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Brother, sister show based on real life

In no time, Nat Faxon and Dakota Johnson were tight.

That's good, since they star as brother and sister on their new Fox comedy, Ben and Kate.

Ben is a free spirit, a good-cheer gadfly blowing in and out of town without notice. Younger sister Kate is uptight, a bit shell-shocked by life, and no wonder: She's a single mother struggling to raise her little girl on a shoestring.

What will happen when, after Ben's latest drop-in, he decides to stick around, re-establish ties with Kate, play surrogate dad to her daughter, and maybe even grow up a little himself?

To judge from the Ben and Kate pilot (which aired yeterday), the result is funny, frenetic and - bottom line - familial.

"It was very natural," said Nat, thinking back to last spring when the pilot was shot. "It felt like Dakota and I had known each other a long time, rather than a few days."

This is a good weeknight solution for busy parents and for those who appreciate minimal kitchen prep. You'll need a 7-cup (or larger) rice cooker, and you'll use regular liquid and dry measuring cups for this recipe, not the measuring cup that comes with most rice cookers.

Rice-Cooker Mac and Cheese

8 ounces dried shaped pasta, such as cavatappi, fusilli or mini-farfalle

2 cups homemade or no-salt-added chicken or vegetable broth

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 to 2 cups broccoli florets, carrot coins, cubed butternut squash or frozen peas

1 cup whole milk

1½ cups two- or three-cheese blend, such as cheddar, mozzarella and Monterey Jack

Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Garlic for LiveWell Garlic for LiveWell Garlic for LiveWell Garlic for LiveWell

If you'd like to grow your own garlic, now is the time to scout local farmers markets for the biggest, healthiest, best-tasting heads of garlic you can find. Do be sure to ask the seller if they've had any insect or disease trouble with their garlic crop before buying so you don't contaminate your own garden.

Wait until about two weeks after the first hard frost to plant your garlic. The idea is to time it just right, so that the cloves send out roots but don't sprout above the soil before winter sets in.

Prepare a sunny spot that hasn't contained any alliums for the last three years. Garlic likes lots of nitrogen, so be sure to put down some high quality compost where you will be planting. I have friends who also swear by kelp meal, so I usually sprinkle that around, too, and it seems to help produce big, healthy bulbs. Just follow the instructions on the kelp meal bag.

Baggage Check

Q: My wife texts and drives. All the time. With our kids in the car. She justifies it by saying she's careful and it's how she multitasks. And she gets defensive when I bring it up and turns the tables on me.

A: You might have imperfections, but unless they involve regularly putting your children and hundreds of strangers in danger, they pale in comparison to this. Yes, texting is tempting and common, but texting can kill. Tell her you're serious about making a plan for her to stop. Then work with her. If she's not willing to change, then you treat this like you would a substance-abuse situation where a loved one is a danger to herself and others.

If you're throwing a baby shower for a relative or friend, creating a suitably festive atmosphere is part of the fun.

Some people go all out by hiring an event planner, while others go more simply, taking the do-it-yourself route.

Whether you're nurturing an elaborate party plan or just want a little inspiration to get started, the internet opens the nursery door to a wide range of ideas from baby shower experts. Here are a few with their favorites:

Maureen Anders and Adria Ruff, who run the Anders/Ruff event planning company in Charlotte, N.C., recently went with a color scheme of aqua, mint, lemon and lime for a gender-neutral shower. Mint and orange, gray and yellow, and aqua and coral are also on trend, Anders says, and even black and yellow - for a "baby to bee" theme.

In search of a new chapter, Vicki McCloskey took up triathlons at 60 Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):  Vicki McCloskey Concord Christian versus Portsmouth Christian boy's soccer Concord Christian versus Portsmouth Christian boy's soccer

The weeks since school started have been busy ones for Vicki McCloskey. For the child psychologist who works part time at the Henniker Community School and part time in private practice, back-to-school time means lots of phone calls about stressed out, anxious and overwhelmed kids.

Back to school means new schedules, new routines and commitments, less free time and, often, a lot less sleep.

And for McCloskey, 63, scheduling all those new appointments around her renewed school hours means rescheduling her training for the upcoming World International Triathlon in New Zealand. The race will include a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 25-mile bike ride and a 10-kilometer run.

In her life and her career, both as a triathlete and a school psychologist, McCloskey has learned a lot about stress. She put together a list of her top 10 tips for success, whether in third grade or an Olympic-length race.

Illinois Mother lode of architect's work situated in small town

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, but Frank Lloyd Wright lives there.

Wright died in 1959, two years before Hemingway, but the famous architect's legacy is so strong in this village west of Chicago that he seems to be part of the present. Home to more than two dozen Wright structures, including a church, two stables and a fountain, Oak Park boasts the largest collection of Wright-designed sites in the world.

Wright lived in Oak Park for the first 20 years of his career, between 1889 and 1909, developing Prairie style architecture in a studio. In contrast, Hemingway couldn't wait to leave, reportedly disparaging it as a place of "wide lawns and narrow minds." (The future novelist left at age 18 to become a reporter for the Kansas City Star.)

Dr. Vicki McCloskey, triathlete and school psychologist at the Henniker Community School, shares these 10 tips on how to prepare for and handle a stressful situation, whether it's jumping into a cold body of water for a 1.5-kilometer race or tackling a new chapter of vocabulary.

1. Sleep. During sleep, the brain organizes what it has taken in during the day so that we can readily access it from memory.

2. Feeling safe and secure at home. "Feeling loved and appreciated helps children feel good and focus on learning rather than worrying about issues at home. Even if there is economic stress, parents need to keep a positive attitude when children are within ear shot," McCloskey said.

3. Physical activity and play. When they play, children practice important skills and use their creativity to develop new ones. When they are physically active, children are healthier and manage stress better.

TV Column

Every year the Emmy Awards leave us wondering what numbskull thought a three-hour trophy show in which the same TV programs win the same derbies they won last year, interspersed with speeches by Hollywood B-listers showering praise on their agents, lawyers and personal trainers, made for riveting television.

Is it any wonder that such a large swath of the American public reacts to the prospect of watching the annual broadcast like people being pushed toward dangerous machinery in which they would rather not become entangled?

At first glance, tonight's Emmycast (ABC, 8 p.m.) looks particularly treacherous.

Who among us is looking forward to a 10th-consecutive variety series win for The Daily Show, a fifth-consecutive drama series win for Mad Men and the annual Jeff Probst Reality Show Host Award?

But this year is going to be - different!

Know what fees you'll incur before you're at the terminal

Rules, rules, rules! Remember when traveling by air used to be fairly predictable? You bought a ticket, picked a seat, showed up with a bag, checked the bag, then got on the plane, all for one price. Those days are long gone. But if you think you understand all the rule changes and accompanying fee hikes, think again. The landscape is changing weekly, if not daily, and it pays to know before you go.

Fees: It's called "un-bundling": the airline practice of separating out each aspect of flying and charging the passenger a fee for adding the aspect or amenity back in. Luggage fees were among the original headliners here and continue to be an ever-changing (upward, of course) factor in figuring out how much you'll have to pay to fly. Then there's food and drink, communicating with an actual airline ticket representative and printing boarding passes.

I first saw cardinal flowers growing in a drainage ditch along a farm field. Their intense red took my breath away, in part because of their surroundings.

This was no well-tended, perennial flower border, where colorful flowers would be expected. Growing along that ditch, those cardinal flowers were "mere" wildings. What's more, they were blooming in deep shade, a place usually lit, if at all, by white flowers.

The beauty of those cardinal flowers was not in their profusion of blooms but in the purity of their color. The red blossoms lined up along spikes a few feet high, their petals splaying out like small, cut paper fans.

Without looking at the calendar I know that fall has arrived when I finally put The Zucchini Cookbook away for the year. Now I am making as much pesto as possible and putting up tomato sauce for winter in an effort to hold on to a tiny bit of summer's goodness for as long as I can. Pickling is done - the cukes have given up the ghost and the plants need to be pulled and composted. As we clean up the garden, I make a last ditch effort to record where we planted things this year. I am not very diligent about it but keeping a garden journal is indispensable when spring planting time rolls around. Vegetable crops need to be rotated every year to avoid depleting the same nutrients from the soil and to discourage insects and disease from gaining a foothold. It is a good practice not to plant the same family of crops - like nightshades, cucurbits, legumes and brassicas - in the same spot for four years. I could never remember that far back if I didn't write it down!

The money has been spent, the hems secured, the photos taken and the happy couple hitched. But what can you do once your bridesmaid dress has had its fun?

Craft It

DIY projects can give an old dress new life. Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Samantha Baldwin, who writes the craft and lifestyle blog Bromeliad, turned a bridesmaid-style dress into a decorative pillow and a Moroccan-style pouf. She says she's "not a very good seamstress" but was able to manipulate the hem of the skirt into the ruffle portion of her pillow, which required minimal sewing.

Donate It

The Washington bridal store Hitched gives bridesmaids the option to donate their dresses, shoes and unused makeup to "Princess for a Night," a dress drive created by a Virginia teacher that provides free prom gear to high-schoolers.

There are similar organizations across the nation.

Restyle It

Manchester Pieces help Currier tell stories behind collection

The improbable point of one dancer's toe, the circle of another's arms over her head, each angle, each bend, each curve and dip so real and alive, but not. Instead, the once-upon-a-time movement of these frilly dancers is captured on canvas, forever.

"It's very beautiful," said Kurt Sundstrom, associate curator for the Currier Museum in Manchester of Edgar Degas's painting "Repetition au Foyer de la Danse," now on loan to the museum from an anonymous donor. "If you ever go to a ballet, you are going to see the same thing you are going to see in a Degas. . . . I think you see elegance in the human form in this picture."

New York

Lindsay Lohan was arrested in New York early yesterday on charges that she clipped a pedestrian with her car and did not stop driving, but her publicist said he expects the allegations to be proven false.

The 26-year-old actress was arrested at 2:25 a.m. as she left a nightclub at the Dream Hotel in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the police said. They said no alcohol was involved.

Lohan was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and causing injury. She was given a ticket and scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 23.

The police said Lohan was slowly driving a black Porsche through an alley between the Dream Hotel and the Maritime Hotel on 16th Street when the accident occurred. The victim called 911. He was treated at a hospital for a knee injury and released.

The best use for fresh-picked apples: applesauce

Each fall, I can't help myself from buying apples by the bushel. I get so excited by the crisp air and the fresh-from-the-orchard fruit that I inevitably buy way too many.

So I end up baking pies and apple cakes. I even saute fresh sliced apples for breakfast the way my mother did when I was a child. But my hands-down favorite thing to make with my abundance? Homemade applesauce. I love to make homemade applesauce when I want to perk up a less-than-exciting meal and impress my dining companions with something unexpectedly delicious.

I remember my first taste of what has become my go-to recipe. My mother was making Julia Child's French apple tart. Child's recipe has a bed of well-seasoned applesauce on the bottom and a fan of apricot-jam glazed apples on the top. When I tasted Child's brandy-laced applesauce, I quickly decided that was the best part of the tart. Since then, I have used a variation of that applesauce as my own.

The trouble with late summer's bounty of zucchini isn't in the volume of the vegetable itself. Rather, it is the lack of creative recipes for using it.

Because frankly what the world most certainly does not need are more recipes for zucchini muffins and breads and casseroles. The website AllRecipes.com, for example, lists some 244 recipes for zucchini bread alone. In fact, there are so many that users of the site have stopped even trying to come up with creative names for the recipes, instead resorting to Roman numerals. A slice of Zucchini Bread VI, anyone?

It has been a long time since I have been impressed by a zucchini recipe. Using a vegetable peeler to turn it into ribbons for a salad is benign. Shredding it into strands for "pasta" is creative, if not particularly delicious. And I have no interest in yet another variant of stuffing and baking these squash, no matter how much bacon, sausage and cheese gets jammed in there.

I can never seem to produce budget recipes at their advertised prices; perhaps the cost of living in the Washington area makes it more of a challenge. But this one-pot dish is inexpensive to make. More important, it's a light, not-too-spicy kind of chili. There's lots of spinach and just enough bacon to produce a smoky flavor. Leftovers would be good for a Thermos lunch. You could make a double batch and freeze half.

Spinach and Bacon Chili

4 strips uncooked bacon

30 ounces (2 cans) home-cooked or canned, no-salt-added kidney or pinto beans

12 ounces lean ground beef

15-ounce can no-salt-added crushed or diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon chili powder, preferably ancho

5 to 8 ounces fresh baby spinach

1 cup hot water

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

Line a plate with a few layers of paper towels.

Ontario Charming town boasts ample wineries and an annual theater festival

Mention Niagara and most travelers think of the famous falls, which deserve their reputation as the mother of all tourist attractions. But there's another place with Niagara in its name just a half-hour drive from the falls that should be part of any visit to the area: Niagara-on-the-Lake, a lovely Ontario town known for wineries, an annual theater festival and a charming downtown.

And while summer is high season for visiting the waterfalls, September and October are among the busiest months of the year in Niagara-on-the-Lake. There are more than 30 wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake and 80 altogether in the region, and fall is the season when visitors can see and experience the harvest and the pressing of the grapes.

Many felines are stepping out - on leashes - these days

Karen Nichols wanted a life unchained to the monotony of twice-daily dog walks, so she got herself three cats. But she still strolls the neighborhood on nice days - with her cat Skeezix.

Nichols took part in a program recently that encouraged finding ways to bring out the wild nature in her cat. Some cat behavior problems stem from boredom, which can be stymied by enriching their environment and involving them in activities, experts told the class.

So Nichols started training Skeezix to walk with a leash before he turned 1. It took a couple of weeks to get him used to a leash and a stroller. (Skeezix goes into the stroller when a dog approaches.)