What would it take to change your life for the better? It may be less than you think—we’ve got mini-makeovers to help you upgrade everything from your workout to your weekend. #6: Customizing your candy.
Mmm, dark chocolate with yogurt-covered pretzels, rainbow sprinkles, and salty potato chips. Or—oh, God—milk chocolate with pumpkin seeds, dried raspberries, and flaxseeds. No—wait—white chocolate with toffee bits and Fruity Pebbles. Hungry? Sites like chocri.com, chocomize.com, and chocbite.com let you customize your own bar from scratch, with scores of sweet, savory, and spicy add-ons. Chocolate with Pop Rocks, anyone?
Keep Reading:
30 days of makeovers
20 favorite childhood desserts (with adult twists)
Perfect wine and chocolate pairings
7 decadent chocolate treats
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| Photo: Gregor Halenda |
Keep Reading:
30 days of makeovers
20 favorite childhood desserts (with adult twists)
Perfect wine and chocolate pairings
7 decadent chocolate treats
Every week, we'll be letting you know about new releases the editors at O and Oprah.com couldn't stop reading. On sale today...
By Maxine Swann
Why we loved it: One single American divorcée, two new mysterious friends to go out with, an entire city of handsome, sexy, endlessly interested Argentine men.
What made us want to move to Buenos Aires: "Flamboyant, the Buenos Aires trees bloom not once but at several seasons. The jacaranda tree has pale purple blossoms that fall off long before they're withered, littering the ground with pale purple trumpets; the palo borracho has pink blossoms, hand-sized, the whole tree flames up with them; the small yellow flowers on the tipa trees give off a dizzying scent. ... On the lawn that falls down from the Plaza San Martin, people lie out to sunbathe or sleep, exhausted in the middle of day. ... In the evenings, in darker spots, near where there are trees, you could practically make love, and people do."
The bigger picture: Does living in a foreign country—far from friends and family—help you discover who you already are? Or help reinvent you into the person you've always wanted to be?
The guilty pleasure: Traveling through the aristocratic, glittering cocktail parties of the Argentine elite, where Europeans and Americans are elevated—for better or for worse—to the status of semiroyality.
The authentic surprise: Nobody tangos.
Read More
| Photo: Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, BorderGrill.com |
Achiote (ah-chee-OH-tay, Spanish)
This common ingredient in Mexican cooking can actually induce an "achoo," since it's a spicy blend of annatto (a peppery pod from the achiote tree), Mexican oregano, cumin, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, garlic and salt. Achiote often comes in a paste form, where it adds a red color and a little kick to dishes like Yucatan Pork Tacos (pictured).
Clafouti (klah-fu-TEE, French)
For the longest time, whenever I read this word, I pictured someone named Fifi wearing a frilly pink nightgown. But now I know it's an easy, pancake-like dessert, made by pouring a batter over fresh fruit and baking it until it puffs. Pop this bubbly, custardy cherry clafouti into your oven midmeal and 30 minutes later, "clafouti" will be your new favorite word.
Fregola (FRE-go-la, Italian)
Saying the word for these tiny, toothsome balls of pasta--think Israeli couscous--could sound like something you'd say to your worst enemy. But if you roll the "r," add some Parmigiano-Reggiano (roll those r's, too, just to make your dinner companions laugh), plus fresh corn, peas or asparagus, you have a lovely, light summer meal. This recipe from Elaine Louie, who writes the New York Times column "The Temporary Vegetarian," is a cinch.
Monday is too stressful. Wednesday is already hump day. But Tuesday is "you" day: a day when you have the energy to do—or plan—something fresh and unexpected that might just turn your whole week around.
Treat your family on Thursday, also known as Cupcake Day. How to make fluffy, scrumptious, strawberry flavored treats from the famed cupcake experts at Sprinkles.
Honor your inner King during National Elvis week. How to shake up a cold, sweet, smooth Velvet Elvis cocktail.
What to do with all those fresh-from-garden tomatoes that are taking over your kitchen and your life? How to make your own vat of ketchup (with a slightly spicy kick).
Treat yourself some revitalizing, life-lifting karma. How to feel good and help the world in 2 minutes this Friday, National Humanitarian Day.
Everyone struggles with the big questions: how to discover what you were really meant to do (not what your family, circumstance or fear directed you to do), how to forgive and be forgiven, how to live your best life, no matter how your life changes.
Today, Oprah announced her return to television this fall, with a very personal project: Oprah's Lifeclass. Each episode will focus on a specific lesson that matters the most to her, using clips from The Oprah Show’s 25-year history. She'll explain what she was really thinking back then--and what she knows now.
The first one million people to sign up for the class will receive a limited-edition journal and can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to Atlanta to meet Oprah in person.
The first one million people to sign up for the class will receive a limited-edition journal and can enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to Atlanta to meet Oprah in person.
| Photo: Thinkstock |
After salmonella linked to ground turkey became a stealth health threat earlier this month, sickening 107 people in 31 states, we've been unable to bring ourselves to grill up one of our favorite summer dinners: turkey burgers. But there are fears....and then there's reality. Here's what you can do right now to protect yourself, enjoy dinner and put an end to hysterical turkey terror:
1. Go check your freezer right now. On August 3, the Arkansas-based food producer Cargill recalled 35 million pounds of turkey that could be tainted with a rare form of salmonella Heidelberg. Turkey can last in the freezer for up to four months, so there's a chance that some of the recalled meat (with "sell by" or "freeze by" dates from February to late August) may be lurking in your home. The USDA web site lists all of the products that you should be looking for, with their identifying names and markings.
1. Go check your freezer right now. On August 3, the Arkansas-based food producer Cargill recalled 35 million pounds of turkey that could be tainted with a rare form of salmonella Heidelberg. Turkey can last in the freezer for up to four months, so there's a chance that some of the recalled meat (with "sell by" or "freeze by" dates from February to late August) may be lurking in your home. The USDA web site lists all of the products that you should be looking for, with their identifying names and markings.
| Photo: Courtesy of Kiehl's |
Wondering why there's a wheel on the lid of a beauty product? Kiehl's hosted a week-long charity motorcycle ride, which kicked off in Philadelphia and ended in New York City. Besides the rich texture of this Ultra Facial Cream and the fact that this moisturizer absorbs instantly minus any residue, we love that 100 percent of the proceeds benefit amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. And if this cream helps relieve the wind-burned faces of tough guys/girls who spent seven days on the open road, then we're pretty sure it can handle our dry summer skin.
Kiehl's Limited Edition Ultra Facial Cream, $46
Keeping Reading:
Check out 14 more stylish items that give back (for under $100)
What would it take to change your life for the better? It may be less than you think—we've got mini makeovers to help you upgrade everything from your workout to your weekend. #5: The changeup that will make hosting a snap.
Who knew the humble paper plate could bring both class and consciousness to the table? A Japanese brand called Wasara, that's who. Designer and restaurateur Shinichiro Ogata sculpted the curvaceous plates (and bowls, and cups and saucers) for easy balancing while you're deep in conversation, then molded their creamy surfaces from rapidly renewing materials like bamboo, reed pulp and sugarcane fibers. When the party's over, the dishes go straight into the compost bin. (BranchHome.com)
Keep Reading
30 days of makeovers
A stress-free dinner party
How to break bread (and poor eating habits)
| Photo: Gregor Halenda |
Who knew the humble paper plate could bring both class and consciousness to the table? A Japanese brand called Wasara, that's who. Designer and restaurateur Shinichiro Ogata sculpted the curvaceous plates (and bowls, and cups and saucers) for easy balancing while you're deep in conversation, then molded their creamy surfaces from rapidly renewing materials like bamboo, reed pulp and sugarcane fibers. When the party's over, the dishes go straight into the compost bin. (BranchHome.com)
Keep Reading
30 days of makeovers
A stress-free dinner party
How to break bread (and poor eating habits)
Every Monday,
we're rounding up things—small and big—that made us stop and think.
Today, we were captivated by a writer learning to love her red hair, a
self esteem expert who explores a health hazard of self-acceptance, the lovely Bill
Murray, and more...
"Maybe sooner or later a black or gay — or both — hero will be considered something absolutely normal."
"...At my most recent DMV trip, the guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted my license to say 'red' or 'brown.' I'd wanted to be anything but a redhead my whole life, and there I was, suddenly insulted by the mere suggestion that I might not be one. I put 'red' because anything else felt like a lie."
"There has to be a lightness; you have to be as light as you can be
and not get weighed down and stuck in your emotion, stuck in your body,
stuck in your head. You just want to always be trying to elevate
somehow."
"...I was rescued through the novelty of reading on a Kindle. My hyper-attentive habits were alienating me further and further from the much older and (one would have thought) more firmly established habits of deep attention. I was rapidly becoming a victim of my own mind's plasticity, until a new technology helped me to remember how to do something that for years had been instinctive, unconscious, natural."
"My weight hadn’t stood in the way of my dating gorgeous men or
succeeding in my career. But I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been
to the doctor. And it had been 16 years since I weighed myself...So I
didn’t know: Was I really obese? My body wasn’t anyone else’s business,
but had I done everything I could to make it my business?"
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