Graduation, whether from college, high school, or elementary school, is an exciting milestone for graduates and those who love them. Although graduation is a time to celebrate, it can also be a time of change and uncertainty for many graduates. As seasons of life change, the Bible is a great place to turn for comfort and inspiration. These Bible verses will help graduates celebrate all they have accomplished while encouraging them for the future....
Texas may be the land of Buc-ee’s, but the East Coast can claim Wawa. Just two years shy of its 60th birthday, Pennsylvania-born Wawa has long been the beloved roadside stop of travelers from Florida to Delaware (they also have locations in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey, with plans to expand to North Carolina and Georgia). If you’ve never heard of the crowd-favorite gas station, we’ve got important intel about what to order next time you find yourself in the vicinity of one....
Hello readers, and welcome to The Dutch Oven, a mixture of tips, answers, and information about our wonderful Southern culinary culture. What you learn here should produce one, or all, of these comments: I should try that! I didn’t know that! I can do that! Q: How can I get perfect banana bread every time? I often get different results from the same recipe. A: Let’s first start with some basic baking tenets:...
Pimiento cheese is an iconic Southern spread that combines grated cheese, pimiento peppers, and mayonnaise into a creamy delight that can be put onto everything from burgers to toast points. But did you know that Columbia, S.C. claims to be home to one of the oldest published pimiento cheese recipes? The recipe was first written in a Columbia cookbook, A Friend in Need, which was published in 1912 by the Free Kindergarten Association of Columbia, S....
Just like how we pile the porch with pumpkins and later line the mantle with garland, we cannot help but get the itch during the holiday season to do something different to our hair ahead of a family Thanksgiving feast, intimate Christmas party, or photo-friendly trip to the apple orchard or holiday lights display. It’s all about making the fleeting season feel extra festive—just preferably in a way that’s doable for all skill sets at home and with little time to spare....
Southerners have long embraced patios and porches as alfresco living rooms, and over the past few months, our love for outdoor spaces has only grown stronger. We’ve seen how a pair of Adirondack chairs can turn the front yard into a breezy cocktail lounge, how a chaise lounge can transform a patio into a cozy reading nook, and how a dining table can convert the backyard into the buzziest eatery on the block....
For 12 years, Amy Wright and her family have been working to make a difference in the public’s perception of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). And as the mother of four children (two with Down’s syndrome, Beau, 12, and Bitty, 7), creating opportunities to help alleviate the unemployment problem for this marginalized group is personal. “When Beau was born, my passion and purpose came into focus. It became my life’s calling to educate people and promote the inclusion and value of those with IDD,” says Wright....
It’s been a big week for country star Thomas Rhett, whose latest single, “What’s Your Country Song” became his 17th number one single on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. And little did we know, but the tune has a special link to his dad, singer and songwriter Rhett Akins. “As we started to craft this song, we had the chorus first, and then we were trying to figure out where to take the verses....
During the height of the pandemic, Virginia teenager Keslar Just was looking for a way to bring a bit of brightness to the dark, uncertain days. She decided to take up the old-fashioned practice of letter writing and began sending handwritten notes to seniors quarantined in nursing homes all over the country. “I ended up writing over 150 letters and only one responded,” Keslar told WJLA. “That was Jean Peck in Henrietta, New York....
Revamping your landscape can be daunting, especially when you want to go about it in a DIY fashion. There’s one helpful thing to know before you begin, though, and it will make every piece of landscaping work that follows so much easier. Before tackling a DIY landscape design project, you must remember that planning makes perfect. From the first ideas to the final plantings, planning is essential. That’s why you must break out the gridded graph paper and sketch a detailed plan for how you want your landscape to look....
Two months after the tragic death of her mother Naomi, Wynonna Judd is finding healing in music. The country star, who pledged to “continue the spectacle” in her mom’s honor, offered a bit of wisdom during a Nashville performance with Brandi Carlile Friday. In a video shared on Instagram by radio host Hunter Kelly, Wynonna spoke to the crowd about the importance of forgiveness and how she’s using it to mend her relationship with her sister, actress Ashley Judd....
Whether you’re the eldest, the middle child, or the baby of the family, birth order never stops being fascinating. That’s why this poll from YouGov is so interesting. For the poll, 1,782 British adults were asked to rate different aspects of their personality based on where they fall in their family order. As we previously reported, the results revealed that youngest siblings are more likely to think they are funnier than their older brothers and sisters—with 46% believing they are the funniest ones in the family—the study showed something else, too....
Vinegar is by far one of the most versatile items in the house. What else can clean your showerhead, stop laundry from fading, add a kick to barbecue sauce, and make a delicious pie? We’re not sure there is another ingredient in your kitchen that can be so useful. Plus, we bet there’s almost always a bottle on hand in your home. When it’s not being used to make mignonette sauce, vinegar is a non-toxic, eco-friendly alternative to the myriad of commercial cleaning products available and really gets the job done....
Just finished carving your Halloween decorations and don’t want to let those perfectly good pumpkin seeds go to waste? Pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, are actually covered by a fibrous shell (the large white things you find inside your pumpkins). While some people might enjoy eating the entire seed with the shell (pictured above), we think the greenish, meatier inside is more flavorful and works better with these recipes. Here’s how to salvage the seeds and cook them five different ways....
For beach lovers looking to steer clear of crowds, Florida’s Forgotten Coast is a welcome reprieve. With 200 miles of coastline encompassing five islands, 99 historic sites, and some of the most charming beachside communities you’ll find anywhere, there are dozens of reasons to keep this “forgotten” stretch of Gulf Coast shoreline front of mind. Cape San Blas, located on the opening end of a 17-mile-long peninsula that curls around St....
This week, I am joined by country music superstar and Kentucky native Carly Pearce. Carly began performing at a young age in church, and left her hometown of Taylor Mill in high school for a job singing five shows a day at Dollywood. She eventually moved to Nashville, and although her initial experience in the Music City wasn’t easy, she met a producer who would change her life. Today on the show, Carly talks about the unwavering support of her family, the devastating loss of her producer, Busbee, her induction into the Grand Ole Opry, heartbreak, and much more....
Danica Hart, one third of the country trio Chapel Hart, is recovering from vocal cord surgery. The group’s front-woman announced the news of her health setback on Instagram last week. “Well IG [Instagram] your girl had to have vocal cord surgery and I was nervous about sharing it with everyone… but I felt like y’all have been on this journey with us through the good, bad, & the ugly so I figured we wouldn’t stop now!...
In addition to being indispensable in the kitchen, olive oil is a key character in a lot of hacks; treating kitchen burns, smoothing hair strands, and fixing creaky doors to name a few. But cleaning? Believe it! The latest hype around olive oil is all about its magical qualities when it comes to getting rid of finger smudges and other stubborn household stains. This makes perfect sense—oil-based cleaning products are already being widely used, so why not go right to the source and use olive oil for cleaning?...
During a recent visit to Andiamo Lodge in Mentone, Alabama, I spied a handsome fiddleleaf fig (Ficus lyrata) standing in a corner. I was thunderstruck! Like most of you, every time I’d tried to grow this quite expensive, tree-like houseplant, it responded with yellowing leaves decorated with black spots and dead, brown edges that fell to the floor and left it naked. So I asked Andiamo’s co-owner, Steve Carpenter, how he managed to keep his looking so healthy and clothed....
JoAnna Garcia Swisher loves Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias just as much as we do. “In the midst of all the difficult things we’re experiencing right now, it’s been a very bright spot,” the Florida-born actress who plays Maddie Townsend told Southern Living. The show, which is based on the books of the same name by Sherryl Woods, is a tale of friendship, family, and romance set in the fictional South Carolina town of Serenity....
