For Ina Garten some foods can soothe the soul. I love remembered flavors, she says. In fact, she firmly believes that almost any dark mood can be lightened by a crispy roast chicken, a baked-from-scratch cookie, or a well-mixed cocktail. If I m truly, deeply miserable, a whiskey sour always does it, she says with a laugh. It s my crankiest happy place. Of course, nothing banishes the blues like a slice of chocolate cake either. Ina, known to most as the Barefoot Contessa, has included a cocoa-rich, birthday-worthy confection in every one of her dozen books, including her latest,
Modern Comfort Food, which is a deep dive into the idea of cooking and eating as solace and joy.
Hide and go sniff
The canine nose is up to 100 million times more sensitive than ours. This game puts that superpower to work. Have your child put a treat into an open box on the floor while you hold the dog. The dog should see them do it and get energized. Once the bait is set, release the dog as your kid says, Find it! The pup will run and grab the goody. After a few rounds, try two boxes, hiding something yummy in only one while the dog is not looking. If Sparky sniffs out the correct container on the first try, he scores a bonus treat. Once the dog gets the object of the game, keep hiding treats when the dog is not looking, and increase the number of boxes, spreading them throughout the house or even outside. Eventually, just the appearance of the boxes will get the dog excited, and you can play so many variations, says Chester, New Jersey–based dog trainer Justine Schuurmans, whose business, The Family Dog, specializes in helping young families live
For Hilton Carter, life got a lot more interesting when he met a fiddle-leaf fig named Frank. It was 2014, and Hilton, feeling inspired after dinner at a café in a greenhouse, purchased the tree in an attempt to infuse his New Orleans apartment with a similarly idyllic feel.
Today, more than 200 plants (including the now towering Frank) fill the apartment he shares with his wife, Fiona, in Baltimore. His specimens climb the walls and take up every last inch of the windowsills. I just started bringing in plants to create a space that made me feel great, he says, and somehow ended up with a lot.