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Dessert is one of the highlights of the holiday season (or any season, really)! And when it comes to dessert, there’s probably no greater crowd-pleaser than chocolate. Baking with chocolate bars, however, can be a little intimidating. There are so many different kinds! The right chocolate bar for chocolate ganache isn’t necessarily going to be the right chocolate bar for a brownie recipe. Choosing dark chocolate, milk chocolate, semi-sweet, or white chocolate flavor will have a big impact on the finished product....

There’s a long Southern tailgating tradition of serving the rival team’s mascot as part of the game-day spread. When the Florida Gators arrive in Tallahassee to play archrival Florida State, fans can expect to see trays of fried gator bites passed around. Barbecued chicken is a no-brainer for any team playing the South Carolina Gamecocks, and a matchup with the Arkansas Razorbacks is bound to inspire opposing fans to throw a few pork shoulders or even a whole hog on the pit....

Have you ever been to a Hobby Lobby, the world’s largest privately-owned craft store? It is a Pinterest wonderland! This Oklahoma-born company has more than 900 locations selling everything from framing to floral to furniture and fabric, and there’s always a sale. Weekly sales are a major highlight for many Hobby Lobby shoppers. Hobby Lobby aficionados have many insider tips to maximize their crafting ventures, so here are some practices for shopping at this store....

They say everything is bigger in Texas and that goes double for the Lone Star state’s fundraisers. The annual Texas 4000 is the longest annual charity bike ride in the world. This year’s ride kicked off on June 4th, when a group of 85 students set out from the Austin campus of the University of Texas for a 70-day, 4,000-mile bike ride across the U.S. That’s a distance that’s twice as long as the Tour De France!...

Who doesn’t have a few pints of ice cream in the freezer for when the craving strikes? If it’s not vanilla that you have on hand, it’s likely chocolate. And the ideal chocolate ice cream has to deliver on the chocolate flavor, whether dark or milk chocolate, dairy-free or regular—if it says chocolate it better mean it. While everyone has their favorite brand, the freezer aisle is loaded with over a dozen varieties of chocolate ice cream, and there are likely a few you haven’t gotten around to trying....

Ask any Southerner about their signature cornbread recipe, and chances are high that they have a very passionate, firm answer. Sugar or none. Actual corn or cornmeal only. Oil or butter. And how many eggs? While we all have our own go-to homemade cornbread recipes, many of us can agree on one thing: It’s A-OK to turn to a cornbread mix when you’re crunched for time (and, to be honest, too tired to dig out all the ingredients)....

If you’re lucky enough to have wandered into Bill Smith’s Chapel Hill restaurant Crook’s Corner, hopefully you saved room for dessert. Specifically, a slice of the restaurant’s famous Atlantic Beach Lemon Pie, a pie so good that NPR claims it may make you blaspheme. The pie is bit like if a key lime pie and a lemon meringue pie had a child. It’s sweet and tart and a little bit salty and with a storied past that makes it even more appealing....

St. Patrick’s Day is a cause for celebration. March 17 is marked by an abundance of green attire, classic corned beef and cabbage, and Irish pubs. But you don’t need to be Irish to join in on all the fun festivities. We collected funny St. Patrick’s Day quotes that best celebrate this spirited Irish holiday. While we can’t guarantee you’ll find a leprechaun with a pot of gold at the end of these quotes, wish upon a four-leaf clover and luck might just be on your side....

Fall is the best time for planting almost any hardy plant. The weather feels great and plants aren’t stressed by heat and drought. But before you fill up your 1978 Ford Torino station wagon featuring faux wood siding with every green thing you find at the garden center, make sure you DON’T DO these five things. Mistake #1 - Paying Top Dollar For Leftovers Would you pay the same for week-old bread as you would for fresh-baked?...

Piggly Wiggly may not be the biggest grocery store chain in the South, and it may not have the widest selection of commercial brands, but we’ve loved it ever since 1916, when Clarence Saunders founded the world’s first self-service supermarket in Memphis Tennessee. He named it Piggly Wiggly. When asked why, he replied, “So people would ask that very question.” Over 100 years later, Southerners are still frequenting the Pig. Here’s why we love to cruise the aisles of this market....

Growing up in the South, you repeatedly hear the saying, “the higher the hair, the closer to heaven.” Now, does teased hair really relate to scripture? Not particularly. Did I still believe it? Perhaps a little. From the sky-high bouffants of the 1960s—with teased-high hair icons like Priscilla Presley and Jackie Kennedy—to the pinned bang poufs of the 2000s, big hair has always been a trend that comes back around. Last year, velcro rollers were the hottest “new” thing to pop back up on the hair scene....

Dock, wharf, or pier? While there is no end-all-be-all answer to the question of what to call a structure that juts out over the water, you’re sure to get different answers depending on who you ask. By definition, all three words are defined similarly: a structure off the shore that is typically used to tie up boats. And while some Southerners use the terms interchangeably, geography often shapes how people refer to them; you’ll rarely find a person from Mobile, Alabama, calling anything a “dock,” and “wharf” is practically absent from a Virginian’s vocabulary....

After last week’s post about sumac totally destroyed the notion that I diss native plants, Grumpy is doubling down. I hereby heap highest praise upon a native perennial called blue wood aster (Symphyotrichon cordifolius). This delightful plant has been blooming in my woodland garden for weeks, providing spiritual joy to me and nectar to passing butterflies and bees. I first encountered blue wood aster while on a hike one autumn in Oak Mountain State Park, the largest state park in Alabama....

The nights may still be long and the weather a little frightful, but spring is on the horizon. While we’re still waiting for the daffodils and bluebells to pop up, we know spring is coming because the newPEEPS are here—and they’re amazing. In addition to classic yellow chicks and pink bunnies—and less classic but delicious versions, like Sparkly Wild Berry and Fruit Punch and chocolate-dipped options— this year PEEPS is pushing the marshmallow envelope even further with new flavors and innovative ideas....

Dolly Parton hasn’t just accepted her new status as a rock star – she has embraced it. Despite her initial reluctance, the country legend leaned into the genre during her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night. In her acceptance speech, Parton celebrated the honor and reiterated her plans to release a rock album, Entertainment Weekly reports. “I’m a rock star now!” she said, per the outlet....

After Erin and Ben Napier welcomed their daughter Helen earlier this winter, life has been a whirlwind of couch time snuggles, promoting the latest season of HGTV’s Hometown, more cuddling, and group outings to Waffle House as a new family. But with two months under their belt as new parents, it appears the couple is now adjusting to being a trio. “Life is beginning to feel normal again after 8 weeks and I recognize the pre-baby us now that we’re all sleeping more at night,” Erin Napier captioned a photo of their home and porch yesterday on instagram....

As your thoughts turn to holiday meal planning, you may also be thinking about which dishes can be made ahead and how you can safely store them, both before the meal and afterwards. Desserts, most notably sweet potato pies, are always top on the list of items to be made in advance, so you want to be sure you store them properly to keep them as fresh as possible. Unless you serve your pie straight out of the oven, here are a few safety tips to follow to make sure your guests enjoy every single bite of your sweet potato pie....

On April 21, 2008, everything changed for Katherine Wolf when she suffered from an unexpected massive brain stem stroke that left her fighting for her life. After a 16-hour micro-brain surgery, Katherine miraculously lived. And that’s just the beginning. Wolf’s story is one of overwhelming pain healed only by deep-rooted hope. She was on life support for a month and in rehabilitation for two years as she worked to regain her motor skills....

Remember when you were growing up and Friday nights meant long, heated games of Monopoly on your bedroom floor? Fast-forward to living through a global pandemic, and we’re going to go ahead and guess there was quite the Monopoly resurgence in your life—albeit perhaps you’ve now graduated to hovering around the dining room table instead of plopping down on a beanbag. Well, Monopoly fans, we’ve got an exciting update to share: Earlier this month, Hasbro announced for the first time in its 85-plus years, Monopoly will be updating all 16 of its Community Chest Cards....

Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave was always an enormous natural sight that claimed the title of world’s longest cave system, but in 2021 researchers announced that it’s even longer than they previously thought. Mammoth Cave National Park took to its Facebook page to share the news that a dedicated team of cave lovers had unearthed an additional eight miles of passages that have now been officially added to the Mammoth Cave system. That brings the total number of mapped passages up to 420 underground miles, Kentucky’s local CBS affiliate, WLKY, reported....