LIFE/TRAVEL

NATALIE CAUDILL/DMN

No plain-Jane settings here. White is classic and perfect for summer.

The secret to successful hosting is something other than the special ingredient in your grandmother's marinara sauce: It's the white plate. Classic, clean and simple, "white dinnerware offers a blank canvas for the artistry of food presentation," says Turtle Creek-based events planner Joanne M. Kersten

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, pledged Wednesday to buy more produce from local farmers as it kicked off a campaign to highlight the fruits and vegetables grown in Oklahoma and sold in its stores. The Arkansas-based company's 'Locally Grown' program, which recently debuted nationally, looks to keep prices down for shoppers, support local economies and slice shipping and fuel costs.

Ben & Jerry's has done it again: Hoping to honor rocker Elton John before his first-ever Vermont performance, Vermont's crazy-cool confectioner has whipped up a flavor just for him — "Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road." The limited-batch ice cream, made from "an outrageous symphony of decadent chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, butter brickle and white chocolate chunks," is a take-off on his 1970s album and song "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."