Blog Posts by Epicurious.com

by Lauren Salkeld

on 01/25/11 at 02:47 PM

It's Oscar season and once again we decided to have a little fun by using each of the 10 Best Picture nominees as inspiration for a different menu. This year's movies took us in all kinds of culinary directions. True Grit, a cowboy western from Academy darlings Joel and Ethan Coen, immediately made us think of cowboy steak, which we paired with beans and a bacon-studded Cheddar quick bread. Our favorite scene in Inception, when Ellen Page's character folds Paris in half, led us to create a French café menu. For 127 Hours, we started with Aron Ralston's limited rations-a burrito and a bottle of water-then rounded out the menu with healthy, food-as-fuel recipes. And for Black Swan, we choose black and white dishes to highlight the film's obsession with opposites.

And now for the nominees:
(click each title for it's award-winning recipe)

The Social Network

The Kids Are Alright

127 Hours

The King's Speech

We tried ten brews; three merit a spot in your fridge
by Carolina Santos-Neves

Apparently, Noah had some brew stashed aboard the Ark. In ancient Babylon, clay tablets were used to record recipes for this thirst-quenching beverage. The pharaohs of Egypt were buried with vessels of beer, to sustain them on the journey to the afterlife. Refreshing, affordable, and a perfect partner with all manner of foods, this combination of yeast, malt, and other ingredients has long been humankind's drink of choice.

As the beer movement has continued to, well, ferment, with increasingly esoteric methods and ingredients, we at Epicurious have tried to cover the scene from all angles: In addition to presenting primers on American and Irish beer, the ongoing Top Five series, and a guide to pumpkin ales, we've also taught you how to pair beer with food and prepare seriously tasty beer cocktails. We've even picked our favorite canned microbrews. But one thing we had yet to do is taste-test

Super Bowl calls for truly great chili. Feed your crowd with one of these top-tier recipes.

View more Chili recipes at Epicurious.com

MORE FROM EPICURIOUS.COM

Our guide to feasting for future fortune
By Lauren Salkeld

For many, January 1 offers an opportunity to forget the past and make a clean start. But instead of leaving everything up to fate, why not enjoy a meal to increase your good fortune? There are a variety of foods that are believed to be lucky and to improve the odds that next year will be a great one. Traditions vary from culture to culture, but there are striking similarities in what's consumed in different pockets of the world: The six major categories of auspicious foods are grapes, greens, fish, pork, legumes, and cakes. Whether you want to create a full menu of lucky foods or just supplement your meal, we have an assortment of recipes, guaranteed to make for a happy new year, or at the very least a happy belly.

Grapes

New Year's revelers in Spain consume twelve grapes at midnight-one grape for each stroke of the clock. This dates back to 1909, when grape growers in the Alicante region of Spain initiated

Help your heart-and many other body parts-with this antioxidant-rich fruit and its juice
By Megan O. Steintrager

Recipes pictured: Guanabana Sherbet with Tropical Fruit , Pom-Ade , Mango Pomegranate Guacamole

You've probably seen the superhero-themed publicity campaign for pomegranates and pomegranate juice, but is the health buzz on this exotic fruit really backed up by facts? While no single food or drink is the magic (speeding) bullet of disease prevention, a growing body of research suggests that pomegranate seeds, fruit, and extract really may deliver serious health benefits-including improving cholesterol levels and fighting prostate cancer. To find out what makes the fruit so special, Epicurious spoke to David Grotto, R.D., L.D.N., the author of 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life and the forthcoming 101 Optimal Life Foods.

Grotto explains that much of the medical community's excitement about pomegranates stems from the fruit's high level of antioxidant

Back-to-School Lunches

Wholesome, easy school-day recipes your kids will love from Real Food for Healthy Kids
Text by Tanya Wenman Steel, photos by Kevin Hart

ny parent will agree that the world's toughest food critics are children. This "aptitude" for culinary criticism is particularly evident with school-day lunches. You want to give your mini gourmand a balanced meal, one filled with double-duty foods that provide energy and nutrition while keeping junior sated and satisfied. But getting your little loved one to actually eat a wholesome homemade lunch can be as difficult as getting him or her to log off and unplug.

Peanut Butter Berry-Wich

Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad

California Style Tuna Salad Rolls

Turkey Pinwheels

Edamame Succotash Salad

Black Bean and Rice Salad

Chocolate Chip Flying Saucers

Wheat Biscuit Shortbread

Mini Whoopie Pies

Extreme Granola

To ensure that junior's power lunch doesn't go straight

Healthy eating tips, information, and resources

Healthy recipes pictured here: Lemon-Scented Quinoa , Kale with Pickled Shallots , Miso Chicken , and Fresh Berries with Ricotta Cream

Healthy Living Tips

At Epicurious, we believe that food and cooking are two of life's greatest pleasures. However, it's important to maintain a balance and make the right choices about what you are eating.

"When it comes to diet, one size definitely does not fit all," says Dana Lilienthal, a registered dietitian and holistic health counselor with a private practice on New York's Long Island and in New York City. "It's about finding out what works best for you and creating a diet based on your own personal desires and needs." To that end, we have created a simple guide to the basic tenets of nutrition.

Ten Keys to Healthy Eating

1. Create a balance in your life-healthy relationships, a satisfying career, and regular physical activity all affect the food choices you make.

2.

Our recipes and tips prove that meals can be healthy and satisfying

by Megan O. Steintrager

Fried, melted, ooey, gooey, rich, starchy, and sweet...These are the adjectives of comfort food. Unfortunately, many traditional soul-satisfying dishes, such as mac 'n' cheese, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and pudding, are high in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar.

Healthy-eating tips:

You Say Potato-We Say Healthy!

Spuds often get a bad rap, but did you know that one small baked potato has 22 percent of the daily value for vitamin C? The tasty tubers are also a good source of the essential trace mineral manganese, vitamin B6 (necessary for the creation of serotonin, which regulates mood), and potassium (which helps control blood pressure), according to our sister site Nutrition Data.

Where Have You Bean?

Legumes, which figure into several of the dishes here-a bean burrito casserole, a side of limas, and even a dessert-are wonderful vegetarian sources of