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How to Clean a Fabric Mousepad If you have a cloth-like mousepad, here’s how to make it look brand new. What You’ll Need: Mild dishwashing liquidSpongeClean towel Follow These Steps: How to Clean a Plastic Mousepad The steps above would also work on a plastic mousepad, but you can speed up the process using cleaning sprays or wipes. What You’ll Need: Multi-surface cleaning sprayMicrofiber clothDisinfecting wipes (optional) Follow These Steps:

What You’ll Need: Dish soap Stainless steel bristle brush (such as this one) Cleaning cloth Non-scratch scrubber sponge How to Clean an Air Fryer

Artichokes range in size from jumbo to baby, and are often cooked whole, although only some of their parts are edible. In larger artichokes, the base of each leaf is gifted with a soft and creamy flesh that’s enjoyed by breaking the leaves off one by one and scraping the base between your teeth before discarding each leaf. Disclaimer, the outer leaves tend to be a bit tough and the purple-tinted leaves at the very center can be prickly, so it’s best to avoid them....

From choosing a good eggplant to preparing it, here’s everything you need to know, plus a few cooking techniques to help you make the humble eggplant a lot more wow-worthy in your favorite eggplant recipes. When to Pick Eggplant Eggplant season is July through October. Look for eggplants that have smooth, shiny skin and are firm with a little bit of give—a really soft eggplant is past its prime. One of the key ways to tell if an eggplant is bad is to look at the stem....

How to Cook Sausage While some meats are best left undisturbed while cooking, sausage requires a fair amount of tossing and turning to achieve consistent browning. Opening the oven every few minutes to check on the crispiness and sizzle would be counterproductive, as your oven loses 25 degrees of heat every time it’s opened. This would mean a constantly fluctuating oven temperature and inconsistent cooking. I tried to let the sausage do its thing while cooking and held my breath for good results by the end....

A tax checklist is great advice for anyone. Here are some things to consider as you build—and check off—your own list this tax season, although always review your circumstances with your financial advisor if you have one. What to Ask a Tax Preparer Amber Gray-Fenner, owner of Tax Therapy, urges taxpayers to ask about a tax preparer’s qualifications and practice. That includes inquiring about their overall level of experience, their staffing, and the volume of work the office does....

But how can you tell if you should see a therapist? And how do you begin looking for a good therapist who’s ideal for what you’re doing through? Unfortunately, finding the right therapist and treatment isn’t always easy, especially if you’re at an emotional low point. Google “psychotherapy” and you’ll find a confusing alphabet soup of acronyms—ACT, CBT, and DBT, to name a few—for the various types of treatments. Even if you know what type of therapy you want, it can be hard to access it: 51 percent of counties in the U....

Folding a fitted sheet may not seem like a high-priority skill, but it can do a lot to keep your sheets neat and feeling refreshed. If you’re investing in only the best bed sheets, you’ll want them to last as long as possible—and one step of proper care is putting sheets away neatly, in a place where it won’t be exposed to life’s typical disasters. Spoiler: Balling the sheet up in the top of your closet is just asking for a tear or dust pile-up....

Stop plucking This is a no-brainer, but if you’ve found yourself with sparse brows, it’s time to put down the tweezers and back away from the mirror. When trying to grow back your brows, avoid any products that might be inhibiting hair growth (or actually pulling out your hairs unintentionally). Avoid brow products with drying alcohol or heavy waxes that could be “suffocating the brow or drying them out,” says Azi Sacks, a brow artist based in New York City....

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chicken is actually the top food that causes food poisoning, and it’s mostly related to unsafe handling and preparation practices by consumers at home. Chicken found in retail stores goes through a meticulous inspection before hitting shelves in an effort to spot disease. These inspections are carried out by either the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) or by state programs that abide by federal standards....

If you’re dealing with dry skin, sun spots, wrinkles, or damaged nails (and who isn’t?), it’s time to take action. Most of these problems can be solved at home and with products that you can buy at the drugstore, so you won’t have to spend a fortune on treatments. Have ragged cuticles and hangnails? Nail scissors and Vaseline will work wonders. Suffering with dry, cracked skin from washing the dishes or your hands too much?...

Exhibit A: mason jar salads. Salads make an excellent weekday lunch. With the right combination of grains, protein, and leafy greens, they fill you up without weighing you down, and give you the energy you need to power through the afternoon. Packing the salad, however, is where it gets tricky. Dress the salad too early, and it becomes soggy by the time lunch rolls around—and storing the dressing in an extra container makes for clunky transportation (and the possibility of leakage)....

We’re obviously on board. But here’s the thing: not all smoothie recipes are created equal. Taste-wise, yes, but nutritionally speaking even more so. Glugging a bunch of orange juice or sweetened yogurt into your smoothie can leave you with a breakfast that packs more sugar than a frosted doughnut (not to mention the need to take a nap before noon). We consulted Luisa Sabogal, RDN, MS, CDE, for the best food groups and ingredients to use when blending smoothies for every dietary need....

Fortunately, some direct-to-consumer paint brands, such as Clare, are attempting to simplify the painting process by eliminating the trek to the paint store and curating the color options. Taking it one step further, Clare’s founder Nicole Gibbons recently expanded her product line to include trim paint colors—so you can now paint your entire home without a single trip to the paint store. So how do you take the guesswork out of picking trim paint colors, especially when you’re navigating the process online or even on your phone?...

Avoid Sudden Changes Both Hohler and Smith agree that the most important first step is to take a breath and resist the urge to make significant changes. Assessing where you are once on more solid ground emotionally is likely to be far more helpful. Unless there are deadlines involved, Smith advises, wait until you have a clearer perspective. “Renaming beneficiaries, changing your will, or updating insurance policies may require more immediate attention,” Smith adds, suggesting that hiring a financial professional to assist with these and more complicated matters will provide peace of mind....

For most people who do it every cycle, voting is easy. But for first-time voters or recent movers, the process can seem more complicated than it actually is. Rather than become disillusioned, here’s an easy step-by-step guide on how to get involved with politics so that you—yes, you—can make a difference. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), as of January 27, 2020, a total of 39 states plus the District of Columbia offer online registration, and one other state (Oklahoma) has passed legislation and is currently phasing implementation of its online registration (you can see this table for details)....

Then I realized that if I made extra dinner the night before, I’d have an already-made meal ready to scarf down the next day when lunchtime rolls around. But here’s the thing: There’s an art to reheating leftovers. And by art, I mean a way to do it that can kill the potentially harmful bacteria that resides in already-cooked food. Here are the six major mistakes you might be making in the leftovers department, plus one myth we needed to debunk....

But don’t fret: It is possible to breathe new life into that awkward wax-clad container. We’ve compiled some effective methods for cleaning your candle jars so you can reuse the vessels as storage, decor, or even a home for new candles. The best part? You don’t need any special equipment whatsoever. Any leftover candle marks can be washed off with dish soap—and once you’re through, you should have a clean jar all ready for repurposing....

First, Try Reducing the Liquid One easy way to thicken gravy is to simply reduce the liquid. Add any pan drippings you have to a small or medium-sized saucepan. Then, add in 1 cup of liquid, and simmer on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces by at least a third and the flavors are more concentrated. No time to simmer? No problem. We certainly don’t want your table full of gravy-loving guests to wait....