Congratulations are in order for J.J. Watt and Kealia Ohai Watt. The former Houston Texans defensive end and former Houston Dash star welcomed their first child, a boy named Koa James, on Sunday. “Love and happiness have reached heights we never even knew existed,” the Watts wrote in a joint social media announcement on Tuesday. The NFL star and his soccer star wife revealed that they were expecting back in June....
During Lent, when visiting the Louisiana town of Lafayette (which is the most Catholic city in America, by the way), you’ll probably get two suggestions from locals on what to do for entertainment. Either you attend a crawfish boil somewhere in town, or you host one yourself. We did a bit of both. Along with a small but mighty squad representing Southern Living, I had the assignment of putting together a crawfish boil for my first-ever visit to Lafayette, and capturing the story of our Cajun culinary adventure for the pilot episode of Southern Living’s Like a Local video series....
If you feel as strongly about pie as I do, you’ve probably spent a fair share of time honing your pie craft. I’m always testing out new pie recipes and techniques, striving to make the absolute best pies from scratch. In my kitchen, every element of every pie is homemade. One of the many joys of making pie from scratch is the long, detailed process: I savor every step, adjusting small details to engineer the perfect pie....
Mignon Francois can always find a good reason to celebrate. “If it’s your birthday, there’s a cake for that,” says the founder and CEO of The Cupcake Collection, an award-winning bakery that’s located in both Nashville and New Orleans and ships nationwide. “If you’re going through a divorce, if you got a promotion, or if you had a hard day—there’s a cake for that.” Following last year’s devastating tornado in Nashville and amid a global pandemic, Mignon is as passionate as ever about spreading joy through sweets....
Christmas has been saved! A yellowish-green man “wanted for stealing presents and joy from kids in the area, and for just overall being a bad dude,” was apprehended by Nash County Sheriff’s Office near Bailey, North Carolina, this week. “After receiving several tips from our watchful citizens, we located the Grinch down near Bailey at a residence,” the sheriff’s office wrote alongside photos from the fake arrest on Facebook Tuesday....
I don’t remember when I first heard of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, but I do remember that on my first trip from New York to New Orleans in the 1970s, as a writer for Essence magazine, it was a must-stop spot on my itinerary. Although I knew the restaurant had served as an important gathering place for activists during the Civil Rights Movement and that Leah Chase had a pivotal role in that struggle, I didn’t meet her on that visit....
Even high-flying symbols of strength and democracy can fall victim to gluttony. In a Facebook post Wednesday, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency recounted an incident in November when wildlife officers were called to the aid of an “injured” bald eagle in Bulls Gap. “They found the eagle in the woods near a road with no apparent injuries and very mobile,” the now-viral post (below) recalls. “The officers caught the bird to inspect it and decided it had gorged itself on a meal and was temporarily unable to create enough lift to fly....
Many Southerners are certain they know the “right” way to make a pound cake, so we decided to test and compare four very different pound cake recipes from scratch for this iconic Southern confection. Our first conclusion: pound cake is always delicious, no matter its special ingredients. Our second conclusion: each is best eaten a little differently. This is our assessment of the four different pound cakes from scratch and a recommendation for making each one memorable....
It’s a struggle familiar to anybody who has ever shucked a raw ear of corn. Those pesky blond strands of silk that are nearly impossible to pry from those neat rows of yellow kernels have been frustrating corn eaters for years. It seems impossible to remove every silky string from an ear of corn. No matter how careful you are during the shucking process, bits of these threads still end up in your meal and eventually between your teeth....
What’s one trick to keeping your garden alive for longer? Regularly pruning your annuals and perennials. Removing dead foliage and picking off spent blooms will encourage new growth, and your planting will likely come back looking fuller and healthier than before. Not to mention, your garden will stay in tip-top shape throughout the season.For example, deadheading geraniums will help promote prolific growth so plants will show off vibrant flowers throughout spring and summer....
Anyone who’s gardened in containers for long knows the magic formula—for an effective container, you need a “thriller” (an upright, showy plant), “fillers” (mounding plants on the sides), and “spillers” (trailing plants that cascade over the sides). And there can be no doubt that the most popular spillers of all are the many selections of sweet potato vine. Sweet Potato Vine’s Variety of Colors and Shapes Closely related to real sweet potato, sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas) don’t form edible tubers....
My parents have a picture of me on my first trip to Panama City Beach. I’m wearing diapers. I had my toes in that white sand before I was old enough to walk—mostly because my mother loves the Gulf of Mexico like a family member. Over the years, Daddy did his part for the local economy, buying my cousin Kathy and me tickets for the Miracle Strip and Petticoat Junction amusement parks....
When their initial plans to have a Walt Disney World wedding had to be pushed back, Ashley and Josh Stewart decided to make lemonade out of lemons. “I got to thinking, and talked to my grandmother and said, ‘I hate that Nanny can’t go (to the Disney wedding), so what if we just did a marriage license ceremony with her?’” she told Today. The couple used the opportunity to have a Christmas Eve marriage license ceremony at The Pointe at Lifespring, the senior living community where Ashley’s 97-year-old great-grandmother, Juanita Courtney, lives in Knoxville, Tennessee....
Brantley Gilbert might have a handful of awards and number-one hits under his belt, but you won’t find the country star showering his kids with expensive gifts this Christmas. Instead, the “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do” crooner is keeping it simple. “My kids are like every other kid,” Gilbert explained in a statement to Taste of Country. “You could probably spend a million bucks on ‘em and then throw a water bottle in the middle of the floor, and they’re gonna play with the water bottle....
More than 30 years since audiences first watched Ouiser cut into Jackson’s “repulsive” armadillo-shaped groom’s cake, Southern couples are paying tribute to Steel Magnolias by serving the unusual confection on their own wedding days—red velvet blood and all. That’s right y’all. The armadillo cake lives on! We recently learned of the trend from a Wide Open Eats article in which writer Josie Rhodes Cook explains how the quirky cake jumped from the big screen and onto real-life dessert tables....
After a year of being stuck inside, there’s one thing on everyone’s mind—travel. Whether you’re craving a beach vacation or a city trip, consider planning your much-needed getaway with Dollar Flight Club. Dollar Flight Club started in 2015 when Jesse Neugarten, the CEO and founder, discovered his passion: Helping people see the world. Because Jesse and his team know that traveling expenses add up quickly—between hotel, dining, and transportation costs—the flight club does the legwork for you....
For many reasons, the beloved cotton rose is a symbolic flower for the south. Who wouldn’t want a flower like this? Although there are many forms, single or double flowers, the classic version looks like showy blooms, three to five inches wide, appearing in fall. They often open white and fade to dark pink as they age. You’ll often see all three colors on the same plant. Cool, yes? Originating in China, the cotton rose technically isn’t a rose but a species of hibiscus (Hibiscus mutabilis)....
Bearded irises (Iris germanica) are one type of iris plant distinguished by the fuzzy “beards” in the three downward falling petals. These plants grow from rhizomes. The stunning, three-dimensional flowers come in all color combinations except for a true red and often are used for flower arrangements. Bearded irises are just one of the many types of iris plants that are grown in the United States. What makes a bearded iris is the “beard” that appears on the three downward petals....
When you start planning a wedding, the costs add up quickly—very quickly. And one of the biggest expenses is usually the florist. You’ve got dreams of miles and miles of peonies and banquette tables filled with dozens of ranunculus stems. There will be a lovely fragrance wafting down on you from the living wall of roses on the back border of your wedding altar. Once you get the estimate, the petals fall off your wedding flower dreams....
‘Tis the season for thumbing through old family photos and reminiscing on Christmases past, and it appears that nobody – not even an award-winning actress – is immune to the nostalgia-inducing sweetness of the season. A few years ago, in the spirit of the holidays, actress Jennifer Garner shared an adorable circa-1970-something photo of herself with her two sisters on Instagram. The Garner girls, as she calls the merry trio in her caption, are all smiles in the grainy Christmas photo:...
