I use file_get_contents() & file_put_contents() to load and save a .css file. After saving the loaded file the file_put_content
file_get_contents()
file_put_contents()
.css
file_put_content
Stripslashes is probably what you're looking for. Certain PHP installations will automagically escape strings for you by adding slashes. This should reverse that.
Check out Magic Quotes