Category: Lifestyle
Lifestyle | ReportWire publishes the latest breaking U.S. and world news, trending topics and developing stories from around globe.
-
Craft Master – Level 100 Walkthrough | Popcorn Palace 🍿✨
Craft Master: Place It – Level 100 Walkthrough ✓ Area: Popcorn Palace ✓ Completion: Level 100 Cleared Full playlist: …
source -
How Long Can I Call My Baby a Baby? | Cup of Jo
[ad_1]
500 months or so?
Michelle Rial is the author and illustrator of the forthcoming picture book Charts for Babies. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, WIRED, and more. She is the mom to one baby (ahem — toddler).
P.S. Questions I’ve asked after having a baby, and March ladies.
[ad_2]
Michelle Rial
Source link -
Perfect Shepherd’s Pie With a Gravy-Rich Filling and Creamy Potato Top
[ad_1]
This slow cooker shepherd’s pie is a must-try, hands-off, cozy comfort food dinner. It’s packed with browned ground beef, mixed vegetables, and a rich gravy, all tucked under a thick layer of mashed potatoes.
- Why Make It: This is a true all-in-one meal that is great for busy days, chilly nights, and leftovers.
- Recommended Tools: A large skillet, whisk, 4 to 6-quart slow cooker, and a spoon or spatula.
- Technique: Let it rest before serving. It gives the sauce time to thicken into a rich gravy and helps it scoop neatly.
- Time-Saving Tip: Using prepared mashed potatoes and frozen vegetables keeps prep quick and easy.
Must-Have Ingredients
- Ground Beef: For a traditional shepherd’s pie, lamb is used, while beef is considered a cottage pie. Choose lean cuts and drain the fat, so the filling is rich, not greasy.
- Vegetables: Add vegetables without defrosting. For a classic and colorful dish, use a mix of peas, corn, green beans, and carrots.
- Sauce: Beef broth whisked with brown gravy mix, Worcestershire, tomato paste, garlic powder, thyme, and cornstarch makes a rich, savory gravy that thickens as it cooks.
- Mashed Potatoes: Use thick, prepared mashed potatoes, so they hold their shape on top, and warm them slightly for easy spreading.
Variations
- Potato Topping: Swap mashed potatoes for sweet potato mash, mix in shredded cheddar for a cheesy topping, or use a thick cauliflower mash for a lighter option.
- Add-ins: For an extra savory flavor, stir in mushrooms with the browned meat before layering.
Easy Slow Cooker Shepherd’s Pie Steps
- In a skillet, brown the ground beef mixture and add it to the slow cooker.
- Top with vegetables, and pour the prepared sauce mixture over the vegetables.
- Spread the mashed potatoes evenly on top (full recipe below) and cook.
Before serving, let it rest so it thickens before scooping.
Leftovers You’ll Love
- Let leftovers cool, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. I love to freeze in individual portions for fast reheats.
- Thaw overnight in the fridge, then reheat in the microwave or in the oven at 350°F until hot. Keep it covered so it doesn’t dry out, then uncover at the end to dry the top slightly for easier scooping.
- To make ahead, assemble layers the night before, refrigerate, then cook the next day.
Comfort Food Dinners
Did you enjoy this Slow Cooker Shepherd’s Pie Recipe? Leave a comment and rating below.
-
Brown the ground beef and onion in a large skillet on medium-high heat until no pink remains. Drain any fat, season with salt and pepper, and transfer to the bottom of a 4 or 6-quart slow cooker.
-
Place the frozen vegetables on top.
-
In a medium bowl, whisk together the broth, gravy mix, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, cornstarch, garlic powder, and thyme. Pour over the vegetables and stir well to combine.
-
Spoon the mashed potatoes over top and spread into an even layer. Do not stir.
-
Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours.
-
Uncover and rest 15 to 30 minutes before serving.
Make sure your potatoes are not runny before adding them to the slow cooker. For browned edges, place a double layer of paper towels over the slow cooker so it isn’t touching the potatoes, and place the lid on top. This will absorb excess moisture.
Optional: While the shepherds pie is resting, brush the top of the mashed potatoes with melted butter, if desired.
Shortcut Sauce- 1 can (10.5 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 1 packet brown gravy mix
- 2/3 cup water
In a medium bowl, whisk the soups (without added water or milk), gravy packet, and water until smooth. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables.
Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 days and in the freezer for 4 months.Calories: 529 | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 27g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 83mg | Sodium: 1225mg | Potassium: 821mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 4721IU | Vitamin C: 46mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 4mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Main Course, Slow Cooker
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
[ad_2]
Holly Nilsson
Source link -
Air Fryer Apples
[ad_1]
Air Fryer Apples are a delicious way to satisfy those apple pie cravings, but without baking a pie! With just a touch of maple syrup for sweetness, and loads of cinnamon flavor, they are perfect for a quick and easy dessert or a healthy snack.
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
Air-fried apples are versatile, too. I like to top oatmeal, pancakes, or French toast with air fryer apple bites for breakfast, or stir them into yogurt. I often make them as a side dish for my grilled chicken thighs or air fryer pork tenderloin.
But, my favorite way to enjoy this is for a delicious and healthy dessert. Top warm apples with a scoop of ice cream or whipping cream. Greek yogurt is great too. For a little bit of decadence, I add a drizzle of my homemade caramel sauce. (Super easy)
Jump to:
Why I love air fryer apples
- Quick and easy. Air fryer apple slices need just a few simple ingredients and air frying cooks them in just 10 minutes. (In comparison, sliced baked apples take up to 30 minutes in the oven).
- Healthy. We all know apples are good for us. These air fryer cinnamon apple slices have no refined sugar and just a touch of oil. They taste like apple pie filling but without all the sugar. Leaving the apple peel on keeps most of the fiber and nutrients. And of course, they’re naturally gluten-free and dairy-free.
- Delicious. When we’re craving apple pie, or apple crisp (try this one in the air fryer), but don’t want to make the effort, these delicious air fryer cinnamon apple slices are a perfect healthy dessert or snack that takes a fraction of the time. Kids love them, too. (I know, from first hand experience).
Ingredients
- Apples. The most important part! Because we’re using just a small amount of sweetener, I prefer a sweet apple variety for this recipe to let their natural sweetness shine. My favorites are ambrosia, honey crisp, gala, pink lady or golden delicious. I have made this recipe with tart apple varieties, like granny smith apples, but added a touch of extra maple syrup and they were still delicious. Just be sure to choose an apple with a firm and crisp texture, rather than a softer apple like Macintosh, which can end up mushy when cooked.
- Maple Syrup. Pure maple syrup adds an extra touch of sweetness. This recipe is vegan, but if that’s not a concern for you, you can use honey instead. Brown sugar can also be used in equal measurement, but I prefer to use maple syrup for it’s flavor, and it doesn’t need to be melted.
- Oil. I use peanut oil, but olive oil, vegetable oil, or coconut oil will all work. If you use coconut oil, make sure it’s refined if you don’t want the coconut flavor in your air fryer apples. Melted butter is also an option if you aren’t vegan and want a richer flavor.
- Cinnamon. Ground cinnamon is always a win with any sweet apple recipe, and this one is no exception. You can also replace the cinnamon with apple pie spice.
- Salt. A pinch of salt brings out the flavors of any dish, and adds balance to the sweetness of the apples.
How to make it, step by step
- In a large bowl, combine the maple syrup, oil, cinnamon and salt.
- Add the apple slices and stir or toss to coat all the slices in the cinnamon mixture.
- Add the coated slices to the air fryer basket, and cook, shaking halfway through, until tender.
- Serve the warm apples with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Helpful tips
- Pre-heating. Many basket style air fryer models, (including my Ninja Foodie, don’t require preheating. However, some models, especially oven style air fryers do need to be preheated. If yours does, preheat before cooking.
- Peeling Apples. There’s no need to peel the apples for this recipe. I keep the peel because most of the fibre and nutrients are in the skin. And because, it’s less work! However, you can peel the apples if you prefer.
- Apple slicing. Slice the apples right before making the recipe to avoid having them turn brown. If you do slice them ahead of time, toss them in a teaspoon of lemon juice to keep them from browning.
- Avoid overcrowding. Spread the apple slices in a single layer in the air fryer, if possible. I use my Ninja Foodi duel basket air fryer, so I can cook all the apple slices in one batch, without overcrowding. If your air fryer is smaller, you may need to cook in batches. (This is where the lemon juice comes in handy to keep slices from browning).
- Don’t overcook. For best results, air fryer cinnamon apples should be tender, but still have a bit of a bite. To avoid over-cooking, check them a couple of times during the last half of cooking. Since air fryers vary widely, the cooking time here is a guideline.
- Silicone liners. Using silicone air fryer liners means you don’t need as much oil and makes clean up easier. I recommend them and you can find almost any size air fryer trays on line.
- Recipe quantity. You can easily double this recipe or you can reduce it to make it for two. Just use the “servings” toggle at the top of the recipe card to change the ingredient quantities.
- Storage. Store leftover air fryer apples in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat for four to five minutes in the air fryer, or one to two minutes in the microwave.
More ways to make cinnamon apples.
Oven baked apples
Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the apples just as in this recipe. Spread the slices on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, flip them, and bake a further 10 to 15 minutes.
Pan fried apples.
Prepare the apples as per this recipe. In a non-stick pan over medium heat, cook, stirring often, for 15 to 20 minutes.
More apple recipes
It doesn’t need to be apple season, you can enjoy these recipes year-round.
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a rating in the comments below and let us know how it turned out. Did you make any changes? We would love for you to share and your feedback is important! Thank you for visiting The Food Blog!
Recipe
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
Air Fryer Apples
Air Fryer Apples are a delicious way to satisfy those apple pie cravings, without baking a pie! With just a touch of maple syrup for sweetness, and loads of cinnamon flavor, they’re a perfect quick and easy dessert or a healthy sweet tooth fix.
Prevent your screen from going dark
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 184kcal
Instructions
-
Core the apples and cut into ½ inch slices.
-
In a large bowl, combine the maple syrup, oil, cinnamon, and salt.
-
Add the apple slices to the maple syrup mixture and toss well with a spoon to coat.
-
Spread the apple slices evenly in the air fryer basket.
-
Cook at 400° f for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through.
-
Serve warm, with ice cream or whipping cream.
Notes
- Pre-heating. Many air fryer models, (including my Ninja Foodie, don’t require preheating. However, some models, especially oven style air fryers do need to be preheated. If yours does, preheat before cooking.
- Peeling Apples. There’s no need to peel the apples for this recipe. I keep the peel because most of the fibre and nutrients are in the skin. And because, it’s more work! However, you can peel the apples if you prefer.
- Apple slicing. Slice the apples right before making the recipe to avoid having them turn brown. If you do slice them ahead of time, toss them in a teaspoon of lemon juice to keep them from browning.
- Avoid overcrowding. I use my Ninja Foodi duel basket air fryer, so I can cook all the apple slices in one batch, without overcrowding. If your air fryer is smaller, you may need to cook in batches. (This is where the lemon juice comes in handy to keep slices from browning).
- Don’t overcook. For best results, the apple slices should be tender, but still have a bit of a bite. To avoid over-cooking, check them a couple of times during the last half of cooking. Since air fryers vary widely, the cooking time here is a guideline.
- Silicone liners. Using silicone air fryer liners means you don’t need as much oil and makes clean up easier. I recommend them and you can find almost any size on line.
- Recipe quantity. You can easily double this recipe or you can reduce it to make it for two. Just use the “servings” toggle at the top of the recipe card to change the ingredient quantities.
- Storage. Store leftover air fryer apples in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat for four to five minutes in the air fryer, or one to two minutes in the microwave.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 184kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Sodium: 148mg | Potassium: 222mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 25g | Vitamin A: 101IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 0.3mg
[ad_2]
Colleen
Source link -
The Top Trending Rental Markets to Start 2026 Are Not What You’d Expect
[ad_1]
Any guesses which cities are at the top of RentCafé’s hottest rental markets at the start of 2026? Miami? Phoenix? Austin?
Try Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. They indicate a quiet shift toward affordable, job-rich metros that small investors can also buy into and possibly cash flow from. While the coasts boast luxury living and high-end jobs, early data indicate that the best opportunities for workers and investors over the next few years could lie in the Midwest and interior South.
What RentCafé’s New Rankings Really Show—and What They Don’t
RentCafé based its ranking system on renter behavior on its platform. To collate the list that gauges renter demand, the site examined four specific areas and ranked markets accordingly:
- Apartment availability
- Favorited listings
- Saved searches
- Page views
Cincinnati rose to the top spot on the back of some impressive stats. The number of apartments favored by prospective renters jumped 81% year over year, while saved searches climbed 14% by late 2025, and page views climbed 3%. Atlanta’s second-place spot was driven mostly by prospective renters from New York and across Georgia, suggesting ongoing in-migration from pricier markets.
Minneapolis had been a previous RentCafé top spot holder, and at the time the data was collected, favorited listings were up 29% year over year, fifth for total saved searches and ninth for page views. However, this was collected before the ICE immigration crackdown in the city, which caused unrest and affected rental real estate occupancy and the pace of new builds, according to reports in the Star Tribune and Multifamily Dive.
Overall, RentCafé’s report showed that the Midwest accounted for 11 spots and the South accounted for 10 spots on its annual list, reflecting primarily affordability, livability, and the amenities available in rentals and surrounding areas in traditional blue-collar cities like Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Detroit, as well as in Western markets like Santa Ana, California.
That’s not to say that high-demand big metros like Dallas, New York, Chicago, and Miami are flagging. In fact, even with 500,000 new apartments coming to those areas, data shows that finding a vacancy there remains a challenge.
Why Middle America Is Surging
The affordability crisis is at the crux of Americans’ need to move to cheaper markets. According to The Wall Street Journal, overall living expenses in several Midwest metros are about 8.5% under the U.S. average.
A WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index for winter 2026 found that Midwest markets with reputable universities, strong medical infrastructure, and manufacturing hubs were particularly resilient. Matching those attributes with affordability, median home prices were largely between $240,000 and $400,000, and the cost of living was below national norms.
According to a recent LendingTree study, Americans are paying “hundreds of extra dollars in rent”—about 40% more for one- and two-bedroom apartments—than even five years ago, while wages have not kept pace, putting a tremendous squeeze on renters and ushering a migration to more affordable cities.
The housing industry has responded by bringing thousands of new apartments to the rental market, increasing residential construction starts 5.2% month over month to 1.428 million units as of July 2025, with new apartment construction up by more than 50% across two months in mid-2025, according to the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau data, as quoted by Reuters.
Still a Chronic Shortage of Housing
The National Apartment Association and the National Multi-Family Housing Council released a joint statement on the eve of President Trump’s State of the Union address, citing the need for more housing to ease the affordability crisis, saying:
“Neither one speech nor one single federal policy is going to solve the housing affordability challenges we face. Instead, alleviating the housing shortage requires a sustained commitment to building housing of all types, backed by public and private investment, through public-private partnerships and freed from outdated rules that slow construction and drive up costs. It also requires the administration to lean into what we know works—building more housing—and resist repeating mistakes of the past.”
Reading the Data for Smaller Investors
Clearly, cheaper, more affordable markets around employment hubs are an essential play for smaller investors seeking stable rental income. A recent report from Bank of America showed that the exodus of residents from high-cost areas such as Los Angeles and New York to smaller Southern cities is fueling out-of-state migration, concluding that “affordability and climate remain the two biggest magnets—and the two biggest push factors.”
‘The Straw That Breaks the Camel’s Back’
Minneapolis presents a cautionary tale for investors. In the turbulent political climate, cities with high immigrant populations that face deportation drives by ICE could have severe repercussions for landlords.
Chris Nebenzahl, vice president of rental research at John Burns Research and Consulting, told Multifamily Dive that in some buildings, immigration enforcement “could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” particularly for owners facing loans originated in 2021 that are coming due amid higher vacancies and lower rent rolls.
Nebenzahl added that the combination of past supply issues and now a demand shock from immigration policy “is really putting some folks in a bit of a lurch from an occupancy perspective.” Other landlords in Florida and Texas told the outlet that they have also seen detrimental effects on leasing and occupancy when ICE enforcement intensity is particularly high.
It is still too early, amid continuing ICE raids, to see how long it takes for leasing activity to return to previous levels after enforcement activity in an area rescinds.
Final Thoughts
The rental market remains highly fluid in the U.S., with the shifting economic climate having a pronounced effect on rental activity, particularly with the advent of remote work, which means many people are less likely to stay in an expensive city for a job. There has been a shift toward more affordable, climate-friendly areas.
RentCafé’s list is interesting because it’s not one documented after the fact but one based largely on online activity, which is an indicator of future movement. That’s why it’s good to combine RentCafé data with rent growth data to see how interest translates into action.
According to research firm Arbor Realty Trust, Minneapolis finished 2025 as the second-strongest multifamily rent growth market in the country, with 2% growth and an average rent of about $1,497 per unit.
For small landlords, the play is simple: Follow the money. Larger apartment buildings are being built at a clip, but not everyone wants to live in a building with hundreds of other people.
Consequently, single-family rental houses in these markets are coveted, according to National Mortgage Professional, which reports that just 13.7% of single-family rentals are occupied by renters—a decade low. Finding pockets of available single-family and small multifamily properties in these markets should ensure strong demand.
[ad_2]
Jeff Vasishta
Source link -
Who Is Rob Rausch? 5 Things to Know About ‘The Traitors’ Season 4 Winner
[ad_1]
Image Credit: Euan Cherry/Peacock Rob Rausch went from reality TV heartthrob to strategic mastermind after winning The Traitors Season 4. Viewers first met him on Love Island USA, but it was inside the castle where he truly proved himself, outmaneuvering his fellow contestants to claim the prize.
With his Southern roots, unexpected career as a snake wrangler and growing social media presence, Rob has quickly become one of the franchise’s most talked-about winners. Here’s everything to know about him.
He Won The Traitors Season 4
Rob emerged as the sole winner of The Traitors Season 4, claiming the full $220,800 prize after a season of strategic deception and intense gameplay in the Scottish Highlands castle.
THE TRAITORS — “Let the Cards Fall as they Will” Episode 401 — Pictured: (l-r) Candiace Dillard Bassett, Lisa Rinna, Rob Rausch — (Photo by: Euan Cherry/Peacock) He was selected as one of the original Traitors alongside Candiace Dillard Bassett and Lisa Rinna, immediately placing him in a powerful but risky position. As the game progressed, Rob strategically navigated alliances and deception, later recruiting Eric Nam into the Traitors’ circle. His game wrapped with a shock revelation to Maura Higgins, whom he’d promised to split the money with, leaving her stunned and emotional.
THE TRAITORS — “Leap of Faith” Episode 411 — Pictured: (l-r) Alan Cumming, Rob Rausch — (Photo by: Euan Cherry/Peacock) He First Rose to Fame on Love Island USA
Before becoming a castle strategist, Rob first gained national attention as a reality TV personality on Love Island USA. He initially entered Season 5 via Casa Amor and later returned as a main cast member on Season 6, where his charm, flirtations and Southern persona made him a standout — even if romance didn’t quite stick.
He’s Originally From Alabama
Rob was born and raised in Florence, Alabama, on a large farm where he developed his rugged outdoors persona. He later attended the University of North Alabama before launching into reality TV and social-media fame.
He Works as a Snake Wrangler
Outside of television, Rob makes his living working with reptiles — particularly snakes — and has built a large online presence for his wildlife handling and educational videos. His skills with animals helped differentiate him from other contestants and endeared him to fans.
He Revealed He’s Currently in a Relationship
While much of Rob’s dating life has played out on reality TV, he confirmed during The Traitors Season 4 reunion that he is officially “taken.” Rob shared that he had been in a relationship for about two months at the time of filming the reunion, surprising fans who had continued speculating about his romantic status following the finale.
[ad_2]
Vivian
Source link -
Epstein Files Debate Gets Pedophilia and Power Wrong
[ad_1]
The release of the Epstein files continues to dominate headlines for what is and isn’t included.
On Feb. 25, 2026, almost a month after the Jan. 30, 2026, document dump by the Department of Justice, both the New York Times and NPR reported on missing memos related to President Donald Trump’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier in February, members of the Congress were given access to unredacted versions of these documents. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, had this to say when she emerged from the viewing room: “I’ve not been one of the members who has glommed on to this as an issue. … But 9-year-old victims … wow.”
“Well, initially, my reaction to all this was, ‘I don’t care. I don’t know what the big deal is,” she added. “But now I see what the big deal is, and it was worth investigating.”
Whether she meant to do this or not, Lummis’ comments suggested that an alleged global sex trafficking ring involving some of the world’s most powerful people—including, possibly, the president of the United States and several of his high-ranking officials, though they deny all allegations—was not such a big deal when she thought the survivors were teens and young adults.
This sentiment echoes something former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said about the survivors’ ages when a previous round of Epstein files was released in November 2025. On her podcast, Kelly expressed sympathy for the idea that Epstein was not really a pedophile because he was into 15-year-olds—not 8-year-olds. He didn’t like children, Kelly explained, so much as he liked them “barely legal.”
But “barely legal” isn’t a thing (I’ll get to that in a minute), and randomly nuancing the definition of pedophilia shouldn’t be either.
Age isn’t just a number
Let’s start by getting our terms straight: Pedophiles are people who have a sexual preference for children, usually prepubescent children or those who are around the age of puberty. Pedophilia is a psychiatric diagnosis. You can be a pedophile without sexually abusing children, and you can be a child abuser without meeting the diagnostic definition of a pedophile.
The word pedophile instantly conjures up abuse of small children, which makes our hearts break and our skin crawl. This visceral reaction is understandable, and it may explain why Lummis, Kelly, and other public figures have insisted on drawing a distinction between the abuse of young children and the rape of teenagers.
To be clear, the law does not distinguish between a 9-year-old and a 15-year-old—both minors—when it comes to sex. While age of consent laws vary by state, all states see 15 as too young to consent. With the possible rare exception of consenting couples who are close in age (for example, the 18-year-old high school senior dating a 15-year-old sophomore), any adult who has sex with someone 15 or younger has committed a crime.
In some cases that crime is statuatory rape. In others it might be rape or sexual assault. And in some states, teens having sex with teens is illegal, too.
As I said, there’s only legal and illegal—not “barely legal.”
When consent isn’t possible
I believe that teens should be experimenting with sex. I’ve spent much of my career as a sex educator arguing that sexual development and experimentation are natural parts of adolescence that help young people understand themselves and develop the relationship skills they’ll need as adults. Grown-ups should see high school students as capable of having consensual sexual relationships with each other.
But relationships can only be consensual if the couple is on equal footing. When one holds too much control because of their age, status, or position of authority over the other (think coach, teacher, or boss), true consent is rarely possible. Age is not the only power imbalance, but it seems obvious that a 51-year-old man looking for sex from a 14-year-old is a predator—not a partner.
The late financier Epstein has been accused of sexually abusing at least 1,000 young women and children. He had a pattern of offering teenage girls as young as 14 money for massages, during which he would masturbate and touch their genitals with his fingers or sex toys. He would offer these children more money if they would recruit other girls for the same thing.
Epstien has also been accused of forcibly raping girls as young as 14. (Epstein pled guilty to soliciting a minor for sex in Florida in 2008 and was indicted on sex trafficking charges in 2019, but died in jail before a trial could take place.)
Survivors have also said they were abused, assaulted, or raped by friends and acquaintances of Epstein; President Trump has been named in these allegations. The accusations against Trump have not been investigated or verified, but he has previously been found civilly liable for sexual abuse.
Let’s stop saying ‘underage women’
Questioning whether Epstein or others among his we-just-like-them-young buddies were “really pedophiles” as Megyn Kelly did is a twisted game of splitting hairs.
It opens the door for letting some perpetrators of sexual abuse off the hook by implying thatthe pedophile who goes after young children is a pervert, while the CEO who preys on teenagers is just misbehaving. It’s bad but not that bad.
I have to wonder whether this is what some of the men involved in Epstein’s sex ring have told themselves as well. When Trump embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory that there was a secret cabal of powerful pedophiles abusing children and made exposing it part of his 2024 campaign strategy, did he not remember partying with Epstein? Or did he think his name wouldn’t come up because he didn’t consider himself a pedophile?
For some people—and I’m betting that Trump, Lummis, and Kelly fall into this group–the distinction between an 8-year old and a 15-year-old likely seems important because 15-year-old girls can be sexual. Most have breasts and curves and pubic hair. They may wear make-up and short skirts. They probably think about boys or girls or both. They might read spicy books and have sexual fantasies.
Some 15-year-olds even have sex: In 2023, 16 percent of ninth graders and 25 percent of 10th graders reported they had had sexual intercourse. This is likely why we’ve seen so many people—including some legitimate news sources, like NPR—refer to the young girls as “underage women.” Again, that’s not a thing. Even in high heels and mascara, being “underage” means that you’re a child.
And children are children—not women. Suggesting otherwise could lead to blaming girls for wearing the wrong clothes, making bad choices, leading men on, or any number of other things that we tend to put on rape survivors after the fact.
It’s about power
We should stop talking about the age of Epstein’s victims and start talking about their sexual agency—that is, their ability to make conscious, informed, and empowered decisions. Agency is about having a voice and being able to negotiate what you want.
It seems clear to me that the men of this decades-long sex-ring were looking for those who had no agency. The girls and women were reportedly lied to, coerced, threatened, and possibly held against their will. The men didn’t want sexual partners; they wanted control.
None of this is meant to downplay the horror of 9-year-olds being trafficked. If anything, I want to up-play (I know that’s not a word, but I need it to be) the horror of 19-year-olds being trafficked, too. Even though the law may see them as adults, these young women were not empowered to make their own decisions about how they were treated or what they would and wouldn’t do.
The emerging revelations that young children suffered in Epstein’s crimes may make some people, like Lummis, start paying attention, and it may make others, like Kelly, shut up. My hope, though, is that we can stop debating whether the men were pedophiles and start focusing on the survivors.
We can give the survivors back some agency by listening to their stories and believing them—no matter how old they were at the time of their abuse.
[ad_2]
-
Essential Health Checks for Your New Four-Legged Family Member | Animal Wellness Magazine
[ad_1]
Bringing home a new furry family member is an exciting time! Whether you’re welcoming a puppy, kitten, adult dog, or adult cat into your home, scheduling a veterinary visit should be at the top of your to-do list. Here’s what you need to know about the important health tests your new companion should receive.
The First Veterinary Visit
Within the first few days of bringing your new dog or cat home, schedule a complete wellness examination. This visit establishes a health baseline and helps catch any problems early. Your veterinarian will perform a thorough physical exam, checking everything from teeth and ears to heart and lungs.
Essential Tests for Dogs
Fecal Examination: This test checks for intestinal parasites like roundworms, hookworms, and giardia. Many puppies come with parasites, even from reputable breeders.
Heartworm Test: For dogs over six months old, a heartworm test is crucial. This blood test detects a serious parasite transmitted by mosquitoes.
Blood Work: A basic blood panel checks organ function and can reveal hidden health issues. This is especially important for adopted dogs with unknown medical histories.
Parvovirus Test: If your puppy shows any signs of illness, this test checks for a dangerous viral infection that requires immediate treatment.
Essential Tests for Cats
Fecal Examination: Just like dogs, cats need testing for intestinal parasites that can affect their health and potentially spread to humans.
FeLV/FIV Testing: These blood tests screen for Feline Leukemia Virus and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. Both are serious conditions that affect the immune system and can spread to other cats in your household.
Blood Work: A complete blood count and chemistry panel provides valuable information about your cat’s overall health, especially important for adult cats or those from shelters.
Additional Considerations
Depending on your new companion’s age, breed, and history, your veterinarian may recommend additional tests. Breeding animals should receive more extensive testing. Young animals need to be tested before starting vaccination protocols, while senior animals benefit from more comprehensive screening.
Remember, these initial tests are just the beginning of your animal’s healthcare journey. Your veterinarian will create a personalized wellness plan based on the test results.
Don’t wait to schedule that first appointment! Early detection of health issues makes treatment easier and more successful. Your veterinarian is your best resource for keeping your new family member healthy and happy for years to come. Always follow their professional guidance for your specific situation.
Post Views: 57
Animal Wellness is North America’s top natural health and lifestyle magazine for dogs and cats, with a readership of over one million every year. AW features articles by some of the most renowned experts in the pet industry, with topics ranging from diet and health related issues, to articles on training, fitness and emotional well being.
[ad_2]
Animal Wellness
Source link -
The 7 Best Perennials for Shade Gardens – Garden Therapy
[ad_1]
Many of us have at least a section of garden that is shady most of the time. Shade gardens can be bor-ring unless you spice them up with plants that have interesting colors, shapes, and textures. These hardy beauties are made for the shade. That is to say, these plants all thrive in shady spaces while adding color and interest. Pop a few of these into your shady space and it just might become your favorite part of the garden.
When planting your shade garden, be sure to include a variety of plants with different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. Dark corners of the garden often go unnoticed, but if you intentionally fill up the space with plants that draw the eye and have visual interest, the shadiest part of your garden can become an eye-catching focal point!
Some of my very favorite gardens are shade gardens. When the summer sun gets so hot that it feels oppressive, it is a wonderful feeling to retreat to a cool, softly lit part of the garden full of lush, beautiful plants. Traditional Japanese gardens are just gorgeous, and they often incorporate shade into the design. For some serious shade garden inspiration, head over here to take a virtual tour of the Nitobe Memorial Garden at the University of British Columbia.
Here are my favorite plants to add to shady areas. If your garden is in full sun, take a look at this post on the best perennials that love the sun!
Helleborus (Hellebore)
Hellebores have beautiful, delicate, bell-shaped flowers in the late winter and early spring, but many varieties also have very pleasing decorative foliage. Enjoy their beauty in the garden or cut the flowers and float them in a dish of water for a gorgeous table centerpiece. See more about hellebore growing and care here.
Geranium macrorrhizum (Big Root Geranium)
This geranium grows in large clumps of white or light pink flowers that bloom prolifically from spring until autumn. Cut back when the blooms begin to fade and watch even more appear. It also deters deer, so it’s a great choice if you have local deer who love to munch on your precious garden plants. Makes a great groundcover.
Hosta
Hostas are known for their large, attractive leaves that come in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and textures (I love the leaves so much that I captured their image in these DIY stepping stones). They produce small flowers in the summer as well but the foliage is the main event. Hostas are also edible! Learn how to cook and eat them in this article.
Lamprocapnos spectabilis (Bleeding Heart)
An old garden standby for a reason! The little chains of pink, heart-shaped flowers on this perennial are stunning in spring and early summer. The plant goes dormant after that and is not particularly interesting, but if you want spring interest in your shade garden, don’t skip this plant.
Astilbe
Astilbe have dark, dramatic foliage with jagged edges that create interest. In summertime a tower of pink-to-purple, feathery flower spikes will bloom and steal the show. A pretty way to attract beneficial pollinators to your shade garden.
Ajuga (Bugle)
Bees love the bright blue-to-purple flowers of this glossy, low-growing ground cover (see what other plants attract pollinators). Its foliage is also impressive, with dark leaves variegated with white or pink. A great filler plant!
Hakonechloa macra (Japanese Forestgrass)
This decorative grass has a gorgeous sculptural shape, and the bright greens and yellows of the variegated blades of grass bring some much needed vibrancy to a dark, shady part of the garden.
That covers shade gardens, but what about sunny gardens? Check out this post for the best sun-loving perennials.
More on Perennials here:
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
[ad_2]
Stephanie Rose
Source link -
This Is TASTE 737: Read the Cookbook. No, Really. Inside Tanya Bush’s Narrative Baking Memoir.
[ad_1]
Matt Rodbard: Tanya Bush, welcome to This Is TASTE. So great to see you. I’m so excited to talk about your book, Will This Make You Happy. It’s a narrative cookbook, it’s a memoir — and I’ll say quickly, before we get into the conversation, it is one of my favorite books of recent memory. It’s a really wonderful addition to the back-of-house memoir. There have been a lot of them recently, but yours is very different. It’s structured in a unique way. There is a real story. We’re going to have no spoilers here — but the ending is worth it. Congratulations. It’s remarkable.
Tanya Bush: Oh, thank you so much, Matt. I really appreciate it. I think it’s somewhat of a humiliating exercise to release any kind of book, especially when it’s very personal. So I appreciate that it resonated.
Matt Rodbard: The structure is unique — it’s built around four seasons. There are a lot of terrific recipes in the book. Anyone who’s followed your work at Little Egg or through Cake Zine knows you’re such an inventive pastry chef and an amazing talent. The head notes are really well written, but I personally kind of just read it for the story — the story of your life. Tell us a little about this story and about deciding that you needed to write it.
Tanya Bush: Yeah, totally. I’m glad it read like a story, because that was very much what I was interested in. This whole notion of a narrative cookbook was alluring to me as someone who grew up reading novels and narrative nonfiction. The meaningful entwinement of recipes and story felt extraordinarily natural, especially when you are teaching yourself a new skill. This book is a lot about trying to find a sense of meaning and purpose and falling back in love with your own abilities and appetites. It starts with the narrator — a younger version of myself — trying to learn how to bake. It felt extraordinarily important to have the recipes living alongside what was happening in the wings. And there was a lot happening in the wings. I was failing and humiliating myself, and also feeling utterly exhilarated. I went to Italy. I started a new job at a local bakery. All of these things felt like constitutive parts of the process of learning a new skill. And baking, in and of itself, is naturally narrative to me — there’s the assembling of ingredients, the whisking and mixing and kneading and waiting, and hoping that this cake is going to rise and transform as you hope it will. This is very much a coming-of-age story, and you’re watching the narrator transform. That entwinement felt like a very natural form.
Matt Rodbard: The younger version of yourself — to be clear — this is a bit of a pandemic book. It’s very much a Brooklyn book, which I think is cool. And it’s a book about coming to the world of professional cooking really from the outside. You did not go to culinary school. The pastries at Little Egg have since been acknowledged as the best in the city by New York Magazine. That happened over a relatively short period — you’ve got the goods — but this book is the beginning of that process.
Tanya Bush: Totally. I do think the book is a lot about what it means to teach yourself something new when you have no constraints, or other people inculcating within you the “proper” ideas. There’s this scene at the beginning where the boyfriend — one of the main characters in the book — gives the narrator a book on the science of baking, and she’s like: good lord, I am not charmed by this. I’m entirely afraid of it. I thought this was something I could play with and experiment with in my kitchen. I was viewing it as a hobby, and to suddenly mystify the experience is utterly terrifying. One of the pleasures of writing this book, and of teaching myself how to bake on my own, was getting to experience firsthand what was working for me. Rather than being in a rarefied culinary school environment, I absorbed the ratios and the techniques that resonated with me and gave myself freedom to play and experiment in the margins.
Matt Rodbard: You can see your progression throughout. And we’re going to talk about Italy. I also love the sub-character — the influencer. The name isn’t used, but you’ll have to tell me who it is off-mic. It’s very real, the way you write about this influencer speaking to you and how you absorb the techniques they present and take those into your home kitchen. This is a modern, social-media-era memoir that addresses that world head-on.
Tanya Bush: I think we all have parasocial relationships with people online. I was spending an inordinate amount of time on Instagram, which is part of what impelled me toward baking as this idea of a panacea. It was the pandemic — we were all looking to sourdough and banana bread to quell our existential malaise. I was sort of originally lambasting that, and I don’t actually write about @will.this.make.me.happy — the Instagram account that I run, which was born out of that moment — because the only thing more boring than spending a lot of time on Instagram is writing about spending a lot of time on Instagram. But online culture was very much shaping my relationship to baking. I was watching countless reels and YouTube videos of people professing to know the best techniques, offering two-minute tutorials on how to make a custard or a chiffon. It was emerging from a very online moment, because we were all cloistered away in our homes.
Matt Rodbard: Tell me about food growing up in a New Jersey suburb. It’s clear from the book that becoming a pastry chef was not really your goal in your youth.
Tanya Bush: It was not my goal at all. I think food growing up was often about utility and function more than pleasure. Both my parents worked full time, so there was a lot of frozen samosas and Lean Cuisines and fish sticks — though I will say my mother has taken issue with the fact that I’ve said this publicly before. Let me set the record straight: there were a lot of extemporaneous stews she made that were totally improvisational, cupboard miracles. She’s a stew remixer. She slayed the stews. It was absolutely delightful. I also always had a ferocious sweet tooth — ice cream was very much a part of my identity as a young person. I actually worked at an ice cream shop for many years growing up, where we participated in the ice cream making itself. But I didn’t really see it as a feasible or viable path to a career. Food just didn’t seem to me in any way like an art form at that particular moment in my life. It was really about function.
Matt Rodbard: What about college in Minnesota? Does food have a role there? I love that your pastries at Little Egg are informed by the upper Midwest. A cinnamon roll is very much upper Midwest canon.
Tanya Bush: Absolutely. We are not skimping on butter at Little Egg, for sure. As I write about a little in the book, there was this house on campus called Daisy Moses — the cookie house. It was open 24 hours a day and eternally stocked with all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. I did spend a lot of time there. In retrospect you can imbue those moments with meaning, but at the time I was just like: I love getting stoned and making chocolate chip cookies. I really loved living in Minnesota — I was there for four and a half years. I loved the food culture. There was a lot of delicious, indulgent fare — hot dish, casseroles — but there was also an amazing Mexican restaurant in town that I still yearn for. And the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul specifically, have an incredible food scene. It’s super international. There’s incredible Somali cuisine, incredible Ethiopian cuisine, Hmong Village — oh my gosh, it’s incredible. I had a professor in college who took me there, and that was a formative experience. I’ve always been enamored with food. But it took me some time to really understand that I was interested in probing that intersection intellectually.
Matt Rodbard: Carleton College — Northfield, Minnesota, baby. I went to Wisconsin, so I know the cold. Okay — no spoilers, pick up the book, link in the show notes. I want to talk about the spring season. You end up in Italy, working at an agriturismo. What I love about this section is that we have so many chefs on this show talking about their incredible stages and amazing experiences traveling for their work — and you had the opposite. Talk about ending up in Italy and working there.
Tanya Bush: I was lusting for my Eat, Pray, Love moment — aren’t we all? And it was a lot of eating, not so much praying and loving. It was an extraordinarily weird experience. It’s funny because I wrote an essay pretty soon after I came back about that time for Guernica magazine, and I was really fixated on the discomfort and the torturous sensibility of having to eat vast quantities of food, which was genuinely part of the job. I was eating on display, very much keeping up this performance of the American intern in paradise.
Matt Rodbard: A prop, essentially. The American intern sitting with the guests, part of the scenery.
Tanya Bush: Yeah, yeah. And what was fun to revisit for the book was that, as uncomfortable as the gastronomical aspects of it were, it was also an extraordinarily clarifying experience in terms of my baking identity. There had been this real moment where I was like: I want to be a pastry chef — this rarefied term, extraordinarily professional, pastry as art, perfection as the ultimate pursuit. I was bearing witness to what that looked like in the context of the agriturismo, and I realized it really wasn’t for me at all. Those persnickety, fastidious desserts were antithetical to the type of dessert I loved and wanted to serve. It was really fun to revisit for the book because, in retrospect, I had a new take: this was an importantly clarifying experience for my sense of food identity. This was not the kind of baking I wanted to make. I wanted something messier, a little more homemade-feeling, a little more communal. And I don’t think I would have come to that without being confronted with the alternative.
Matt Rodbard: The chef there is doing these plated desserts with foams, and you’re trying to get your baking onto the table and he’s just not letting you. He’s the ultimate gatekeeper. Looking back — did you have the skills to bake there at that time?
Tanya Bush: I think I had the skills, because I was pretty confident in home baking at that point, and it wasn’t such a massive group that I was suddenly moving from baking for six people at home to serving a 60-seat restaurant. I totally understand their skepticism and reticence to involve an intern — they ordinarily had culinary students, and I didn’t have any formal training. But I also think I just wasn’t willing to play the role they wanted me to play, and so there was indelible friction from the offset. We just didn’t entirely vibe. I won’t spoil anything, but it sort of erupts in a particular way at the end of that season. I still feel that sting of humiliation and shame about what happened there.
Matt Rodbard: Read the book. I also love the way you paint the American guests who come for their quote-unquote culinary school at the agriturismo in Tuscany. What are the conversations like at the table with these folks?
Tanya Bush: It was wild. I have diaries full of these conversations, because my refuge was documenting what was happening while I was there. There was just a wild number of strange conversations going on. These are really wealthy Americans in search of a very particular experience. I did feel very much like I was only relevant insofar as I was helping them have the best time possible — which should have its pleasures, of course. Hospitality is so much about helping people feel good and fed and sated. But at this particular juncture in my life, that wasn’t what I was looking for. I really wanted to bake. And I had this somewhat delusional sense of what I would learn there that was quickly punctured when I arrived.
Matt Rodbard: There’s an alternate reality where the chef actually pulls you aside and teaches you a few things on the side — but this is the least generous pastry chef you worked under. The scene where a guest drops a scalding tea bag into your hand and gives you welts is wild. You can’t make that up, which is exactly why you keep a journal when you’re on the road. Okay — you return to New York. I love the next season. Many listeners work in the industry or have aspirations to work in it, and I love how you write about throwing yourself into a role at a busy Brooklyn café and bakery. I felt anxiety reading it. Spoiler: you’re great, you nail it. But I love the anxiety of throwing yourself into becoming a pastry associate at a production bakery without any culinary school background — the stage, the test, eventually landing the job. What was it like entering New York City’s pastry world at 60 miles per hour?
Tanya Bush: At that juncture I felt like I had very little to lose. So you just go: here we go, free fall. One of the pleasures of being young is that the stakes are so high and also so low — I didn’t have many responsibilities to attend to, and you can kind of just do things. It was also a moment where the world was waking up from this long hibernation. People were coming out and about, but restaurants were really in need of workers. There had been a mass exodus from restaurants in the wake of the pandemic, so it was a particularly lucky moment. But it was extraordinarily anxiety-producing, because I had never even known that you needed to label a quart container, or anything about health inspections or food safety. It was very much learning as I went. But so many of the bakers I know and love and admire have learned on the job. In this day and age, I think it’s rarer for people to shell out the money to go to culinary school when you really can learn as you go — find mentorship, find bakers or cooks you admire and learn from them alongside the baking videos and influencers you follow online.
Matt Rodbard: I think you’re being humble. You enter this production bakehouse and the punch list for the bake-off is long — I’m feeling the pressure. You’re writing in a beautiful way —
Tanya Bush: I wanted you to feel anxious, so I’m glad it worked.
Matt Rodbard: You’re me and I’m you. It’s a new entry into the back-of-house memoir. I look at Ruth Reichl as an example — not back of house, but writing about people in the food world. I liken you to Ruth’s writing. When you’re learning on the fly but you have a busy café that needs pastry — how the hell did you get through that?
Tanya Bush: You stay humble, and you know that you’re going to fail — often. There continue to be batches of things I make that just don’t turn out the way you expect. And that was one of the reasons I felt so drawn to this form of a narrative cookbook. Pastry books and cookbooks more generally tend to be glossy tomes — aspirational, showing you the finished product in its perfect form, and not showing you the mess and anxiety that preceded it. It felt very important to say: this was not smooth sailing. It was not smooth sailing to jet off to Italy and have that weird internship, and it was not smooth sailing inducting myself into the pastry scene in Brooklyn with very little experience. I do fail and humiliate myself on multiple occasions — and that is something you are going to read about. Maybe that resonates. And then you’ll see the finished recipe, and you’ll see that this writer has splayed herself out on the page to show you that this anxiety, this depression, things not working out the first time — that’s a fundamental part of the process. That’s important to say about baking especially, because baking is often considered chemistry, a science, where if you don’t do everything exactly right it’s not going to work. That’s just not how I experienced learning pastry. I was flailing about in my galley kitchen, making mistakes left and right, and making mistakes at the bakery too. People are more forgiving than you give them credit for. And you have to be more forgiving of yourself. When you’re learning something, it’s not always going to come easily — but you pick up and try again.
Matt Rodbard: When you were learning to bake professionally, did you feel that nailing the golden ratios was important first, and that once you had them down you could expand the creativity? You’re a hyper-creative person — not just in this memoir but in your work at Cake Zine. Talk about that foundation and how you were able to spin off into these recipes.
Tanya Bush: Ratios are extraordinarily important. Figuring out a base recipe that feels really good to you, that works in your body, that feels right — and from there, finding the moments and opportunities to insert your own palate and taste into a pastry or a dessert. Like, I was making a caramel this weekend at the restaurant — it’s a miso caramel, and it’s a recipe in the book — and we were low on heavy cream. I was like: I know the amount of liquid going into this recipe, and we have apple cider. Let’s play. I reduced the apple cider into a syrup and used that in place of half the heavy cream. Utterly delicious. When you have a general sense for technique and ratios, you understand where you can play. And maybe it’s a bit of misogyny that, historically, baking has been siloed in a way that cooking hasn’t been. But the way I was teaching myself was so much more akin to cooking. I am touching and tasting and smelling and noticing as I bake, because that’s how I was cooking at home — the way a savory cook would. Those things so deeply translate to baking. Of course there are parameters to adhere to, but within the margins, especially once you begin to notice things, you can really play.
Matt Rodbard: That’s how Brooks Headley looks at it. I just talked to him about the way he thinks about pastry — at Superiority Burger now, and previously at Del Posto. Different styles of desserts, but he, like you, knew the ratios and then could expand and do exactly the kind of move you just described with the apple cider.
Tanya Bush: He is a North Star. Fancy Desserts was a book I had early on that was so formative and important. Beyond the genius of the recipes — which are referenced in this book — he’s a damn good writer. He actually just wrote a piece for our new issue of Cake Zine that is extraordinary. So singular in voice and exhilarating. That sensibility is entirely threaded through Fancy Desserts, and it was one of the first cookbooks I read where I was like: I could read thousands of pages of this and still want more.
Matt Rodbard: I remember a scene in that book where he’s basically breaking out of his pastry job in DC and taking his books with him — climbing a fence or something. A classic.
Tanya Bush: There are so many wild and incredible moments in that book. It’s a reminder to just go back and read it. And it’s an important point — even though there are fewer strictly narrative cookbooks where recipes and story are equally constitutive of the project, a true 50/50, there are so many unbelievable cookbooks with absolutely genius writing. I was immersing myself while researching this book. Natasha Pickowicz — incredible writer, More Than Cake is so beautiful. There are so many books like this. Even if they aren’t narrative cookbooks, they have that extraordinarily singular voice, which is really what I crave in books in general.
Matt Rodbard: We look at it here at Penguin Random House — the cookbook can be many things, but for so many people it’s not a vehicle to make something. We’re still making literary works. Even if the word count looks low, just read the cookbook.
Tanya Bush: One hundred percent. And I think the industry in certain ways has bifurcated storytelling and recipe writing. There are so many memoirs with recipes, but often the recipes feel like a tacked-on addendum, a compulsory part of the process. It’s rare to find books that are really compellingly intermingling the two.
Matt Rodbard: You’re definitely an entry into that genre. I want to talk about going back to your home kitchen — after Italy, after the production bakehouse, you’re back home and finding your voice. It’s kind of a rejection of what you encountered in Italy and a synthesis of what you took from the bakehouse. How did you find your voice, Tanya? How does one self-define?
Tanya Bush: The whole question of the book is: who am I when I don’t know who I am? A lot of the baking I do now is informed by the ethos of Little Egg as a restaurant. We’re a community restaurant. We use local and organic ingredients whenever possible. We’re very seasonally oriented, which was also a big part of the book — it’s structured over the course of a year, and the recipes get more difficult as the book progresses, but they’re also seasonal, rooted in the moment they’re made. I’m very much committed to seasonality. But nostalgic flavors in unconventional forms feels like what I love in a pastry. The cinnamon roll is actually a great example. We serve a brown butter hojicha iteration, and right now on the menu we have a tahini cream cheese cinnamon bun. Tahini and cinnamon was a combination I hadn’t really had before, but I was looking for something that would make the cinnamon bun a little more savory — one of the hopeful hallmarks of my desserts is that they’re never too sweet. They’re really toeing that line between just sweet enough and satisfying the impulse for sugar. When I tried that combination I was like: this makes so much sense. It’s really special and fun to take an ingredient I’ve used in other contexts and never in a cinnamon bun, and use it in both the filling and the frosting. I think a lot about flavor combinations that feel familiar and unexpected and nostalgic, because Little Egg is very much about nostalgia. We have a Southern influence, it’s homey, comforting diner fare — we’re essentially a diner. People come to us because they want a delicious griddled corn muffin, or a big bowl of grits, or a sumptuous katsu sandwich. I want all of my pastries to feel like the perfect bookend to that meal: familiar and nostalgic, but with something a little different.
Matt Rodbard: I love that description. And back to the cinnamon roll — what’s the technical pastry chef term for the center that we all want?
Tanya Bush: The supple center. I don’t think that’s actually a technical term, but —
Matt Rodbard: We could rip on this all day. So many cinnamon rolls, you get to the outer two-thirds and you’re wondering: what are you guys doing here? How do you think about that ratio?
Tanya Bush: This reminds me — when I was a kid, much to the chagrin of my parents, I would always hollow out the loaves of bread we’d get. I would just go in with my little claw and extract the soft interior, and it would look like a mouse had gotten into the pantry. So I’m very familiar with the impulse toward the soft center. I think it’s a lot about your brioche base. It’s about proof time. We are bathing ours in heavy cream so it stays really soft and supple. But the pleasure of a pastry is that every part is a little different — the outside is going to be a little crisper, there’s a little more chew, and then the pleasure is working your way to the center and hopefully saving it for the end.
Matt Rodbard: There are some psychos who prefer the outer side — same as preferring the chicken breast over dark meat. They are wrong. Sorry, listeners. Now — I’m not trying to avoid it — there are love stories in this book and personal relationships, and that’s what makes it more than just Tanya learning to cook. It’s Tanya learning to deal with relationships. What was it like to write about the boyfriend and the crush?
Tanya Bush: Because so much of this had transpired before I was writing it, I really knew what I felt comfortable sharing and what I didn’t. But this is a year in a life — a snapshot. To me, cookbooks are so special because they’re an archive of a moment. I wasn’t giving the reader every detail — I was being very deliberate about what I was sharing, which was obviously vulnerable and intimate. I had yet to read a compelling representation in the food world of what it feels like to be very old and young at the same time in a long-term relationship, when you’re trying to figure out who you are and what will give you meaning and purpose as the world is crumbling. It felt extraordinarily important and constitutive to my experience of learning to bake, because I was trying to individuate and identify who I was alongside someone else. We’d been together for five years at that point. It just felt very much like what was happening in the wings of my baking. It’s a story about appetite and falling in love with your own ability, and also trying to figure out what it means to be in love with someone else — to court pleasure as opposed to happiness, and the divide between those two impulses. It’s strange now, years past finishing the book, to be exposing this part of my life in this particular way, especially because I was entirely anonymous on the internet for a long time, writing personally but in a way that invited readers to imagine themselves in my position. As much as there is disclosure in this book — and there is disclosure — these are also characters. The boyfriend, the crush, the self-involved young narrator trying to figure out who she is — they’re archetypes in certain ways, particular iterations of something very familiar. I really wanted the reader to be able to imagine themselves into this scenario, to remember that totally weird, uncomfortable time of coming of age and feeling like you’re outgrowing a relationship and wondering if that’s true.
Matt Rodbard: I think you paint a vivid picture of the post-pandemic coming-out-of-the-malaise — these hot Brooklyn nights that so many people who lived here or around the country experienced. That time and place, right out of lockdown, was crazy.
Tanya Bush: We were all feral. Everyone was hungry for experience — our appetites had not been sated in years. And that was so much of what was happening for me at that moment. I was like: what else? What does the world have to offer me? What do I have to offer the world?
Matt Rodbard: Read the book. It’s terrific. No spoilers, but there is a great twist at the end — I highly recommend you pick it up. Now — Aliza and I chat all the time on the show, and we’ve had you on many times to talk about Cake Zine. I love the work you and Aliza Abarbanel put out — it’s some of our best food writing, and I’m so happy to work alongside her on edits. She is our queen. Tell me about the next issue of Cake Zine. I know about it, but I want to hear what you have to say.
Tanya Bush: Okay, hell yeah — special preview. So as you might have heard, we have moved into meat territory. We’re doing Steak Zine as our next issue. We actually just sent it to the printer about a week and a half ago. It’s honestly an incredible issue — I think our best yet. The theme is quite topical, in this whole inversion of the food pyramid, the protein-maxing of it all, the whole RFK Jr. of it all. But it’s not just a topical response to what’s happening in the world. It’s very much a historical and personal and experimental exploration of steak in very unexpected ways, which is very much a hallmark of the Cake Zine approach. We’ve got this incredible story by Brooks Headley about what it’s like to own a lacto-vegetarian restaurant in a meat-hungry town, and how he charts his first experience cooking on his own — which was meat. He really delves into that moment. It’s just incredible. We also have this amazing new format helmed by Michelle Moses, our fiction editor, where we commissioned five different fiction writers we love and admire to each write from the perspective of a particular role at the platonic ideal of a steakhouse. We’ve got the maître d’, the server, the bartender, the cook — and it all adds up to this kaleidoscopic portrayal of a steakhouse. They interweave in interesting ways and make you feel like you’re there. It’s a special issue. We thought a lot about ways to make it feel very much like a Cake Zine publication while also experimenting with new forms. It’s out in early April — pre-orders are coming soon.
Matt Rodbard: Pre-orders may be available when this episode runs, so I’ll link to all of that in the show notes. Definitely subscribe to the Cake Zine newsletter for all the events as well. Tanya, I want to ask about your peers in pastry. One big part of what you and Aliza have fostered through Cake Zine and your work at Little Egg is this sense of community — bringing so many voices together through pop-ups, fundraisers, the magazine. Who are some of the peers you really respect right now that we may or may not know?
Tanya Bush: There are so many. Caitlin Wong, who is the pastry chef at Uma — a new bakery and café in Flatbush that I went to this weekend — is just truly an incredible pastry chef. She was like my baking hotline while I was writing the book. If my brioche wasn’t proofing properly I’d text Caitlin, and she’s just a wealth of knowledge with a very similar palate to mine. Everything she makes is perfectly seasoned and creative. I had this focaccia studded with scallions that she described as her take on a scallion pancake focaccia, and it was divine. You’ve got to check out Uma. And Dria Tansio, who is the chef at Salty Lunch Lady in Ridgewood — I’ve always adored and admired her sweets and her savory food. She really takes a cook’s mentality to desserts, so everything is quite balanced. She’s sidelining buttercream in favor of more tangy moments. There are just so many slices of cake I’ve eaten there where I’m like: this is the best cake I’ve ever had. She had this peanut butter and jelly cake that I was absolutely changed by.
Matt Rodbard: There are a lot of great PB&J pastries in our world, but this one was special. What was it doing? It wasn’t buttercream.
Tanya Bush: It’s been probably six months since she had it on the menu, but it was a really plush and delightful yellow sponge, tart raspberry jam, a sumptuous peanut butter frosting, and some peanut crunch on top. It had that nutty savoriness, the brightness from the jam, the nostalgia from the yellow cake. I was like: this is everything I want in a dessert. And then — maybe a less obvious name — Nico Villaseñor, who is the CDC at Smithereens and has a really robust pastry background. He had a long tenure at Four Horsemen and has bopped around, and he just truly treats desserts like a cook. I write about this in the book — I remember having a glass of wine at Four Horsemen when he was the chef there, and he just whipped up this dessert where he’d toasted some dates in brown butter on the stove with a little drizzle of honey. It was a reminder that the simplest things are the best things. You could be laboring for days over rough puff or a hand pie, but the ingredients coming together in six minutes in a pan with a dash of heavy cream are going to be better than almost anything you’ve imagined. Nick Tamburo is the chef at Smithereens as well — Nick’s been on the show. Everything they do there is really thoughtful, well-executed, and playful.
Matt Rodbard: Listeners: you just cannot skip dessert at a restaurant. Figure it out — maybe order a lighter savory course. You need room.
Tanya Bush: Or — here’s my hot take — order dessert first. I used to do this.
Matt Rodbard: Wait. How does that work?
Tanya Bush: Base your meal around the dessert you’re going to have. Literally: I really want the cheesecake, I’m going to order the cheesecake now, we’ll have a glass of wine with our cheesecake, and then we can get into the risotto.
Matt Rodbard: I am so down with that. I’m also very down with dessert tasting counters — I’ve been saying it for years. We need more of them. Instead of going to the bar and having three cocktails, why not a dessert tasting menu?
Tanya Bush: Even just more bars with two cake options on the menu. I really love Romans — one of my favorite things to do is get an after-dinner drink and the chocolate sorbet there. I wish that was more common. I would linger and loiter at a bar with two cake options and probably order both.
Matt Rodbard: Backwards day, folks. And I feel like restaurants will play ball with you on ordering dessert first.
Tanya Bush: Oh, they do. There’s always this moment of “huh” — and then I think they respect the decision. They’re like: you’re marching to the beat of your own drum.
Matt Rodbard: What percentage of Little Egg diners are just ordering straight dessert, nothing else?
Tanya Bush: I don’t know the answer to that. The cruller is pretty much a staple on everyone’s table. But honestly, I think a lot of people come to Little Egg at nine in the morning when they’re really hungry and they want something rich and delicious — a biscuit, a gravy, their eggs. Such a great restaurant.
Matt Rodbard: On This Is TASTE, we ask guests about their discerning taste. To close this interview — a little rapid fire, fast and furious Taste Check. Are you ready?
Tanya Bush: I’m so ready.
Matt Rodbard: Best fruit?
Tanya Bush: Pears. I think pears are an underrated fruit. A really perfectly ripe, juicy, tangy pear is just so satisfying. We have a pear hand pie on the menu at the restaurant right now that has really made me fall in love with pears again. It’s hard to find that peak-ripeness pear — we get them hardened from the grocery store — but when they’re truly ripe they have all the pleasures of stone fruit. Better than an apple. Juicy. Delicious.
Matt Rodbard: I would love to do a full podcast investigation of pears. Worst vegetable?
Tanya Bush: Broccoli. I have the broccoli gene. It tastes inedible to me. I really feel like I’m trying to eat a little tree and I shouldn’t be eating a little tree. It’s so fibrous, it has such a particular flavor. It feels like the vegetable that kids refuse to eat, and as an adult I’m like — no, the kids are right.
Matt Rodbard: I could not disagree more. I love broccoli. Your typical breakfast?
Tanya Bush: Oatmeal or cinnamon toast — one of the two. Oatmeal when I really need energy and protein to power through the day ahead. Cinnamon toast when I need a little blip of pleasure.
Matt Rodbard: Are you baking the cinnamon toast?
Tanya Bush: No — it’s so lo-fi you cannot mess it up. I actually just wrote a little piece about this for Nicola Lamb’s Substack. It’s literally any bread you have in the house: toast it, slather it in butter — salted, unsalted, doesn’t matter. Sprinkle some sugar — brown, white, turbinado, doesn’t matter. Some cinnamon. A little flaky salt, because you want it to taste more like itself. And it is heaven. Literally better than most pastries I encounter in the world.
Matt Rodbard: Cinnamon toast at a dinner party with vanilla ice cream — actually kind of sexy. Big one: the best dessert in the world.
Tanya Bush: A hot fudge sundae. There’s nothing like it. I’m a huge ice cream girl — grew up with it, worked in the industry. I’m an ice cream head. And then to smother it in a delicious bittersweet fudge sauce, a little whipped cream, some toasted nuts — maybe hazelnuts.
Matt Rodbard: It’s on the podium for me too. I’m currently reading Colson Whitehead‘s Sag Harbor — I hope to have him on the show, I’m working on it — and the main character works at an ice cream shop. It changes the way you think about those summer ice cream jobs. You probably learned a lot and are only just realizing it now.
Tanya Bush: Oh, totally. I worked there for five years — a very long time. Shoutout to the Bent Spoon in Princeton, New Jersey. I was just back in New Jersey and visited, and it was such a delight. They have experimental flavors alongside the classics, which is an amazing combination — lavender mascarpone, sweet basil, and also cookies and cream, which is perfect to me. You learn a lot working in an ice cream store. You’re hot and sticky and covered in sugar at all times. It was formative in certain ways.
Matt Rodbard: When you’re craving fast food, where are you going?
Tanya Bush: Five Guys. I really like their milkshakes.
Matt Rodbard: A restaurant you wish you could bring back from the dead?
Tanya Bush: I never got to try Frannies. It’s a storied institution — everyone has devoted themselves to it and talked about how good it was. I’m very sad I missed out, especially because it was in my neighborhood. It could have been my local spot.
Matt Rodbard: Right up on Flatbush, kind of tucked in on a busy street. It’s been Fausto for a while now. Iconic place — changed the pizza scene in New York forever.
Tanya Bush: I love a pizza spot. I went to Ileon about a month ago and thought it was really good. I didn’t try the lobster pizza — their iconic dish — but next time.
Matt Rodbard: Your favorite city outside America to visit for food?
Tanya Bush: This feels like an utterly boring answer, but Paris — because I’ve spent the most time there. Our designer for the magazine lives there, I’ve traveled there a few different times, and my dad loves Paris so I’ve met him there. But it’s just such a vibrant food scene. You can get the best pho you’ve ever had in your life, and then also the sacristain pastry I’d never had before at Du Pain et des Idées that changes your life. I do flirt with the idea of moving to Paris for six months. I’d love to have a better experience staging abroad at some point. But no imminent plans right now — first I’ve got to get the book out.
Matt Rodbard: Are you going to write another book?
Tanya Bush: It’s a good question. While I was writing the book, I was interested in this idea of a sequel — a couple of different iterations of a year in a life from this narrator. I love a trilogy: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight, but make it baking. I just pitched it. But I think it would be interesting to revisit this character — who is me — in eight years. What is she baking? Am I still baking in a professional context? What is her life like? Tracking a life through cookbooks could be a really interesting form.
Matt Rodbard: I’m into it. Have you sold the film rights yet?
Tanya Bush: We’re actually going out right when the book comes out.
Matt Rodbard: Fingers crossed. Somebody’s got to pick it up. It definitely lends itself to that world. Last one: your favorite sandwich?
Tanya Bush: PB&J. You can’t mess with classics.
Matt Rodbard: What kind of peanut butter are you using?
Tanya Bush: Jif creamy. Definitely creamy, industrial — never crunchy. Crunchy is a huge mistake. And then maybe an artisanal jam, and ideally on a sourdough. But it has to be a soft sourdough. I don’t want a burnished boule — I want something soft, San Francisco-style. It’s giving me that tang and plushness but it’s not hurting my teeth.
Matt Rodbard: Kind of like a grocery store sourdough. Acme Bread does a good job. I’ve personally been dabbling in just a soft wheat, really industrial — it’s like childhood for me. Tanya Bush, what a great conversation. Love the book. Thank you so much for joining This Is TASTE.
Tanya Bush: Thank you so much for having me.
[ad_2]
Matt Rodbard
Source link -
‘There’s a name for this, alpine divorce’: Las Vegas woman goes on a hike with man for a date. Then he leaves her stranded on the mountain
[ad_1]
The term “alpine divorce” has gained traction online after a woman’s video about being left alone on a hike went viral.
Now, creators are weighing in on how common the experience might be.
[ad_2]
Ljeonida Mulabazi
Source link -
The Truth About Celebrity Styling with Kate Young
[ad_1]
You’re an OG in the stylist game—what do you make of the landscape of styling right now?
The thing that’s changed more than anything is the way brands function with VIP [talent] and stylists. It has changed dramatically post COVID, and I think it’s really changing right now too with all the new regimes. Every house with a new designer is getting a new VIP team, which means they’re getting a new strategy. Brands now have these hard and fast lists, but before you used to be able to kind of hustle someone at a brand to trust you based on a personal relationship. It was a personal decision of a VIP PR person with a stylist in that relationship to lend them something for a client or not. That is disappearing, I would say. Now, so much is on contract and predetermined. People are really laser focused on their celebrity placements in a way they didn’t used to be. I mean, there’s also the famous stylist thing that I feel like has been going on forever, and that was Rachel Zoe.
The point you make about brands is interesting, because it carries into editorial—who magazines can photograph wearing what.
Right, it’s always “she has a contract.” I don’t know how politically correct this is to say, but the reality is that brands are who hold the purse strings right now. When I started doing this, movie companies paid. I would make money doing a press tour, and now I am paid less for the same work than I was 15 years ago. And production companies now really rely on movie stars having brand deals to subsidize this. I think that’s even true with magazines. I don’t know whether you all want to admit it. We talk so much in this industry about the decline of luxury, but in fact, who has money? Dior and Louis Vuitton and Chanel. Movie companies aren’t making the money anymore. Magazines aren’t making the money anymore. Even celebrities, to a certain degree, aren’t making the kind of money making movies that they make from brand deals. I think really, you can just follow the money to see where the industry’s changed. Sorry, that’s not a very glamorous take.
It’s not, but it is the take. It’s why this conversation series exists—people have questions and you have answers. As we keep talking about brand ambassadors and deals, what’s it like to work with someone who doesn’t have one? Has it become harder, or is it more fun?
No, it’s so fun. It’s really fun to have freedom. I was doing a lot of editorial up until not that long ago still just because I liked it, I come from that and I love doing photo shoots, but I was doing this editorial with a cover and had the run through and the editor in chief said to me, “okay, so you’re going to shoot this for the cover and this inside and you have to shoot these.” I had a sheet with the jewelry that needed a full page and a sheet with the accessories, and I was like, this is a catalog, so what do you need me for? And if I shoot a catalogue, I don’t do it for $250 a day. I actually walked off the shoot, which is I think one of the only times I ever have. But I knew this actress and we had been friends for years. She wasn’t a regular client, but she was somebody I know who asked for me because she trusted my vision. I also didn’t work at this magazine, so there’s nothing in it for me to shoot X, Y, and Z. I didn’t think it was good for my brand to show up with this rack of advertisers and tell her what she had to wear when it didn’t align with my taste.
[ad_2]
José Criales-Unzueta
Source link -
I planned dinner so you don’t have to! – The Recipe Critic
[ad_1]
This website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my disclosure policy.
I planned dinner, so you don’t have to! This weekly meal plan includes easy dinners plus a free shopping list! If you want to check out the rest of my weekly meal plans, click here.
What’s for Dinner?
This is what we’re eating this week. Nothing complicated, nothing that takes forever, just dinners that sound good and don’t make the evening harder than it needs to be. There’s a good mix in here too, so it doesn’t feel like you’re eating the same kind of meal every night.
Slow Cooker Bourbon Meatballs
Sweet and saucy slow cooker bourbon meatballs made with frozen meatballs for an easy, hands-off recipe. Perfect for game day, holidays, or weeknights.
Jalapeño Chicken
Delicious Jalapeño Chicken will become an instant favorite with the very first bite. Tender chicken pieces are cooked with jalapeños and then coated in a boldly-flavored sticky, sweet and spicy sauce. Serve over rice for an easy meal you’ll be craving on repeat!
Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup
My homemade Panera broccoli cheddar soup is ultra-creamy, cheesy, and cozy. It’s just like the restaurant favorite, but even better!
Cajun Rice and Sausage Skillet
This delicious Cajun Rice and Sausage Skillet has become an instant favorite in our house! It’s easy to make in one pan with flavorful andouille sausage, veggies and rice with an incredible cajun seasoning blend. A complete meal on the table in just 30 minutes!
Garlic Parmesan Chicken Meatloaf
Juicy ground chicken mixed with garlic, herbs, and parmesan, then baked with a crispy parmesan crust for a flavorful twist on classic meatloaf.
How Many Does it Feed?
This free weekly meal plan is just what you need to get your week started. It provides 5 meals for about 4-6 people and includes a free shopping list.
Why Should I Meal Plan?
If you haven’t tried meal planning yet, this is your sign. Trust me, it’s about to change your life. Here’s why I swear by it:
- Time saver: No more 4 PM “what’s for dinner?” panic. You already know the plan, the groceries are waiting, and dinner actually gets on the table.
- Money saver: Planning keeps your cart (and budget) under control. You can shop smarter, buy in bulk when it makes sense, and stretch leftovers into something new.
- Bye-bye takeout: When you’ve got meals ready to go, you’re way less tempted to hit the drive-thru. More savings, more homemade meals, and it just feels good.
Delicious Sides Dishes
My weekly meal plans always include a printable shopping list that is measured out and ready to go. It makes things so easy!
Storing Leftovers for Meal Planning
I only meal plan Monday through Friday because we sometimes have plans over the weekend, or I have leftovers that we can use to finish off the week. If you have leftovers, be sure to store them properly in an airtight container in the fridge.
[ad_2]
Alyssa Rivers
Source link -
Workshop Launches Belgravia Flagship Academy, Shaping the Next Chapter of London’s Specialty Coffee Scene – Luxury Hospitality Magazine
[ad_1]
Workshop, one of London’s original pioneers of specialty coffee, today unveils its flagship Cafe & Academy in Belgravia, marking a major new chapter for the brand. Designed as both a shop window and the true home of Workshop, the space brings together the brand’s sourcing ethos, roasting philosophy, and hospitality values under one roof for the first time, creating a launch that carries equal significance for trade partners and consumers alike.
For over a decade, Workshop has helped shape London’s specialty coffee landscape. Renowned for its clean, sweet, and fresh flavour profile, the brand’s disciplined approach to sourcing washed
coffees from small-scale growers across East Africa, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Nicaragua ensures every cup is unmistakably ‘Workshop’ in character. “Our sourcing and roasting ethos sets us apart. We are unwavering in our commitment to quality and consistency, and we never cut corners. This dedication is evident in every cup,” says James Dickson, Founder of Workshop. “From a Kenyan single-origin filter to a Peruvian espresso or a Brazil-Ethiopia flat white, the flavour profile is instantly recognisable and distinctly Workshop.”The Cafe & Academy is led by Head Barista and Lead Trainer Slava Babych, former World Cezve Ibrik Champion, and General Manager José Cortes, formerly of The Fat Duck Group. Their expertise brings both depth and approachability to the guest experience, ensuring a cafe defined not by pretence but by exceptional coffee delivered with genuine hospitality.
The design of the space reflects Workshop’s refined visual identity, developed in collaboration with George Cosby Studio and implemented by 3Stories. Single-origin coffees are now packed in terracotta, with house blends in the brand’s signature green. The design principles of premium hospitality aligned with luxury partners, a modern London identity, and dedication to quality and craft create a space that feels timeless, grounded, and welcoming.
[ad_2]
Jade
Source link -
This “Hybrid” Rental Strategy Is a No-Brainer for Rookies in 2026 (Rookie Reply)
[ad_1]
Want to finally buy a rental property in 2026? You’ve listened to the podcast. You’ve read the books. But what’s the best way to actually start? Today, we’re pulling back the curtain and sharing a beginner-friendly strategy that gives you a bit of everything—cash flow, appreciation, loan paydown, AND tax benefits!
Welcome to another Rookie Reply! We’re back with more questions from the BiggerPockets Forums. First, we’ll hear from someone who knows plenty about real estate investing but needs a clearer roadmap for getting started and scaling their real estate portfolio. Ashley and Tony share a rookie-friendly investing strategy that will help them not only buy their first deal but also get a head start on building serious wealth!
Another rookie has saved a large amount of money and is considering buying their first property in cash. But should they? We weigh the pros and cons of paying cash versus getting a mortgage. Then, we discuss the opportunities and risks of investing in D-class neighborhoods, as well as a few things all rookies should know before evicting tenants.
Ashley:
Every week we see the same thing happen in the forums. New investors are motivated, they’re consuming all the content, but they’re stuck because they’re afraid of making the wrong first move.Tony:
So today we’re answering three real questions from beginners. We’re talking about how much money you actually need to start investing, whether you should invest locally or out of state, and how to get over the fear of pulling the trigger on your first deal.Ashley:
This is The Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I’m Ashley Kehr.Tony:
And I’m Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let’s get into today’s first question. So our first question comes from the BiggerPockets Forums, and it says, “I’ve spent the last few years doing light research on house hacking on flipping properties and the Burr strategy, but I’ve never mustered the courage to enter the market. After all of this time, I realized that I just can’t wait anymore. I’ve graduated from college and wants to try to do something with my first year out of it. I don’t want to live a life of mediocrity, any advice for potential ways to get started now.” Well, first, kudos to you for realizing that you can’t just keep waiting. I think that’s probably the first big step is realizing that at a certain point we have to move out of the information gathering stage and move into the action taking stage. Because if we don’t do that, then yeah, days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, months turns to years and years turns into never doing it at all.
So I think that’s the first step is just realizing that it is important to finally take action. But I think the advice that I would start with, and we echo this thought a lot, but my first thing is understanding what your motivation is for investing in real estate. Sounds like you’re early in your career, you said you just graduated from college. So for you, it’s understanding what’s important to you right now as someone who’s a new working professional. Are you doing this because you want to reduce your living expenses? Okay, then house hacking maybe makes a ton of sense. Are you doing this because you want to quickly supplement the income you’re making from your day job? Then maybe something more active like flipping makes more sense. Do you want the long-term appreciation than maybe just some buy and hold properties where you’re plopping down 20% once every three to five years?
So I think first just understanding what your motivation is and why you want to invest in real estate is where I would start.Ashley:
This would be my plan. I would house hack, first of all, but I would actually incorporate house hacking, flipping, and burring into this strategy. If you are just starting out and you’re maybe renting and you have the opportunity to house hack, this is what I would do. I would purchase a property and I would do a single family home with extra bedrooms and bathrooms and rent out by the room. And then I’m going to live in this property for two years, renting out the other rooms. At the end of two years, I’m going to move out and purchase another property, and then I’m going to continue to rent the house out for three more years. I’m going to fill my bedroom, rent it out. At the end of five years, or before the five-year mark, I’m going to sell the property. So this will satisfy the property has been your primary residence for two of the last five years, and you’ll be able to sell it for tax-free gain and not pay any taxes on the profit of this property.
And how I would incorporate kind of the Burr strategy into this is I would buy a property that needs to be rehabbed. And I would slowly do work on it over the course of the two years that I’m living there. Maybe you don’t have a roommate right away or someone else living in the bedrooms because you’re renovating part of the room, but I would do that strategy and by renovating it, you’re adding value to the property. Over those five years, those tenants are going to pay down your mortgage. You’re going to have, hopefully, you’re buying in an area that sees some appreciation over five years, and then I would go ahead and cash out. But at the same time, you’re already another three years into your next property. So I would just keep recycling this method property to property. So for five years, you’re getting rental income on these properties, two of the five years you’re getting a house to live in, and then you’re getting a big gain tax-free.
So that’s what I would do. If I was starting over and no kids, no family, just me, and I was renting and buying my first property, that is the plan that I would do for even 10 years, do it for all your 20s and buy your 30s, you could rack up quite a bit of money that way.Tony:
I love that approach, Ash. You gave something super tactical. I think the only thing that I would change if I were to implement a plan similar to that is that I don’t think I’d sell all of them. I feel like I would try and maybe sell one, keep one, sell one, keep one. That way at the end of that decade, not only do you have these big chunks of cash you’ve been able to make, but at least you’ve got some that you’ve kept for the cash flow. And we’ve interviewed quite a few people who have used this strategy, but Matt Krueger was the most recent. And I think he did every year for like two years. Every two years for like a decade he did this and ended up with, what is it, seven properties or so that were cashflowing really well, all with these really low debts and really low out of pocket expenses.
So I think I would probably make that one small tweak so that way I’d still get some of the upside in the portfolio that I’m building. But couldn’t agree with you more that if I were in my early 20s with no kids, no wife, no responsibilities aside for myself, I would probably choose to make my life as uncomfortable as possible during that timeframe. So that way my 30s could be significantly more comfortable.Ashley:
And I’m not talking about sleeping on the couch. I’m still having a bedroom and an en suite.Tony:
And we laugh, but Craig Kurlop, who we interviewed, I can’t remember the episode number, but his first house hack, that’s exactly what he did. He slept on the couch and he rented out all of the other rooms in his house. So if you want to get that uncomfortable, you can. And Craig’s obviously going to be a really successful real estate investor, so it’s worked out for him. But to Ashley’s point, you can still have a little bit of comfort if you chooseAshley:
To. Before we jump into the next question, let’s take a quick break. Getting started as hard enough and having the right tools in place early can save you from a lot of rookie mistakes, especially when it comes to staying organized from day one. We’ll be right back. Okay. Welcome back. We have our second question from the BiggerPockets Forums. This one says, “Hello, everyone. I live in LA and I have been saving aggressively to try and buy a house for myself. I’ve recently decided to start looking into investing in rentals out of state instead. I have $100,000 in cash and as of now, thinking of trying to buy a single family rental in cash if possible, looking for some advice, tips on which markets I should be researching, and if it’s a good idea to buy my first investment property in cash, or should I consider financing something that would be more turnkey?” Thanks in advance for all the help and words of encouragement.
Finding this community has really got me excited and motivated. Well, first of all, we love to hear that and welcome to the BiggerPockets community. So $100,000 in cash, a great chunk of money to be able to get started in real estate. So advice or tips on markets to research in. You definitely could buy a property in cash in Buffalo, New York, Syracuse, New York.
I won’t be the best property, but you could definitely get a decent property and then do some rehab and add some value to the property. But those are at least two markets I know of. But I think your first step should really be using the BiggerPockets Market Finder. And you basically go through the steps of looking through markets that kind of fit your criteria. It’s a really great tool that you can find biggerpockets.com right at the top there is the Market Finder.Tony:
I think my first question though is why the feeling that buying in cash is necessary for that first deal? Is it because you just don’t want maybe the risk associated with getting debt on your first property? Or they mentioned at the end here, or would buying something turnkey make more sense? Maybe the person asking this question is assuming that they’re buying a really rough rehab and that’s why they want to buy in cash. So I think just answering that question first would be important because mathematically you’re going to get a better return on your investment if you include leverage in the purchase. Because if you’ve got $100,000, you could spend $100,000 to buy that property, or you could spend maybe $25,000 to get that same property. And obviously your cash flow will be a little bit less, but your return on that property would be significantly more.
So you could go get four properties at $25,000 down each or one property in cash at 100K. And in theory, those four properties at 25K down each would generate more than the one property paid off. So I think just asking yourself or trying to get an understanding of why are you focused on the cash perspective. I think for me, if I were paying cash for a property, it would only work for me if it was a value add opportunity, meaning I could buy something, invest the money to renovate it, and then refinance that property and hopefully recoup some of that cash that I put into that deal. And that’s what the Bur strategy is. So 100K in cash can get you into a lot of markets across the country. Like Ash said, it’s going to be maybe smaller markets, but it is an entry point in a lot of places.
So I think that’s where I would start is if you do want to go cash, look for a value add opportunity where then you can buy it, renovate it, refinance it, rent it, repeat it all over again.Ashley:
And another option too, especially being out of state, it can be more difficult, not impossible and definitely doable to build your own team and have your maintenance guy and your property manager and all the vendors that you need and your boots on the ground, your agent, things like that. But another option, if you don’t have a team and you’re looking at a market is looking at a brand new build. We’re seeing so many builder incentives like buying down your interest rates, giving you seller credits, upgrading your home appliances, different things like that where that may be a great option when investing out of state, if you don’t have a team built. A lot of the properties I buy, they’re older properties and sometimes we’re not doing a full complete gut renovation on them and you’re going to have older plumbing, you’re going to have older exteriors, different things where you need to have a boots on the ground handyman that’s going to go in and make those repairs and stuff like that.
So maybe looking at a new build in an out- of-state market is also an option for you. Obviously it’s going to have to be if you do decide to get financing because I don’t know of any new builds unless you’re buying maybe a tiny home that’s 200 square feet, get a new build for 100,000.Tony:
Yeah. The builder incentives, they’ve been pretty crazy I think these past couple of years as builders have fought with climbing interest rates and squeezed budgets of buyers to make sure they can keep moving inventory. So yeah, definitely a unique thing to try and take advantage of given where we’re at right now in the cycle of the market. All right. We’re going to take a quick break before our last question, but while we’re gone, be sure that you are subscribed to the Real Estate Rookie YouTube channel. You can find us @realestaterookie if you haven’t subscribed yet, and we’ll be back with more right after this. All right, welcome back. Our final question for the day also comes from the BiggerPockets Forums, and it says, “I’m a 28-year-old beginning investor and I’ve been more than ready intellectually, financially, et cetera, for almost a year now to buy my first property.
I’m going to be the one finding and managing the deal and my parents will help with half of the purchase or potentially even more.” The problem is, I’m looking at such a low price point in my area that when I actually get up and close to the house and meet the tenants, I get freaked out. How am I going to deal with these people, especially some of the Section eight people I meet? Even if I outsource the property management, who knows what repairs and are the surprises are in store for me in some of these places? Does anyone have experience with this? Would you say you have to approach some like investments as a semi-slumlord just because that’s the reality? So great question.
I think the first thing that I’ll say is there’s definitely truth in the idea that we talk about class neighborhoods when it comes to real estate investing that some of the lower class neighborhoods, your C class, your D class have tenant pools that are a little bit difficult, a little bit more difficult to manage. It doesn’t mean though that investing in the quote unquote D class neighborhoods is always going to be a bad investment. I think about our friend Steve Rosenberg, and he shared the story on stage a few times that I’ve heard him speak, but he had this portfolio of single family homes in a D class neighborhood, and Steve had a lot of experience in property management at that point, and it was the worst part of his portfolio. And he just said, “Hey, I’m going to bundle these all up and I’m going to try and see if I can sell them off to someone else.” And he sold them to a buyer who bought all of those problem properties that he had.
And then he ended up seeing that person a few years later at a conference. He’s like, “Man, hey, how’s that portfolio doing?” And the guy who bought them was like, “Man, these are my best performing properties.” So same exact homes, same exact neighborhood, same exact tenant pool, but two slightly different approaches in how they manage it. And for one person, it was their worst performing portfolio, for the other person it was the best part of their portfolio. So I think a lot of it does come down to you as an individual operator and how you manage those tenants. So that’s the first piece. The second thing that I’ll say is, is that if you’re worried about things like additional expenses around repairs or evictions or whatever those surprise costs might be, work those into your underwriting. So maybe you account for the fact that on day one, not only do you want to account for your down payment, your closing costs, whatever repairs you need to do, but you’re also accounting for on day one, maybe six months of reserves.
So if you have a fully funded six month reserve account on day one, that’ll give you some flexibility for whatever issues may or may not arise and allow you to sleep a little bit easier at night. So even if you had to evict someone on day one, you’ve got enough money set aside for that specific property to not have to lose sleep. So I think those are the first two big things that come to mind for me, Ash.Ashley:
Yeah, those are all great points. And I think first of all, if you’re already freaked out that you’re just going to get more and more stressed if you actually go and purchase a deal like this. But I think one thing is to, if you do outsource to a property manager, ask their experience handling with different classes of tenants, like do they have properties that are already in a C class area or B class area? So getting their understanding of, and then asking how they deal with different things that could happen and how they handle if a lot of repairs come in or other surprises. So I guess I’m more curious as to what you are freaked out about. Is it just how they kept the apartment, that it wasn’t kept clean, that is what it kept nice. I’ve had quite a few Section eight tenants and all of them have taken very good care of the property because they don’t want to lose their housing voucher.
I think like in Buffalo, it’s like an eight-year waiting period to get a housing voucher. So if they don’t want to be kicked out because they don’t want to lose their housing voucher and they also have an inspection every single year where the inspection is more for you as the landlord to make sure the apartment is in compliance. So make sure when you’re touring these properties and they have Section eight tenants, make sure that they will pass the Section eight inspection because that could be the motivation for somebody selling is like, “You know what? There’s like too much that Section eight wants me to repair. I’m just going to sell the property and be done with it. ” So if you just contact the local housing authority that actually gives out the Section eight vouchers, they’ll be able to tell you what they look at in an inspection.
And none of it is crazy. These things should be done in the property anyways. Any outlet is grounded by, has a GFI outlet by any water source and things like that. But the thing that I will say here is that if you are going to approach this property and you said approach some like investments as a semi-slumlord, I would say no. I would say that this is not the right mindset to have going into the property. I think that you can do things to change the value of that property. So for example, we have a tenant that constantly doesn’t pay, or she pays, but she’s late. The place is just packed with stuff. She doesn’t take great care of the property, things like that. But we’ve done a couple things and it really has changed how she is treated and taking care of the property.
So we actually got her a dumpster. We paid for it, got her dumpster and she actually filled up the dumpster. Whenever the landscaper would come, he would help her clean up the yard so he could actually mow the grass. And she actually started to feel bad and she’d run out there when she saw him full of hit and come and clean up the yard and stuff. So I think if you have the semi-slumlord mentality, it’s just going to keep your tenants in that mindset that you don’t care why should they care. So I think kind of shifting that mindset can actually go a long way. And I think this is something that’s a huge debate. So let me know in the comments, do you think like you should do these extra things for tenants that are living in the property to try and help them out, even though you are running a business and your bottom line is your bottom line and you want to be profitable and you want to make as much cashflow as you can.
So let me know in the comments below how you see it and what would you do in situations like this?Tony:
Well, Ash, kudos to you. I think it is somewhat counterintuitive for a lot of investors to reinvest into a property that they feel isn’t being treated well by the tenant, but I think it goes to show that people are still people and if you can kind of touch them in their hearts or kind of speak to what motivates them, that maybe you can have their behavior change in a way that’s beneficial for both of you. But I couldn’t agree more that no one should go into real estate investing with the intention of being even a semi-slumlord. The goal for us should be to provide safe, clean, relatively affordable housing for the people that live in our properties. And if you go into it with a different mindset, then I think you do have to question whether or not real estate investing is the right path for you.
But at the end of the day, we’re providing people with housing, which is, for many people, their biggest expense in life. So we want to make sure that we’re doing it in the best way possible.Ashley:
Yeah. And I think some of these little expenses you do to help the tenant actually help you out in the long run that your property is being taken care of and you don’t have this huge turnover expense when you need to renovate it to get somebody else into it. And I will say, as nice as I sound, I did try to evict her, but she paid rent literally at the courthouse and they dismissed the eviction. So I still am very business minded, but I was like, “Okay, I need to find a different way to solve this problem and a different solution.” And in New York State, it’s very hard to evict someone unless it’s for nonpayment. And she ended up getting caught up and it’s just the attorney fees start racking up when you keep sending notices and start the eviction process and then they end up paying before … I think we’ve tried to do it three times with her and she always does pay.
It’s just, it’s late and late and late, but I think we found a better workaround as to what can we do to kind of make it the situation more bearable for both of us. And it definitely has been working.Tony:
Ash, let me ask one last follow-up question on that. Is there anything in New York law that states if someone has been served an eviction like X number of times, that at some point you can maybe skip the line and just go to the eviction or can it be this kind of game of cat and mouse forever?Ashley:
If anybody knows of that loophole, please tell me because I do not know of it or how to do it because all I know is you got to start the process all over again. I mean, you can’t even deny someone in New York State because they have a previous eviction anymore.Tony:
But could you non-renew their lease for that reason?Ashley:
Yep, you could. You could do a non-lease renewal, but then if they don’t move out, then you’re going through the whole eviction process to get them out for non-renewal, which you can do. It’s just you’re starting the process over again. And I’ve tried to do it a couple times and the judge always wants the attorneys to work through it like, “What can we do to make this situation?” Literally, it seems like the last thing they want to do is kick somebody out, which I understand that. But my God, every time my attorney comes back and says, “Okay, so we worked out a payment agreement and we’re going to do this payment plan.” And he’s like, “They just won’t evict.” And it’s mostly right in the city of Buffalo where this happens, where the smaller towns are way easier and more lenient. But in the city of Buffalo, they constantly want to see something worked out.
And at first, it was never like that 10 years ago when I first started investing, but now it’s like you’re going to court multiple times for this. SoTony:
Then it’s just like, is it even worth a headache? It’s a headache either way.Ashley:
Literally at one point, my attorney called me, I think it was his fourth time in court with this one person we were evicting and he’s just like, “I’m done. Sell your properties in Buffalo. Why would anyone invest here?” And I was like, “Okay, I’m mad about this, but you are definitely way more mad at me. ” It was funny. I mean, not funny because it was an awful process, but- Yeah.Tony:
But we can look back and laugh on it now.Ashley:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you guys so much for listening today. I’m Ashley. He’s Tony and we’ll see you guys on the next real estate rookie episode.?]]>
Help us reach new listeners on iTunes by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds and instructions can be found here. Thanks! We really appreciate it!
Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected].
[ad_2] Real Estate Rookie Podcast
Source link -
Low Vitamin D Levels Can Lead To Alzheimer’s, Says A Neurologist
[ad_1]
How did these individuals become vitamin D deficient in the first place? According to Bredesen, it’s a combination of lifestyle habits and nutritional choices: “They’re living indoors, they’re not getting out enough, they’re not taking vitamin D, or they’re not absorbing the vitamin D they are taking.”
[ad_2]
-
முயன்றால் சாதிக்க முடியும் #trending story #cat short #viral video @thepopcornpalace-q5b
முயன்றால் சாதிக்க முடியும் #trending story #stylish video #short #viral animation #animation …
source
