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If you’re attending a BBQ or picnic in the next few months, then you know that pasta salad will be on the menu. In fact, pasta salad is so ubiquitous in summer that it should probably be added to the summer commandments of cooking. It’s the perfect thing to bring to a potluck because it’s heartier than a salad, but less complicated than a main dish for grilling (let someone else make the grilled chicken).

Looking for a pasta recipe that everyone will love? Pinterest has just the thing. I’ve found the most popular pasta salad recipe on the platform and it’s super easy to make.

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Sometimes there’s an occasion to make a beautiful, towering strawberry shortcake to grace the dessert table. But more often we’re managing a busy weeknight when the hankering for a slice of soft, spongy cake accompanied by fresh sliced berries and whipped cream hits. Even if you had the time and energy, you don’t need a whole cake, and you definitely don’t want to turn on the oven if it’s high summer. This sweet mug cake is your single-serve solution.

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Asparagus is a vegetable that is transformed by hot-and-fast cooking. It’s why we love roasted and stir-fried asparagus, and why we fall in love each spring with grilled asparagus. Grilling makes asparagus tender while imparting a delightful char and smoky flavor — but to be honest, grilling asparagus can be tricky. Most asparagus is just wide enough to slip between the grill grates and fall into the fire.

Last summer, I learned the super-simple solution for grilling asparagus that makes them easier to flip and keeps them from falling into the grill: skewers. Threaded together, you can cook five to six skewers at once and transform fresh asparagus into a fast and fancy side with just olive oil, salt, and pepper.

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Fruit flies are a fact of life — especially come summer, when fresh produce is abundant and also spoils faster on your countertop. It’s almost inevitable that you’ll find a few buzzing around your kitchen. They’ll eat anything that’s remotely spoiled, can sneak in through open doors or the tiny holes in your window screens, and multiply swiftly.

“Fruit flies have a quick gestation period,” says Scot Hodges, director of professional development for technical services at Arrow Exterminators. “It only takes them 12 to 15 hours to lay eggs, then just a week for those eggs to turn into adults, so you can develop a problem really quickly.” Great.

Don’t panic just yet. Here’s what you need to do.

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Forget lattes and bagels — the newest unicorn trend is so hot it glows. Literally. Disney’s latest treat is a white and color swirled cotton candy on an illuminated wand, as reports Disney Food Blog. The wand appears, from numerous social media posts, to change lights and make the cotton candy glow and change colors.

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The prices for peaches are on the rise after Georgia lost roughly 80 percent of its crop this year due to irregular weather. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a warm winter, coupled with a hard freeze this spring, resulted in a bulk of peach crop dying this year in the South.

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From Apartment Therapy → Better Results, Every Time: 7 Super Common Dishwasher Mistakes You’ll Want to Stop Making

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There’s nothing quite as exciting as scoring a great deal. Maybe seeing your kid walk for the first time hits high on some people’s lists, but grabbing a crystal bowl for a fraction of its retail price or getting an artisanal food product that isn’t usually available is our idea of a great time.

That’s why the news that Southern Living and HomeSense stores are expanding is so exciting.

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(Image credit: Linda Xiao)

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Sticky, sweet dates have many wonderful uses. They can be chopped up for a salad, blended into a smoothie, or even made into caramels. They don’t, however, actually need that much fussing to be enjoyed. All on their own, they make for a pretty good snack. Add just one more ingredient to the equation and you’ve got a snack that’s truly great.

Even better, you don’t need to go out of your way to buy anything special. These fancied-up dates call for pantry ingredients that transform the dried fruit into something that not only feels like a treat for yourself, but can also be served to company. Here are seven combinations we love.

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