PASSIONS | by JEAN GALTON

THERE’S SOMETHING COMFORTING ABOUT CHICKEN AND RICE together in a pot. Even a simple version, with just chicken and rice, a hint of thyme and a scattering of peas, satisfies everyone, old or young. I do like it in its bare-bones version, but I love it with some salty pancetta, hot curry powder and diced tomatoes and beans. That’s my pot o’ comfort.

© ANGIE NORWOOD BROWNE

Curried Chicken and Rice

Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 50 minutes

Serves 6

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 pounds bone-in chicken thighs, hacked into 2-inch pieces with a cleaver or chef’s knife
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup diced pancetta or thick-cut bacon
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons hot curry powder, preferably Madras
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 cup long-grain white rice
1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
8 ounces string beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with the salt and pepper and brown half the chicken in the saucepan, about 3 minutes per side. Repeat with the remaining chicken.

Stir in the pancetta, onion, yellow pepper and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the thyme, curry and jalapeno and stir 30 seconds. Stir in the rice until coated with the spices. Pour in the tomatoes and broth and bring to a simmer.

Place the chicken on top of the rice and cover. Cook over low heat 20 minutes, stir in the beans and cover and continue cooking until the rice is cooked and beans are tender, about 5 to 10 minutes longer. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

CONNECTIONS | by SHERRY STRIPLING

OF THE MANY GOOD TIPS for working toward an empty email inbox, the most useful to me is mustering the discipline to control how often I check email.

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If I check all day, the emails stack up. I glance at them, grab the highest priority (or most easy to accomplish or most interesting), and then hurry back to the task or project that my mind keeps chastising me for having abandoned. The result is emails that don’t get the attention they deserve. I’ve read the emails but not acted on them, which leads them to linger and breed ― more than once into the thousands.

But by setting specific times aside for email, the emails become My Next Scheduled Task. That releases me to concentrate, increasing the odds I’ll make the appropriate decision and move on.

Two keys:

1. Make one of four common decisions, from a focused state:

• Delete it
• Answer it immediately
• Put it in an Action folder, making a note on your To Do list of the action or information needed
• Tag it with extra identification (if your email program allows that) and archive it

2. Trust the search function:

• Keyword searches also automatically check emails that have been “archived” in many email programs, which can be as effective as searching individual folders
• Folders have a downside: They are not exact: “Should this email go in the Purchases or Office Expenses folder?” “If this email provides my aunt with my friend’s address, should it go under Family or Friends?”

The blissful result:

• Higher productivity
• A sense of being in control ― for once
• An inbox that is emptier, if not empty

PASSIONS | by DEBRA PRINZING

MORE THAN EVER, we view our gardens as havens. Sanctuary gardens offer occupants a soothing place to meditate, seek solitude and escape from life’s pressures. Serene landscapes are the antidote, both for you and your loved ones, from stresses in the outside world.

© DEBRA PRINZING

There’s something instinctive about our desire for respite in nature. When you provide the garden with a bench or chair, there’s a chance you might actually sit down. Even if you don’t use it as often as you wish, the presence of a garden bench is like having the promise of rest, a symbolic “pause button.”

A garden bench can be elaborate, made from cast iron or stone. It can come from the unpainted furniture store and brightened with a brush of color. Or it can be a wicker armchair you’ve dragged outdoors to situate beneath the canopy of a shade tree or a beach umbrella.

Give yourself the challenge of sitting down — outdoors — for a few moments each day. If, like me, you’re an obsessive multi-tasker, then SIT on your bench while doing something else (open the mail; call your best friend on the cell phone; or flip through the seed catalog).

Pretty soon, your “date” with the garden bench might become less task-oriented.

Maybe, instead of “doing,” you’ll try “being.”

Being quiet.

Being observant.

Being attuned to your senses of smell, sight, and hearing as you absorb the wonder of nature around you.

Maybe the minutes will stretch into a half an hour.

The art of unplugging is easier said than done. But if you have a garden bench, I promise you, that gift of rest will be a little more attainable.

DESIGN | by KAT SPELLMAN

EVERYONE’S PULLED TISSUES FROM ’EM: those boxes strife with garish colors and busy design adding to a room’s visual clutter. No matter what one’s design aesthetic is, whether contemporary or cottage, it’s rarely enhanced by a busily decorated tissue box.

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I’ve discussed the demise of Target’s fashion-forward plain white, grey and black tissue boxes from a couple years back and it turns out plenty of folks have ideas on how to make cold and flu season a little less ugly.

The best solution? For facial tissue giants to go ahead and create a line of boxes with solid colors and no decoration. But until then, “decant” that Kleenex (the rectangular boxes work best) and stack the tissue neatly on a plate, board or tray. Top the tissues with a smooth stone or pebble. Or spring for a decorative cover that’s subtle and in a material that enhances your décor, be it wood, metal, porcelain or — as is the case of this cool one made in Japan — acrylic.

BACK TO BASICS | by JANNA LUFKIN

WHEN YOU CREATE WHITE SPACE AND ELBOW ROOM In your home, you also create it in your mind. You have space to think and space to move and you don’t spend precious time searching for things you need.

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White Space, when successfully executed, draws the eye to the message. In the case of a home, White Space frames and sets off the things that are important to you.

Elbow Room refers to that personal space you need to function in a room.

Here are four tips to help you achieve these concepts:

• Start with the garage. If you organize here first, you are less likely to store unwanted items from your house.
• Organize room by room. Tackle one room at a time. Keep what you need and what you enjoy. Toss what can’t be reused. Take the rest directly to your car to be recycled or donated. If you’re unsure about some items, pack them neatly away ― you may soon discover that you don’t miss them at all.
• Tackle paperwork. The key is to not let it pile up. Carve out a nice space to sort your mail, pay your bills and file important papers. Keep your system simple and you’ll be more likely to keep up on it.
• Clean. After you’ve gone through each room, give your house a top-to-bottom cleaning. Take your time and enjoy your newly organized spaces.

You’re done! And you’ve probably discovered your mind is clearer because your home works as it should. Now, do something you’ve always wanted to do ― you have the time.

Remember, your home is your sanctuary. It’s your spot to unwind and rejuvenate. When it functions well, so do you.

STORYTELLING | by MOLLY MARTIN

COMING FROM A FAMILY OF EIGHT that celebrated birthdays and holidays together for most of my adult life, I think I’ve been to at least 360 potlucks (so far).

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Holidays tend to get our traditional themes, of course, such as Oma’s cranberry-orange relish with turkey at Thanksgiving, and at Christmas Aunt Annie’s Salad, a kind of ambrosia with a back story — years after Aunt Annie left us, we learned 1) that the recipe was actually from her daughter Jeanne, who 2) had never been too pleased with its name.

But after about 275 potlucks or so, we had the novel idea to come up with a theme at least some of the time, since we all seem to like pretty much every kind of food:

• Some have built-in themes: At my nephew’s annual Bourbon & Blues gathering, only barbecue seems fitting.
• Some are timely: About the time the Zone Diet took off some years back, we had a lowfat theme, which was surprisingly tasty. And surprisingly not repeated.
• Some are yet to be tried: When we were planning last Easter’s potluck, my sister Mame said that as hosts, they’d provide lamb and yam. This prompted one of us to propose a theme featuring foods with “am” in the name. Jam would be OK. Then Spam came up. That theme’s not on the calendar yet.

One of our best has been the appetizer theme. Just as in restaurants, appetizers often offer more interesting and adventurous cuisine than entrees. Because they’re smaller, everyone can try more of them. And despite our best intentions that an appetizer theme will provide a lighter potluck, we manage to have more than enough. Just like all the others.

BACK TO BASICS | by MOLLY MARTIN

I’VE NEVER THOUGHT OF MYSELF AS A RUNNER, or even a jogger ― maybe more like a slogger. But I feel like I should be able to jog at least a little, and I feel good when I can. So every so often I try to get going again.

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In the past I usually got so beat up or injured that I’d soon find myself walking, or on a treadmill or bicycle machine. Even most solid training programs, such as those in Runner’s World, seemed to be, for this bod, too much too soon.

In recent years, however, I’ve learned a simple approach that’s given me a much better chance. I learned it from Courteney Bealko, a physical therapist I’ve seen for assorted injuries. When I mentioned that I tended to get shin splints whenever I tried to jog, she recommended (in addition to some solid core training) a simple approach, which I’ve adapted like this:

1. Work up to being able to walk for 60 minutes in one session.
2. Begin your first jogging session by walking for 10 minutes, then jogging 1 minute. Repeat three times, jogging no more than 3 minutes total (you can walk more, if you’d like).
3. If you feel no ill effects the next day or two, repeat.
4. Once you can do that twice with no ill effects, increase the jogging interval to 2 minutes. (If you’re hurting, decrease the jogging time.)
5. Add no more than one minute jogging at a time.

The improvement is slow, but the payoff is being able to keep at it, instead of having to take off weeks or months because of shin splints, Achilles tendinitis or aching knees.

SUSTAINABLE LIVING | by CELESTE TELL

A NEW COAT OF PAINT CAN COMPLETELY TRANSFORM a room, and is one of the most economical ways to update your home.

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It used to be that the hardest part was choosing a color. Not any more. Now, once you have your color and sheen, you have to choose how “green” you want your paint to be.

According to the EPA, air-pollution levels inside homes are two to five times greater than outdoors. The biggest culprit is Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs. VOCs are toxic chemicals that evaporate at different rates on contact with air. These chemicals can continue to off-gas for up to several years after the paint is applied.

It’s not just the smell. That familiar odor accounts for most, but not all of the VOCs in paint; many are odorless. VOCs have been implicated in a whole host of health issues, from headaches and asthma to cancer and neurological damage. Many doctors now recommend that pregnant women not be exposed to freshly and conventionally painted indoor environments.

In conventional paints, VOCs are used to enhance texture, spreadability and cohesion. Early attempts at low-VOC paints sacrificed these key performance qualities to reduce toxins. Today, however, there are a wide variety of low and no -VOC options that offer excellent performance using newly developed non-toxic compounds and technologies.

When choosing a “green” paint, consider that many companies list VOC levels for the white paint base only. But there can also be VOCs in the pigment. Darker colors contain higher VOC levels. Your best bet is to experiment: Talk to your painter, paint dealer and friends. Test out small quantities to determine color preference. Weigh your own personal health and toxicity tolerance against your sense of the quality of the paint.

Then get those rollers ready…

DESIGN | by DEBRA PRINZING

CREATE A GARDEN-IN-A-POT and discover what a breeze it is to “contain” your favorite plants in an urn, vessel or bowl.

© ROBIN AVNI

Gardening in a container is like one-stop shopping, a solution to any challenge your yard throws at you.

Is your soil crummy? No problem — when you pour a bag of organic potting soil into a container, you’re creating a healthy growing environment for your favorite plants (and their roots).

Are you squeezed for space? No problem — there’s a perfectly-sized container for any garden location, including patios, decks or balconies. Containers add flexibility to your garden because you can move them around to “fill” bare spots in the landscape and infuse color and texture where things look dull.

© ROBIN AVNI

Here are my three favorite container recipes for function and beauty:

• Edible and accessible: Lettuces and herbs thrive in pots because they don’t need a lot of root space. Place your bountiful container by the back door and you’ll quickly be able to clip the freshest of ingredients for salads, sautés and soups galore.
• Stunning succulents: From the old-fashioned hens-and-chicks to über-fashionable agaves, succulents are both stylish and low maintenance. Create your own succulent-friendly planting medium by blending equal parts organic potting soil and cactus mix (which often contains pumice, humus and peat moss for improved drainage).
• A potted palette: Unify all of your planters by gathering decorative containers in your favorite color scheme. Even if you have a hodge-podge collection of plants, by displaying them in all-blue, all-red, or all-terra-cotta vessels, you’ll give the garden a pulled-together appearance.

Show off your style with containers. Sometimes it’s more about the drama and scale of the pot than about what you’ve planted in it.

BACK TO BASICS | by JEAN GALTON

WE EAT A LOT OF APPLES IN MY HOUSE  and people get pretty picky about which particular pomme they’ll take in their lunch. Consequently, many apples get left in the dust (or more accurately in the fruit drawer), apples that haven’t passed the perfection gage. I gather up these poor orphans, pare them and throw the remains into the pressure cooker. The result? A warm, delicious applesauce ― in about 15 minutes.

© ANGIE NORWOOD BROWNE

Pressure-Cooker Applesauce

Makes about 4 cups

3 pounds mixed apples, peeled, cored and quartered
1 cup apple cider
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half
1/4 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon or more to taste

Combine the apples, cider, brown sugar, vanilla bean and salt in a pressure cooker and lock the lid in place. Over high heat, bring to high pressure. Turn off the heat and allow the pressure to come down naturally for 10 minutes. Quick-release any remaining pressure and remove the lid.

Add the lemon juice and stir to create a chunky puree. Serve warm or at room temperature.