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There’s no doubt that Southerners love Publix, the grocery store who aspires to live by their motto of “Where Shopping is a Pleasure”. The Lakeland, Florida-based grocery chain is beloved for its fried chicken, freshly-baked French bread, pre-made Key lime pies, and well-stocked deli. However, when Publix discontinues some of those favorite items, it can feel like that love is not reciprocated. While Orlando Weekly joked that Publix had discontinued their Pub Subs as an April Fools’ Joke, the grocery chain has cut items that folks really love and now miss....

Faithful reader, Helen, asks, “How do I keep the squirrels from digging up and eating my newly planted bulbs? Those bulbs were expensive!” The simplest solution, replies Grumpy, is to plant bulbs that squirrels won’t eat. You have more choices than you might think. For example, daffodil bulbs are poisonous to squirrels, voles, mice, and other rodents. None will eat them. As an added bonus, deer won’t eat them either. That’s why I’m so proud of this daffodil-hellebore combination in my front garden, show above....

Run, don’t walk to the nearest Aldi to snag a great deal on a sought-after houseplant. Normally costly investments, fiddle leaf fig trees are prized for their lush leaves and ability to make a statement. While you’d usually have to fork over close to $100 to get your hands on one, Aldi is currently offering the popular plant for just $12.99. The fiddles in question come in 10-inch textured plastic pots, which are available in white and brown....

So you don’t know what to make for dinner tonight, and you haven’t made it to the grocery store just yet this week. No problem—there’s always a pack of chicken breasts stashed in the freezer precisely for times like these. You take the chicken out to thaw in the morning, but the day gets the best of you. By the time dinner rolls around, you’re too exhausted to cook. Takeout to the rescue!...

It’s brightly colored. It blooms nearly continuously. It likes the shade. It’s easy to grow both indoors and outdoors. But I doubt you’ve grown it, because hardly anyone has. Its name is crossandra. Why don’t people know it? Maybe it’s because some people call it firecracker flower, not to be confused with firecracker plant. Maybe it’s because of its tongue-twisting, botanical name—Crossandra infundibuliformis. Or just maybe it’s because I inexplicably left it out of the New Southern Living Garden Book....

Country duo Dan + Shay shared an unforgettable moment with a young fan in Kansas City, Missouri, over the weekend. The musicians recalled noticing “a lil guy in the front row” holding an eye-catching sign while there were performing at T-Mobile Center on Sunday. The young boy was reportedly holding a sign that said, “I should probably go to bed…but I’ve waited 14,016 hours for my first concert,” in a clever nod to their song “I Should Probably Go to Bed” and the year-and-a-half wait for tours to resume due to the coronavirus pandemic....

In June 2018, Morgan Resha’s husband Michael, a U.S. Army Ranger, was deployed to Afghanistan. It was just a few months after their wedding, and the newlyweds took solace in the fact that they could stay in touch online. Or so they thought. To access the free internet service at Bagram Air Base, Michael and a couple thousand other soldiers all relied on the MRW (morale, recreation and welfare) room, a small common area with no privacy and an unbearably slow Wi-Fi connection....

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where North America’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge gets into the holiday spirit as part of the annual “Lights Over Gatlinburg” event in Gatlinburg SkyLift Park. Starting in mid-November, guests can trek across the 680-foot bridge that’s been transformed into a tunnel of vibrant lights stretching out above the glimmering town below. Visitors who come to the park at night can cross the SkyBridge through a tunnel of lights, see lighted trees sparkling along the new SkyTrail, and take advantage of photo opportunities with a massive 30-foot tree and more than 60,000 twinkling lights....

You don’t have to tell us twice how great biscuits and jam are together—we named our podcast after the unforgettable duo. But we know we’re certainly not the only people that love, make, and adore good biscuits and jam, jelly, or preserves (or even cane syrup). Two iconic Nashville brands, Loveless Cafe and Goo Goo Cluster, have turned their adoration of the breakfast bread and sweet spread into a new candy....

We’d like to interrupt your regularly scheduled evening programming on this Saturday, February 27 (hello, Hallmark movie) to alert to tune into something very special: a live Opry broadcast to benefit Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks and more than 60,000 food pantries across the country. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and severe weather throughout the South last week, the need for food assistance has escalated, and the broadcast will work to raise both money and awareness of the issue....

It is finally autumn, and you will soon be purchasing crisp juicy apples from farmers’ markets and u-pick farms. Just as you did with seasonal summer produce, you will probably buy too much and will be left wondering what to do with all that beautiful fruit. Use them in an apple crisp, one of the easiest fall desserts to bake. Digging into that sweet-tart, cinnamon-flavored apple filling sprinkled with a crunchy topping is one of the joys of fall baking....

We ask a lot of our ovens. Bake 5 dozen cookies for the school bake sale. Roast chicken for the entire family on a busy weeknight. Show up for us on Thanksgiving for practically 48 hours straight. For all we put them through, our ovens ask little in return. Compared to my countertops that get wiped down multiple times daily, my oven gets very little love. I realized this when I opened the oven door this week to find last week’s casserole cheese mingling with the remains of a rouge asparagus that managed to jump off the pan at some point....

Welcome back to the Farm Stand, your weekly guide to seasonal Southern produce. In something of a Red Sox-style comeback, turnips, the root vegetable that once moved Scarlett O’Hara with clenched fist to shout to the heavens “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again” have not only solidified themselves as a Southern symbol of resourcefulness, but also as a favorite ingredient of the South’s most revered chefs....

Do you remember the first time you tasted a blueberry? I do. I was 5 and held Maw Maw’s hand after supper as we walked past the fence to her blueberry bushes. The warm wet of a North Alabama summer surrounded us (along with countless fireflies). She plucked a fat purple berry for me to eat and the juicy flavor got my attention. Then she handed me a green one and I ate it unsuspectingly—I never trusted a green blueberry again, and she set off on her picking....

Attention bakers: You’re likely storing your flour wrong. If you’re anything like most, you’re probably keeping your bag of flour rolled up in its packaging, tucked into a kitchen cabinet or perched on a shelf in your pantry. It may be time to rethink that MO, especially if the flour in question is whole wheat. WATCH: Perfectly Measured Flour So what’s a pancake-lovin’ guy or gal to do? Place your flour in a tightly-sealed container....

Matthew McConaughey is a Texan, alright, who loves his homeplace through and through. And he wants his co-stars Hugh Grant and Charlie Hunnam, from his new movie, The Gentlemen, to know it—and maybe pick up a helpful Southern expression or two along the way. Recently, Vanity Fair gathered the three stars together to talk shop in their native tongues, and the results were hilarious. The trio learned words from Hugh Grant’s British vocabulary, Charlie Hunnam’s Geordie (northeastern England) dialect, and Matthew McConaughey’s Texas vernacular....

Among the many miracles my mom pulled off throughout my childhood was fixing us a hot breakfast nearly every morning, school days included. On my favorite mornings (save for the special occasions she’d make almond-butter-stuffed French toast), my groggy-eyed sisters and I would come down the stairs to a steaming pot of stone-ground yellow grits. My mom always made a little more than we’d eat, and instead of saving the leftovers in a Tupperware, she’d pour them into short plastic tumblers, cover them with cellophane wrap, and refrigerate them....

Springtime is prime jelly bean season, and according to CandyStore.com, America has a new favorite flavor. Using a decade of data and polls reaching over 12,000 people, the site has ascertained America’s favorite jelly bean flavors, including the bean that has taken the top spot. This year, buttered popcorn is the clear winner and has pushed last year’s favorite, black licorice, to the number two spot. At CandyStore.com, you can also see a map of America’s favorite jelly bean flavors by state....

The kitchen might be the hero of every house, but after spending an unprecedented amount of time cooking over the past two years, it might be in desperate need of a room refresh. Problem is, you may not have the time, energy, or funds to invest in new appliances or replace your backsplash. But, if you’re looking for a budget-conscious way to make a maximum visual impact, you might want to consider adding some open shelving to your space....

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to upend daily life around the world, even the Royal Family isn’t immune to the virus tossing plans out the window. A British tradition since the 17th century, Trooping of the Colour honors the British Sovereign with a military ceremony and accompanying parade. Like countless other events around the globe, the birthday salute is going to look quite different this year. (Though Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday is typically honored on the second Saturday in June, her actual birth date is April 21st....