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Preparation Whether you’re incorporating local flavors at a destination wedding or showing off the freshest ingredients from your hometown growers, planning a farm-to-table meal for your wedding dinner lets you create a unique—and delicious—menu for your guests. But if you don’t think your family and friends will respond to the creativity involved with an in-season-only meal, then choosing a variety of seasonal hors d’oeuvres lets you focus on the best local fare without making such a big commitment....

Preparation Your wedding plans might be set in stone, but that won’t stop friends and family members who have been down this road before from sharing their advice, whether you’ve asked for it or not. While this can be quite frustrating and overwhelming to deal with, especially if the recommendations keep on coming at full speed, it’s important to remember that this advice, although unsolicited, is almost always coming from a good place....

Preparation The goal of getting strong and healthy nails is more attainable than you might think. If you’re experiencing slow nail growth or dealing with brittle, easily broken nails, learning how to grow them faster is likely important to you. As it turns out, there are things—some within our control, others not—that prevent speedy nail growth. Marisa Garshick, MD, a board-certified dermatologist at MDCS Dermatology, says to consider the following factors when it comes to how fast (or slow) your nails are growing: physical stress on the body (such as an illness, virus, or surgery), dietary changes, vitamin deficiencies, and certain medications are all part of the equation and could cause some sort of trauma to our nail beds, hindering quick nail growth....

Preparation If the conditions in your yard are less than ideal—hard, rocky clay soil; uneven terrain—raised beds are the ultimate work-around. These elevated mounds of earth, often contained by a rectangular frame, offer total flexibility: You can plot them wherever you want, fill them with your ideal blend of soil, and plant them more densely than a regular garden, which means fewer weeds. Plus, they warm up quickly in spring, so you can start growing earlier than if you were digging in the still-frozen earth....

For the chocolate cake: ½ cup cocoa powder 1 tbsp espresso powder ½ tsp baking soda 2 ½ tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 2 cups cake flour 1 tbsp vanilla extract ¾ cup apple sauce ½ cup vegetable oil 1 ½ cups muscovado sugar ½ cup light sour cream 1 ¼ cups brewed coffee For the filling: 1 ¾ cups milk 3.4 oz instant chocolate pudding, (1 pack) For the topping: 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream...

Time for a new party recipe! The best part about party recipes is that you can enjoy them along with your guests. Or you can do what my husband does and be so much of a social butterfly that you don’t actually get around to eating anything. I don’t recommend that! I’m able to do both. I love to have friends over for wine and appetizers, and somehow I manage to enjoy my food and drink and still visit with friends....

Add your favourite toppings, and healthy dose of cheese then pop it in the oven! No yeast? No worries! Make this Magic No Yeast Pizza Dough. Pizza Sauce recipe To be completely honest, you can get away with just using plain tomato paste with a pinch of salt and pepper as a pizza sauce. Once you pile on cheese and other toppings, it’s still completely scoffable. However, it really is worth taking a bit of time to make a great pizza sauce!...

If you own an air fryer, you know by now just how versatile this nifty kitchen appliance is. But did you know that aside from air frying and baking, it can also reheat food? And it does a fine job at it, too! In fact, I think it’s the best gadget for reheating deep-fried food such as chicken. I mean, sure, the oven can do it, too, but the air fryer gets the job done in a much shorter time....

Rice pudding is wonderfully thick, creamy, and loaded with flavor. Since it’s very hearty, you can also serve this dessert for breakfast. It’s perfect when cold, but even more phenomenal when warm! It’s such a fantastic cozy treat on a cold day. If you like rice, this pudding will make you fall in love with it even more! Also, it’s just one of many leftover rice recipes that you can try when you have extra on hand....

I’d gladly devour bowls of chili any day, but the problem is, it takes so long to make! Fortunately for us busy-bees, this easy, shortcut version exists, and it’ll blow your tastebuds away. Thanks to canned beans, tomatoes, and chilies, you’ll be just a few minutes away from a mouthwatering pot of chili. Rotel Chili Rotel chili is a simplified version of the classic chili that calls for combining ground beef with canned beans, tomatoes, and chili....

Preparation With their brightly colored, fluffy blossoms, hydrangeas are an unmistakable garden mainstay. Available in more than 70 varieties, these versatile flowering shrubs are just as happy in coastal soil as they are in mountainous regions. In order to ensure bountiful blossoms each summer, it’s important to perform proper maintenance in the spring. Bob Polomski, an associate extension specialist and instructor at Clemson University’s Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, shares the steps to take now, at the dawn of the warm-weather season, for the best results down the road....

I really don’t think I’m a food snob – hey, I’m that person who has confessed to doing the KFC and Maccers drive through of shame. But I was brought up with food made from scratch and my mother ended up doing a great job of brain washing me because I never use store bought packet mixes or recipe bases. It just doesn’t taste right to me, it has an edge of artificial-ness, and usually they are too salty....

Since I started baking sweet potatoes and adding the right spices, I’ve never looked back on regular French fries. I just love the earthy but sweet flavor they give, plus a little extra fiber, too. Whether you want to enjoy sweet potato fries as a side dish or on their own as a snack, definitely give this recipe a try. How to Make Sweet Potato Fries Ready to make your very own sweet potato fries?...

2 cups red cabbage, shredded 2 cups green cabbage, shredded 2 cups napa cabbage, shredded 1 cup carrots, julienned 5 oz bell peppers , of your choice, julienned 3 oz red onions, or yellow onions, julienned ⅓ cup cilantro, chopped For Dressing: ⅓ cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy 2 tbsp lemon juice, or lime juice, plus more as needed 2 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tbsp fish sauce, plus more as needed...

Preparation If you’ve ever baked cookies or cake at home, you likely used a KitchenAid mixer to do so. The beloved appliance has been around for decades and continues to be a household name thanks to its durability and versatile attachments. While many people purchase mixers for baking, did you know you can use it to make ice cream, spiralize vegetables, grind meat, and more? With the right attachment your stand mixer can perform a handful of cooking tasks....

Preparation Get ready to howl at the “Wolf Moon.” The first full moon of the year, which is known as the Wolf Moon, will occur on Thursday, January 28, at 7:16 p.m. UTC, or 2:16 p.m. EST. Coined by the Farmer’s Almanac, this full moon is aptly named due to the howling of the wolves that can be heard this time of year. “It was traditionally thought that wolves howled due to hunger, but we now know that wolves use howls to define territory, locate pack members, reinforce social bonds, and gather for hunting,” says the Farmer’s Almanac....

Preparation It’s always a perfect occasion for cookies. They’re (relatively) easy to make, super portable, eminently shareable, and universally beloved. Chances are, cookies are one of the first things you learned to bake. But anyone who’s ever made cookies has experienced the agony of treat defeat when a batch baked with the highest of hopes just doesn’t hit the mark. They could be dry or doughy, tough or crumbly, spread too thin (or hardly spread at all), entirely too sweet or bewilderingly bland, or burnt or underbaked....

Preparation While having your wedding ceremony and reception in the same location creates a cohesive, streamlined experience for your guests, many factors could inspire you to choose two different spots: Maybe you’re getting married in your childhood church or the synagogue where your parents met; perhaps you’ve always dreamed of an outdoor ceremony in the woods but don’t want to invest in a full build-out reception; maybe the weather at your beachfront property is just a bit unreliable in hurricane season....

Preparation Believe it or not, your cat’s nose can reveal a lot about their health. “In general, during wellness visits your veterinarian will examine your pet’s nose for any abnormal appearances or discharge as well as check to make sure the air is moving equally from both nostrils when your cat breathes,” explains Dr. Meaghan Gilhooly, DVM at Banfield Pet Hospital. “Just like in humans, pets can experience congestion, discharge, and other sinus type symptoms, which can go hand-in-hand with respiratory diseases or other diseases that affect the oral or nasal cavity....

Preparation There are few British traditions more sweetly appealing than afternoon tea served in pretty teacups along with a few delightful bites, such as scones with jam and clotted cream, and tiny tea sandwiches. Here, in the United States, we enjoy our scones in the morning with our coffee, and yes, sometimes with tea, too—but we typically don’t indulge in that clotted cream. And since we don’t often turn to it, many of us don’t know what clotted cream is—or how to make it and use it come tea time....