Blog Posts by Epicurious.com

Photos by Ma'ayan Rosenzweig

by Kendra Vizcaino, Epicurious.com

Moms are busy 364 days a year taking care of everyone else, but come Mother's Day, Mom gets to sit back and be spoiled. Well, at least that's always the plan. This year, show your mom just how much you appreciate her by giving presents that can be enjoyed every day of the year. From frames decorated with pasta to edible candied flowers, these five food-inspired crafts are easy enough for children to make with some adult assistance. With just a few household and pantry items, along with some basic art supplies, you can create charming gifts that any mom, grandmother, or aunt is sure to love.

Related: The Best Mother's Day Brunch Ever

Kitchen Caddies



If it's hard to keep track of cooking utensils, help Mom keep them organized with a decorative kitchen- tool holder.

Equipment: Wooden utensil caddy available at crafts shops or home stores, sponges, scissors, water, tempera paint

Appropriate for: Children 2+ years old, with help from a grown-up

by Carolina Santos-Neves, Epicurious.comPhoto by Romulo Yanes/Gourmet


In cooking school this weekend, we spent the morning making stocks and the afternoon crafting an array of sauces. I love a good sauce. Whether it's salad dressing or, well, just sauce I love it...especially with veggies and rice. I find that it can make for the perfect meal. So this was an exciting day for me.

See also: How to Throw a Perfect Taco Party

Most of the sauces we make on Saturday called for mire poix (generally chopped or minced celery, onion, and carrot), stock, and whatever the flavor profile was like curry, or a red wine based sauce. And all of them called for roux, a.k.a. 4 tablespoons of butter (or 3 1/4 tablespoons of oil) to 7 tablespoons of flour.

In general roux is used as the thickening agent in the three mother sauces of classical French cooking. It was the first time I ever made roux. It's fairly simple, but there are three types: light or white, which adds little flavor; brown, which add a slight nutty flavor; and

by Carolina Santos-Neves, Epicurious.com

What's the best taco you've ever sunk your teeth into? Was it in Mexico? Los Angeles? San Diego? Your hometown? Or in your own kitchen? Or perhaps you are one of the many pilgrims still in search of your perfect taco.

See also: Healthy Comfort Food Recipes for Any Day

A truly euphoric taco experience is defined differently depending on whom you ask. Some people prefer corn tortillas over flour. Some prefer their tacos stuffed with pork; others, pulled chicken or fish. Some like their tacos to be sauce-free, and some enjoy a little guacamole and sour cream. We asked 10 food critics from 10 American cities to tell us how they found their favorite pick and what makes it so special. Read on to see if your top taco made the list.

Austin, Texas: Tacodeli

According to Rachel Feit of The Austin Chronicle, "tacos are like flavor bombs." For Feit, a memorable taco starts with great fillings, meaning slow-cooked meats stewed with plenty of chiles and

by Carolina Santos-Neves, Epicurious.com

Pastry chef Jennifer Jones knows a thing or two about sweets, especially Mexican-influenced ones. The Charlie Trotter alum and rising star at Topolobampo, of Rick Bayless' Frontera group, was recently named the Chicago Tribune's Pastry Chef of the Year. In honor of Cinco de Mayo, Jones has shared with us four recipes perfect for any celebration. These recipes reflect the chef's love of chocolate and fruit (in particular, cherries, apricots, blackberries, and peaches) and her fondness for bold spices, herbs, and malty flavors. The key, says Jones, is to have fun and to be fearless in the kitchen! So don't worry if sometimes it takes a couple of tries (or more) to master a recipe.

Related: How to Throw a Perfect Taco Party

XOCO Churros with Mexican Hot Chocolate Photos by Lara Ferroni

To add flavor to these churros, Jones suggests incorporating a teaspoon of almond extract or the zest of an orange, or simply replace 10 percent of the flour with cocoa powder. "Be

by Carolina Santos-Neves, Epicurious.com Photo: CN Digital Archive

Salsa, the word for "sauce" in Spanish, can add a bit of vida to almost any meal, and we're not just talking tacos and burritos. For a fresher alternative to the acidic jarred stuff that's loaded with sodium and sugar, try making your own salsa-you may be surprised how easy it is.

See also: Healthy Comfort Food Recipes for Any Day

James Peterson, the author of Kitchen Education: Sauces, Salsas, and Chutneys-Recipes and Techniques on Cooking believes salsa has no strict definition. "To define a salsa in the most general terms, I would say it's a mixture in which each of the ingredients retains a degree of integrity. In other words, you can see the stuff that makes it up, unlike in a mayonnaise or a hollandaise sauce." But at the same time, there are a few general qualities all salsas possess: They are usually served cold or at room temperature; they're often spicy; and typically they're a combination of chopped raw ingredients, such as

by Michael Y. Park, Epicurious.comPhoto by Michael Y. Park

In The Atlantic, an economist offers six basic rules for getting the biggest bang for your buck in a restaurant.

Here they are:

1) Order the least appetizing item on the menu.

2) Don't choose a place to eat based on the happy, beautiful people inside.

3) Strip malls offer better value than downtown eateries. Plus: Food trucks are awesome. (And if you're in Manhattan, stick to streets over avenues.)

See also: Healthy Comfort Food Recipes for Any Day

4) Ask around.

5) Avoid restaurants that put their budget into staff over the food.

6) Choose unpopular cuisines over similar popular cuisines (Vietnamese over Thai, Pakistani over Indian).

Though I know to keep in mind that he's focusing purely on getting the best value for your money, there are definitely occasions where terrible service or ambiance have ruined what would otherwise be a good meal, which make me question 2 and 5. And I don't know if I buy his argument for

Photo by Sara Bonisteel

by Sara Bonisteel, Epicurious.com

Home cooks all have certain dishes and techniques that are stumbling blocks. These are those recipes that need to be seen in action to be understood.

For me, current struggles include roux and risotto. But I'm feeling more confident about the latter after attending a class with Lidia Bastianich earlier this week in conjunction with the opening of Eataly's expanded cooking school, La Scuola di Eataly.

See also: Healthy Comfort Food Recipes for Any Day

"Risotto is all about technique," Bastianich says. "So what is the technique? First it begins in the rice."

Three of the most popular Italian rice varietals are baldo, carnaroli, and the best known, arborio. Bastianich prefers carnaroli as it "gives me the best creaminess."

"Rice is one of the oldest foods, it feeds the largest amount of people in the world, and there's over a thousand different species of rice," she says. "The simple recipe for risotto: one cup of rice, 3 cups of liquid will yield 2

Photo by CN Digital Studioby Sarah Kagan, Epicurious.com

Growing up, I always loved my mother's matzoh balls. I would watch her carefully forming them, cradling the batter gently in the palms of her hands so as not to deflate it. About two inches in diameter and as light as clouds, they disintegrated into a delicious fluffy mass in her chicken soup. They seemed to me the apotheosis of the form, and it never occurred to me to want something different.

Related: Recipes for a Stress-Free Seder

Then I met my now-husband, Jason, and celebrated my first Passover with his family. His brother-in-law's matzoh balls were the polar opposite of my mother's: The size of golf balls and almost as hard, they had to be skewered with a fork while digging in with a spoon, to avoid shooting them out of your bowl and across the room. At first I was appalled. But then I began to be won over by their agreeably chewy texture and rich flavor.

Thus I was introduced to the Battle of the Matzoh Balls. As I began to ask around, I