Come the holidays, homemade gifts from the kitchen are the ones I like to make and receive. They’re not at all fussy or fancy — spiced nuts in a pretty container, marinated cheeses and herbed biscuits — but they are foods I might find useful during the holidays, too.

Hands down, chicken thighs are the best choice for an easy, no-fuss weeknight supper.

Active volcanoes are inherently hazardous places to work. Even when a volcano is quiet, volcanic gases, ground cracks, earthquakes and uneven surfaces can be unsafe. Advanced planning and preparation for fieldwork in these environments is critical to reducing the personal risk of volcanic hazards to field crews.

SAN FRANCISCO — Sardines swirling in preserved lemons. Mackerel basking in curry sauce. Chargrilled squid bathing in ink. All are culinary delicacies long popular in Europe that are now making their mark on U.S. menus.

For most of her life, Claudia Stearns dreaded Thanksgiving. As a person who struggled with obesity since childhood, Stearns hated the annual turmoil of obsessing about what she ate — and the guilt of overindulging on a holiday built around food.

With its branches poking out of a drawstring bag, a potted plum tree accompanied Tristan Shaw to a recent nonprofit luncheon. For the last three years, he has carried a sapling for “emotional support” out to dinner, family parties and even canoeing and camping.

I love Indian-flavored food and wanted to make a quick dinner at home. This delicately spiced food can take time to make. So, I created a short-cut dinner that captures the essence of the popular Indian dish Tikka Masala, known for its creamy tomato sauce and aromatic spices.

Winter squash — orange, green, striped, gray, red — represents the colors and flavor of fall.

Now that the weather’s turning colder, I’ve been seeing a lot of great-looking soup recipes on my social media feeds.

It’s time to take down the ghosts, deflate the lawn decorations and store the 10-foot-tall skeleton. You need to get ready for Thanksgiving.

If you plan on doing a lot of hosting over the holiday season, your kitchen is likely to get quite a workout. But before you start basting the turkey and preparing the stuffing, it’s good to get your kitchen in as good a shape as possible. You can hire a professional housecleaner to handle this, at an average cost of $170, or you can clean your kitchen yourself. Here’s a rundown of some of the most important tips the pros use when they clean house.

Check your front door

SAN JOSE, Calif. — When former Silicon Valley marketer Jessica Carew Kraft picked up a smelly dead fox from the side of U.S. 101, she knew she was on her way to the new life that beckoned from thousands of years in the past.