By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
I’m a wannabe locavore (that means eating locally produced food all year round). But, living in the Midwest, it’s just not practical. I need food with color all year round, not just in the summer.
With farmers’ market season rolling in, I can play the locavore part  - for a few short months at least. I get ambitious strolling down the market, poking fruit and veggies and asking questions on how to prepare obscure produce such as garlic scapes or salsify. All this freshness is so tempting that I invariably stock my basket with much more than my family can [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
If you are a fan of the Mad  Men show, then you know that the era’s drink of choice was the cocktail – and not just one… Set in the 60′s in NYC, the era romanticized the Rat Pack’s image of a bottomless drink and a smoke, a vice for each hand.
Forget about the cigarette. The cocktail represents the return of drink sophistication. Just their names – the Manhattan, Vodka Gimlet or the Old-Fashioned – conjure up images of men in snappy suits and women in beautiful cocktail dresses, looking stylish and sexy.
The cocktail is a classic [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Technical Writer
If you have never heard of Lekue you’re in for a treat. This company was one of the first to embrace the wide use of silicone. Silicone, an odorless, colorless substance that is found naturally in sand, quartz and rocks, has been around for decades, but it is just within the last five years that we are seeing it everywhere. And for obvious reasons.
Silicone is light, flexible and comes in a variety of bright, delicious colors. It can withstand extreme heat and cold and therefore can be used in ovens, freezers and microwaves (it’s BPA-free, [...]

By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
With spring barely palpable and, in Chicago, many frosty days still in the forecast, my family instinctively turns to comfort foods. Pizza, predictably, is one of those foods. I mean, homemade pizza.

By Audrey van Petegem, Chief Editor
With the East Coast being hit again with yet another snow storm and my California friends complaining about the cold weather, it is definitely the season to curl up with a good hot cup of tea.
Growing up, my mother would make tea when we got home from school. By the time we walked through the door, the kettle would be boiling. My mother would add two Red Rose tea bags to the teapot and pour the boiling water in it. Gone was the whole intricate formal ceremonies that many cultures historically created around serving tea.
Baby [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Chief Editor
Interior designers have simple tricks in making a house a home. You know, those little techniques to bring not only style but warmth and intimacy into your personal space. Candles are a great way to do this, and using reusable peel and stick accents takes you one step further to suit the mood, season or special occasion. Indigoroot has created a simple, chic, interchangeable and reusable solution to add those nice touches to your home.
With Valentine’s Day coming up, Indigoroot makes it easy to add a romantic touch using their CandleClothes™ and Wrapitz™. If you [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
I am well past the stage in my life to do any type of formal hosting. I much prefer to invite friends and family over to share some great wine/martini/champagne with a variety of tapas. This does not mean I don’t like to make it fun for my guests. Here is a list of fun party ‘successories’ – products that will make any gathering a success – that your guest will enjoy as much as you do:

 
Drink Flair - There are lots of options for glass labeling on the market, but these static stickers are inexpensive, [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
We have written about monthly subscription boxes before, but this new one is perfect for foodies. Love With Food delivers 5 to 10 curated food samples of gourmet foods to their monthly subscribers. The boxes contain everything from teas to sweets to olive oils. The twist on the Love with Food model is that, if you like the samples, you can purchase the full size product at a discount from their site.
For $10.00 a month, I can encourage my children to try new snacks in their lunches. And, what’s not for them is sure to please me [...]

The Succulent Wives are taking a little (very little) time off this summer. While we are still actively working on bringing you new content and ideas every week, we have also decided to bring back some of our favorite posts from the archives, those that are still timely, relevant, useful and that deserve to be revisited. Thanks for allowing us to recharge. We promise that we will be coming back with more new ideas and recommendations for cool stuff than you’ll know what to do with…
By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
I previously wrote about these fantastic, almost-better-than-bakery-bought chocolate croissants by Trader [...]

The Succulent Wives are taking a little (very little) time off this summer. While we are still actively working on bringing you new content and ideas every week, we have also decided to bring back some of our favorite posts from the archives, those that are still timely, relevant, useful and that deserve to be revisited. Thanks for allowing us to recharge. We promise that we will be coming back with more new ideas and recommendations for cool stuff than you’ll know what to do with…
We may have been a little ahead of our time when we first wrote about Chia [...]