YumSugar

Yummy Links: From Alton Brown to Pinkberry

YumSugar — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:23:33 -0700

Alton Brown talks about his next big career move. - Chow
Remember the award winning peanut butter cookies? Here they are recreated from scratch. - Baking Bites
Or, if you're wondering what it tastes like when you make them exactly like suggested, see what other folks have to say. - Cookie Madness
Check out this healthy tip for packing salads for a week. - FitSugar
Learn how to effectively warm bread in the microwave. - The Kitchn
Discover these fabulous tea finds. - Simply Stated
One dish, two meals. Make double dinners with half the effort. - iVillage
Looking for more Passover dessert ideas? - The Food Section
Get the 411 on building and planting your own planter box. - CasaSugar
It only took three years, but Pinkberry is officially "frozen yogurt." - Eater LA

How Does Your Garden Grow?

YumSugar — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:29:51 -0700

It's the first day of spring, and my thoughts are turning towards fresh veggies and bright colors. Normally it's the appetizers and main courses that get the spring treatment, but this year, dessert can play along too. This Garden Patch Cakelet Pan ($34) is a garden-themed cake pan that features rows of carrots, cauliflower, radishes and peas. It would make the most adorable petit-fours and hey, maybe it'll get your little ones (or big ones) to finally eat their veggies.

Grow Stars and Moon In Your Garden

YumSugar — Thu, 31 May 2007 11:29:12 -0700

I love the look of these Moon & Stars Watermelon - which gets its name from the striking pattern of small dots and one larger one. This extra sweet Amish heirloom variety was once on the verge of extinction, but is making a comeback. If you're interested in growing them in your garden, a packet of purple variety seeds costs $2.39 and a packet of the green variety costs $2.69.

Source: Outblush

Do You Grow Your Own Herbs/Vegetables?

YumSugar — Fri, 25 May 2007 03:38:19 -0700

How Does Your Matchstick Garden Grow?

YumSugar — Fri, 25 May 2007 01:08:13 -0700

If an eggling herb garden is not your style, then I suggest you check out the clever matchstick garden instead. Available in two sets (herbs or wildflowers), each matchstick garden contains sticks that you plant tip first into the ground (or a cute container of your choice). Once you do that, you'll soon have a flower or herb garden of your very own! The herb set comes with basil, chives, parsley and thyme and the wildflower set comes with cornflower, shasta daisy, corn marigold and field poppy. If you like the idea, you can find one in a store near you or order 5 packs for $12.50.

Source: Daily Olive

Plant-Me Pets

YumSugar — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:58:39 -0700

If you haven't noticed I have a special place in my heart for whimsy, particularly when it comes to plants. I found these guys today while I was trolling around the web (seriously, can one do anything besides troll when they're on the internet?) and they're soo soo cute. Called Plant-Me Pets, these little guys are made of natural latex rubber and their eyes are made from seeds. They can hang out on your desk and when you get bored. Ploomp! Plant them in the ground by burying them head first (seems a bit wrong doesn't it?). Add some sun, water and voila! The rubber will decompose, the seeds will sprout and you'll have a plant in no time. Available in three varieties (cantaloupe, tomato and pumpkin) for $20 each.

Happy Earth Day! Get Yourself an Edible Miniature Garden

YumSugar — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:58:31 -0700

This Sunday, April 22, marks the 38th annual Earth Day and one of the tips that FitSugar recommends to be healthy and green at the same time is to "eat local fruits and vegetables." I'm all for eating locally, but I don't think it gets much more local than your own backyard. I personally don't have much of a green thumb and need all the help I can get (although I actually brought an almost dead tree back to life last summer!). However, I think I've found something that even the blackest of thumbs can manage. This miniature edible indoor garden is just the perfect size and needs little maintenance (just some water). I think it will look so cute on my desk (which is a bonus, because if it's on my desk I probably won't forget to water it). It comes with the interesting structure, four reusable felt pads with seed packets (clover, cress, lettuce and mustard) and a packet refill. All you have to do is provide the water and you're in business. Oh and it'll look adorable next to these little egglings. Happy Earth Day!

Source: Outblush

Three New Egglings

YumSugar — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:57:19 -0700

I just learned that my favorite little egglings have three new varieties: spicy red pepper, lavender and wild strawberries. Egglings, for those of you that don't know, look and feel like a large egg, but are really a ceramic container that you crack open, water and voila! You've got a plant that will grow for about five months before having to be planted in the soil. Available in basil, mint, phlox (a flowering plant), petunia, chrysanthemum, and now spicy red pepper, lavender and wild strawberries. The cost is $9.50 each.

Source: Design*Sponge

VeggieTrader Turns Lemons Into . . . Carrots?

YumSugar — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:50:19 -0700

Home gardens are all the rage, and if you have friends who grow their own produce, you probably end up eating a lot of it too. One downside to getting down and dirty in the garden is that you often have way too much of one thing (kale, anyone?) and not enough of another. Enter VeggieTrader, a new website that wants to help gardeners swap their surplus fruits and veggies for crops that might not have come up so well. Using the free service, growers can sell their extra apples or pears for a bit of cash, and folks without gardens can log on and look for local produce. Though I've heard of community produce swaps, VeggieTrader is the first site I've seen attempting to facilitate swaps on a large scale. It's still relatively small, but it looks worth exploring. If you're interested, here's how it works. Or, if you have a lot of friends who garden, why not host your own produce swap and make it an excuse to throw a party?

Summer of Salads: Garden Salad

YumSugar — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:00:17 -0700

Although I hold appreciation for foie gras bon-bons and osetra caviar, haute cuisine isn't the only food I'll open my heart (and stomach) to: Since I've never been able to outgrow my love for Americana staples such as processed cheese and the McDonald's Egg McMuffin, I simply embrace them.

Another big-chain menu item I crave? The enormous bowl of garden salad that's a part of every visit to the Olive Garden. On the rare occasion that I find myself dining at the restaurant, there's something about the ultracrisp lettuce leaves, the mildly earthy black olives, and the pickled juice that squirts out of the pepperoncini that calls to my senses. So when I recently came across a test kitchen attempt to replicate the salad, I couldn't resist trying it at home. For a crunch-quenching side that's perfect for a 4th of July celebration, keep reading