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There are not many instances in which a pound cake would not be appreciated. We can make a case for marbled pecan pound cake at breakfast, as well as triple chocolate pound cake to top off any family gathering. We can always do with a slice of lemon pound cake to go with an afternoon glass of iced tea on the porch, and any holiday feels extra festive with a caramel-frosted pound cake heading up the table....

I suppose it’s possible to eat at the Rendezvous in Memphis and not start off with an appetizer plate, but why would you want to? The standard plates offer ham and cheese or sausage and cheese along with dill pickle spears and pepperoncini peppers, while the Rendezvous Special delivers all of the above plus salami. There’s nothing fancy about it: no artisanal house-made pickles or hand-ground sausage. The cheese is regular orange cheddar, cut into long rectangular fingers, and the pork sausage is grilled and sliced on the bias....

UK-based gift shop Yappy.com surveyed more than 450,000 profiles (created on their website from April 2021 to September 2021) to determine which name earned the distinction of being top dog. The Latin word for ‘moon’, Luna usurped Bella, 2020’s most popular dog name, as 2021’s fan favorite. It’s especially popular with pet parents who have Staffordshire Bull Terriers, German Shepherds, and Greyhounds. Teddy came in second place, preferred by owners of Cavapoos, Cockapoos, and Border Terriers....

Fire up the grill, and throw on a few pork chops for dinner tonight. Juicy and flavorful, pork chops are a crowd-pleasing protein that the whole family will enjoy. Dress them up with a fruity marinade like a peach barbecue sauce, and don’t forget to let them soak in brine for a few hours before cooking to ensure that they won’t dry out. We recommend buying bone-in pork chops for the tastiest results....

When Zac West first moved to Jacksonville following a five-year stay in Tanzania, he quickly learned a secret to making friends in a new neighborhood: If you build it, they will come. While seeking a way to make his daughter, whom he and his wife had adopted overseas, comfortable in her new home, West noticed the towering oaks in his yard, rough-cut some wood, and strung up a pair of ho-hum tree swings....

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, it’s the holidays, but it’s also the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Name A Snowplow Contest! TDOT has opened the polls for folks to choose a name for the friendly neighborhood snowplows that make the streets safe when the snow comes. The names are fantastic with puns aplenty and country icons getting a little recognition. Personal favorites include Rhinestone Plowboy, Snowletta Lynn, Tim McThaw, Graceland Growler, and Gatlinbrr....

There are basically only two seasons in Louisiana—crawfish season, and the rest of the year. Tables piled high with seasoned crawdads, the first ears of sweet corn, and a few boiled potatoes are the surest signs that it’s time to break out the beer and toast to the arrival of warmer weather on the bayou. Perhaps owing to the crawfish’s reputation for bottom feeding (or just because they’re so darn messy to eat!...

If you love PBS documentaries (who doesn’t?) and you love the British royal family, then you’re officially going to want to carve out some time on Sunday, June 14th at 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET to watch Prince Albert: A Victorian Hero Revealed. In the new documentary, viewers will get the chance to learn about the husband of Queen Victoria and the role he served in influencing Victorian Britain....

Richmond, Virginia, is a city with a deep and complicated history, but lately, it has gained a reputation as a hip landing spot for young professionals and young businesses. The eclectic city is home to picturesque row homes that could give Charleston’s Rainbow Row a run for its money, and craft companies like Belle Isle Moonshine that swear they couldn’t have planted roots anywhere else—but Richmond has recently gained traction as one of the South’s next, big food destinations, ranking with Nashville and New Orleans as one of the South’s best food cities....

We’re not here to start any regional wars, but Tabasco is the original hot sauce of the South. This pepper sauce has a legacy that’s older than all of the beloved hot sauces in the South (go ahead, fact check us!), and maybe that’s it. The secret lies in the sauce, literally. First bottled in 1868 by Mr. Edmund McIlhenny, it was sent just two hours away to neighboring New Orleans, and suddenly Cajun cooks had found the condiment to go with all the good stuff: red beans and rice, gumbo, crawfish étouffée, and more....

There are few people in this world who inspire the warm fuzzies like our Southern grandmothers. And whether you’re visiting from right around the corner or coming from halfway across the country, there’s one thing that’s always the same: When it’s time to leave, they’ll send you off with a tight hug, a “come back soon,” and a recycled Cool Whip container filled with trifle leftovers from the garden club meeting they hosted yesterday....

In recent weeks during the coronavirus outbreak we’ve made no-knead buttermilk bread. We’ve made chewy chocolate chip cookies. We’ve made enough vintage cakes to throw it back to 1909. And now, we’ve realized, dear reader, we deserve to treat ourselves. Not with another cookie (though that works, too), but with the tools and gizmos that help take our baking to the next level. Professional food wizards agree: “It’s a fact that we’re cooking, baking (and eating!...

After 17 years in waiting, billions of periodical cicadas are set to emerge from the ground en masse next month and blanket a large portion of the eastern United States. Members of Brood X will be in 15 states, concentrated in Maryland, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, with scientists predicting that some places will have more than a million cicadas per acre—that’s more than 25 or 30 per square foot. And that’s on top of the annual cicadas that come out every summer!...

Blake Shelton celebrated his first Valentine’s Day married to Gwen Stefani with a sweet tribute to his wife of seven months. “I’m the luckiest man alive,” the country crooner captioned a black-and-white photo from their July wedding on Instagram. “Happy Valentine’s Day, @gwenstefani! I love you!” The romantic photo showcases the dramatic, custom veil the songstress wore for their star-studded nuptials. Stefani paired her plunging high-low gown with a chapel-length veil featuring her own name, the name of her new husband, and the names of her three sons—Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo—embroidered along its delicate raw edge for a decidedly sentimental touch....

Texas Hill Country is known for scenic drives, dreamy views, lush landscape, bright wildflowers, and a scattering of small towns that gives you plenty to do in between. It’s simply a stunning region to behold, and you don’t even have to venture far from the nearest big city. Located just around 40 minutes’ drive southwest of Austin, Dripping Springs is undeniably one of Texas Hill Country’s best towns worth visiting....

HGTV Home Town and Home Town Takeover stars Ben and Erin Napier have such a sweet relationship. We’re talking, always going above and beyond for each other, like Ben writing Erin a love note every morning and Erin frequently giving us glimpses into her love for Ben in heartfelt notes on social media. Now, as the Napier family welcomes their newest member — daughter Mae, who was born on May 28 — Erin has wrote yet another sweet missive to Ben on Instagram, this time praising him for always stepping in when she needs him....

Garth Brooks had the honor of presenting Randy Travis with CMT’s 2021 Artist of a Lifetime award during the 2021 CMT Artists of the Year event on Wednesday night. In a short tribute to the country music icon, Brooks praised Travis for his monumental impact on himself as an artist and to the genre. Travis hit the scene in 1986 with his multi-platinum debut album Storms of Life. Brooks released his eponymous first album three years later, in 1989....

Buffalo National River Its sparkling waters and Ozark Mountain views still amaze No wonder so many songs have been written about rivers. There’s something awe-inspiring about the waters that help form and transform our landscape as they travel through it Numerous American rivers have been harnessed by dams, so the free-flowing ones that are preserved by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System are rare and special. Congress created this program in 1968, and the first American waterway to be named a national river is right here in the South—Arkansas’ Buffalo National River....

If thin hair could talk, we imagine it would say something along the lines of, “no volume for you, sucker!” It’s charming like that. For those dealing with flat strands, styling can seem like a waste of effort when you know it’ll just deflate by noon. However, there are misconceptions about working with fine or thin hair that every gal should know, starting with the one that says you should avoid the stylist lest your strands become even more scarce....

What’s that fragrance perfuming the garden air? It’s tea olive, the glossy-leaved shrub known by the scientific name Osmanthus fragrans. Commonly, you can call the plant tea olive or sweet olive, as both names nod to the sweet scent emitted by the plant’s tiny, white blooms. This species belongs to the genus Osmanthus. Osmanthus species are drought-tolerant, evergreen shrubs that thrive in full sun or partial shade. Their calling card is their deeply fragrant blooms, which appear throughout the year....