We love lentils in everything from soups and stews to salads, dips, and side dishes. Clearly, learning to cook dried lentils is a kitchen skill worth mastering. This guide covers how to cook lentils, how to prepare them, and a roundup of the different types available. Types of Lentils There are a variety of lentils on the market, each with its own flavor profile and texture. Often, how you cook them is based on the type you choose....
Step 1: Prep and Boil Lobsters For two 1- to 1½-pound lobsters, bring 8 quarts of salted water (use about ½ cup of salt) to a boil in a 20-quart or larger pot, such as a canning pot, with a lid. The size of the cooking pot ($25, Target) is key because the lobsters need to fit completely inside with the lid closed. Grasp each lobster just behind the head and rinse under cold running water....
How to Shop for Ribs When shopping for ribs, you first need to decide whether you’re opting for pork or beef. Pork ribs are smaller, and beef ribs are bigger, which translates to different cooking times. Beef ribs are also fattier than pork ribs, which yields an intense, beefy flavor when the fat renders. Since pork ribs have a lower fat content, the flavor is milder, so if you want to highlight a punchy marinade, it’s best to go with pork....
Not a huge fan a broccoli? No big deal. These nutrient-dense sprigs don’t even taste like broccoli—instead, they have a refreshing, earthy flavor that complements countless cuisines. What Are Broccoli Sprouts? Broccoli sprouts, like many other sprout varieties, are baby plants that haven’t quite matured yet. But just because they haven’t grown to their fullest potential, doesn’t mean they aren’t incredibly nourishing. Broccoli sprouts are 3-to-5-day old broccoli plants that have a very mild flavor, but they contain more nutrients than most other vegetables....
Some gardeners get a little nervous about snipping parts off their plants, but unless you start whacking away, it’s tough to damage or kill a plant just by clipping spent flowers. So when your flowering plants have fading blooms, brown, curled up, or otherwise looking unattractive, that’s your cue to pull out your garden shears and start deadheading. Which Plants to Deadhead? You can often get a clue about which plants to deadhead and which to leave alone just by watching them....
To learn more about how to take good care of your baggage, we spoke to a cleaning expert with 20 years of experience, Leslie Reichert, the founder and owner of Green Cleaning Coach. Here are her top cleaning tips for both soft- and hard-surfaced luggage, so you can have peace of mind both while traveling and upon returning home. Fill a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and spray liberally on hard-faced luggage....
RELATED: How to Groom Your Brows at Home Like a Pro When it comes to brow tinting, stay away from hot showers and excessive perspiration, both things that can reduce the life of your color, as much as you can. You should also avoid using harsh stringents, toners, or chemical peels near the brow area as that can strip away pigment. “Excessive sun exposure will also expedite your brow tint breakdown, so if you do want to sit on your private balcony during quarantine, use an SPF lip balm on your brows....
Well, a lot of things. Even if you’re a seasoned colorist, chances are that if you’ve executed a hair color experiment, you’ve experienced a hair color fail. But don’t worry—it’s going to be OK. Once you’ve come to terms with it (post-screaming), it’s time to remedy the mistake. We teamed up with Jeremy Tardo, celebrity hairstylist and Clairol Color Partner, to round up every possible at-home hair color misstep. Whether it’s a quick fix or something to disguise the mess until your next salon appointment, here are our top tips to help your hair get back to tip-top shape....
How to Freeze Baked Cookies Homemade cookies will keep at room temperature up to three days. If you don’t think you’ll be able to make those sweets disappear in three days or less, it’s easy to freeze them. Most of your favorite cookies and bar cookies will freeze well, just hold off on the the frosting and decorating until you’re ready to serve them. Allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before placing in freezer-safe bags....
Travel Media Content Rax Suen is a travel writer and host of the Chat with Nomads podcast. He’s seen globetrotters do a lot of things to keep the income flowing while traveling the world, but he recommends reaching out to a reputable travel media company and asking to go on press trips. “Working with established names reduces the chances of getting scammed, and there is a better chance that they have had ample experience organizing these collaborations/partnerships,” says Suen....
Luckily, renovating your kitchen doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to character-rich details. “I find the elegance of a kitchen to be in the simplicity, so while I like to keep it simple and not overdone, I layer different mediums and textures,” says Mackenzie Zwick of Mackenzie Page Interiors. “For example, a smooth stucco vent hood with marble countertops and intricate millwork details.” Her husband, Brian Zwick of Zwick Homes, says both millwork details and simple cabinetry upgrades can totally transform the look of the kitchen....
Monstera Must-Know Care Tips Monsteras might look intimidating to the new houseplant aficionado, but they’re actually pretty low maintenance plants. Regardless of skill level, any plant lover can grow this enticing plant in their home. Light These native tropical plants need lots of light. Aim to give your monstera around 5-8 hours of indirect but bright light. If you own a variegated variety of monstera, the plant will need more light to develop the colors in their leaves....
Where to Grow Venus Flytrap Instead of originating one planet away from Earth, Venus flytraps are perennials native to boggy areas of coastal North and South Carolina. They grow in moist, acidic soils in full sun but only survive winter outdoors in Zones 8-10. Gardeners in colder winter climates should grow Venus flytraps in a moist environment, such as a terrarium that can go indoors during winter. Venus Flytrap Care Tips Light Venus flytraps do best in bright but indirect light....
During Real Simple’s Time for You Weekend in the Rosemary Beach community in northwest Florida, Dayna’s entertaining formula was put into action (and passed with flying colors!) when Etsy hosted a Friday Night Soirée we haven’t stopped talking about since. The key to the party’s success? The event featured personalized decor, it followed a theme, it gave guests a chance to get involved, it was cozy and comfortable, and there was an abundance of delicious foods and drinks....
Staying in a relationship for money, not love, can have detrimental effects on your physical and emotional health. In fact, it can quite literally make you sick—something George Guillelmina, a certified financial planner, emphasizes. “Financially dependent relationships are relationships where one partner has an unstable or low income and insufficient savings,” Guillelmina explains. “This puts him or her in a fragile position, i.e., they are heavily dependent on the partner’s financial support....
Also unlike baking, butter candles aren’t super-strict on ratios or proportions, so you can make them to your preferred size and shape. For your first butter candle, start with a stick of butter. Salisbury recommends starting out small for a butter candle, so that the butter doesn’t melt faster than it’s being consumed and turn into a melty mess on your table. Melt the butter in a microwave-safe cup or bowl in 30 second increments....
The homemade ice cream experience starts with the ice cream base, and that base then turns into the frozen dessert we all know and love. Whether the ice cream is milk or water-based, the base will be made up of milk, cream, sugar, and whole eggs or egg yolks. There are different bases to experiment with, and they range from fuss-free to one requiring more attention to detail, yet they’re still incredibly simple....
When it comes to sticky rice, most people will first ask how to make rice sticky. But that’s actually the wrong question to start with. While you can make rice sticky by overcooking it with too much water, that’s not actually how to make sticky rice. That’s not even how to make sticky rice for sushi, which is an entirely different type of rice. What Is Sticky Rice? Sticky rice is actually its own variety, just as long-grain or brown rice fall in wholly different rice categories....
We’re guessing that most of those tens of thousands of cookies are from a bakery or store-bought, but it’s totally doable to master making homemade chocolate chip cookies right in your own kitchen. Ahead, our Test Kitchen’s tips, tricks, variations, and more so you can learn how to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch that are the best ever. How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies from Scratch Our classic chocolate chip cookie recipe holds its shape and has a slight chewiness from the combo of butter (for flavor) and shortening (to keep the cookies from spreading too much while baking)....
When you open the umbrella, the fabric should be pulled taut—a firmly stretched canopy disperses wind more effectively (making it less susceptible to breakage). If you frequently battle wind, a vented umbrella is a good idea because it allows gusts to pass through it instead of charging at it, says Jen Carfagno, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Atlanta. Another way to prevent umbrellas from flipping out on you is to check their build: Look for parasols that have one continuous shaft and ribs that don’t have any breaks in the joints....
