Posts

The resurgence of popular beauty looks of decades past—including the original claw clip and its current grip on the younger generation—comes at no surprise to those who grew up watching their mothers and grandmothers apply makeup or hot rollers in the bathroom mirror. You simply can never top the nostalgia that came with every spritz of hair spray or swipe of lipstick. Similarly, the nail trend that’s been taking over salons everywhere might appear quite familiar to some....

A fire has claimed one of Stiltsville’s few remaining homes. Flames consumed the Leshaw House, one of seven homes the make up the historic community of elevated houses built in the middle of Miami’s Biscayne Bay, early Monday morning. Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze within 10 minutes, but not before the iconic home was destroyed. “It was made of mostly wood on concrete pilings,” Lt. Pete Sanchez, a Miami Fire Rescue spokesman, told the Miami Herald....

At seven feet wide and approximately 25 feet deep, the tiny bright blue home at 523 Queen Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia is the narrowest house in America. With just 325 square feet between its two stories, the historic Hollensbury Spite House may look cute, but its origins are anything but sweet. Built in 1830 by the owner of the two adjacent houses, local brickmaker and city council member, John Hollensbury, the miniscule residence was intended to keep horse-drawn wagons and boisterous loiterers out of his alley....

Think of baking a layer cake like a construction job. The cake layers are the wood, the foundation of the project; the icing is the spackle, the glue that holds everything together. Icing a cake is much more than just adding a pretty decoration. In addition to providing a smooth, clean finish, icing also ensures that your layer cake remains sturdy and structurally sound. Sure, you can get fancy with flowers and ruffles, but this technique for how to frost a smooth-sided cake provides a basic foundation for constructing a great layer cake....

When it comes to fall cocktails, cider is often the star of the show. A simple mix of apple cider and bourbon will warm you right up on a chilly night. But if you’re having a dinner party, hosting a special brunch, or managing the Thanksgiving meal and want to get a little fancy with your apple cider cocktail, we’ve got just the thing: Meet the Apple Cider Mimosa. To make an Apple Cider Mimosa, simply swap apple cider for the usual orange juice and pour the same ratio you would with a mimosa....

As a child, I didn’t care much for salad (or anything green, for that matter), but any time my mom pulled out her salad spinner, it was met with squeals of delight. A former kindergarten teacher, my mom is endlessly creative and resourceful, and she entertained us with all kinds of homespun craft projects when we were young. And whenever she got out the salad spinner, it meant it was time to paint....

We love to involve our precious dogs in our holiday celebrations. When Thanksgiving rolls around, we’re thinking about how our dogs can participate in the feast (hint: keep Fido away from the pumpkin pie), and Easter is no exception. Some families dress their dogs up in bunny ears, but why not plan a more interactive activity to share with your dog? Easter egg hunts are already one of our favorite holiday rituals—and now we have a way for you to get Fido in on the fun....

Here’s a question for you: After you make your favorite foil dinner, what do you do with the foil? Do you throw it in the trash? Or do you recycle it? We all try to do the right thing for the planet, but sometimes it’s hard to know what the right thing is, especially when it comes to aluminum foil. While aluminum cans are almost universally accepted in recycling bins, foil is a bit tricky....

Veteran television journalist Katie Couric has reportedly signed on to host Jeopardy! for a week. According to the Los Angeles Times, Couric, who co-anchored NBC’s Today for 15 years, will be among the first to take the reins of the gameshow following the death of longtime host Alex Trebek. Trebek, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer on November 8, taped his final episodes in October. The last of the beloved host’s episodes will air this evening....

In April, as the coronavirus pandemic raged, Rhiannon Menn found herself feeling helpless. “There were so many moms that I knew who had lost childcare, who had lost jobs. They were just feeling stressed out,” the San Diego mom told Today. “And so literally one day, I was just like, I’m gonna make extra meals.” Before long, Menn’s effort to comfort members of her community had grown into something much larger....

Shackleford Banks has gone to the ladies. According to a 2020 annual report by National Parks Service officials with Cape Lookout National Seashore and the Foundation for Shackleford Horses, the majority of the wild horses that roam the thin, eight-mile island are female. The report states that of the 117 horses that called the barrier island home in 2020, 62% were female and 38% were male. “Part of the reason that there are more females is that some females are living longer,” the report explains....

Certain etiquette rules are timeless. Handwriting thank you notes, sending prompt RSVPs, and saying “please” and “thank you” will never go out of style. Other lessons become outdated, as evidenced by our 1972 Party Cookbook: “A thoughtful hostess always provides filter and non-filter cigarettes in several convenient places throughout the room.” And of course, some etiquette edicts must evolve with the times. The digital age has ushered in an entirely new set of manners conundrums....

In a year unlike any other in modern memory, people spent a lot of time indoors and cooking with the Google search history to prove it. The search engine just released its Year in Search for 2020, which includes the most-searched-for recipes of the year. It should come as no surprise that topping the list is sourdough. As stay-at-home orders dragged on and people found themselves stuck at home with enough time to learn the secrets of a happy sourdough starter....

One Florida brewery has gone to the dogs—in a good way. Motorworks Brewing in Bradenton, Florida is making headlines following the release of a special four-pack of beers featuring adoptable dogs from a local animal shelter. The Tampa-area brewery introduced the Adoptable Dog Cruiser Kölsch 4-Pack at its January “Yappy Hour” last weekend—a monthly event to raise funds for local animal charities—to overwhelming support from the community. Proceeds were donated to Shelter Manatee to “help build the new shelter for our less fortunate four-legged friends....

My mother, Kent, grew up in a small town in South Carolina, but she was born in 1948 in distant Hawaii, where her parents lived when they were newlyweds and where my grandmother stayed while her husband traveled even farther afield during World War II. When my mother served anything with pineapple, my young mind assumed it was because of her glamorous Hawaiian origins. Mom didn’t love cooking and minimized her time in the kitchen accordingly....

Hendersonville, North Carolina, is a great mountain town situated south of Asheville and just north of the South Carolina state line. Like so many of our favorite North Carolina towns, it’s surrounded by forests—Dupont State Forest, Pisgah National Forest, Green River Game Lands—and, as you would expect, has all manner of outdoor activities, overlooks, and hiking trails to go along with them. Hendersonville also has a first-rate downtown with museums, shops, and restaurants to enliven a weekend trip....

“Steak without salt is sacrilege,” says Aaron Franklin, owner of Austin’s ever-popular restaurant Franklin Barbecue. Franklin is a bonafide expert on meat and has a slew of awards and fans all over the world to prove it. In his latest cookbook, Franklin Steak: Dry-Aged. Live-Fired. Pure Beef, he goes deep on every aspect of preparing a great steak, including seasoning, one of the most important parts of the cooking process. He writes: “When applied in the proper amount, salt should never cause you to say, “Oh, this tastes salty....

Everglades National Park is a wetlands preserve set on 1.5 million acres of South Florida wilderness. The enormity of the park’s ecology is stunning. It’s the country’s largest subtropical wilderness, and it’s recognized globally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s also noted as an International Biosphere Reserve and a Wetland of International Importance. Ready to plan a visit? According to the National Parks Service, “Everglades National Park protects an unparalleled landscape that provides important habitat for numerous rare and endangered species....

When Thanksgiving rolls around, Americans love to dish about the essential sides that make up our holiday feast. Stuffing ranks in the No. 2 spot behind mashed potatoes as the most popular Thanksgiving side. But is stuffing the same as what we call “dressing” down South? Some claim the distinction is whether the dish in question is stuffed inside the bird or baked in a casserole dish, but some Southerners do indeed stuff their birds with cornbread dressing and Northerners bake white bread stuffing in a dish....

Relax in an armchair worthy of an aristocratic library, sip a glass of local Cabernet, and gaze through soaring windows as a thunderstorm rolls across the Blue Ridge Mountains. The experience will surely stir your inner Vanderbilt. That’s a pretty common phenomenon at The Inn on Biltmore Estate, the first of two hotels built on the now-8,000-acre pastoral wonderland created in the late 19th century by owner George Vanderbilt, architect Richard Morris Hunt, and the legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted....