Given the background description of some cooking related query, summarize the question into a title

[Q]: Is there any way to tell if an acorn squash is ripe before cutting it open to cook it? I keep getting unripe squash from the grocery store, and I don't know they're unripe until I've cut them open, sadly turning them into compost instead of dinner.
[A]: How can I tell if my acorn squash is ripe before cutting it open?

[Q]: I know it's completely basic, but I've been reading up on alternative ways to make chicken wings (admittedly because I've been trying to find a similar recipe to Korean soy garlic chicken) and I came across this recipe from Momofukufor2.It mentions rendered chicken fat, and I'm not exactly sure what that meant. I'm familiar with twice fried wings, so is this just another way of saying "the oil you cooked the wings the first time around"?
[A]: What is "rendered chicken fat"?

[Q]: I'm making mushroom soup recipe and I'm looking forward to serving it at dinner tomorrow. I have powdered the shitakes, sliced the mushrooms and the wild rice is in the oven now. In order to serve the best possible soup, where should I stop preparation tonight? If I were comfortable with all of the ingredients, I would prepare the soup up to the addition of cream. Unfortunately, I know nothing of wild rice, and how best to hold it. Will it be OK overnight in the fridge? Even better, can I leave the soup (up to the cream addition) on the porch overnight? It's expected to dip 10 degrees F below freezing and stay there until morning.EDIT: My best guess is to add the rice to the soup now, store overnight on the porch, and add the cornstarch slurry, cream and the rest just prior to service. Would the wild rice hold up to that?
[A]:
How to best hold wild rice