Blog Posts by Epicurious.com

By Tracey Seaman & Tanya Wenman Steel, Epicurious.com

At Epicurious, we believe in cooking fresh food, but when time is at a premium or ingredients are in abundance, there's no better solution than to double up the recipe and freeze it. If you follow the steps below, adapted from Real Food for Healthy Kids, and store the food correctly in freezer bags or plastic containers, you will always have a home-cooked meal that can be piping hot in minutes. Authors Tracey Seaman and Tanya Steel also recommend ten foods that freeze particularly well.

See also: Our Complete Back-to-School Guide

A Heated Discussion on Freezing
We keep well-stocked freezers. Tracey likes to keep leftovers in the refrigerator, for fast reheating of subsequent servings, but she freezes fresh meats and breads and batches of chili, stews, and soup to have on hand for later. Tanya likes to freeze individual portions so when she comes dashing in from work at 7:00 p.m., or after a Saturday soccer game, there is something

By Epicurious.com

Much as you may want to, you can't swing by school at noon every day to make sure your kid isn't trading tuna-on-rye for Twizzlers. It's far more practical (and far less embarrassing) to pack lunches that kids will want to eat.

Related: Our Complete Back-to-School Guide

We've assembled a dozen healthy sandwiches that will make lunchtime almost as enticing as recess. Dates are the magic ingredient in our peanut butter sandwiches-they're also a good source of fiber and a natural energy-booster. Tomato chutney spices up a simple roast beef on flatbread (reduce the sugar and it'll be low-cal too), while horseradish adds zip to smoked salmon, a great alternative to plain old tuna (try using low-fat sour cream in that recipe). And our selection of delicious spring and summer rolls opens up a whole new world of "sandwich" ideas.

Our guess is that these inspired recipes will find their way into grown-up lunch boxes as well. Eating healthfully ourselves is the first step

By Paige Ross, Epicurious.com

When it comes to tailgating, either go big or eat at home because no one wants you rolling up to the stadium parking lot with dinky trinkets that look as pathetic as the food they produce. Pre-packed sandwiches simply won't cut it when you run with the big boys. A true tailgate requires volume, pride, heat, and convenience. Throw a remote control into the mix and watch the jaws drop.

See also: Our Ultimate Grilling and Barbecue Guide

Sear your pride into your food with the NCAA Hot Dog Grill Topper ($19.95). These branding irons are available for 44 different teams and can be used on hot dogs or bratwurst. As the name suggests, the grill topper simply sits on the grill until you're ready to brand some new fans. Regardless of who shows up at your tailgate, give everyone the opportunity to taste victory.

Anyone can wear an apron when a winner is printed on the front--and when it includes adjustable straps around the neck and waist. The BBQ Jersey Apron is

By Lauren Salkeld, Epicurious.com

Once school starts and piano lessons, soccer practice, and trips to the orthodontist resume, getting dinner on the table is no easy feat. Yes, Epicurious is packed with quick and easy recipes, but sometimes you need an even faster option. Takeout is one solution; another lives in your freezer.

See also: Our Ultimate Grilling and Barbecue Guide

We're not afraid of frozen pizza. We even named our top picks as part of our on-going taste test series--Amy's Cheese Pizza won top honors. A new favorite recently hit the market: Peas of Mind's all-natural frozen pizzas. Each pie features broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower baked right into the crust, adding up to 1 1/2 servings of vegetables. You could try tricking your kids into eating these health-conscious pizzas, never mentioning their veggie credentials. But considering how yummy the pies taste, why bother? Our tasters--young and old alike--gobbled up both pies. They did detect a mild cauliflower flavor,

By Hanna Raskin, Epicurious.com

I'm a faithful fan of Gulf coast oysters, but it's foolhardy to eat them in the hot summer months, when their flavor is dulled by spawning and Vibrio rates spike. While Pacific Northwest oysters aren't at their tastiest in August, the region's cold climate means it's possible to eat oysters year-round up here.

See also: Our Ultimate Grilling and Barbecue Guide

So when my father recently visited me here in Seattle, I invited him to oyster happy hour at Elliott's, a venerable oyster house that shares the waterfront with T-shirt shops and pleasure-boat ticket counters. On weekdays at 3 p.m., Elliott's begins serving chef's choice oysters for 75 cents.

Facing a tray of gleaming Pacific oysters, my father reminisced about eating oysters with his great-uncle Izzy. Though I never knew it, my great-great uncle Isaac Benjoya ran an oyster concession on Coney Island.

Oysters were once synonymous with Coney Island. "The raw oyster business flourished like a

By Laura Neilson, Epicurious.com

We know how picky kids can be about their school meals, starting with their lunch boxes. Every year parents face the daunting task of back-to-school shopping and finding the right lunch kit that's durable, affordable, and something their child will actually want to use. We've rounded up ten of our favorite carriers in a range of prices and designs for cafeteria diners of all ages.

By Adam Roberts, Epicurious.com

A good Caesar, like a good bagel, causes bad breath. If you eat a Ceasar salad and then make out with someone afterward, and if that someone doesn't pull away and say "Blech! Your breath is terrible!," you didn't eat a good Caesar. (That, by the way, is the ideal Caesar salad test.)

Related: Our Favorite Salads

A good Caesar salad has in its dressing raw garlic and anchovies. The other variables--egg yolk, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, Parmesan cheese--are important, but those first two ingredients are what make a Caesar a Caesar. They're the key ingredients because they pack so much punch, their absence will make a Caesar salad bland.

Now there are people in this world who say that they don't like anchovies but who love Caesar salad. These people either: (1) really like anchovies and don't know it; or (2) have never had a good Caesar salad. Chances are, most people fall into category 1, and so these people--maybe you're among them--need an

By Joanne Camas, Epicurious.com

Just like bottled water, plastic grocery bags are a hot-button topic. Some countries have banned them; others encourage a charge for them at the checkout. Still, around the world shoppers use 500 billion to one trillion single-use plastic bags per year, says the Rethinking Plastics Campaign. In the U.S., 95 percent of us ask for plastic bags at the checkout.

While plastic uses valuable resources and is not biodegradable, paper's no environmental bargain either. Here, the production costs for both, according to MSNBC: "To make all the bags we use each year, it takes 14 million trees for paper and 12 million barrels of oil for plastic. The production of paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic, but plastic bags create four times the solid waste."

Of course, there is a third choice: Bring your own reusable totes for groceries. Most supermarkets sell them fairly inexpensively, or you can even make your own cloth bags. The Morsbag