Swedish mega-store IKEA is more than a great place to snag cheap wine glasses and cube-shaped shelving — the stores also have an ever-growing travel section with some incredible deals on lightweight knapsacks, versatile shoulder bags, and sturdy luggage, to name a few. Most of the prices are steals, and they’re even cheaper if you’re an IKEA family member. (It’s free to join the program, so take advantage if you can.)

Here are five of the best items we’ve seen, whether you’re trekking around the globe or just skipping town for the weekend.

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Pizza party! It’s like Chuck-E-Cheese for adults — only better! And without Skee-Ball! Okay, it’s completely different. But still a great idea for a party. Cooking one pie at a time in the oven, however, is hard when you’re feeding a crowd. We held a pizza party for eight, and here are the top lessons we learned.

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You might be on a budget, but don’t be so fast to rule out hearty, meaty meals from your dinner plan. There are some real superstars in the meat case that deliver serious value without compromising on flavor. First, you’ll need to look beyond the chicken breast and pricey steaks; those cuts just scratch the surface of all the choices that are in front of you. We’re here to show you where the real budget buys are and the best ways to turn them into a satisfying and nourishing meal for the whole table.

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The party problem: Beer and wine bottles always seem to get lined up on the kitchen counter instead of put into the recycling, which is right there — under the sink!

The party trick: Tape temporary labels to the cabinet doors to direct guests.

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With its sublime mixture of creamy mashed potatoes and tender cabbage, this recipe for the Irish dish of colcannon requires a declaration of love. That’s how good it is.

Keeping with tradition, we didn’t mess with the potatoes or cabbage, but swapped the plain melted butter that is typically served in a pool on top for fragrant browned butter. We just couldn’t help ourselves! The nutty browned butter is a wonderful warm contrast to the sharp green onions that get scattered before serving, giving this dish an easy, elegant twist.

Both decadent and homey, colcannon is the perfect partner for sausages and a pint of beer. It’s also just as good at the family dinner table as a side for roasted meat or bed for your Saturday fried eggs.

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I am a huge, huge fan of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. They are inexpensive, tasty, and easy to cook. In fact, I find it difficult to mess up chicken thighs. They are just dark enough to stay tender, but not so dark as to put off people who prefer white meat. Everyone who eats regularly at my house has eaten chicken thighs!

In the summer I grill these babies every week, especially when I have a big table of people to feed. But in the winter, when I don’t feel like stepping outside to the grill but do feel like turning on the oven, I bake the chicken in the oven. It’s easy as 1-2-3. Here’s what I do.

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If you’re anything like us, you just can’t wait any longer for asparagus season. It’s one of the green vegetables that truly signals that we survived another winter and made it to spring. While it might not be at its peak just yet, it is slowly hitting grocery store shelves and farmers market stalls. We say it’s time to start bringing it into the kitchen. Here are five ways to do just that.

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Welcome to the Great Debates, where we consider the greatest nutritional controversies of our time. Our goal isn’t to tell you what to think or do, but rather to present both sides of hot-button issues, like coffee (is it good for you?) and breakfast (the most important meal of the day?). What’s being said? Who’s saying it? Then it’s up to you to make your own decisions.

If you are looking for evidence that red meat is killing you, there is no shortage of cautionary headlines. Here’s a brief, incomplete sampling: “Red Alert on Red Meat” (Time, 2001); “Dying for Some Red Meat? You May Be” (Washington Post, 2009); “Red Meat Linked to Cancer and Heart Disease” (New York Times, 2012); “Meat Is Linked to Higher Cancer Risk, W.H.O. Report Finds” (New York Times, 2015); “Eating too much red meat ‘can age the body’, researchers claim” (The Guardian, 2016); Red Meat Tied to Diverticulitis Risk (New York Times, 2017).

We could do this all day!

And yet there is a wrinkle, which is that plenty of other studies suggest red meat not only won’t kill you, but may in fact even be good for you. A 2012 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that eating lean beef might actually reduce the risk of heart disease. Multiple studies have shown meaty, Atkins-like diets to be particularly effective for weight loss. And then there are the various health benefits of saturated animal fats.

There is enough conflicting (and muddled, and often flawed) evidence to leave a person very confused, and also hungry. Should we foreswear our organic, grass-fed hamburgers? Should we eat more hamburgers? Are we eating just the right number of hamburgers? Does it even matter at all?

In the interest of both taste and longevity, let us examine the evidence.

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If you really want a good homemade turkey burger, you can’t simply treat the turkey like ground beef. Even lean cuts of ground beef cook up juicy and flavorful, but ground turkey needs a few sidekicks to make that a reality.

This recipe understands all that and adds a really smart step to make these the juiciest turkey burgers you’ll ever make at home. The secret is a breadcrumb-yogurt mixture — seasoned with both Worcestershire and soy sauce, and studded with sweet shallots — that gets gently folded into the meat. The way you cook these burgers is key, too. We’re using a two-step cooking process that guarantees a burger with a golden-crisp exterior and juicy center. Now, aren’t you intrigued?

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Who: Slade Rushing, executive chef at Brennan’s, and Allison Vines-Rushing, chef at Port City
Where: New Orleans, Louisiana

Slade Rushing and Allison Vines-Rushing are kind of a big deal. In New Orleans, yes, but also in the greater food world.

The husband-and-wife team made a name for themselves at Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar in New York (now closed), then solidified their power couple status at MiLa in New Orleans (also closed). Allison earned a James Beard Award (Best Rising Chef of the Year) while at Jack’s, and Slade was nominated for a Beard in his current role as the executive chef of Brennan’s.

Now, if you live in New Orleans, you have almost certainly eaten at Brennan family restaurant. Ditto if you have ever visited New Orleans. And even if you have only thought about making the trip down to the Big Easy, chances are you have heard of a restaurant run by someone with a connection to the Brennan family.

The point is: Brennan is a name that means something in New Orleans. So being the executive chef of Brennan’s, the original fine-dining establishment responsible for starting the empire (and inventing bananas foster!) really means something.

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