Category: Radiant Life

This Sweet and Salty Steak Salad Is Packed With Flavor

Here’s an easy salad recipe to kick off the new year. It’s salty, sweet, and sour with a hint of spice, the traditional flavors that round out a Thai dish. It’s easy to pull together and will have more flavor than any bagged Thai salad you’ll find at the supermarket. Thai Beef Salad Serves 4…


7 Things You Can Declutter From Your Linen Closet in the Next 5 Minutes

Quick: Make a rough estimate of how many pillowcases you own. Just enough to match your sheet sets? Or perhaps a few extras? Or perhaps you’re like many of us and are harboring a dozen spare pillowcases—or more—even if you don’t actually even have a guest room. Guilty as charged? If not, we’re fairly willing…


Remove and Replace Drywall Tape Over Joints

Dear James: The drywall tape is coming loose on the walls and in the corners, so I pulled it off. What is the correct method to retape the corners so that it stays on longer? —Pamela D. Dear Pamela: If you have ever watched a professional tape drywall, it looks easy with little sanding needed….


Go Big or Go Home With This Layered Shellfish Stew

As noted, I view January as bowl-food month. Therefore, I shall close out the month with an ambitious stew. I won’t lie—it’s a bit of a project. But hey, since many of us are homebound and hunkering down, why not roll up our sleeves and have some fun with this recipe? I am a big…


Planning Your Garden? Consider These Stunning, Award-Winning Flowers

This week, I received five gardening catalogs in the mail. I expect a few more will be coming soon. I also look online for new varieties of plants. One way that I know a plant could work well in my garden is that I look for the red, white, and blue logo of All-America Selections…


Wine Fraud and Authenticity

When we buy a bottle of a famed wine, we take it on faith that it’s genuine and not a fake. In fact, fake wine is precisely why corks began to be branded with the name of a winery as well as the vintage date. It’s also why most reputable wineries still use branded corks….


Aruba: A Tiny Island With a Big List of Attractions

If you like to loll on magnificent beaches, visit Aruba. When seeking immersion in a fascinating multiracial culture, think Aruba. Want to combine a long list of activities with an otherworldly moonscape setting? Yes, Aruba. This tiny Caribbean island more than makes up in appeal what it lacks in size. Many people go there for…


These Sweet and Salty Pancakes Are Delicious Any Way You Dress Them

The combination of sweet and salty is always a good idea. These pillowy-soft pancakes take on a hint of earthy aroma from peanut butter. (Our cross-tester confirmed that the taste is subtle and kid-approved.) I like to enjoy them with salted toasted peanuts to balance out the sweetness, but fresh-cut rounds of banana with chocolate…


Smash Your Burger

My Midwestern family has what I call an adversarial relationship with meat: Cook that stuff completely or we may all die. “How would you like that done?” Done? Yes, please. I survived to adulthood to discover medium rare and (gasp) rare are delights, not death sentences. I have become perhaps unreasonably insistent that a real…


The Family Table: In Granny’s Pound Cake, Memories by the Slice

Submitted by Pamela M. Saunders, Suffolk, Virginia I grew up next door to my grandmother. She and I were each other’s eyeballs. Every Saturday, I went next door and we baked her pound cake. I remember sitting on a stool with folding steps as she worked. At first, when I was very young, I could just…