Don't let wedding gifts wipe out your budget
A: I sympathize with your predicament. It's costly to keep spending money for elaborate wedding presents. But there are plenty of gift options that are as charming as they are affordable.
One of my favorites, both for weddings and for showers, is a set of his-and-her down pillows. They're fairly inexpensive if you find them on sale, and they can be dressed up with monogrammed pillow slips.
Another idea is a pair of beautiful vintage spoons, which can be found at antiques shops. You might even have the couple's initials engraved into the spoons and then present them in a beautiful box.
Dear Martha: How do you keep your skin looking so radiant and healthy?
A: I've developed a skin-care routine that I think is a good one. It starts with plenty of water. Right now, I'm not drinking a delicious cappuccino. Instead, I'm drinking hot water with lemon squeezed into it. At the office, I keep a pitcher of cold water with two whole lemons squeezed in it on the counter, and that's what I drink throughout the day.
Dear Martha: What do you think about serving fruit cups for dessert?
A: That's a lovely idea, especially if you use halved citrus as "cups." Simply cut the fruits in half using a serrated knife, and remove the segments. Sprinkle the insides of the cups with a little sugar, and refrigerate while you make the salad.
My favorite fruits to use in salads are grapefruit, pineapple, blueberries, strawberries, nectarines, peaches and pitted bing cherries. I also like bananas, but you have to cut them just before serving or they'll turn brown. I like to chop the other fruits ahead of time and refrigerate them, because I think the secret to a delicious fruit salad is to serve it chilled. I also like to squeeze fresh orange juice over the fruit at the last second so it's slightly moist when it reaches the table.
Dear Martha: Why is the bottom of a wine bottle indented? How else is the shape significant to the bottle's contents?
A: Wine buffs call this indentation the punt, a term left over from the days when bottles were blown by hand. The process involved a long metal rod, called a punty, which artisans used to fashion molten glass into bottles (when the punty was removed from the blown bottles, it left behind an indentation).
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