"epi-log" news and stories

It seems like lately the whole food world is turning out to help people prepare and plan for their Thanksgiving dinners. The latest way to get tips and tricks for your turkey day celebration? Epicurious, in addition to being an excellent all-around source for recipes, is going to be hosting a chat with cookbook author and Epi-log blogger Melissa Clark this Friday from 12 noon until 2 pm (that's Eastern Standard Time).

Melissa will be available to discuss general Thanksgiving problems and solutions. She'll also be answering questions about how to prepare the items on the Epicurious Thanksgiving menu that she compiled and tested. Isn't the internet a wonderful place!

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Last week, I found myself shopping for a turkey the day before I needed to cook it. Finding a fresh bird a month before Thanksgiving was something of a challenge but we managed to do it (although the guy at Whole Foods gave Scott attitude when he called to ensure they had a bird). We got lucky with the fresh bird, but there are times when you won't be so lucky and all there will be at the grocery store is a sea of frozen birds.

For those of you to whom this has happened the night before Thanksgiving, take heart. Jennie-O has created a bird that can go straight from freezer section to oven. You don't even have to clean or season it. Over at the Epi-Log, Michael Y. Park took this Frankenbird out for a spin and over all has good things to say about it. It seems a little suspect to me, as it gets cooked in a plastic bag (a practice I've never really trusted) and I don't totally understand how it could be safe to cook a frozen turkey, but apparently it is.

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Ever since friend pointed in me in the direction of Epicurious.com when I was looking for a Passover recipe several years ago, it's been one of my go-to websites for interesting recipes, food tips and the occasional article. They recently launched a redesign of their site, and it's not just the same old stuff dressed up in new HTML. There's a bunch of new features including a recipe bar search, new categories and my very favorite, a brand spanking new blog.

The Epi-log as they're calling it is staffed not only by the Epicurious editors, but also by a pretty nifty assortment of guest bloggers. They've got Amy Sherman from Cooking with Amy (food blogger makes good!), Rick Bayless (who really needs no introduction), food writing extraordinaire Melissa Clark, the grill man Michael Y. Park, wine expert Natalie MacLean and Neal Pollack, who bills himself as Writer, Food Lover, Dad (please read his post about how his son threw a temper tantrum because they were out of capers. It made me giggle audibly).

This week marked the launch of Epicurious's new blog, Epi-Log, penned by the site's editor Tanya Wenman Steel (right). In the opening post, Tanya goes over what the blog won't be: it won't be a self-involved daily letter from the editor and it won't be food celebrity gossip. The blog will focus on happenings in the food and restaurant industry as well as highlights of other Epicurious features. Upon first looking at Epi-Log's list of links, I got all excited when I saw what I thought was our own Sarah Gim's The Delicious Life. As it turns out, there's a Houston-based food site of the same name.