In a way, the work you put in acts as a seasoning. A tomato picked within a few dozen feet of your kitchen will be supremely fresh, yes, but the care you put into nurturing those summer fruits will add flavor, too. (Seriously, what’s better than biting into a perfectly ripe tomato and having juices and seeds run down your chin?) But as rewarding as they can be, figuring out how to grow tomatoes can still be tricky business....

But come Tuesday, those greens are likely looking a little gross. Bagged lettuce, perhaps a necessary evil, is notorious for slipping into a slimy, half-rotted state before you’re able to use even half the bag. The good news is that you don’t have to keep tossing those tattered leaves. These storage tips will help keep bagged salad fresh longer, and a few easy purchasing hacks can help you make a better selection from the start....

Step 1: Cut in shortening. Start by combining the dry ingredients: 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt.Use a pastry blender to cut 1/3 cup shortening into the flour mixture.Work just until the pieces are the size of small peas. Step 2: Moisten the flour mixture. Sprinkle ice-cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, over part of the flour mixture.Toss gently with a fork; push moistened flour to one side of the bowl....

How to Make Noodles from Scratch For this demonstration, we’re using our homemade noodles recipe. The pasta recipe makes enough egg noodles for five servings, so multiply the measurements as needed to serve your group. 1. Gather the Noodle Ingredients To make the homemade noodle dough, grab your flour, salt, eggs, oil, and water. Yes, that’s all. 2. Mix the Dough In a large mixing bowl ($8, Bed Bath & Beyond) stir together flour and the salt....

This lifestyle shift created by social distancing measures means forgoing standard medical appointments. It also means skipping just-in-case emergency room visits for minor ailments like sore throats and cuts, so medical staff can focus all their attention on treating, testing, and caring for those who need it most right now. None of this is to say you should miss out on receiving professional medical advice altogether. After all, this is 2020, and telemedicine is readily available....

And yet—hand me a wine list at a restaurant and I freeze. I feel dumb. I feel like an imposter. Who am I to choose a wine based on a name and appellation alone? If I don’t recognize a wine I’ve already had (and liked) before, I quickly order the second-cheapest glass/bottle of whatever variety I’m in the mood for, mostly so that I don’t look like a total cheapskate....

But the only thing standing in the way of all that tart goodness is peeling and coring the apples, especially if your dish calls for a dozen or more. Fortunately, it’s easy to learn how to core apples efficiently, so you can get your favorite recipes ready faster. Apple Types Before you get started, make sure you choose the right apple variety for your recipe. There are dozens of different types available, but some of our favorites include the following:...

Fortunately, picking a landscape pro is not a free-for-all. Picking someone you can work well with and how can deliver the landscaping design ideas you want is easy—you just need to know who (and what) to ask. For an easy guide to picking a solid landscape designer, we turned to Missy Henriksen, the vice president of public affairs at the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP). Read on for Henriksen’s quick-and-easy guide to finding the best landscape designer for your needs—your gorgeous yard will thank you soon enough....

How to Roast Butternut Squash in the Oven This is one of the best ways to cook butternut squash. Roasting allows for subtle browning and caramelization to occur, which means even more flavor by enhancing the natural sweetness of the squash. Take your pick among roasting the squash whole, halved, sliced, or in chunks. Cooking time will vary widely depending on weight and how the squash is cut, and can take anywhere from about one hour for a whole squash, skin and all, to about 30 minutes for butternut squash that’s been cut into bite-size pieces....

Sautéing is simply skillet-cooking and stirring ingredients in a small amount of oil. In this case, the goal is sautéed vegetables cooked to crisp-tender perfection with a slightly caramelized surface. Adding healthy ingredients and color to your dinner plate is easy once you’ve learned how to sauté vegetables. Read on for our simple and easy tutorial for the best way to sauté vegetables, so they can be added as a guest item on your menu more often....

Rest assured, there’s still time to act, whether you start saving for retirement at 25, 35, or 55. Whatever your retirement goals—maintaining your current lifestyle, upgrading, or making a dramatic move—we’ll help you find the right path forward. Our experts guide you one step (and life stage) at a time. If You Haven’t Started Saving You’re not alone. A 2019 Federal Reserve Board report revealed that 25 percent of working Americans have nothing saved for retirement....

You can give your skillet a nonstick surface by seasoning it, or coating the skillet with cooking oil and baking it (see how to season a cast-iron skillet in the above video, or follow the steps outlined below). The skillet won’t take on that shiny black patina immediately out of the oven, but once you dry it with paper towels, it will be ready to use. You’ll reinforce the nonstick coating every time you heat oil in the skillet, and you can hasten the process by seasoning as often as you like—or by using a seasoning spray....

Depending on the club, memberships cost between $45 and $60 per year, with premium memberships available at higher rates. (Costco benefits include travel rewards and more.) These don’t seem like huge fees, especially for frequent club visitors, but anyone buying in bulk only once or twice a year may not want to invest in the membership. Enter Instacart, the grocery and household supply delivery service that lets non-members shop from three top wholesale clubs, without ever stepping foot in a warehouse....

How to Store Fresh Ginger Having ginger on-hand is incredibly useful—you never know when you’re going to need it. To help your ginger stay fresher for longer, make sure to place it in an air-tight food storage container or sealed plastic bag, and then store it in the crisper drawer in the fridge. This will help keep it fresh for a month, or even longer. Once you begin to see greenish-blue mold spots, it’s time to toss your ginger....

How to Store Thanksgiving Turkey Resist the urge to toss the meaty turkey carcass into your fridge, and take a few minutes to store your Thanksgiving turkey correctly to preserve texture and flavor. “The best way to store leftover turkey is in a plastic bag,” suggests Yankel Polak, head chef at ButcherBox. “Not only does this take up the least amount of room in the fridge, but less air in the bag will keep your turkey fresher for longer, as compared to a large food storage container....

Before you begin, it’s important to note that paint-stripping chemicals can be dangerous. Be sure to read the manufacturer’s instructions carefully before starting this project. Follow our instructions on how to strip and paint wood furniture to make old pieces look new again. How to Strip and Repaint Wood Furniture Chemical strippers are not ideal for large projects. For cabinets or large furniture pieces, you might want to consider heaters to remove paint or hire a professional to tackle the project....

The Top Tools for Turkey While guidelines for how long to cook a turkey are great for timing out your Thanksgiving meal prep, you can’t assume standard cooking times will result in a safe internal turkey temperature. For that, you’ll need the right tools, and unfortunately, the “pop-up” temperature indicator that comes on top of your turkey is not it. While cute, “pop-up” timers aren’t always accurate, so the USDA always recommends using a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of a turkey....

Now that I have a baby, I’ve started trying to think of ways to teach him what gratitude is and how he can show gratitude. And while thinking through this, I’ve come up with three keys to teach children gratitude based on what my parents taught me. Keeping those three keys in mind, I’ve created The Gratitude Game, a game for families to use throughout the month of November to turn gratitude into a fun family activity....

While some companies have started to slowly bring their staffers back, others are opting to make remote work permanent for everyone—or at least allow a lot more flexibility for their employees to choose where they work. That means that you might want to look at what’s working with your setup now—and what might need changing if this is going to be an everyday (or even just twice-a-week) way to work....

But with each new feature rollout comes yet another notification, privacy concern, or straight-up inconvenience—and you don’t have to grin and bear it. From pesky ad notifications to cringe-worthy memories you’d prefer to keep in the past, here’s how to tailor your Facebook experience to be exactly how you want it. “On This Day” Memories Some memories belong in the past. You can control whether you see any On This Day or other Memory posts—and you can even go as far as to list a specific person and date you do not want to be reminded of (which is helpful for exes)....