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Announcing Our Thanksgiving Recipe Challenge!

partysugar — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:34 -0800

Calling all home cooks: Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we want you to share your tried and trusted recipes in the community. Just join the Kitchen Goddess group and go hog wild! Does your giblet gravy get rave reviews? Do people fight over the last of your sweet potato casserole? Is everyone always asking for the secret to your green beans? Now's your chance to show us what you've got. Upload your recipes along with a photo and a brief description of the dish to the Kitchen Goddess group. All month long, we'll be selecting our favorite recipes and featuring them here on YumSugar. Imagine the satisfaction you'll have on Thanksgiving dinner when you sister-in-law says, "this stuffing is the best I've ever tasted," and you coolly reply, "I know. It was featured on YumSugar. I'll send you the link to the recipe." So what are you waiting for? Start typing up those recipes now! To learn how to post recipes, check out this guide.

Share Your Recipes in the Kitchen Goddess Group!

partysugar — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:00:04 -0700

Did you know that besides checking out our fabulous recipe recommendations you can also post, share, and create your very own recipes in the YumSugar Community? It's super easy and wonderfully rewarding - you can even ask for tips and get feedback. Here's what you do:

Start by joining the Kitchen Goddess group. It's the original recipe exchange suite. There are already loads of fabulous tested recipes from our members, so be sure to browse it once you've joined.
Now it's time to post your own recipe! Click on New Post. It's on the left hand side of the page. Click on the Recipe tab.
Fill in the necessary spaces including the link to a recipe's source (if you found it someplace on the Internet), the ingredients, and the directions. The Rich Text Editor bar across the top allows for easy customization of posts.
Don't forget to upload images! Snap a picture of the finished dish before you eat it and add it to the recipe.
Fill out the Categories and Tag fields, if you want.
Click Create Post. Voila! Your recipe is done.

So what are you waiting for? Start sharing your recipes in the YumSugar Community. If you're lucky, we'll feature your recipe here on YumSugar!

Last Chance to Enter Our Thanksgiving Giveaway!

partysugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:16:47 -0800

From our free downloadable planner to our favorite recipes for stuffing, sides, and desserts, we're dedicating November to all things Thanksgiving. We're taking it one step further by partnering with our friends at Williams-Sonoma® to bring you the ultimate turkey day prize! There's everything you need to host the perfect Thanksgiving.

We're sending you the bird, a free-range organic Willie Bird turkey from California. Then, we're throwing in all the necessary tools for creating a juicy and flavorful roast turkey. There's a stainless steel roaster, a baster, turkey lifters, brining bags, and probe thermometer. We couldn't forget about the side dishes, so there's a kitchen timer to ensure everything cooks properly; a potato ricer is a must have for smooth and fluffy mashed potatoes; and a ruffled pie dish and Fall forest piecrust cutters are essential for picture-ready pies. All of these products form a giveaway package that's worth more than $500!

To enter to win, you must log in and take the quiz below by 1 p.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 20. Your eligibility is not based on getting the answers correct; completing the quiz once you are logged in makes you eligible to win. You do, however, need to be a PopSugar Network member before taking the quiz. If you're not already a member, register here for an account. One quiz entry per person. See the official rules here.

Take the quiz

Let's Dish: How Do You Organize Your Recipes?

YumSugar — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:00:13 -0700

From recipe card filing systems to customized innovations like the tastebook, there are many ways to organize recipes. Still, if you own more than a dozen cookbooks, keep some of your family's recipes on record, and have limited kitchen space, maintaining an organized cooking library can be tough.

I've always struggled to arrange my kitchen paperwork - treasured family recipes, cookbooks, personal creations, recipes I've come across online, and appliance instruction manuals - all in one place. The closest thing I have to a solution is a binder full of sheet protectors that are sorted by course, so that I can insert any printout, clip, handwritten recipe, or manual. It sits next to a shelf full of cookbooks with recipes that have been tabbed.

How about you? Have you found a recipe organizing solution that works for you? I'd love to hear about it!

Source

Southern Side: Creamed Collard Greens

YumSugar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:50:11 -0800

I'm a little sick of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. That's why this year I plan on serving slightly different versions of old favorites - like a turkey roulade instead of a whole roasted turkey, for instance.

Rather than the usual green bean casserole, I'm reaching for a neo-Southern riff on the creamed spinach standby, and plan on impressing guests with creamed collard greens. Unlike creamed spinach, this vegetable side isn't swimming in heavy cream; the cream adds subtle body, while smoky bacon rounds out the collards' bitter character.

But the pièce de résistance is really the crispy, cheesy crumb topping. Be sure to make a generous amount, because the more, the better. Add a new tradition to your meal when you keep reading

Reader Recipe: Powderhorn Potatoes

Yum Community — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:50:11 -0800

This story was written by member b1uebunn and comes from the Kitchen Goddess group in the YumSugar Community.Check out her family's Thanksgiving recipe when you read more

You Won't Miss the Turkey With This Savory Squash Pudding

YumSugar — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:00:27 -0800

Planning an almost meatless feast or vegetarian meal this Thanksgiving? If you were fretting about a main course that can compete with the bird as the star of the supper, you can stop worrying; I've found one for you!

I'm not sure if any entrée can ever be all things to all people, but this savory bread pudding is as close as it gets. It's wholesome, with kale, butternut squash, and shallots, yet at the same time hearty and satisfying. Want to impress herbivores and carnivores alike? Keep reading.

Happy Hour: Cran-Limoncello

YumSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:00:49 -0800

Every few months, I host a book club in my home, and find it a lovely occasion to try out a new cocktail. This time around, I couldn't wait to incorporate ingredients that evoke the holidays, like cranberries and the zesty Italian after-dinner favorite, limoncello.

This three-ingredient sipper couldn't be easier to pull together; it simply calls for seltzer, limoncello, and cranberry juice - no shaker required. Yet the payoff is in spades: "What went into this? Can I have the recipe?" friends asked me throughout the night. I assured them that even the most bar-challenged could make this drink. For a pretty garnish that's a hint of what's to come, toss in a few fresh cranberries, too. Keep reading for the recipe.

Cranberries Move From Sauce to Sorbet

YumSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:28:15 -0800

Although Thanksgiving is all about tradition, I love to take a quintessential holiday ingredient and add a new twist to it. Cranberry sauce is essential to turkey day, but it's time to move this berry over to dessert - with a white wine and ginger infused cranberry sorbet. Normally sorbet is served between courses to cleanse the palate. However, I like to offer it after the feast for guests who prefer something lighter and more refreshing than pumpkin pie. If you're interested in moving your cranberries from the dinner table to the dessert table, keep reading.

And Now For a Few Words With Christopher Kimball

YumSugar — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:07:33 -0800

The folks behind America's Test Kitchen have just released a new book called America's Best Lost Recipes. It's a collection of heirloom recipes that could have easily gone missing forever if it wasn't for this collection.

Recently we had a chance to ask editor Christopher Kimball - the one with the bow tie - a few questions. He chatted about the new book, what goes on at the test kitchen, and why you should quit trying to be a chef, and start trying to be a great cook instead. Here's what he had to say:

YumSugar: What brought about the Lost Recipes collection?

Christopher Kimball: I am a huge fan of old cookbooks and old recipes but have wondered for years where all of these great old recipes went. But I wasn't interested in recipes that were purely historical or anthropological in nature - I wanted tried-and-true recipes that still resonated today. That is, one would really want to make and eat them. So, we started with a nationwide recipe contest for "lost" recipes and received 2,800 responses, selected 300 that seemed the most interesting, cooked them all, and finally whittled the list down to 121 recipes that were interesting, delicious, and also still, I hope, relevant for modern cooks.

YS: What was the most unexpected thing to come out of this collection?
CK: Oh, all of those cooking techniques that I had never heard of before. Baking a pound cake in an oven that is cold when you put the pan in. Or, making a chocolate cake with no eggs, milk, or butter. Or, and this was our winning recipe, putting peeled peaches around a pie plate, placing an upside down ramekin in the middle, drizzling a caramel sauce over them, topping with pie pastry, baking, and then, when baked, turning the whole thing upside down and all the juices have been sucked up into the ramekin. Now there is a magic trick for you!

To read the rest of part one of our interview with Chris, read more

YS: How would you explain Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen to our readers who are just learning about it?
CK: That's easy. We are a 3,000-square-foot test kitchen just outside of Boston that employees 35 full-time test cooks (almost 100 people total). Recipes are researched, a few sample versions are made and tasted, we construct our own recipe, and then we make it over and over again until we like it - like it a lot. In some cases, we have made a recipe over 100 times (our Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake comes to mind). We made over 1,000 pounds of fudge and never published the recipe in Cook's because it was not foolproof.

We publish two magazines - Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country - and we film the public television show, America's Test Kitchen, on the premises. We are also launching a new show on public television next summer based on Cook's Country magazine. It was filmed in Vermont in a house that was renovated specifically for Cook's Country.

YS: Could you explain more about your testing procedure? What does it take for you to publish a recipe?

CK: Each round of tests involves a blind tasting so we do not know which recipe is which. Each round focuses on one set of variables - cake flour versus all-purpose for example. Once we get that right, we move on to the next set of issues. Once a recipe is perfected, it is sent out to a former editor in San Francisco who makes it for her friends and gives us a fresh perspective. Then it is sent to 5,000 subscribers. About 150 to 200 of them will make it in the first week, and we use those ratings to continue revising the recipe. We need 80 percent of those surveyed to want to make the recipe again. If the ratio falls much below that, we go back to the drawing board. The whole process can take up to two months. Of course, not every recipe goes through this level of scrutiny. Here, I am talking about the recipes
that we publish in Cook's Illustrated.

YS: Who gets the final say on whether or not something is "finished"?
CK: A group of us review the reader surveys and taste the food to determine whether it is done or not. This includes our test kitchen director, our editorial director, two or three other editors, and then myself on a more cursory level near the end of the process.

Tomorrow Chris answers our questions about gourmet cooking, the difference between home chefs and home cooks, and we also learn about his FOUR freezers. Be sure to check back!