Posts

TikTok is like a party you attend in your pajamas without getting off the couch. It’s a place where you can learn dance moves, get beauty tips, or take cooking lessons. One of our favorite reasons to use the app? There are so many household hacks just waiting to be discovered. If you’ve ever wondered how to make your silverware shinier, our latest obsession is for you. An Australian TikToker named Carolina McCauley has gone viral with an unexpected method for producing sparkly silverware....

When we look back on this difficult year with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s safe to say many of us kicked up our cleaning habits amid the seemingly endless hours spent at home. From sanitizing our phones regularly to upgrading our vacuuming routines, there are many ways we improved our cleaning techniques during this year. Below, five cleaning practices we’ll be keeping up long after the pandemic is behind us—and with multiple vaccines on the way, we hope that’s sooner rather than later....

1. Cooking tomatoes in a “reactive” pan. In the South, we cook just about everything in cast iron. But tomatoes are very acidic and metal cookware can make them taste bitter and metallic. Unless your cast iron pan is seasoned extremely well, it’s best to use something else when cooking tomatoes. We recommend non-reactive cookware like stainless steel (or stainless steel-lined) pots and pans. 2. Using the wrong knife. A serrated knife is the best tool for slicing fresh tomatoes....

Even Dolly Parton has a hard time getting rid of things. During a February interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the county music icon revealed that she struggles to part with gifts, especially the handmade ones. And the reason why is guaranteed to warm your heart. “I keep everything,” Parton divulged. “All my fans that make things for me, write poems and things… paint pictures… I have what I call my ‘arts and crap’ building because I can’t throw anything away....

Wasting good bacon is against the law in certain parts of the South—according to some people. So if you are reading this while sniffing or inspecting a package of bacon that’s been in the back of your refrigerator for an indefinite amount of time, I’ll get right to the point. Whether you have opened the package or not, uncooked bacon will last for seven days in the fridge, according to the United States Department of Agriculture....

And then, there were flowers. While times are tough right now amid the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses and individuals alike are stepping up to do what they can to help. Two such companies? Lowe’s and Uber. In a recent press release from Lowe’s, headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the home improvement store brand announced they are donating $1 million in flower baskets to senior living centers and long-term care facilities for Mother’s Day....

Matthew McConaughey was in peak form at the ribbon cutting ceremony for The Moody Center at The University of Texas at Austin on Tuesday. UT’s Minister of Culture donned an orange suit and cowboy hat for a unique “blessing” of the brand-new event venue he calls “The Mood.” His wife Camila was by his side in a matching white-and-orange getup. Standing at the podium, McConaughey—who has never shied away from breaking with convention—started performing an original “song....

Earlier this month, with help of local and corporate sponsors (and a gigantic custom pot), Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College broke the world record for the largest-ever jambalaya. The college made the dish as part of a fundraiser for campus food pantries at The Pelican in Ocean Springs. Leading up to the event, coordinator Carin Platt told WXXV25 that the plan was to make 3,700 pounds of jambalaya—enough to beat the previous record of 3,371 pounds set by the Jambalaya Festival Association in Gonzales, Louisiana, back in 2009....

For years, the grinning jack-o’-lantern has graced front porches across the South, heralding fall and Halloween. This year, put a twist on this tradition with stylish topiaries. The Basics First, select a container for your topiary. We used urns, but clay pots would work just as well. (Be sure to weigh down the container with rocks or sand so it doesn’t tip easily.) Choose a few nice, round pumpkins in graduated sizes....

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s something about how a Southern woman’s skin just glows. No matter how tired, busy, or in the thick of preparing Sunday dinner they are, they radiate. Maybe it’s just good genes passed down from generation to generation, or maybe it’s the fresh Southern air—or perhaps it’s a timeless moisturizer that keeps the skin in line. Olay Regenerist Whip Moisturizer delivers protection from the sun and hydration, staving off signs of aging while keeping your skin looking fresh....

“There’s nothing we do here that’s complicated,” Lynn Hewlett tells me from across the table, Styrofoam cup of something in his hand. “It’s very simple.” We’re sitting in Taylor Grocery, the restaurant he owns about 10 miles outside Oxford, Mississippi. When he bought the place in 1997, it was a general store that happened to sell fried catfish on the weekends. But Hewlett ditched the potato chip racks and focused instead on the fish, transforming the popular spot into a bona fide institution that brings in crowds from miles around....

Let’s face it, flight fascinates us. Whether it is a hummingbird hovering in mid-air or a butterfly fluttering by, the agility, grace and mystery of animals in flight is captivating. Is that why we are so drawn to invite winged creatures into the landscape? Is it the intricate patterns they paint in the summer sky or something more practical? Perhaps we are connected by the services they have long provided mankind, the brotherhood of pollination....

Venture to Colonial Williamsburg at Christmastime, and you’ll see virtually every building in the historic area dressed in holiday attire. Decorations made of fresh fruit and woodland foliage grace many a door and window. As appropriate as evergreen wreaths and garlands seem for this centuries-old restored village, they’re actually a relatively new tradition. While it’s known that Virginia colonists displayed freshly cut holly, pine, and mistletoe inside their homes at Christmas, there’s little evidence that they decorated the exteriors....

These are crazy times. Waves of COVID wash across the land. A tropical storm strikes every five minutes. Neighbors brawl over which mayonnaise is better, Duke’s or Hellman’s. Paul McCartney will not be singing at the upcoming Super Bowl. Weird. Lunacy extends even to my garden. In one corner grows a favorite winter-blooming camellia, called ‘Yuletide’ (Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’). It’s named that because it’s supposed to bloom at Christmas. This year, it started flowering in October and it’s still going....

Small Southern towns are one of God’s greatest gifts to the world. If you were lucky enough to grow up in one, or still live in one today, then you know exactly what we mean. Life moves a little slower, people are a little nicer, and the idea of community is more than just a platitude. There’s a lot to love about a Southern small town, but we’re especially fond of all their quirks and charms....

Just a few miles away from the famous Gee’s Bend Quilters in Boykin, Alabama, lies another Wilcox County community with a rich history of making magic with fabric and thread—though few know its story. The original Freedom Quilting Bee Collective (“The Bee”) was established in the rural town of Alberta by Civil Rights activists Francis X Walter and Estelle Witherspoon in 1966. At a time when Black people were being evicted from their homes and losing their jobs for registering to vote, Walter, an Episcopal priest, saw the beautiful quilts hanging on clotheslines as a way for local women to make some much-needed money for their families....

April 10th may seem like just another day to you, but to dogs it is something to celebrate. That’s because some clever dog lover has deemed April 10th to be National Hug Your Dog Day. This is one holiday that doesn’t involve flowers, cards, presents, or decorations (although if you feel moved to do so, feel free). All you need to mark this occasion is give your beloved pup a big old hug....

It runs in the family, folks. If you’ve ever wondered where Garth Brooks’ youngest daughter Allie Colleen who recently scored a top-40 country hit, gets her vocal chops from, it’s not only from her famous father, but her grandma—from whom Allie also gets her middle name—Colleen McElroy Carroll Brooks. As we were recently made aware from watching the Netflix documentary Garth Brooks: The Road I’m On, Garth’s mom Colleen was also a talented country music singer....

Yellowstone is going (even more) country! Deadline reports that singer Lainey Wilson is set to join the cast of Taylor Sheridan’s hit series as a musician named Abby. The country star celebrated the news on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself on set in Montana with the iconic Dutton Ranch in the background. “See y’all on season 5 of Yellowstone,” Wilson captioned the post. Wilson, a native of Baskin, Louisiana, took home two ACM Awards in 2021: New Female Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for her chart-topping single, “Things a Man Oughta Know....

I had a date to meet a friend recently and she was a bit delayed. The cause of the holdup had been an unexpected diversion to the dry cleaner to drop off a shirt. One might assume it was in need of a clean and starch, but it turns out it simply had sprung a button. I was aghast but tried to play it off with a number of casual questions (naturally) that were probably a dead giveaway in retrospect....