Every cook needs a go-to dessert recipe. Even if you insist you’re really more of a cook than a baker, even if you’re put off by scales and stand mixers and specialty flours and expensive silicone mats, I promise that there’s a back-pocket recipe out there for you—and I think it should be an oil cake.

In this week’s truly heinous edition of Ask Polly, the letter writer casually describes what amounts to multiple attempts on her life by her in-laws. Not only do they refuse to acknowledge her deadly mushroom allergy, they seem to take pleasure in serving them every time she’s over for dinner. Nearly everyone who’s…

There seems to be no good way to get corn kernels off the cob. Most “hacks” involve precariously balancing an ear of corn in a bowl, slicing them off, and hoping you don’t slip and slice a finger along the way. Sometimes the bowl catches every last kernel, but more often than not, you get to chase down all the ones…

Making pastry in the summer means fighting an uphill battle against the laws of thermodynamics. Even when you’ve taken every possible precaution to keep your ingredients—and your tools—nice and cold, pie dough is still liable to melt the second it hits your counter.

We’ve officially reached Peak Summer Produce, which means we’re all desperate for a new angle on mountains of zucchini and rapidly decaying tomatoes. This is why I think everyone should know how to make a good gazpacho. It’s a delicious, no-heat-required way to obliterate a ton of produce, and you don’t even need a…

“The Pill” is not a monolith: there are hundreds of birth control pills out there, and they’re not all the same. But most people are never given a choice. They walk into the clinic, ask for the pill, and get a prescription that may or may not be the best one for their particular situation. Given how common this is,…

Like many of the greatest minds of my generation, my brain has been utterly poisoned by memes. Although I’m not exactly a discerning meme consumer, I do have my favorites—and I think I’ve watched every iteration of the iconic Simpsons “Steamed Hams” clip on YouTube twice, minimum. (My favorite is “Steamed Hams but…

Everyone who hates flying has their own way of mitigating airport stress, from delicious snacks to heavy-duty anxiety meds to showing up 8 hours before takeoff. Mine is a little unusual: as a card-carrying Nervous Wreck, if I have to get on a plane, it had better be a red-eye—especially if I’m crossing multiple…

Quick pickles are the MVP of no-stove-required summer side dishes. Despite the name, some versions need to soak for an hour or two before they’re ready to eat. If you need a bright, crunchy vegetable side and you need it now, you can get things started with a little massage.

Nobody in the history of the world has ever brought precisely enough buns for a barbecue—either they run out in an hour, or the host gets to figure out what to do with 48 leftover hot dog buns. If the latter sounds like you today, you can use those extra buns to make some truly excellent croutons.

Inspired by the success of their vegan hotdogs and soft serve, IKEA has announced plans to roll out a plant-based version of their classic pork and beef meatballs in the next year. But the official launch in summer 2020 is still a long ways off, and if you can’t wait that long, I’ve got your back. You don’t need…

Graham cracker crusts fill a very important dessert niche: a quick, simple crust for when you want pie, but can’t be moved to turn on your oven. As someone who hates sweating and literally always wants pie, I wish I could get more excited about them.

With more and more states signing abortion bans into law, it’s no surprise that Facebook is crawling with abortion-related misinformation. This time, though, it’s more than a handful of viral links making the rounds; it’s the overwhelming majority of abortion news shared on Facebook.

Earlier this week, Judd Legum’s Popular Information newsletter reported that, in recent years, six corporations contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the lawmakers behind six-week abortion bans in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio. In an attempt to fight back, consumers across the…

Like other entries in the “carbs coated in mayo” category of side dishes, pasta salad is incredibly polarizing. When it’s good, I can’t stop eating it; when it’s bad, it’s inedible. I’ve found that the secret to really good pasta salad isn’t homemade mayo or a good jar of pickles—it’s really bad pasta. Specifically,…

The Cult of ALDI is real and it is powerful. Fans of the chain love its distinctive approach to the customer experience just as much as they love its low prices, and are quick to evangelize it to everyone they meet.

Tossing old greeting cards can be guilt-inducing, even for ruthless de-clutterers—which means they have a way of piling up. If you’ve got a stash of old cards that you can’t bear to recycle, there’s an easy way to get some use out of them: repurpose them as bookmarks.

Whether or not there’s any actual science behind it, lots of people swear by the sickness-busting properties of raw garlic. Some of my friends and family will actually chow down on raw cloves in an attempt to send their symptoms packing.

Even though abortion is still legal everywhere in the United States, Republicans are dead-set on changing that. Apart from donating money to abortion funds, it’s hard to know what you can do to help.

If the recent wave of six-week abortion bans has you utterly terrified and spitting mad, you’re not alone. But it’s important to remember that, as of yet, no laws have changed; despite increasingly severe restrictions in many states, abortion is still a constitutional right.