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5 soup recipes are a warmup to the holidays

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

Nicole Hvidsten | Star Tribune (TNS)As the winter solstice approaches and the days are darkest, we crave warm and cozy. As we flit from office holiday potlucks to last-minute happy hours with friends, we crave sustenance. And as we’re wrapping up another year filled with shopping, parties, family and, let’s face it, a fair amount of stress, we crave comfort.Soup is the answer to it all.From ramen, gumbo and borscht to pozole and the Minnesota staple of chicken wild rice, settling in with a steaming bowl of soup can make us forget, at least momentarily, the chaos that surrounds us.Multiply the benefits of soup even further by creating in your kitchen, starting with the zen of chopping vegetables and ending with a sigh of relief that tonight’s dinner is simmering on the stove (and the leftovers can be tomorrow’s lunch).Revisit a favorite family recipe, or use the occasion to try something new. Make restaurant-quality hot and sour soup or a twist on beef barley ...

Hot Property: Contemporary in Newton: Just add you

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

The holiday season is challenging enough that if you’re adding homebuying to the mix, you probably want that to be as uncomplicated as possible. Luckily, 166 Wiswall Road in Newton is so turnkey, all you have to do is put a bow on it and walk right in.A 2023 contemporary construction in Oak Hill neighboring the picturesque Mount Ida campus, the home is replete with high-end, thoughtful features that make it stand out among a crop of luxury homes.Crisp landscaping and a wide foyer welcome you into the home’s practical and easy flow. A breezy layout combines a sleek kitchen and dining space — there’s a separate dining room that could also turn into a den — with a sunny living room warmed up by a fireplace. The whole is wrapped gloriously by oversized windows and glass doors overlooking the yard.Deserving a special moment is the kitchen, a contemporary setting for gourmet meal prep and coffee at the eat-in island. Featuring two-tone cabinetry, custom storage and display, and luxe appli...

This free app helps you track, reduce your carbon footprint

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

Catastrophic climate change is looming. The Earth just endured its 12 hottest months in 125,000 years, and scientists say humans can only avert ecological disaster, if we cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 70% by 2050.That may sound daunting, but Oakland entrepreneur Sanchali Pal said it is within people’s power to make meaningful choices in their own lives. Her free new app, Commons, helps people track and reduce their carbon footprint — the total amount of carbon dioxide and other emissions they generate — by tracking how they spend money on food, utilities, clothes, furniture or travel.“Basically, I wanted to make it easier for people to make sustainable choices,” Pal said. “I knew, as a consumer myself, how hard it was, how much work it took to get the information required to actually make progress and measurably lower emissions.”The Boston-reared Pal was first inspired to track her own carbon footprint during college at Princeton. She subsequently lived and worked in India a...

Turn to gnocchi for late-night noshing with this sheet pan recipe

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

Beth Dooley | Star Tribune (TNS)I love a good holiday gathering: the long conversations, the pretty drinks, the finger foods. But after the party is over, I’m usually hungry and ready to eat. When I’m too tired and too cold to wait for takeout and the restaurants are all booked up, I turn to my favorite holiday hacks. This year, it’s packaged gnocchi. Ready in minutes without much fuss, it generously serves two people, and is satisfying but not too heavy.These are nothing like their handmade namesake; real gnocchi are light as a feather and tender when cooked. And unlike those authentic Italian potato dumplings, there’s no need to boil the packaged variety first. Simply scatter them onto a sheet pan with butter or olive oil and pop them into a hot oven. The butter will brown and baste the gnocchi as they develop a golden crust and their interior turns soft and fudgy. It’s tempting to nosh on these right out of the pan, but they’ll singe your finge...

‘I am just waiting to die’: Social Security clawbacks drive some into homelessness

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

Fred Clasen-Kelly | (TNS) KFF Health NewsMore than a year after the federal government first cut off her disability benefits, Denise Woods drives nightly to strip malls, truck stops, and parking lots around Savannah, Georgia, looking for a safe place to sleep in her Chevy.Woods, 51, said she had rented a three-bedroom house she shared with her adult son and grandson until March 2022, when the government terminated her disability payments without notice.According to letters sent by the Social Security Administration, the agency determined it had been overpaying Woods and demanded she send back nearly $58,000.Woods couldn’t come up with the money. So, until February 2026, the agency is withholding the $2,048 in disability she would have received each month.“I still don’t know how it happened,” said Woods, who has requested a waiver and is seeking a hearing. “No one will give me answers. It takes weeks or months to get a caseworker on the phone. They have made my life unbearable.”Kilol...

New online tool helps caregivers pass on plans for loved ones with disabilities

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

When we think of planning for our family’s future, the focus is usually on finances, a last will outlining after-death preferences and documents specifying the guardianship of minor children.Yet for families with a loved one with disabilities, creating a plan to inform future caregivers of day-to-day activities and necessities is also a must.Thanks to the efforts of Huntington Woods couple Debbie and Joel Pearlman who created the Dani Plan, there is now an online tool that enables parents and guardians of people with disabilities to build personalized plans that are simple, secure and easy to share with other caregivers.“It is completely different from a will, which usually focuses on who gets what. The plan allows you to specify details (of your loved ones’) daily routine, pick-up times, medications and more,” Joel Pearlman said. “It is a really powerful day-to-day look at what makes their day and your life work best.”Related ArticlesHealth | ‘I am just waiting to die’: ...

UN says more than 1 in 4 people in Gaza are starving because of war

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

By NAJIB JOBAIN, JACK JEFFERY and COLLEEN BARRY (Associated Press)RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report Thursday by the U.N. and other agencies that highlights the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s bombardment and siege on the territory in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.The extent of the population’s hunger eclipsed even the near-famines in Afghanistan and Yemen of recent years, according to figures in the report. The report warned that the risk of famine is “increasing each day,” blaming the hunger on insufficient aid entering Gaza.“It doesn’t get any worse,’’ said Arif Husain, chief economist for the U.N.’s World Food Program. “I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza. And at this speed.”Israel says it is in the final stages of clearing out Hamas from northern Gaza, but that months of fighting lie ahead in the south.The war sparked by Ha...

Movie Review: ‘The Color Purple’ is a stirring big-screen musical powered by its spectacular cast

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

Exuberant performances from a cast led by Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Danielle Brooks breathe life into Blitz Bazawule’s stirring “The Color Purple,” adapted from the Tony-winning Broadway production.Alice Walker ’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel, which Steven Spielberg turned into the 1985 film, may be an unlikely book for such bright adaptations. Walker’s novel, told through Celie’s letters penned to God, is harrowingly bleak in its tale of trauma, poverty, abuse and rape. Much of Walker’s “The Color Purple” doesn’t scream song and dance.But the emotional triumphs of Walker’s novel and its soul-stirring tribute to the power of Black women lend themselves to the kind of maximalist spectacle of Bazawule’s razzle-dazzle adaptation. The tragedy found in “The Color Purple” makes its final release all the more rousing.It can still be an awkward mix, and, like Spielberg’s movie, not all of the tonal changes work in this version of “The Color Purple.” But the payoff is immen...

Victims identified in Caledon triple shooting, 1 recovering in hospital

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have identified two victims who were fatally shot in Caledon last month as authorities continue to search for multiple suspects.Emergency crews were called to a house on Mayfield Road, east of Airport Road, around 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 for reports of a shooting.A man was pronounced dead at the scene, and two other victims were rushed to hospital in critical condition. One person later died from their injuries, while the third victim remains in hospital in stable condition. On Thursday, OPP identified the two victims as 57-year-old Jagtar Sidhu and 57-year-old Harbhajan Sidhu, both of Caledon.Investigators said it is believed that multiple individuals were involved in the shooting. Investigators believe multiple suspects were involved in the shooting incident. One was last seen entering a black pick-up truck, which then travelled westbound on Mayfield Road. Photo: OPP.One was last seen entering a black pick-up truck, which then travelled westbound on M...

Polish viewers await state TV’s evening newscast for signs of new government’s changes in the media

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 14:11:50 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Viewers in Poland were waiting Thursday for the main evening newscast on state television TVP to see first signs of changes in the media planned under the country’s new, pro-European Union government. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose Cabinet took office last week, has promised to free the outlet of the former ruling conservatives’ propaganda and divisive policies. Police and security forces erected barriers in front of TVP’s main building in the Polish capital, Warsaw, after leaders of the Law and Justice party that was ousted from power following elections two months ago began a sit-in inside the building on Wednesday to protest the changes. Some remained inside on Thursday, when police only allowed authorized employees into the TVP building.The government on Wednesday said it had fired and replaced the directors of the state television and radio outlets and the government-run news agency. They had been under control of the right-wing Law an...