Whoa, take a gander at this calendar!

• 9/25/11: Boardwalk Empire Premiere, 2nd season
• 10/2/11: Ken Burns' Prohibition documentary series debuts on PBS
• 12/5/11: 78th Anniversary of Repeal Day

With so many Prohibition-themed events on the horizon, it's high time we break out some rip-roaring, 1920s and 1930s-style beverages, don't you think? More

Set in 1960s Mississippi, the movie adaptation of the best-selling novel The Help looks at the complex relationships between African-American housekeepers and the white women they work for. Food plays a role in the story, but instead of turning to the usual caterers and food stylists for help, the director chose to use real Southern cooks, not professionals, to make nearly all the onscreen food. More

Planning on staying in and watching a movie this weekend? We love the convenience of Netflix Instant, but are consistently underwhelmed by its organization, so we decided to take matters into our own hands. Here's our list of ten great food-related movies and TV shows available to watch instantly: More

It's that time of year again, when some people class it up with elegant Academy Award-worthy party food—and others of us make pasta that looks like Mickey Rourke's hair. We've got both tasteful dishes and ridiculous puns for all Best Picture nominees below. The Academy helped us out this year! There's a movie with grit in the title! More

See that lovely picture of Hachiya persimmons above? That was going to be my lead-in photo to a Thanksgiving Persimmon Chutney recipe scheduled for today. I labored late into the evening last night as each step of the recipe was painstakingly chopped, measured, noted and photographed until the final simmer when … disaster. Instead of a cohesive mass of sweet/sour/hot chutney, I had a large glop of strangely separated and astringent goo. Gah! At least it wasn't the turkey.

Read on for a favorite video clip Thanksgiving dinner gone awry, and tell us: What are your tales of Thanksgiving disasters and disasters averted? Share with us in the comments! More

It's Thanksgiving, yes, but there's one other large event that our family is totally into. It doesn't have a thing to do with turkeys or mashed potatoes, but it captivates our hearts just the same. I'm talking of course about Harry Potter opening weekend and that my friends, starts today! More

It's an old cliché that we often don't know what we have until it's gone. Sad but true. Jessica Theroux's beautiful, simple video that documents an Italian farm woman preparing a meal is a poignant example of this. There are very few people left who live like her subject, Carluccia. People who know what greens to forage in the orchards or how to cook beans over a fire, how to raise a cow or slaughter a pig, or roll fresh pasta by hand. Come spend a few minutes in her world. More

After several seasons of "Top Chef" and its spin-offs, it is easy to forget that there is a long tradition in France of real-life cooking competitions, grueling kitchen marathons that chefs spend years preparing for. “Kings of Pastry” is a new documentary which follows chefs competing in the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, a tournament of perfect pastry and serious skills, blissfully free of any mention of the Glad family of products. More

Q: If you've seen the movie It's Complicated maybe you can help me. In the scene where Jane cooks for Adam she makes a French dish. She says she learned to make it while living in Paris.

I can't catch what it is — I'd like to know so I can attempt making it. It looks like cheesy toast...

Sent by Amy More

Sometimes we long to visit a favorite corner of the globe but for various reasons (time, commitments, economy) we just can't get away. One way I appease my hunger for both travel and food is to cook up a meal based on the country or region I'm pining for and then afterwards screen a film that most expresses my yearning for that place. Read on for my list of cuisines and films, and please add your favorites to it! More