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On This Episode Buying your first home is already a major money milestone—but having to do it on your own in an uncertain housing market can make it feel even more overwhelming. In this episode, host Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez interviews real estate expert and mortgage lender Nicole Rueth about how to navigate the home-buying process as a single person—including the options and alternatives available to single buyers who fear being priced out of this hot housing market....

“Two-thirds of what we buy in the supermarket we had no intention of buying,” says consumer expert Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping ($16, amazon.com). Supermarkets not only rely on such behavior-they encourage it. Every aspect of a grocery store’s layout—from the produce display near the entrance to the dairy case in the back to the candy at the register—is designed to stimulate shopping serendipity....

What Are the Different Types of Cabbage? Cabbage belongs to the same family as Brussels sprouts and kale. It evolved from a leafy mustard plant, and this is why it has a light natural pepperiness. Cabbage, though, also has hidden umami and sweetness that can come out with cooking. There are three main kinds of cabbage: red, green, and Savoy. Green is a mint-green that often shades to white in some parts....

“Apply multiple colors and sit with them for a few days,” recommends Erika Woelfel, Behr color expert. “Test them in multiple different parts of your room with different lighting to help you to better visualize what the color will look like in your space at any time of day.” Nicole Gibbons, the founder and CEO of Clare, shares similar advice: “Make sure you love your color both under daylight and in the evening when the sun is down and the artificial lights are on in your home,” she says....

Sometimes manufacturers will throw the everyday shopper a bone, putting the more common name in parentheses next to the scientific name, like this: tocopherol (vitamin E). But without that nudge, an ingredients list often just looks like a string of long unfamiliar words separated by commas. Instead of doing detective work, it can be easier to follow popularity and opt for skincare products (and ingredients) with a cult following, especially in the age of beauty influencers....

Whether you’ve invested in a high-end hair dryer such as the Dyson hair dryer, something mid-level like the T3 hair dryer or Chi hair dryer, or even a more moderately priced brand like a Conair hair dryer, if you fail to properly maintain it, it will most certainly stop working at some point. Furthermore, using an attachment such as a hair dryer diffuser can add an additional reason for your dryer to become too hot....

Rinse shellfish under running water to remove loose sediment, discarding any with broken shells. (Healthy shellfish close their shells when firmly tapped.) Transfer shellfish to a large pot of cold salted water (like their natural environment). Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Just before cooking, lift the shellfish out of the water by hand, so that the sediment remains at the bottom of the pot. Mussels sometimes have small, fibrous “beards,” which you should pinch off....

How to Tell If You Have Mold in Your House “Visible growth may seem like an obvious sign you have mold, but don’t forget to use your sense of smell,” the team at NADCA says. Sometimes a small amount of mold is assumed to be dirt, or mold may be lurking out-of-sight in your HVAC system—this is where your sense of smell comes in. “Is there a strange, earthy smell in your home that won’t go away, no matter how much air freshener you spray?...

And while we love sipping our tea, this ingredient is vastly under-recognized for its use in cooking. Tea—especially one as fragrant as Earl Grey or as complex as matcha—can elevate a dish more than you’d think. Its rich, herbal taste makes it the perfect “secret ingredient” in baked goods like cakes and cookies, marinades, glazes, and so much more. Try infusing tea with fresh herbs to yield a flavor-packed cooking liquid for fish, or adding chai to a hot toddy for a sweet-and-spicy aromatic cocktail....

Why Everyone Should Floss Yes, brushing your teeth is important, but there’s something brushing can’t accomplish on its own. “When you brush, the brush can’t get between your teeth,” Dr. Manz says. “It’s that area between the teeth—where the teeth are touching—we need to be able to clean. The simplest, easiest, and most efficient way to do that is with floss.” Both flossing and brushing work to rid your teeth of plaque (among other things)....

Reader question: “What is the best way to hide under-eye bags?” —@bajash“Under-eye bags, help!!!” —@krebsseven“Born with under-eye bags and nothing seems to help. Anything you’d recommend?” —@elissagrace1 Considering that the skin under your eyes is ten times thinner than any other skin on your body, it’s kind of ironic that it often looks the thickest (read: puffiest). Alas, the most visible area of our face is the place that’s plagued with the most puffiness, and even the best concealer in the world can only do so much against swollen half-moons....

When to Plant Garlic Garlic is a cool-season crop. It’s planted in the fall, typically after the first light frost of the year. But it can be planted any time before the ground freezes. Garlic is a bulb. Like other spring bulbs, it needs to go through a “chilling” period. This chilling period stimulates a bio-chemical response that “turns on” flower formation and initiates root growth. Garlic needs a chilling period of at least 40 degrees Fahrenheit for about four to eight weeks....

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to using a cooler is preventing the ice from melting quickly, which can make your food soggy (not to mention unsafe) and your drinks hot. And what’s worse than warm beer? Luckily, all you need are a couple of household items and some genius packing hacks to prolong your cooling capacity. 9 Tips for Keeping Your Ice From Melting in a Cooler RELATED: 17 Genius Tips and Ideas for an Effortless Outdoor Party RELATED: 7 Major Mistakes You’re Making With Your Freezer

Whether using fresh tomatoes or canned, crushed tomatoes or a blend of whole and crushed, you want to start with top-notch tomatoes. When using canned, the long-entrenched wisdom is to look to San Marzano tomatoes from Campania, Italy. But many tomato wonks now believe that the best California tomatoes have surpassed Italy’s finest. If you live beyond the reach of excellent smaller-batch California canned tomato brands, like Bianco DiNapoli, you can order them online....

Method #1: Classic blended pesto with cooked basil This traditional recipe departs from Ligurian tradition slightly by using cooked basil. Whole leaves get a boiling bath for 10 seconds before they are shocked in cold water, arresting the cooking as it begins. The sauce that results is a good one: vibrant and flavorful, bright green and photogenic, close to what you think of when you think of pesto. It will surely satisfy a craving for the Ligurian sauce....

First, the most important thing you can do is try not to carve your pumpkin too early. We know that’s tough to do. The long lead-up to Halloween is arguably the best part of the holiday—that’s when you go pumpkin picking and bring out your spooky Halloween decorations. However, prematurely carved pumpkins can more easily fall prey to bugs or poor conditions. Next, follow these simple steps to prolong its life, whether your pumpkin will be carved or left whole....

What is meditation? Despite meditation’s rich, multifaceted history and various forms, the basic concept of meditating can be distilled into something surprisingly approachable for beginners—and practical for skeptics. “At its core, meditation is an intentional, contemplative practice,” says Jamie Price, the former cofounder and president of meditation app MyLife. “In a traditional sense, the word ‘meditation’ has been translated to mean ’to become familiar’ and ’to cultivate.’ Meditation affords you the opportunity to become familiar with your mind—your habits and patterns of thinking—and then provides the means to transform it....