One of the tastiest—and perhaps cutest—summer stone fruits is the aptly named donut peach. They are the size and shape of a donut, especially when the small, round pit comes out, leaving a perfect hole in the center of this squat fruit with plump shoulders. It’s also called a Saturn peach, which makes sense if you view the pit as the planet and the sweet creamy white or pale golden flesh as one big ring....
While I don’t usually spend a ton of money buying over-the-top Christmas gifts for my friends, I always like to have a little something to give them when we gather to celebrate Christmas. I want it to be something they’ll enjoy and can actually use, but still be fun and festive. After watching Southern Living Editorial Producer Ivy Odom make homemade pepper jelly in a Tiktok video, I decided it would be the perfect homemade gift to give my friends this year....
Whether you’re a beer buff, a sports fan, or into the arts scene, you’ll find something to love during a visit to Charlotte, North Carolina. Here are some of the Queen City’s must-see spots to add to the itinerary for your next trip. What to Do Uptown Charlotte is home to several museums all within an easy walk of each other. Stop by the Mint Museum’s Uptown location to enjoy contemporary art....
The camellia plant is one of our favorite evergreen flowering shrubs. These plants provide some of the first signs of the season when they burst out in big, colorful blooms come winter and spring. Depending on the selection, camellias bloom out in splashy shades of white, pink, red, and magenta, and some are even speckled and striped. They provide beautiful garden color throughout the South. Some of the most popular camellias to plant in the South include ‘Yuletide’ camellia (Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’) and ‘Early Wonder’ camellia (Camellia japonica ‘Early Autumn’), both of which can be found in the Southern Living Plant Collection....
Nobody rules the roost like a Southern grandmother. The only person on earth who can rein in Mama is her Mama. And if you want to have a prayer of going out with that boy Daddy’s not so high on, get his mother on your side. When it comes to her grandchildren—precious angels every one—Memaw wields a velvet hammer, softening the blow of a disapproving glance with a teacake, or taking the edge off of “you girls better get in this house” with an invitation to try on her good jewelry....
While some of us dreamt about our weddings growing up, I’ve always dreamed about owning my first house. Perhaps it was falling in love with the home in It’s a Wonderful Life with its infamous loose banister knob. The imperfection and the care that went into restoring it from decrepit to delightful is an inspiration to anyone wishing to make a place a home. But starter homes are few and far between these days....
You won’t find anyone with a harder work ethic than Estella Williams of Anderson, South Carolina. After three decades cleaning Michelin Tire facilities, she picked up work at the age of 69 as a school crossing guard. The gig was meant to be a short-term favor to her son-in-law. Twenty-five years later, she’s achieved legend status after officially retiring from her post at the spry age of 95. Williams, who has 18 children, 55 grandchildren, 84 great-grandchildren, and 17 great-great-grandchildren, is used to being everyone’s grandma....
Kimberly Waterbury and her 95-year-old mom Dottie Schneider recently spent a week vacationing in Orange Beach, Alabama. They had been talking about the trip for months, and Waterbury was determined to fulfill her mom’s dream of feeling the sand under her feet and dipping a toe into the warm waters of the Gulf. But that proved to be no small task. Schneider has been unable to walk since suffering a stroke a few years ago, and Waterbury found it difficult to get her wheelchair through the sand....
Talk about a family affair! As previously reported, real-life sisters Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams have teamed up to play sisters in two original Hallmark Channel Christmas movies later this year: Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday and Sister Swap: Christmas in the City. But they’re not the only members of the extended Paisley clan participating in the Hallmark ventures. Their husbands also contributed to the highly anticipated sibling collaboration. Ashley’s husband, Neal Dodson, serves as an executive producer on the projects while Kimberly’s husband, musician Brad Paisley, reportedly penned a song for her film....
This Disney-loving family won’t let theme park closures get in between them and a swashbuckling good time. During their period of coronavirus self-isolation, the Thornock household went to great lengths to recreate the Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride inspired by the Johnny Depp films. Their incredible DIY version has sword fights, fake skeletons, beer-guzzling pirates, and even a prison-guarding dog. “My mom saw a homemade Splash Mountain video that Chip and Co....
Stephen Hansell is no stranger to the public schools in Klein, Texas. The US Navy veteran is an alum of Klein High School and spent the past few years as a custodian at Klein Oak High School. But soon, Hansell will be hanging up his mop to serve Klein ISD in a very different capacity. Later this month, he starts his new job as a 7th grade Texas History teacher at Krimmel Intermediate School....
What do you consider the most fragrant plant in the garden? Several worthy candidates include jasmine, gardenia, lilac, and bearded iris. These plants, along with many others, exude a wonderful garden fragrance. Yet there is one shrub that undoubtedly belongs on this list—the winter daphne. Native to China and Japan, winter daphne grows bigger with time, eventually reaching four feet tall and six feet wide after many years. It always remains tidy, seldom needing pruning—only to shape branches or to cut to force it to an early bloom for indoor plants in the winter....
For many in New Orleans, spring means Lent and church fish fries: plates of fish, hush puppies, and mac and cheese, picked up on your way home from work. But people are still reluctant to gather amid the pandemic; some churches remain closed; and even if everyone was game, not all communities have the resources to pull it off right now. Thus, Fish Fry Fridays. A combined effort to preserve tradition and raise funds for areas in need of relief, more than 30 restaurants have signed on to sell their own spin on the usual meal with $1 from each entrée sold benefiting Hospitality Cares, a partnership between the Louisiana Hospitality Foundation and United Way of Southeast Louisiana....
If you’re planning for retirement, you might want to set your sights on Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, at least according to Realtor.com in a new roundup of the top 10 affordable beach town for retirement in the United States. And while you may think of spending your golden years in Florida, the Carolinas could prove an equally enticing option if you’d like to retire on the water. In fact, two of the top three affordable beach towns to retire in were located in the Carolinas—with Murrells Inlet securing the number one spot and Morehead City, North Carolina, in third place (Venice, Florida, came in second)....
Long, slender pinecones, such as those of a white pine, work best for this new take on a Southern holiday classic—the pinecone wreath. Materials9 flat wooden paint stirrers12-inch green wire wreath formclippersGorilla Gluelong, thin pineconesartificial snow spraynarrow and wide satin ribbons To Make Make wreath base by weaving six wooden paint stirrers through the edges of a wire wreath form (like the rays of a sunburst). Cut remaining three stirrers in half....
As we all adjust to the difficult realities of quarantine living amidst the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve turned to many luminaries in the culinary world for cooking inspiration. There’s been Joanna Gaines schooling us on the fine art of making chocolate French silk pie. NOCHI (New Orleans Hospitality and Culinary Institute) hosting “Cooking in Quarantine” lessons on Zoom. An evening or two of the best food shows and documentaries you can stream on Hulu—Barefoot Contessa included....
Bread clips are one of those handy little items that you may use every single day and never spend a single moment thinking about. You may even be wondering what a bread clip is, but they are so ubiquitous there is no doubt you have used one. It’s the little flexible plastic u-shaped locks that come on nearly every bag of bread in the grocery store. They hold the tops of bags of potatoes or apples closed until you’re ready to use them....
Few places have both the rugged beauty of the Outer Banks and what Nashville singer-songwriter Kate Campbell has called “Southern noir.” If you’ve ever stood at a deserted homeplace on a sunny day and felt something not so sunny in the air, you know what she’s talking about. It’s just a sense that something happened there. Given that mariners of yore called the Outer Banks the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of all the ships that wrecked on its shoals, you can understand the Southern noir of the striking yellow Art Nouveau mansion on Currituck Sound....
Nothing says autumn like curling up on the couch and sipping on a warm cup of freshly brewed coffee. There’s a slight chill in the air; our television somehow finds itself on Hallmark Channel instead of the morning news. Sounds pleasant, hm? But after the first time or two, it doesn’t feel quite as festive—and you’re no rookie. Wringing out all the cozy, fuzzy feelings of fall before the holiday season starts is nothing short of an extreme sport....
The Norpro Canning Essentials set equips you with quite a few handy gadgets, some of which reviewers never thought they needed but now, are so glad they have in their kitchens. The brand has been around since 1973 and has had a few decades to perfect its craft, leading to the creation of a kit that thousands of reviewers have raved about and 7,000 people have granted a perfect rating....
