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This Year's Best Online Recipe Resource

partysugar — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:45:51 -0800

As part of our Best of 2008 coverage we asked you what website is your favorite resource for recipes. The results are very close: Food Network beat out Allrecipes by one vote! Yum and I agree with the majority and are making Food Network the editor's pick for best online recipe resource.

Although I was initially taken aback by the site's recent makeover, I've come to love the new Food Network. Besides the huge collection of easily searchable recipes, I enjoy the videos and behind-the-scenes details. Why do you log on to Food Network?

What's Your Favorite Online Recipe Resource of 2008?

partysugar — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:15:04 -0800

I'm not afraid to admit it: I love reading recipes and I love reading them online. The internet is a wonderful resource for recipes, and I often find myself searching several websites until I find the perfect one. My computer is even dirtied like a cookbook with sauce splatters and food smudges.

Since you read this website, I'm assuming you browse the web for recipes, too. Besides YumSugar and in honor of the Best of 2008 coverage, I want to know: Where do you like to read recipes online?

Source

Grab Bag: "I Was the Other Woman"

TresSugar — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0700

I was the other woman. Should I tell? - The Frisky
Why men like it when women work. - Lemondrop
When your booty call wants to spoon. - Em & Lo
How to handle a hot and cold guy. - Your Tango
Female law student thinks "humping each other's brains out" is the recipe for success. - Jezebel
A mother's advice to her daughter about stress that could help us all. - Smitten
How did female ninja Uma turn into woman-with-a-pacifier-in-her-mouth Uma? - Double X
Confession: "I had rough sex online." - Self
Who wouldn't be in the mood for a raindrop symphony? - Urlesque

How Kristen Bell Stays Fit as a Fiddle

FitSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:50:16 -0700

Kristen Bell is no stranger to the spotlight, with her villainous role on Heroes and also starring in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Now she's in another new flick, Couples Retreat, and with her busy career, Kristen has maintained her amazing figure.

In a recent interview with Women's Heath magazine, the blond actress shares how she tries to squeeze some kind of physical activity into her schedule every day, whether it's going for a walk, taking the stairs, or hiking with her pooches. Yoga is also part of her routine to help her stay aware of her body, and strength training helps her stay toned. I love that Kristen admits she'll lift weights for much longer with a trainer than she would by herself.

Does Kristen count calories? To find out read more.

You may be surprised to hear that Kristen does keep track. "I find it almost comforting to count calories, because it makes me conscious of what I'm eating." She is a conscientious eater too. Kristen decided to go vegetarian at age 11 for animal rights, but her mom made sure she was healthy about it. Bell explains, "I try to eat more fresh foods than processed ones, and the grainiest bread possible."

Another great tip? Kristen will exercise during lunchtime, and afterward, snack on her lunch the rest of the day. Instead of devouring it all at once, she'll enjoy a handful here, do a little work, then have another gigantic handful. She says, "It spaces the meal out to a place my body can handle." When it comes to preparing food, Kristen loves to cook. Perusing recipes online and trying them out is one thing she loves to do for others. Making food yourself is one sure way to know what you're putting in your body, so you can make sure it's healthy.

Feel the DailyBurn

FitSugar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:00:43 -0700

I'm becoming a big fan of DailyBurn - a website that lets its users track workout, diet, and health goals in easy-to-read charts and graphs. There's a ton of great health and fitness information on the site and it has a social side that lets users interact with other members.

If you're not very tech savvy, don't be afraid. The site is easy to use and is laid out in a friendly and intuitive way. There are three main areas to DailyBurn - nutrition, exercise, and social networking. To find out how they work, read more.

Nutrition: This is basically an online food journal on steroids. Its food database contains the details of close to 200,000 foods, which makes it easy to track your diet and calorie intake and get a complete nutritional breakdown of what you're eating. There's also a pretty good database of healthy recipes, too.

Exercise: In this area you can design a fitness program for yourself or use one of the 80,000+ existing programs already on the site. If you don't understand an exercise, it's OK, because DailyBurn has tons of videos detailing the exercises. The exercise tracking tool is awesome - you can track your stats for weight loss, muscle gain, strength, and endurance. If you need better improvement in a certain area, it's really easy to adjust your fitness program.

Social Networking: This is where DailyBurn really sets itself apart from other sites. Use this section to find online workout partners and confidants who end up being your biggest cheering section while you reach your goals. And if you like a little healthy competition, you can go up against one another in fitness challenges much like The Biggest Loser. There are also groups members can join depending on their interest.

The basic tools on DailyBurn are free but paid members get access to advanced options like meal planning. The site is a great tool for burning fat and gaining muscle, as well as helping make smarter food choices. I like that I don't need to spend a lot of time inputting information onto DailyBurn because everything I need is already in its databases and navigation tools.

Website of the Day: Not Beans Again

GeekSugar — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:25:17 -0700

It could be the change in seasons that's making me want to hibernate and eat a little bit more, but I love today's website offering for its ability to spit out a recipe based on what I have in my cupboards, no additional shopping required.

Similar to another recipe finder I featured, Not Beans Again gives you a list of recipes based on your ingredient entries, but the biggest difference is that Not Beans Again includes user uploaded recipes too.

So really, it's a toss-up whether your food will be slammin' or not so great. It totally goes along with the whole using-what-you-have theme. Besides, isn't leaving something like that up to chance sometimes fun?

Too Easy To Be True: Berry Good Dessert

partysugar — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:58:31 -0700

So I've been going nuts over strawberries lately and I finally figured out why I can't get them off of my mind. Strawberries, one of my favorite fruits, are only available (ok you can get them almost all year long but really a strawberry in January isn't that good) for a limited time. Like the Kate Moss for Topshop collection, strawberries are a limited edition fruit. The simple fact that you can only purchase, consume, and enjoy the red berries for a certain amount of time makes them that much more covetable and that much more delicious. So get em while they're hot and get them now. Today I've got a swift, easy dessert recipe where the luscious perfection of the strawberry is enhanced by its cousin, the raspberry. Like me, you know you just cant get enough strawberries so, read more

Strawberries in Raspberry Puree
From Delia Online

1 lb (450 g) firm, ripe strawberries
8 oz (225 g) raspberries
2½ oz (60 g) powdered sugar, sieved
5 fl oz (150 ml) heavy cream, whipped

Hull the strawberries, but don't wash them; just gently wipe them with a piece of damp kitchen paper.
The raspberries should then be pressed to a pulp through a nylon sieve and mixed with the icing sugar.
Now arrange the strawberries in a bowl (a glass one would show off the attractive colour of this dish), and sit the bowl on some ice cubes that you have arranged in the bottom of another bowl.
Mix the raspberry purée into the strawberries, then just before serving top with the whipped cream.

Serves 4.

Print recipe with images | without images

VIA Instant Coffee to Arrive in Starbucks Stores Nationwide

YumSugar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:50:33 -0700

If you're a frequent or occasional instant coffee drinker, look out for a new kind of brew coming to a store near you. On Sept. 29, Starbucks will be rolling out its much-discussed instant coffee, VIA, in stores across the US and Canada.

When VIA Ready Brew was first introduced back in March, the insta-packets were only available in limited markets: Seattle, Chicago, London, and online. “Consumers have quickly adopted our instant coffee as their coffee while on the go,” CEO Howard Schultz said in a statement. “We were overwhelmed and humbled by the positive response from our customers and partners after tasting Starbucks VIA."

Unsurprisingly, Starbucks is not only marketing VIA as coffee on-the-go, but also as a creative element in the kitchen, playing a part in recipes from coffee sodas to cupcakes. Starbucks fans, do tell: Will you try out VIA once it hits your side of town?

Off to Market: Salad Accessories

partysugar — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:50:16 -0700

This Summer we've been celebrating in-season produce with a plethora of delicious salad recipes. Thus I thought it was high time we showcase a wide variety of salad accessories. From bowls to spinners to colanders to tongs to platters, a lot of kitchen tools are necessary to prepare and serve a scrumptious salad. This is where you come in. I want you to tell me your favorite salad accessories. Whether it's a tried and trusted wooden bowl you've been making Caesar salad in forever, or a shiny new set of porcelain tongs that you've been contemplating purchasing - bookmark it.

Share it with us by saving it in the Yum Market on TeamSugar with the keyword tag Salad Accessories. Next week I'll highlight your collection of salad essentials!

To learn how bookmarking works, refer to geeksugar's explanation. To get you started, check out a list of my favorite online stores and read more.

Bed Bath & Beyond
CB2
Cooking.com
Crate & Barrel
Ikea
Linens and Things
NapaStyle
Pier 1
Plum Party
Pottery Barn
Sur La Table
Target
Restoration Hardware
Williams Sonoma
Wishing Fish
World Market

Does Julie Powell Deserve All the Backlash?

YumSugar — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:45:56 -0700

In an article published last week entitled "Stop Hating Julie Powell, Please," Newsweek's Jennie Yabroff writes that the food blogosphere has misdirected its anger at Julie Powell. She traces the food writer's rise to fame, from relatable home cook and newfangled blogger to published culinary authority, and believes that all the criticism boils down to one complaint: that Julie Powell isn't a legitimate cook. She never claimed to be, Yabroff argues (something that Powell also reiterated when she spoke with us).

Whether you find Powell engaging and humorous or annoying and self-absorbed is a matter of taste, but it is her voice, not her cooking, that she should be judged by. Like it or not, her breezy, chatty, "let me tell you about my dog and my husband and what I did this weekend and oh yeah here's a recipe for fried squash blossoms" approach set the tone for most of the food blogs today, of which there are thousands . . . All owe her a debt of gratitude.

While I do think that there's a lot of resentment in the online world about Julie Powell's success, I can also see how her writing might be perceived as whiny and self-involved. How do you feel about it: should Julie Powell be criticized?