Now that spring has sprung, I can't think of a better time to spend some time outside of the dining hall and try a hand at making your own food. Warmer weather lends itself to picnics, which I think are made all the better by homemade food. Not to mention that above-freezing temperatures make it easier to lug groceries back to your place. If you're not sure what to cook and want some inspiration, here's some of the best food blogs out there. (Also, let me just say that foodnetwork.com, while probably the most popular food Web site, is vastly inferior to these and, frankly, quite confusing.)

Foodgawker: A great site that updates almost overwhelmingly often. I swear, every time I check it out (which is at least three times a day) there's at least a couple new posts. The site's individual posts have pictures of each dish and a small caption describing them, and each pictures links to its recipe. However, sometimes the Web sites they link to are in foreign languages. But this is definitely my favorite food blog.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: For those of us who don't have access to or can't afford gourmet ingredients, this site is very helpful in finding yummy things to cook. Be warned though that many of her recipes aren't very diet-friendly. Yet it seems that lately she's been eschewing butter-saturated cinammon rolls for vegetable and pasta dishes. Her recipes are also very instructive, with both detailed written instructions and step-by-step photographs.

Food Porn Daily: Definitely a foodie's food blog. All it is are pictures of really, really good looking food. Admittedly, though, some of the close-ups of stews and seafood are, well, quite unappetizing.

Cooking By Numbers: So you go to your kitchen to grab some food, only to find that your fridge is a barren wasteland, save for half a jar of mayonnaise and a bottle of ketchup. Go to Cooking By Numbers, check the boxes indicating the food you have in your kitchen, and watch the Web site work its magic. It will give you as many options as it can as to what you can make. The Web site looks like it hasn't been updated since the late '90s, but it works well. Some of the recipes can be a little odd though. For example, I'm not sure how good a ketchup and mayonnaise quiche would be.