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There is something truly special about fresh flowers on a cake. My own wedding cake was dressed with lavender and herbs, and I can’t help but want to break out the heart eyes emoji whenever I see a cake decorated with fresh flowers on the internet or in real life.

If you’re looking to decorate your own cake with fresh flowers, where do you start? Is it as simple as just piling them on top of the frosting? Here’s what you need to know to achieve show-stopping cake status with the flourish of fresh flowers.

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I am not typically prone to impulse buys, like not at all — unless I’m in Whole Foods. For some reason, that store’s displays have a way of convincing me that yes, I should be making turmeric tea and yeah, I probably do need to sprinkle powdered collagen on everything I eat, and, wait, why don’t I have a fridge filled with alkaline water?

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A few years back we shared a make-ahead dinner party menu from Ina Garten, and in our chat with her, she talked about how simple a make-ahead menu can be — it’s all in choosing recipes that are just as good made ahead. And when it comes to a dish that exemplifies that, soup is king.

Here’s a delicious soup we chose as a first course. It’s hearty and filling even with no meat, and Ina has a few extra tips for ways to finish it off in a special way.

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Cheese storage is one of those confounding subjects. If you buy a really nice cheese, you don’t want to ruin it with a lack of parenting skills, right? Even if you’re just buying a mid-level cheese, it’s still cheese and you want to treat it like the gem it is.

Perhaps you know how you shouldn’t store cheese. But do you know how you should? Proper preservation of cheese is easier than you think.

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For years, risotto intimidated me. All the commotion about constant stirring, attention, and exactness scared me out of really giving it a go; it seemed like a dish I was better off leaving to the professionals in restaurants.

Then, when working on a farm in Italy, I met a dear old nonna that shook the fear right out of me. She’d make a giant pot of risotto frequently for the staff and guests staying on the farm and never worked up a sweat. She’d toss in the odds and ends she’d find in the kitchen, stir it frequently but never obsessively, and the result would always be creamy and comforting. After learning Graziella’s ways, it wasn’t long before risotto became not just something I’d make to show off what I learned in Italy, but also something I now lean on pretty much every week.

Once you let go of the belief that risotto is fussy and fancy, you’ll see that it’s one of the most flexible (and, I’ll argue, most enjoyable) things you can make, which is why it should be a constant in your meal plan, just like it’s in mine.

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Ask yourself honestly: Is your kitchen messy right now? Are you a bit boggled as to why, as it feels like you’re constantly trying to keep it clean and uncluttered?

There are some common clutter causes that work against a clean kitchen — here are five of the biggest ones. If any of these are the culprits keeping your kitchen messier than you’d like it to be, we also have some suggestions for how to solve each issue.

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I dislike dirtying an extra pot as much as the next cook, but when it comes to risotto at home I’ll make a huge exception for a warming the broth. Risotto is made by cooking risotto-style rices in butter with some aromatics and white wine and then slowly adding broth to the rice. You stir gently, adding more broth as the previous batch is absorbed into the rice, until you have a pan of creamy broth surrounding tender rice.

This dish has humble origins in the kitchens of Italian home cooks, where it’s hard to imagine someone would have fussed with warming the broth. But imagined anecdotes aside, here’s why I believe that yes, you really should warm the broth when cooking risotto.

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Pastel colors aren’t for everyone. And when it comes to kitchens, it can be hard to incorporate the pale hues without making it look like you’re throwing a perpetual baby shower. But, when done well, these light colors can work. Like, really work.

Just check out these oh-so-beautiful spring-y kitchens — they’re the prettiest pastel examples we’ve found on all of the internet.

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If you want to learn how to bake, you have to learn how to fail.

A lot. Like, a dizzying amount.

Bakers are not born — they’re made. And they’re made out of burnt cookies and watery icing and sunken cakes.

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Chicken is synonymous with quick weeknight dinners, and it’s an ingredient we reach for time and time again. It’s hardly a stretch to make chicken more kid-friendly, as it’s already adaptable to a myriad of flavors and cooking techniques.

These 12 recipes have been thoroughly vetted by my family, which includes two hungry kiddos, to be winning weeknight chicken dinners everyone will love.

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