Tag: Lifestyle

Dinner and a Classic Movie: Arroz con Pollo and ‘Anchors Aweigh’

“Dinner and a movie” is a time-honored custom. You can make this the basis for a cozy evening at home by pairing a home-cooked meal with a classic film. For a fun twist on the idea, why not make that meal a vintage recipe inspired by the film? My favorite way to discover new dishes…


Memorable Gatherings: How to Be the Best Host

What stands out at the best events you’ve attended, be they dinner parties or backyard barbecues? It’s the ambience, the conversation, the connection, and the fun. When it comes to being a fabulous hostess, it’s about much more than simply food. Socialization Savvy The first rule of being the best host or hostess you can…


Going Whole-Hog: Meet the 2 Friends Teaching the Ultimate Do-It-Yourself, Pasture-to-Plate Experience

Every hog butchering performed by Doug Wharton and Andy Lane of Hand Hewn Farm begins the same way. They start in the early morning, when the mist still clings to the grass. There is no chaos, none of the nervous energy that makes both hog and butcher unsteady. This constructed calm also settles the nerves…


Turn Chip Crumbs Into Savory Breakfast Casserole

Migas is a crumby dish. Literally. The word means “crumbs” in Spanish. It’s also an Iberian recipe that was once popular with hunters and mountain people in southern Spain and Portugal. From there, it made its way to Mexico and Texas, taking on a new variation wherever it took hold. Migas is a method as…


Ed Perkins on Travel: Tempting, Tricky, and Taboo

A new (to me, at least) air travel hack lets you buy elite status in a few lines’ programs. It joins other hoary hacks, around for years, that offer some great cost reductions but violate airline policies and contracts. Two outfits—airlinestatus.com/ and joindeluxe.com—sell time-limited elite status in several major airlines. Currently, airlinestatus.com sells Gold and…


Athens: Weaving Old With New

A century and a half ago, Athens was a humble, forgotten city of about 8,000 people. Today, one out of every three Greeks packs into this city of over 3 million. The city is infamous for its sprawl, noise, and pollution. For a long time, my advice was to see the big sights, then get…


How to Decide to Accept an Offer

Dear Monty: We were selling our home and listed it with a real estate agent we know. We just finished the final touches to show the house, so it goes on the market in a few days. The agent has a customer who looked at it a few days ago. We listed it for $424,900….


Runaway Food Prices Driving Some Americans to Dollar Stores for Groceries

High food and gasoline prices are impacting where and how people across the nation are shopping for food. The cost of groceries jumped by 9.5 percent in February over last year’s prices and the average gallon of gas was $3.39. As a result, some customers at a Dollar General store in North Central Florida are…


Wine Gadgets

Wine lore says that the cork, which comes from the bark of the cork oak tree, may first have been used to seal wine bottles by the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon, replacing wooden stoppers in about 1670. This advance then led to the development of literally dozens of gadgets designed to remove them from bottles….


This Secret to the Best Buttery Chicken Breasts Are Already in Your Pantry

Take it easy for dinner tonight with this delicious meal that’s ready in a flash. Ritz cracker chicken takes ho-hum boneless, skinless chicken breasts and two common pantry staples—mayonnaise and Ritz crackers—and turns them into a crisp and juicy main dish. It’s a chicken dinner that you’ll find yourself making again and again. What sets…