it, putting the butter inside the glass. It will take a lot longer than the 30 seconds that a microwave can pull off, but it's better than staring at butter for hours waiting for it to melt. If you really wish to speed it up, feel free to (carefully so you don't lose your butter!) run hot water along the side of the glass. Also, if you need to soften butter, one thing I've found works is to hold the (wrapped in paper!) butter in your hands. As long as you don't get the butter on your hands, it works and I've done it this way once or twice for cookies whose butter I accidentally left in the fridge.
So those are my tricks for thawing out the coldest of items (not including myself during a Michigan Winter). If you have any other ideas of how to heat things up in the kitchen in a pinch, feel free to post your ideas down below. This is by no means an exhaustive list but it is a guide of things I know work as opposed to things that may work that I haven't even tested.