We’ve already covered why wedding registries are a necessary evil. (For those who missed it, the abridged version goes something like this: Everyone is going to ask where you’re registered, people are going to buy you stuff no matter what, you might love being able to pull out a platter that your grandmother gave you long after she’s gone, etc.).

Convinced? Yay! Staring at a blank computer screen wondering where to start? Boo!

Don’t worry — we’ve complied a list of the 15 essential kitchen items you should register for, and we’ve gone as far as to list the exact product you should ask for, sometimes even with options based on your tastes. Consider it our wedding present to you. We’ll just assume our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail?

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This weekend my toddler requested pancakes, and I was happy to oblige. Most of the time parenting feels like taking a wild guess on a multiple-choice exam I haven’t studied for and hoping to land on the right answer by luck. But pancakes I can handle. I can even make shapes. (Mickey Mouse is a shape.)

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Cauliflower is the avocado of 2018. I don’t know what it is about cauliflower that made us all become obsessed with it this year, but cauliflower is everywhere.

Maybe it was the first time we tried a cauliflower “steak” and realized cauliflower takes on other flavors well and has enough heft and bite to sit in the center of the plate and still feel like a meal, or maybe it’s just the fact that it’s so easy to hide in other foods to trick ourselves into eating more vegetables.

Whatever the case is, cauliflower is pretty great — especially when it’s used to make a pizza crust.

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The number of new product introductions at Trader Joe’s is so high, it can be downright dizzying. In fact, we’ve written about how you really should go online to learn about these new products before you even step foot in the store (see: If You’re Not Doing This Before a Trip to Trader Joe’s, You’re Doing Your Shopping All Wrong!).

Just in the last few days, we’ve seen a new salad topper mix, jars of giardiniera, and cauliflower gnocchi. It’s aways super fun to see new products in the stores, try them out, and update our mental list of favorite products. What could there possibly be to complain about?

Well, Matt Sloan, the vice president of marketing product at Trader Joe’s, just gave us one kinda big thing!

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Last November Amazon launched two of its own affordable and stylish in-house furniture brands. There’s Rivet, a mid-century-modern-inspired line, and Stone & Beam, which leans more rustic and modern farmhouse.

We didn’t write about them then (although our sister site, Apartment Therapy, did) because the two brands were focused on living rooms. We’re writing about them now, because, you guessed it, they’ve both expanded to offer dining room furniture — plus bedroom and home office stuff, but we’re gonna focus on the dining room pieces.

The new pieces are so great, they made us wonder why we don’t hear of people buying furniture on Amazon more often. In general, the site has a ton of kitchen and dining room furniture.

Let’s just take a quick look at some of our favorite pieces from these two new lines.

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My love affair with Southern-style coconut cake happened 10 years ago — just after I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and began working on a little TV show called Good Eats. My very first bite of coconut cake made me fall in love with its steep peaks of fluffy frosting, tender white cake, and halo of freshly shaved coconut.

But here’s the secret: That coconut cake required several days of work from a kitchen intern (me). I vowed to someday make a coconut cake of that caliber with less fuss. Well, my friends, that day has arrived!

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We are about to enter the magical time of year when I get to turn off my oven and cook as many of my meals as possible on the grill outside. This will be the third summer my husband and I have owned a grill (our third summer of home-owning!). And we’ve finally found a grill-cleaning tool that we actually like!

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You’d think that the beginning of spring and the end of school would bring some relief to our already hectic schedule, but no — May brings summer camp planning, soccer parties, PTA fundraisers, and class parties that fill up our calendar quickly.

Once again, I’m calling on the power of the slow cooker to feed my family this next week with a few family-friendly favorites that make dinnertime easier.

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Whether you realized it or not, World Market considers you friends and family. (Awww!) That means you can take advantage of the store’s site-wide Friends and Family sale running now through Monday, May 7.

Take 30 percent off almost everything (excluding food and beverage, which is 10 percent off) in stores and online. Plus, you’ll get free shipping on orders totaling more than $65. To get the discount, simply enter the code “YAYFRIENDS” at checkout. (The code even works on sale items, but there are some exclusions around alcohol.)

Obviously, you know that there will be plenty of bigger pieces — dining tables, chairs, bar carts, etc. — so we wanted to call out a few of our favorite smaller finds. Of course, they’re all on major sale!

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The new podcast from Trader Joe’s, “Inside Trader Joe’s,” is surprisingly fascinating. I wasn’t expecting to get into a podcast about a grocery store (I normally prefer the riveting world of listening to people play Dungeons and Dragons online), but “Inside Trader Joe’s” keeps answering questions I didn’t know I had.

If you’ve ever wondered what it means when bells ring in the store, or why bananas are sold individually, you’re not alone.

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