The Most Incredible Cauliflower

Good morning. I love Melissa Clark’s new recipe for roasted cauliflower with pancetta, olives and crisp Parmesan (above), a deeply flavorful dish that could become a weeknight go-to for you these next couple of months. I love, too, Yasmin Fahr’s recipe for spicy baked butternut squash pasta with spinach, same deal. But I also know…

Don’t Grieve Alone. Reach Out.

By Nicole Chung In April, when my adoptive mother began to decline after months of battling cancer, I tried to show my love and let her know I was thinking of her through phone and Skype calls, gifts and handwritten letters. I was managing her finances and helping to coordinate her care, and often felt…

Weighted Blankets for Sounder Sleep?

Weighted blankets, which have long been popular aids to induce calm, could help reduce insomnia, a new study suggests. Swedish researchers studied 121 patients with depression, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric diagnoses, all of whom had sleep problems. They randomly assigned them to two groups. The first slept with an 18-pound blanket weighted with metal…

Tips on Bird Feeders

The first juncos are back in my Hudson Valley garden, and the white-throated sparrows, too — birds that summer in forests farther north. At Julie Zickefoose’s place in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio, “purple finches are infiltrating,” she said. “And pine siskins are around — it’s happening.” We both know what the return of these…