Blog Posts by YumSugar

YumSugarSource: Your Ultimate Guide to Chinese Dim Sum

February's National Hot Breakfast Month, and we've offered up warm and comforting recipes to get your day started. But it'd be impossible to ignore what is arguably the best hot breakfast of all: the tradition of Chinese dim sum. Dim sum (which technically translates to "point of the heart") can be a disorienting ritual: unrecognizable food being wheeled around in carts, waiters who only speak Cantonese, and an endless number of dumplings and buns. We're here to save you from the confusion of the process, as we present to you our ultimate field guide on the subject. We promise, you'll never be scared to order dim sum again! Check out more on our dim sun down low here.

YumSugarSource: Wolfgang Puck Reveals His Oscars Governors Ball Menu

Wolfgang Puck's menu at the annual Oscars Governors Ball is legendary, and with good reason. The chef has not only developed some classic favorites over the 18 years he's been creating the cuisine for the official Academy Awards afterparty, but each year he also finds a way to outdo himself. This time, it's with a 3D dessert that will be served with 3D glasses!

We chatted with Wolfgang yesterday at a preview of the celebration, where he filled us in on some celebrity favorites - Tom Cruise loves his steak dish and Barbra Streisand's a fan of his chicken pot pie - and gave us a preview of the more than 50 dishes he'll be serving up to the 1,500 guests on Feb. 26. We also got the recipe for the signature cocktail at this year's event, Moët & Chandon's Red Carpet Glamour. Check out our gallery for even more inside scoop on the drinks and dishes from the Governors Ball.

Related Content:

Make Wolfgang Puck's Smoked Salmon

Source: The Case For Packing Your Lunch in Mason Jars

Here at the office, we're big fans of mason jar meals; we've found you can avoid the hassle that comes with plastic food containers if you bring your lunch to work or school in a Ball jar. These glass storage containers are easy to clean and not prone to residue. We love that they seal, which prevents leaking in your bag, and they leave no plastic flavor in food. Best of all, they can hold anything from salads (think of all the stacked Caprese salads you could enjoy for lunch!) to various types of soup. You can heat up the contents in a microwave and eat it right out of the jar, if you like, to avoid cleaning more dishes. They're also reusable, affordable, and eco-friendly. Next time you find yourself searching frantically for that one lid that fits your plastic Tupperware container, I say think again and reach for the mason jar instead.

How do you bring your food to work?


Related Content:
Burning Question: Can You Refreeze Raw

Source: Build Your Own Breakfast Burrito at Home

The breakfast burrito: a divine combination of vegetables, meat (sometimes), cheese, eggs, and hot sauce all wrapped up in a warm tortilla. It's the perfect hangover remedy and it's incredibly satisfying.

A few weeks ago, I had a craving for a breakfast burrito. But in an effort to not let the contents of my fridge go to waste, I set out to see if I could make my own and still be satisfied. I actually surprised myself with how tasty these burritos were. I much prefer these over any I've had from a restaurant and I love the fact that you can experiment with your fillings.

This specific vegetarian recipe comes together in just 15 minutes, but don't be turned off by its simplicity because it's loaded with flavor. It calls for just a few vegetables that cook together in a cast-iron pan that brings all of the flavors out beautifully. A little bit of cheese, a scrambled egg, a few dashes of Tapatío, and things are good to go. I used a

Source: How to Select the Perfect Oyster Assortment

It's well-known lore that oysters can really titillate the palate (among other things), so I consulted Parke Ulrich, executive chef at Waterbar Restaurant in San Francisco, for tips on crafting the perfect oyster plate at home. Constructing a carefully curated selection of oysters is a bit of an art, much like creating a cheese plate. According to Chef Ulrich, oysters "have a great sense of place. They may be the same species but taste different depending on where they are actually grown." Since selecting an assortment of oysters can be intimidating (after all, various oysters get their flavors from tidal changes, minerality, water temperature, and other factors!), I asked Ulrich for a few pointers.

• Map out your choices. Oyster characteristics - liquidy, chewy, briny, earthy - often depend upon the oyster's origin. For example, "Tomales Bays [oysters native to the San Francisco Bay Area] are briny and sweet because they are

YumSugarSource: Sweet Success: 10 Tips For Baking the Perfect Macaron

With their vibrant colors and lacy frills, dainty, crisp-crusted French macarons are the perfect Valentine's Day baking project. But these lovely little delicacies are temperamental enough to stump even the most accomplished chefs. Even if you follow a detailed recipe down to the letter, a batch of macarons can go very wrong very quickly. Thanks to humidity, an unreliable oven temperature gauge, or an overly enthusiastic stirring hand, you may find yourself facing macaron-ageddon rather than baking bliss. But before you throw in the tea towel, we've assembled a few tips to solve your sugary conundrums.

• Use Aged Egg Whites: Aging the egg whites dehydrates them, resulting in a firmer, more stable meringue. Place your egg whites in a plastic wrap-covered, nonporous bowl, and poke a few holes in the plastic with a toothpick. Leave the bowl in the refrigerator for up to three days. Be sure to bring the egg whites back to

YumSugarSource: 5 One-Pot Meals to Make This Week

One of the main stresses in my life happens to be doing the dishes. Cooking a delicious, homemade meal is great and all, but the war zone of dirty dishes that emerges from that can be totally disheartening. That's why I like to turn to one-pot meals that minimize the mess. Here are five delicious recipes that only require one dish.

1.Shrimp Étouffée: A savory shrimp dish loaded with flavorful ingredients is not only fast and easy but only requires one pot!

Shrimp Étouffée
From Tabasco

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 medium onions, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup flour
3-1/2 cups water
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco

Source: 6 Things to Do With Scallions

Ever buy a bunch of herbs for a recipe, only to use a scant stem and find the rest wilted with dehydration a week later? This has admittedly been a long-standing problem in my kitchen, and I've been determined to cultivate a solution for it. This week I'm addressing an aromatic I have a chronic problem forgetting about: scallions.

When they're fresh, green onions have a biting smell and are resilient to the touch, but days later, the exact same stalks will take on a muted brownish hue, made slimy thanks to dehydration, and hunched over in sadness and neglect.

Since they age quickly, the key is to make sure you use them up before they get to such a sorry state! Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to do that; scallions have a mild pungency that's versatile enough to go into just about every savory dish.

A few examples:
1. Slice green onions as thinly as possible, then toss a handful into a garden salad.
2. Make a four-ingredient ginger