I knew hosting my board game night gathering on a Friday meant that I needed some quick ideas and tricks to make my apartment at least appear clean and put together. After all, an unkempt apartment shouldn’t keep you from spontaneous entertaining!

This guide to a guest-ready home requires that your place isn’t in total disarray: I can’t help you if your living room needs serious deep-cleaning. But if you (like me) are reasonably neat but too busy to tidy until just before guests arrive, here’s your last-minute cleaning plan.

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Five years ago, we hosted our ten full-time staff members for a weekend retreat in the country, and I was in charge of the cooking. We were hungry worker bees, stretching our brains all day, decoding the secrets of site design, traffic analytics and reader satisfaction. Tried as I did to push the healthy snacks on my co-workers, it was a plate of dark chocolate walnut cookies that won for best snack.

Digging back into the archives, I found the post about these cookies with some broken code and one of the worst food photographs I ever made, so I decided to resurrect the piece for you this week, because five years on, these are still one of my favorite tea-time snacks.

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Before Hayley and her now-husband got married, they found a “well-kept fixer upper” in their ideal neighborhood. The realtor assured them that all they needed was a kitchen remodel, which sounded not so hard at the time. Of course, we know that kitchen remodels are no small undertaking — and they now know that, too! Fortunately, it all worked out and they have a dreamy kitchen to show for it. See what their kitchen looks like now, and how they did it:

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When you crave a sweet snack but want to avoid the seduction of a whole cake or a dozen chocolate chip cookies, the one-off mug cake is your best friend. Have you ever made a mug cake? It’s just what it sounds like: a few tablespoons of ingredients whisked up in a mug and baked in the microwave for less time than it takes to make popcorn. Presto: sweet, moist cake. And just one.

Here’s my new favorite mug cake: a quick batter with golden oats and chopped pecans that bakes up light and fluffy around a dollop of gooey Nutella in the middle. It’s like getting cake and frosting in one happy mug.

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Brian and Julia’s Live-Work Loft Kitchen

Day 18: Wednesday, March 26
Today’s Assignment: Make a “Stuff I Like to Eat” List
The Cooking Cure: See all assignments so far here

Midweek stretch! How’s it going? Thumbs up or down? Thumbs sideways? If you’ve found yourself struggling a little, today’s assignment might just be help you need. We’re making a “Stuff I Like to Eat” list — a list of favorite, never-fail foods you can tape to your fridge and have handy for those nights when the motivation to make dinner fails you.

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This week I’m showing you how a casual Friday evening playing board games with friends can turn into something a little more special thanks to good food, drinks, and minimal yet fun decorations. So far I’ve talked about the party plan and make-ahead menu, and Faith shared her totally delicious recipe for whipped feta dip (not to be missed!).

Now it’s time to share how the low-stress party went down! Are you ready to play some board games?

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My three-year-old rescue dog, Goblin, will do anything for a morsel of food, which is why I always keep a stash of dog treats on hand. But the cost of high-quality treats without corn and other fillers can start to add up, which is why I’ve bookmarked EatingWell’s budget-friendly (and healthy) list of fruits and vegetables dogs can safely snack on — and there are quite a few for cats, too!

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