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Serve alongside roasted meats, at Thanksgiving dinner, or as part of a special brunch. Shopping tip: Look for potatoes—both the Yukon gold and the sweet—that are similar in size and shape, which will help make the layers even. Related Video

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Best Herbs for Container Gardens Buy It: Tarragon Plant ($13, Etsy) Buy It: Sweet Mint ($15, The Home Depot) Buy It: Italian Oregano Plant ($13, The Home Depot) Buy It: German Thyme Plant ($13, The Home Depot) Perennial herbs can survive in containers outdoors year-round if the pots are large enough (holding at least 5 gallons of soil), have good drainage, and are hardy in your Zone. Use plastic pots if you keep them outdoors year-round; ceramic or clay containers can crack from freeze-thaw cycles....

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On This Episode This week we’re revisiting conversations we’ve had with four past expert guests about the most common things people overlook when purchasing a home, as well as all the hidden costs of homeownership—to help you prepare for one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make: buying a home. Meet Host Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez Stefanie is a nationally recognized personal finance expert ready to talk work, worth, and money with unapologetically ambitious women....

Thinking about when and how you do your laundry will help you compare washing machines and decide what size of washer or dryer to purchase and what cycle options are essential to your family’s needs. If you’re energy-conscious (or are trying to become so), several options and models are available to meet this requirement. When buying a washer and dryer, the main points to consider are cost, loading type, size, capacity, cycles, and energy efficiency....

To cook: A frisky lobster (which is how you want them) can make cooking a horrifying experience. There are two ways to slow it down. A few minutes in the freezer will stun it, or you can try to “hypnotize” it. Hold one by the base of the carapace (back), where it meets the tail. Stand the creature on its “nose” on the counter and stroke its back up and down....

Get creative with your vegetable garden design. Consider creating a series of decorative raised beds with wood-chip- or gravel-lined paths between. Check out photos of historic French gardens for inspiration – they’re beautiful and efficient.Plant vegetables with their looks as well as flavors in mind. Alternate, for example, pretty purple cabbage with snowy white cauliflower in a row. Or experiment with planting in blocks and clusters rather than rows for a more decorative effect....

Seafood Quality If you think that frozen seafood is of worse quality, think again. Often, fish are filleted and frozen immediately after capture. “Freezing, when done properly, is an excellent way to ’lock-in’ the quality inherent in the catch so that when thawed, you’re getting essentially the same quality you would have had if you ate it on the boat with the fishermen,” says John Burrows, seafood technical program coordinator of Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute....

Our kit covers 30 square feet, so we had product to spare. Except for the gloves, eye protection, dust mask, rags, foam rollers, and roller trays, the kit contains all of the materials you need. The product also comes with an instructional DVD for error-free application. More DIY Decor that Looks Like the Real Deal What You Need Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformation Kit (We used Charcoal)GlovesEye protectionDust maskRagsFoam rollersRoller trays...

Lopez took a classic nail trend—the French manicure—and added her own modification for a fresh, yet timeless look being dubbed “milky nails.” The final look, done by her longtime nail stylist Tom Bachik, was a soft, almond-shaped nail painted with an opaque, milky-white finish. So, what are milky nails? To be honest, it’s not too far from the glazed donut nails that are also trending on TikTok. “The milky nails look falls in between an opaque and a sheer white hue, with a creamy, translucent finish,” says Rachel Apfel Glass, founder of GLOSSLAB....

Who to invite: Friends with similar taste. For a good variety of merchandise, eight people is a manageable number, though anywhere from three to 20 is doable. How to e-mail: Send Real Simple’s free customizable Evite (available at realsimple.com/evite). Give guests two weeks’ notice to start gathering their belongings. ricotta and herb spread deviled eggs, four ways lemony almond macaroons Be clear about what’s swap-worthy. Ask friends to bring clean goods in gently used condition (that is, no ratty gym shorts or a Scrabble set missing the letter Q)....

Thanks to our Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen’s years of practice in the cookie-making department, we’ve got some easy tips you should always follow. We’ll help you determine whether you need to bake your cookies on a greased or ungreased cookie sheet and share how to let them cool long enough so they won’t break. Then, come Christmastime, you’ll have dozens of chocolate chip cookies, layer bars, and more flying off the pans....

What Is a Rose Slug? Rose slugs look like caterpillars or even miniature slugs, hence their name. But in actuality, a rose slug is neither a true slug nor a caterpillar (which becomes a moth or butterfly). It’s simply a larva of the rose sawfly. Velvety and yellow-green in color, rose slugs can get up to half an inch long. Signs of Rose Sawfly Damage The sawfly larvae will appear on roses in late spring and begin eating the soft, green tissue of leaves....

Despite the kitchen being the most sought-after room in the home, it’s also one of the toughest spots to keep neat. And corner cabinets are often the most puzzling. The depth and width of corner cabinets, whether upper or lower, make them a challenge to configure. If you find yourself in a similar situation, use the following tips for organizing a corner cabinet complete with a few options depending on the style of cabinet and your budget....

Hostess Tip: Amy’s secret to instant party energy? Music. Amy relies on Sonos wireless speakers ($199, Sonos), which lets her play different music in different parts of her home. The service pulls songs from your iTunes library or online music-mix sites like Rhapsody. Plus, you can control the tunes from your smartphone or tablet, so you don’t miss any table talk. It’s easy to put together a basic party formula that you revise with different food and flowers....

The several different species of pansies (Viola x wittrockiana) are actually viola hybrids. (Johnny jump-ups, or Viola tricolor, and Viola ‘Jackanapes’ are closely related, similarly hardy, and usually sold in garden centers at the same time.) These beloved biennials, often grown as annuals, are perhaps most well known for their “faces”—the distinct markings on their petals that British growers began to breed for in the 1800s. However, pansies can also be single-colored or streaked....

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How to Sauté Mushrooms For four side-dish servings, start with about 8 ounces (3 cups) of sliced mushrooms and 2 Tbsp. oil or butter. To sauté mushrooms: Test Kitchen Tip: Make sure not to crowd the mushrooms in the pan, or they’ll steam instead of sautéing. A single layer with space between the mushrooms is ideal. Also, be sure the pan you’re cooking in is large enough. Start with Clean and Dry Mushrooms The steps for cleaning mushrooms are the same for almost every type, except morels (learn more on our page about how to clean mushrooms)....