That said, if you do want to knock their socks off, we have some ideas for over-the-top forts they’ll be talking about for years to come. Building blanket forts can take as much time as you like, be done over and over again with new twists and variations, and be enjoyed for minutes, hours, or days before you take it down and start anew. We think this ranks up there with one of the best things to do indoors (if not the best)....

Making bread cubes is a cinch. Plus, it puts you entirely in charge of flavors and cube size. Enhance the sweetness of your bread pudding by using cinnamon-swirl bread. Or add heartiness to your Thanksgiving stuffing when you use pumpernickel bread. The options are as endless as the bread aisle. So cut your bread into cubes, dry them in the oven, and get cooking. How to Make Bread Cubes It makes no difference if you need to know how to cube French bread, sourdough, challah, or another type of bread....

Step 1: Bake Cupcakes Before you get started, you need cupcakes to decorate. Here, we turned a Southern classic hummingbird cake recipe into cupcakes. These hummingbird cupcakes add cozy flavors to an Easter brunch or dinner, but you can swap them with your favorite cupcake recipe if you’d prefer. You can also use store-bought cupcakes and skip straight to the fun part of decorating. Get the recipe: Hummingbird Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting...

“Finances are often ranked as the top source of stress for Americans,” says Ken Lin, founder and CEO of Credit Karma. “Financial distress—especially due to debt—can seriously impact how confident people feel about their financial well-being, but it doesn’t have to.” Financial wellness is all about establishing overall financial health and learning how to successfully manage your finances. Doing so means you’re well prepared for economic challenges, of course, but practicing financial wellness can also have positive mental health benefits, including boosted self-confidence....

One of the best ways to prevent canned goods from spoiling is by placing them in a cool, dry area away from direct sunlight. Storing them in a reach-in or walk-in pantry, within kitchen cabinets, or inside drawers are all ideal locations. Now, let’s look at options for organizing canned food within these spaces. 1. Try the Stadium Seating Method “Stadium seating” is one of the best ways to organize cans....

Just like cleaning out a crowded storage closet, confronting your personal finances can be intimidating—especially if you’ve been avoiding doing so for a while. But experts Rachel Cruze, bestselling author and personal finance expert of Ramsey Solutions, and Laurie Adams, certified financial planner of Country Financial, share simple ways to clean up three significant aspects of your financial life: budgets, savings goals, and insurance coverage. Follow the steps below to tidy up your finances and create an approachable plan that works for you....

You may have had a very good reason for running up high-interest debt: Maybe you had to make some unexpected big-ticket purchases, or lost a job, or endured an illness. Or maybe you have formed some unhealthy spending habits, such as impulse buying. Regardless of the cause, ridding yourself of that balance should be your top financial priority—credit card debt and a low credit score can have serious consequences for your overall financial security....

Mandevillas are all about the big, tropical-looking blooms. They come in shades of pink, red, and white, and many shades in between. Now there’s a new color added to the range, a beautiful apricot. The large five-petaled blooms often have a rich golden throat inside that adds to the tropical look. Flowers are borne in clusters that will continue to grow and add more buds all the time. Be careful not to damage these growing points of the bloom clusters, or new buds will not form on that stalk....

Don’t blame the exercise: Blame two common mistakes people often make while exercising at home. “These injuries were probably caused by people who weren’t previously exercising and people not exercising at the appropriate intensity, duration, or frequency,” says Mecayla Froerer, director of iFit training and a NASM-certified personal trainer in Logan, Ut., adding that injury doesn’t discriminate. Whether you’re new to exercise or have been exercising for years, injury is always a possibility....

Types of Cherry Trees When it comes to fruiting cherry trees, there are really two kinds: sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) and sweet cherries (Prunus avium). 1. Sour Cherries Often called dwarf cherries for their smaller size, sour cherries will reach about 20 feet if allowed to grow unchecked on standard root stocks. These trees grow best in USDA Zones 4-6; they favor cooler climates and are also more disease and pest resistant than sweet cherries....

Since apple picking adventures and autumn market hauls are just a few weeks away, there are a few things to keep in mind when shopping for any apple variety. Perfectly ripe apples are free of bruises and dents, and are firm to the touch. Soft spots indicate that the apple is overripe and no longer fresh to eat. Once you pick out your perfect fruits, knowing how to store apples (and where) can mean the difference between a crisp snack and a mushy mess....

This guide details how to properly wrap and store different varieties of cheese. From this moment on, give your precious cheese the care it deserves, whether you’re eating Gouda, lactose-free cheese, or the healthiest cheese in your refrigerator. Storage Tips A resealable plastic bag will do the job, but it’s not the ideal storage solution for your cheese. The best way to wrap leftovers depends on the particular type; see the list of kinds of cheeses below for specifics....

A poster in Reddit’s cooking forum tells an all-too-familiar tale. She makes lentil soup in her Instant Pot, and despite following the directions to a T, ends up with a watery, thin finished product. Her solution? Add plain instant mashed potatoes (which are essentially just dehydrated potatoes) to the finished soup recipe as a thickening agent. Simple? Yes. Incredibly effective? You bet. This trick works because the instant mashed potatoes are naturally starchy and therefore are similar in form to other commonly used thickeners, such as cornstarch, only without the clumps....

That being said, there are some things you need to know to properly master how to use an Instant Pot as a slow cooker. So we tapped our Test Kitchen to share their complete guide for how to convert or adapt slow cooker recipes so you can whip them up in your multicooker, the one piece of gear that will make it easier, and how much liquid is essential to ace any recipe....

When you buy eggs from a grocery store or farmers market, they look spotless. “When’s the last time you bought a carton of eggs that didn’t look beautiful?” asks Marisa Bunning, a professor and food safety extension specialist in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University. But before Bunning became a professor, she raised backyard chickens with her family, so she knows better than anyone that eggs are still an ingredient that has come from an animal’s body....

What is hyaluronic acid? Sodium hyaluronate, or hyaluronic acid, naturally occurs in our bodies, and it works to both attract and seal water into the skin. “The greatest amounts of hyaluronic acid are found in skin soft tissue and the eyes,” says Dr. Payman Danielpour of Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery Group. “Our bodies naturally produce the substance to draw in and retain water to keep the body well lubricated and moist....

I’ve known about Tata Harper for years, mainly for its high quality products and the undeniably gorgeous packaging. Not to mention the thousands of shoppers who rave about this brand. And as a shopping writer, I wanted to ensure that I was getting a thorough experience with the cleanser, serum, eye cream, and moisturizer, all which I’ve been consistently using for a month, and spoiler alert: I love them and will continue using these products....

So naturally, with the rapid proliferation of CBD shops across the U.S., my nature brought me to the point where I had to try this much-hyped and ballyhooed product—and write about it, so you’ll know if it’s right for you or not. Are you someone thinking about trying hemp tea or CBD oil for the first time? I encourage you to let my experience be your guide. But before we get into my story, let’s go over some basics....

Was I going to feel like a character in Little House on the Prairie or end up with buttermilk splattered all over the kitchen? Did I need to buy a butter churner to make traditional, authentic homemade butter? Regardless, I forged ahead. In the end, I just felt like a 21st-century gal who loves butter and only made a slight mess using a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Follow along to see how to make butter at home....

This isn’t the dalgona whipped coffee from early 2020—which was like a very lightly sweetened “reverse latte.” Dalgona candy is similar to a toffee or honeycomb candy—sugar is cooked until it’s caramelized, then a little baking soda is added to react with the sugar and create a frothy effect. After it cools and hardens, you break it up and enjoy. (Though it’s safe to say in Squid Game, where contestants were required to try to break out a shape in the middle without breaking the candy—there wasn’t much to enjoy about it....