Watch, Read, Listen

Airbrushing is the fastest way to put a smooth, seamless finish on a cake that piping bags and hand painting simply cannot match. I have spent years watching decorators move from one bag of buttercream to a proper airbrush system, and the difference is almost always down to one thing: how much control the gun…

The craft table is the one purchase most of us get wrong, and we get it wrong the same way every time. We buy a beautiful desk, then spend a year nudging it with a knee while a rotary cutter runs across it, watching a caster roll an inch to the left every time we…

A coverstitch machine is a specialty sewing machine that lays down two or three parallel needles on the face of a knit while a looper underneath locks the thread, so the hem stretches with the fabric instead of snapping when you pull it on. That is the difference between a coverstitch and a serger: a…

A countertop wine rack is a small freestanding unit that holds bottles on their sides so the cork stays in contact with the wine. It sits on a kitchen counter, bar top or sideboard rather than on the floor or the wall, and it is the easiest way to keep roughly 4 to 20 bottles…

When a parent asks me where to start on a brass instrument, the cornet comes up more than any other. It is compact, forgiving and warm-sounding, which makes it the instrument most first-time players actually stick with. After six weeks of putting these seven beginner cornets through play tests, cleaning routines and case-to-carry comparisons, here…

A cookie decorating kit is a boxed set that bundles cookies or cookie dough with icing, sprinkles, and the tools to apply them, so you can decorate without baking from scratch or shopping for every ingredient separately. The best cookie decorating kits in fall into two very different groups, and picking the wrong one is…

The rim is the last five seconds of bartending, and it decides whether a drink tastes deliberate or merely fine. Salt pulls bitterness out of lime and makes agave read brighter; sugar softens the edge of citrus and adds aroma you can smell before the first sip. If you have ever rolled a margarita glass…

Clay cooking pots are the oldest heat-retaining cookware still in daily kitchens, and after cooking the same beans, rice and stews in a dozen of them over several weeks, I can tell you which ones earn their counter space in . Are clay pots good for cooking? For slow, moist, unattended heat they are excellent,…