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If you’ve recently visited the meat department at your local grocery store, you may have noticed packages of chicken labeled “air-chilled.” Costco, Publix, Whole Foods, and many other major supermarkets all carry chicken with this marked description. But what does air-chilled truly mean? Furthermore, why should you care? According to Whole Foods, the air-chilled method to process chicken was predominantly used in Europe as a way to ensure food safety, but now it’s starting to catch on in the U....

Growing up, my grandmother was the queen of dropping little etiquette lessons here and there, until all of her grandchildren knew how to politely decline an invitation, the importance of hand-written thank you notes, and even the best way to avoid gossiping at the hair salon. Out of all of her lessons, one has stuck with me the most. From an early age, she taught me how to introduce myself....

We love ham for so many reasons. The traditional main course of Christmas and Easter dinner, we love our hams tender and sweet with crispy, salty fat, studded with aromatic cloves and drizzled with a golden, brown sugar glaze. Yum…how any more days until Christmas dinner? Holiday hams leave us with another reason why we love them–leftovers. Making ham sandwiches is the typical approach to using up leftover ham, but we also like to stir ham into quiches and breakfast casseroles....

Every Easter, we load up our carts with eggs. We love to decorate eggs with family using everything from Cool Whip to rice to Kool Aid. We even like to do some more elegant egg decorating of our own. Unless you know how to masterfully blow out the contents of an egg through a single pin hole, your hard boiled, eggs won’t last forever. Sometimes, you’re lucky if they make it through just one Easter....

You might think the question of whether or not to return your grocery buggy to the cart corral is cut and dry, an absolute yes for any supermarket shopper. But some might say that’s just not true. It turns out there’s a contingent of commenters on digital conversation boards pertaining to the topic at hand that assert not returning your cart is actually the best way to go. Is it an unpopular opinion?...

Americans just can’t get enough of Labrador retrievers! For the 31st year in a row, the famously friendly canine has topped American Kennel Club’s annual list of most popular dog breeds. “The versatile, family-friendly Labrador retriever has solidified itself as America’s dog,” AKC Executive Secretary Gina DiNardo said in a news release. “With their loving, outgoing personality and eager-to-please attitude, it’s no surprise that the Lab has been able to continue its record-breaking run as the most popular breed in the U....

If you just can’t wait for Mardi Gras this year, you can take an olfactory journey to NOLA right now with the quick light of a candle. Hand-poured in the U.S.A., the Homesick New Orleans Candle is part of a series of candles inspired by cities, states, countries, and memories. The brand Homesick describes the candle with classic city scenes: “The smell of gardenia flowers lining the historic Garden District. King cakes wafting of sweet cinnamon, signaling the Mardi Gras season....

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has done it again! The beloved philanthropist gifted 150 University of Houston fans a free trip to the watch the Cougars compete in the NCAA Final Four for the first time since 1984. In a “Coogs Pep Rally” at his Gallery Furniture store in Houston Thursday morning, McIngvale selected 50 students, 50 fans, and 50 family members of the team’s coaching staff to travel to Indianapolis to cheer on the men’s basketball team....

Founded in 1997 in Hampton, Georgia, the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation and Flying Museum as a way for veterans to remain involved while teaching civilians about the aircraft used in the wars. “It was a vision of an airline entrepreneur and his father, who was a retired Army two-star general,” said Fred Edwards, interim operations manager for the foundation. “They founded [it] to promote army aviation and to support veteran’s causes in a lot of ways....

Dust off your glass slippers and call your fairy godmothers: one of the most iconic productions of Cinderella is coming bibbidi-bobbidi-back to television. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization and Playbill are hosting a watch party featuring the original 1957 live television broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, starring the one and only Julie Andrews, and you’re invited. Mark your calendars. The black-and-white kinescope film of the broadcast will be made available to stream for free on Playbill....

Ah, Pinterest: a rabbit hole of procrastination. The place where we go to dream big. We fancy ourselves pastry chefs and professional crafters only to be let down once we move beyond the inspiration boards and into the kitchen. Things can get real, real fast. You know you’ve seen the hilarious (if not, bless-her-heart warranting) old college tries of which we’re referring. Chances are, you also have a few personal war stories that you chose not to document....

They have more money than Carter has little pills. Wait, what? If you’ve been trying to explain the phrase “more than Carter has little pills” to a confused bystander, or if you’ve been on the other side trying to find answers to an expression that doesn’t make sense to you, let us help. This phrase is a saying that many Southerners know well, which is why we wanted to get to the bottom by sharing the story of Carter and his little pills....

When posed with the hypothetical question, “What would you do with an extra room in your home?” some might dream of a personal sanctuary—a place to meditate, do yoga, binge watch reruns of The Golden Girls without interruption. Others might wish for additional space to house loved ones. Decades ago, it might have simply been a conundrum to incite dinnertime conversation. But, when faced with a pandemic that forced many of us home for work, play, and everything in between, that extra room suddenly seemed a whole lot more necessary....

When Hurricane Laura made landfall last week in Lake Charles, Louisiana, as a category 4 hurricane, it unleashed destruction all around. But there was one thing it could not destroy: The Sallier Oak. This fabled live oak tree, which grows its twisty branches on the grounds of the Imperial Calcasieu Museum in downtown Lake Charles, is said to date back to 1645 at the latest, making it at least 375-years-old. After Hurricane Laura wreaked havoc last week, locals feared the tree might have been damaged in the strongest storm to hit Louisiana since the last island hurricane of 1856....

In the South, we love a steakhouse. Crispy wedge salads are accompanied by the creamiest of spinach dips, and the ribeyes cut like butter, especially when topped with Béarnaise. So, what do all of those classic steakhouse dishes have in common? You can easily make them at home as good as, if not better than, your local steakhouse with the help of a really good spinach dip recipe and these nifty UMai Dry Aging Bags....

Sure, the South is home to mega-churches with 500+ in the choir, theatrical lighting, and professional sound systems. But when we think of a Christmas pageant, it’s the small-town productions that spark memories of childhood—of halos made from silver garland and a manger hammered together by the building committee; of a 12-year-old Mary and Joseph and fidgeting wise men; of live Nativities where the two lowing cattle are a couple of ornery Herefords who sometimes get loose and have to be chased out of the church cemetery....

Southerners love to come together for a family dinner around the table, which always involves good company and plates piled high with dishes like chicken and dumplings, green bean casserole, buttermilk biscuits, and more classics—all to be washed down with a pitcher of cold sweet tea. And when it comes to serving sweet tea or any other sort of Southern beverage or cocktail, lukewarm is nothing less than an abomination. We’re not here to drink a mug of warm chamomile, after all; but we will show up for a tall glass of iced tea to go with any gathering, from porch-sitting to Sunday dinner....

It takes a lot—maybe a historical storm or an invasion of cicadas—for a Southerner to call it quits and retreat from their porch back inside. Porches and outdoor spaces are a year-round perk in states where the temperatures never dip too low, and you can bet they’re used to their full potential. One way these outdoor sanctuaries can improve, however, is by adding a bit of airflow with an outdoor ceiling fan to combat sticky summer temperatures....

Cake for an afternoon pick-me-up. Cake for dessert. Cake for dinner? Given these times, we think we’d allow it. During quarantine life amid the coronavirus outbreak, we will take this baked confection just about any opportunity we can get it, in any form. And hot milk cake—with its delectable vanilla flavor and airy texture—is one such dessert that always hits the spot, preferably with a few heaping handfuls of fresh strawberries on top....

The coronavirus pandemic may have cancelled the cross-country touring of the American Idol judges in search of musical talent, but that doesn’t mean the show’s latest season isn’t going to be as incredible as the traveling rendition of ABC’S hit reality singing competition. “It’s so exciting to be back doing the show at its normal scale,” says host Ryan Seacrest in a recently released trailer for the upcoming 19th season of the show....