Blog Posts by Epicurious.com

Kale is included again and again on lists of super foods, and for good reason: It's a nutritional powerhouse, packed with vitamin C, vitamin E (an antioxidant), calcium, and even a few cancer-fighting compounds. In a happy twist of fate, it also happens to be one of our favorite fall treats. Oh, the possibilities...

For more on kale, see our visual guide to cooking greens.

Tips:

Try Dinosaur Kale

Tuscan kale, also known as cavolo nero or lacinato kale and often marketed as dinosaur kale, is especially laborious to trim and clean, but worth seeking out for its distinctive flavor.

Soak, Shake, Store

To perk up limp leaves, trim the base of their stems and soak the kale for a few minutes in tepid water. Shake dry and store as suggested below.

Store Properly

Store kale in an airtight cointainer in the coldest part of your refrigerator. Cook the vegetable within three or four days.

Recipes:

Soups

Chestnut and Kale Soup

Kale and Chickpea

I can so vividly remember, sitting at the long, plastic-covered table at my grandparents house, watching in awe as my Italian Pop Pop, or my Dad's father, used to take what looked to me like a Samurai sword and ever so slowly peel an apple in one long, curling strip. He would then cut one piece at a time, spear it with tip of his sword and offer the juicy slice to us kids like a regal gift. For years, I could never bite into a whole apple, waiting instead for someone to peel it for me...and then when nobody did, inevitably taking up arms myself. Looking back I suppose that also had to do with the tin smile I was sporting at the time. On my own though, I would try and try to peel the entire fruit in one long swirl as he had, most often without luck. The memory still lives with me so much so that peeling an apple was, and will always remain, a ritual for me, never a task.

A Visual Guide to Apples: a guide to help you keep track of which ones are tart, sweet, thin-skinned, and

View slideshowThe dark, almost moonless night of October 31 is fast approaching, and as you feverishly attempt to find costumes, masks, wigs, stage makeup, and props, we thought we'd save you time by pinpointing this season's coolest chocolates and candies.

Halloween Tricks and Treats: have a scary-good holiday with our guide to the best candy, cocktails, and homemade sweets

Halloween is traditionally a commercial candy holiday, and we wouldn't be caught dead without a good mix of new twists on drug-store favorites and hauntingly high-end bites. Like M&M's? Try new picture M&M's printed with Junior's most terrifying scowl. More of a jellybean fan? Tear into a box of freakishly flavored beans sure to bring out your inner daredevil. Feeling crafty? Assemble and decorate your very own haunted house. Among the macabre morsels gathered in this year's slideshow are miniature brownie beasts, ears of sweet caramel corn, cringe-worthy garlic mints, all-natural lollipops, gourmet pet treats, and

If you believe the talking heads, one of the few definite bright spots in the new economy will be manufacturers of inexpensive comfort foods. Jim Cramer, for example, has gone on air saying it's a good idea to look into companies like Campbell's and Hormel. People are always going to have to eat, no matter the state of the credit market, and they're going to be stocking up on cheap, long-lasting foodstuffs like canned soup and Spam. And does anyone think it's a coincidence that the sole gainer on the S & P 500 during the historic Sept. 29 sell-off was Campbell's?

Seriously, though, people seem to suddenly be taking an interest in making economical nostalgia foods like casseroles, mac and cheese, meatloaf, lasagna.

How about you all? Are you planning on making more inexpensive foods? What's on your slightly tattered, back-of-that-old-401(k)-fax menu?

Here's a few meals we might be seeing on the menu around my parts:

Spam sushi rolls
Turkey Sloppy Joes
Tamale pie

It's no secret that food and football belong together, but according to the self-appointed Commissioner of Tailgating, Joe Cahn, who founded Tailgating.com, your buddy's killer Buffalo wings aren't the only reason to pack up the portable grill this weekend. "A tailgate party is like an old-fashioned community social," he says. "Every weekend in the parking lots, people get a sense of community that is lost in this country."

Game-Day Grub and Gear: Tailgating recipes and tips, plus our favorite equipment, cookbooks, and beer!

Cahn sold his New Orleans School of Cooking in 1998 to purchase a motor home, score some corporate sponsorships, and travel from coast to coast, keeping tabs on America's best parking lot parties. "Just think about it," he says, sounding more like a sociology professor than a football fan, "when a stranger comes up to you in a city park and says hello, you worry that he wants to steal your money. When the same guy comes up to you at a tailgate, you hand him a

What's "Asian cuisine"? For us, the term refers to the foods from a region that is home to more than half the world's population. Within this wide swath are cooking traditions from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea ), Southeast Asia ( Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia ), and South Asia ( India, Pakistan ). Because of the term's vast geographic mass, ingredients used from region to region can be mind-boggingly similar -- and varied. For instance, lemongrass, predominant in Southeast Asian cooking, isn't used in East Asian cuisines, but ginger is used throughout the continent.

Most of these foods can be found in Asian markets. Online sources include ImportFood.com and Melissa's. And if you'd like to try growing your own, visit a local garden nursery or an online seed supplier like EvergreenSeeds.com.

Opo Squash

Alternate names: Nam tao, bottle gourd, cucuzza squash, calabash, yugao, long squash, bau, Italian edible gourd, New Guinea bean, Tasmania bean, snake gourd, po gua, kwa kwa,

For a literary club gathering, this simple-yet-elegant menu is one for the books.

There's no reason that a book-club get-together can't be as delicious as it is thought-provoking. A home-cooked meal is great to offer your literary companions, but the host can run into trouble if she's fussing over snacks for her guests when she should be finishing up the required reading. Fortunately, Australian cookbook author, food stylist, recipe developer, and magazine editor Donna Hay has shared a stylish menu that won't take long to prepare -- or impede the book discussion. Hay explains, "While you do want something satisfying that your guests can enjoy, you don't want to make anything too hard to eat while they're chatting -- so prepare food guests can nibble at."

Her easy-to-eat menu is vegetarian-friendly and simple enough to prepare for a weeknight -- so even if you're pressed for time, there's no need to resort to premade foods from the grocery store. "Cooking for friends doesn't need

A primary complaint seems to be that a discussion of election-year politics doesn't belong on a food blog.

I disagree. I think that this is the exactly the place to talk about an election that may go a significant way toward deciding some of this nation's most significant food issues, with consequences that could affect Americans for generations.

It goes without saying that a meal on your plate doesn't simply appear from a magical fridge, but is the end result of an incredibly complex set of interactions among the environment, animal and plant life, and man. Governmental policies on agriculture, energy, the environment, etc., have a tremendous effect on the quality of the air, earth and water in which our crops and livestock grow, as well as what is grown and how it is distributed. (And if you don't believe me, read anything by Michael Pollan.) The president not only sets the administration agenda on these issues, but also has great sway over the legislation Congress passes