I make my own choices, so I’m not a fan of the curated box of goods as something to give or to receive. But there are a few notable exceptions. Sausage assortments, for example, can provide tasty discoveries. Several boutique sausage makers offer subscriptions for monthly deliveries of their salami and other cured sausages. Peter…
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High style meets low-tech in this Italian toaster created in 1997 for Trabo by Gae Aulenti, the architect who designed the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Until about a year ago it was sold only in Europe; now it’s available in the United States. Its sleek simplicity could make it the pride of the kitchen counter.…
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Seagulls and squadrons of brown pelicans flew alongside my rented Hyundai as I drove across the astonishing seven-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 1 that runs across Moser Sound, just south of Marathon, in the Florida Keys. The proximity of birds and water blurred the distinctions between sea and sky, drive and flight. The string of…
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Report card day can provoke anxiety and dread among students. It may also lead some of them to fear for their physical well-being. A new study found a nearly fourfold increase in confirmed reports of child abuse on the Saturdays immediately after the distribution of report cards at Florida public schools. The study, published in…
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When the chef Diana Dávila suggested we make chiles rellenos together, I have to confess my heart sank a little. As the chef of the Mi Tocaya Antojería, one of Chicago’s most thrilling restaurants, she is known for her lively, often challenging take on regional Mexican cuisine. She smears soft chunks of tongue with peanut…
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From the Champs Élysées to Avenue Montaigne and along the Rue St.-Honoré, the glossiest and most glamorous shopping streets of central Paris are usually bustling on Saturdays in December. Tourists and local residents alike, many of them wearing fur or cashmere and laden with bags, hurry into glittering temples of French heritage like Chanel and…
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On festive winter nights, votive holders filled with flickering tea lights can add instant ambience to a room. “They give you that sparkling effect,” said the interior designer Miles Redd, who uses them often, especially when he’s entertaining. “It makes everything seem rich and glittering,” he said. Compared with standard taper candles, Mr. Redd continued,…
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Despite a number of studies questioning the usefulness of very low-salt diets in the last few years, most major medical organizations continue to recommend them. We would assume that they do so from a strong base of evidence. But with respect to heart failure, there is a shockingly small amount of evidence. Heart failure occurs…
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All the excesses of my own childhood are, of course, available on eBay, priced for the vintage market. There are the accessories for the 1960s Thingmaker, from Mattel, with its metal molds to be poured full of plastigoop (I can smell it now) and cooked to a nice soft solid texture on the square little…
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