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Yet another reason to break out the bubbly: This year marks the 200th anniversary of Savannah’s Cotillion Club. At its annual Christmas Cotillion, a fancy December affair, some of the city’s most well-heeled young women are presented for society. As the girls promenade around the dance floor, escorted by their fathers, everyone gets a good look as their white dresses from all angles, so the hairstyles must be on point. Stylist Lucy Shores from Towne Salon, a veteran of debutante-ball hairstyles, creates this classic ladylike updo that you can count on for any special occasion....

Southerners love okra, whether fried, grilled, stewed, or pickled. And the okra plant loves the South back. Native to Africa, this iconic vegetable thrives in our sweltering heat and withstands withering droughts. Its candelabra-like stems produce attractive crepe paper blossoms that resemble those of hibiscus or cotton. These blooms give rise to the edible seedpods we crave all summer and fall. The first rule of harvesting: Don’t blink. Okra pods form in a flash....

Sometimes we pity the pumpkin. For all its potential, it’s seen only as a means to eat pie. That’s why we recently came up with a series of recipes that unlocks all the culinary levels you can achieve with this squash besides carving a Jack-O-Lantern. But if asked which recipe is our favorite, we would tell you it’s this pumpkin soup. But before you think we might be asking you to lug a whole pumpkin home from the grocery store and cut it up into several pieces, don’t run away yet....

When it comes to food facts and hacks, nobody can top Alton Brown. The cookbook author and television host is an all-around food science expert of culinary wisdom. Luckily for us, a Buzzfeed writer unearthed one of Brown’s most mind-blowing hacks for making the best coffee in an old episode of Good Eats. And unlike some of his more complicated kitchen endeavors, this one involves only two everyday essentials: coffee and salt....

Amy Grant joins Sid Evans on Biscuits & Jam to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Heart In Motion. As one of the South’s most recognizable and influential talents, Amy Grant grew up with a deep connection to the church and her faith and discusses how it has influenced her career and her life out of the spotlight. Get to Know Amy Grant Amy Grant released her first album in 1977 before she even turned 18....

Erin Napier is our inspiration in so many ways, from her sweet love story with husband Ben to her home design talent. Indeed, the Laurel, Mississippi resident always amazes us with tidbits of advice and motivation. Now, her mother-in-law is the one amazing us. This time, the advice comes in the form of a smart home decor tip for our bathrooms: “When we first got married my mother-in-law told me to always buy white towels....

On a usual day, Fairhope, Alabama, holds about 20,000 people. This “Carmel of the South,” sitting on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, is a charming town with a deep love for the arts. For three days each March, however, Fairhope packs in an extra 250,000 people. Typically, when that many people fill a small town for a weekend, they fill a stadium. But here, they fill an arts festival. The Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival is one of the oldest arts festivals in the country, and this year—its 70th anniversary—will be among its biggest....

A chance encounter with a preacher and a $40 tip has led to a new life for one Waffle House waitress in Georgia. But, if you ask Bishop Eusebio Phelps, meeting Hannah Hill was “appointed, ordained, and predestined.” It all began when Phelps, the pastor at New Faith Christian Church, went in to pick up an all-star special with bacon from a Waffle House in Stockbridge. “She was so nice over the telephone, and when I got there I paid for my food and I told her to keep the change,” Phelps told WXIA-TV of his first interaction with Hill....

At-home hair coloring has its perks, but it also has its pitfalls. Often this pitfall includes accidentally spilling hair dye onto your skin. Staining is a minor setback and certainly no cause for alarm. We’re breaking down how to remove hair dye from your skin with a few quick and easy tips that will erase any signs of your at-home dye job. Before we get ahead of ourselves, there are plenty of times we’ve walked out of the salon with a hint of dye around our hairline, so ladies with those standing appointments, you might need a few tips on how to get hair dye off skin too....

Cotton candy grapes aren’t just ordinary grapes. And this isn’t ordinary grape juice. Produced by California grower Grapery, through natural crossbreeding techniques, we’ve previously described Cotton Candy grapes as having the texture, color, and smell of your average green bunch. “However, once you bite into them, you’ll be reminded of the airy, sugary treat on a stick that you enjoyed as a kid at the carnival and state fair. Only with this snack—as opposed to cotton candy—you don’t have to worry about sticky fingers,” as writer Michelle Darrisaw captured it in a 2017 piece on these popular grapes’ return to Sam’s Club....

“Christmas is for children,” author Lenora Mattingly Weber once said. “But it is for grownups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts.” Going to guess that Hoda Kotb agrees with that sentiment. In a new streaming special, Holidays in My House, the Today show host shared the sheer joy she feels that comes from spending Christmas with her two young daughters, Haley Joy and Hope Catherine....

With the Fourth of July just around the corner, the stars and stripes are popping up all over the place. The national holiday represents the epitome of American pride, and what better way is there to express it than flying our nation’s colors? While a lot of families have permanent installations outside their homes, many people aren’t familiar with the federal rules that dictate when and how to display the flag....

Southerners love a classic candy recipe—and come the holiday season, batches upon batches of bourbon balls, buckeyes, and peppermint truffles keep us in a constant state of sugar euphoria so strong even the Grinch couldn’t spoil it. We couldn’t even see him through the chocolate-scented haze if we tried. Not that it stops us from making our favorite Southern candies all year long, especially crowd-pleasers like divinity and cornflake candy—oh, and Martha Washingtons....

My grandmother has always been adamant about one thing. If the option is available, go to the farmers’ market. And if the farmers’ market has fresh peaches, you better get a few. Figure it out later. (For her, it’s easy to say, since she has access to one of the most gorgeously abundant small-town farmers’ markets I’ve ever seen every Saturday in the Panhandle of Florida.) A summer peach is something so glorious that it doesn’t need a whole lot of coaxing to really sing....

Some chefs prepare a handful of dishes that we all agree are Southern, while others exalt food that is only found in their corner of the region and their kitchen. Chefs and their specialties differ, but our devotion to those who can peg the essence of a specific place or an emotional connection is universal. They meet our taste expectations in ways that feel familiar but in evocative forms we’ve never considered or even seen before....

This old garden rose was born in Charleston, South Carolina and named for Philippe Noisette, a French nurseryman of the area in the early 1800s. The blooms resulted from crosses made by Southern landowner, John Champneys, between the ancient pink Chinese rose, Old Blush, and the centuries old, cluster flowered European musk rose. This floral union produced the most attractive traits of both roses and ‘Champneys’ Pink Cluster and then its seedling, ‘Blush Noisette,’ were created....

It doesn’t get much cuter than the parade of visitors who delighted patients at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston over the weekend. Four golden retrievers— Elsa, Pinto, Pluto, and Bailey—and their handlers trotted around the hospital in matching Christmas pajamas, bringing joy to neurology and transplant patients and their families ahead of the holidays. The pups are ambassadors for Texas Children’s Pawsitive Play Program, which is designed to “enhance the emotional well-being of patients and families” who might be having trouble coping....

If you’re looking for an easy way to wow your dinnertime crew, our Crock-Pot Sloppy Joe recipe is just the way to do it. You’ll find all the usual suspects (ground beef, tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, chili powder, and perfectly toasted hamburger buns), but with a few kicked-up additions that make our family favorite an absolute standout. Chief among them? Ground pork sausage and a bit of cider vinegar....

Unique fruits are nothing new to Southerners. The pawpaw tree might not be familiar in all parts of the U.S., but it’s a favorite in the Southeast states. Arkansas black apples are beloved for their purple-black skin and, eventually, their sweet, spiced flavors. (You just have to wait a while for the fruit to ripen to anything beyond bitter.) But white strawberries are a new one for many people—or at least, they’re newer....

Candy corn is a strangely controversial candy. The tri-colored seasonal treat seems anodyne enough, but that doesn’t stop people from scrunching their noses at the stuff—even when it’s homemade or tucked into cookies, cupcakes, or cake. While it’s not like cilantro, the herb that some people are genetically predisposed to thinking tastes like soap, some folks genuinely hate candy corn. Turns out there may be a scientific reason for that....