YumSugar

How to Throw a Lost-Themed Party

YumSugar — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:15:13 -0800

If I am eagerly awaiting the Season 4 premiere of Lost and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next then I know I'm not the only one out there. In fact my pals at Neatorama have actually come up with 15 details to help you throw a Lost party. So if Jan. 31 - the Season 4 premiere date - isn't coming fast enough, tide yourself over with these party plans.

You must check out all 15 - some are obvious and some are more obscure - but here are my favorites:

Serve airplane-sized bottles of liquor and mini packets of peanuts.

Make these amazing cupcakes like the folks at My Aim Is True.

For the rest of my favorite Lost-themed party ideas, read more.

Send out Oceanic Boarding pass invites.
Label a bottle of whiskey as "MacCutcheon."
Order (or make) fried chicken, and change the labels to "Mr. Cluck’s Fried Chicken."
Scatter your luggage all over the living room (or wherever you’re viewing the show).

Check out the list and then tell me, do you have any other great Lost party ideas?

Photo copyright 2007 ABC, Inc.
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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!

Beer Pager: Love It or Hate It?

YumSugar — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:50:36 -0700

Tailgaters, I think you'll agree: there's nothing worse than reaching for your can of beer after a short booze breather, only to find a sea of half-consumed containers staring back at you. But now you can call on this genius beer pager. At the push of a button it beckons with a flashing light and, rather fittingly, rips a gratifying belch. Do you think it's frivolous - or entertaining and functional?

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Top Chef Vegas: Episode 11

partysugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:00:55 -0800

After a brief hiatus with last week's Fabio-hosted reunion dinner, we went back to Vegas - and into Padma's hotel room - for this week's episode of Top Chef.

The final six chefs started things off by cooking breakfast in bed for their fearless hostess and her celebrity chef friend Nigella Lawson. For the elimination challenge, each contestant created a dish for a party, drawing inspiration from different casinos on the strip. Who was playing to win? Let's talk about it when you read more.

I love how Nigella said Eli's dish "would be" good hangover food - you know, in theory. Whose quickfire dish would you want to eat if you were hungover?
How did you feel about Nigella as a guest judge?
What casino do you think would be hardest to base a dish around?
Kevin's dish looked great, but can anyone explain what it had to do with the Mirage?
Why do you think Jennifer has seemingly lost so much of her confidence?
With all the focus on Bryan's son and family life, did you think he might get kicked off?
Isn't it odd that the remaining guys are sharing a room? Shouldn't they be able to spread out by now?
What was up with the wind in that party venue?
Are buffalo wings something you associate with New York City? What iconic NYC food would you riff on in Michael's position?
How do you feel about who won and lost?

Photo courtesy of Bravo

Yummy Links: From Tony Bourdain to Shake Shack's Burger

partysugar — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:15:08 -0700

Has Anthony Bourdain lost his coolness? - Huffington Post
Turn string cheese into bloody fingers for Halloween. - Food Wishes Video
How does food affect your dreams?- Chow
5 books every cook should have. - The Atlantic
Guy Fieri currently has 15 impersonators across the country. - Eat Me Daily
Ruth Reichl believes print magazines will cease to exist in the very near future. - Eater
Learn how to make the Shake Shack's famous burger at home. - A Hamburger Today

Top Chef Vegas: Episode 7

partysugar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:30:10 -0700

After a week off, Top Chef was back last night. However, I couldn't help but feel a little lost. I had forgotten what happened on the previous episode and sadly, realized how much I don't really care about this set of cheftestants. Are you just going through the motions too? Want to discuss the show? You know what to do: keep reading.

For Papa John's, Camaro Search Ends on a Sour Note

YumSugar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:00:45 -0700

This Summer's turned out to be quite the roller coaster ride for Papa John's founder John Schnatter. First, he and the pizza chain held a contest to locate his 1971 Camaro, the car he sold to finance his first pizza joint 25 years ago.

In what seemed like a fairy tale, Schnatter reunited with his long lost Camaro in Flatwoods, KY. But here's where the story turns sour: Papa John's is now suing one Kentucky couple, Phillip and Billie Slone, who believe they deserve the $250,000 search prize.According to the Slones, they first alerted Papa John's to the vehicle's whereabouts. Papa John's has fired back, accusing the Slones of fraud. The chain claims that after it informed Billie Slone that she didn't qualify for the prize without the vehicle's title, she contacted the titleholder, Jeff Robinson, and told him she knew a man who would pay for his Camaro.

Although Papa John's offered the Slones $25,000 for the role they played in linking Robinson to the pizza chain, Billie Slone has accused the company of amending winning guidelines after the contest was under way. I'm saddened to see a monetary prize spoil such a fun competition. Who is at fault: Papa John's or the Slones?

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Rachael Ray, Ina Garten Nab Daytime Emmys

YumSugar — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:00:22 -0700

Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, and Ina Garten took home top honors at the 36th Annual Daytime Emmys on Saturday night.

For the second year in a row, Rachael Ray won the outstanding talk-show prize for Rachael Ray, her daytime TV spot. Grill It! With Bobby Flay took home the award for best culinary program, beating out Barefoot Contessa, Giada at Home, Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, and Simply Ming. But Ina Garten had her time to shine, too, prevailing with the award of outstanding lifestyle host for Barefoot, an honor bestowed on Giada De Laurentiis last year for her show, Everyday Italian.

But Giada De Laurentiis didn't go home empty-handed, either. Her newest project, Giada at Home, won for directing in a lifestyle program. Food Network's only Susan Lucci of the bunch? Sandra Lee, who lost both her nods - one in outstanding achievement in hairstyling and the other for makeup - to The View. Judging by her ultrapolished, Barbie-esque look at the awards, however, perhaps the Academy should reassess. Are you surprised to hear who the winners are?

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Papa John Reunited With 1971 Camaro

partysugar — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:50:33 -0700

In what seems like a story made for television, John Schnatter, the chairman and former CEO of Papa John's, has found his long lost 1971 Camaro. In 1984, Schnatter sold the car and used the money from the sale to open the pizza joint.

Last June, he embarked on a 12-city tour in search of his former ride. He highly publicized the trip by chronicling it on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter and made special public appearances, like ringing the closing bell of the Nasdaq stock exchange, and throwing out the first pitch at a Dodgers game. After car blog Jalopnik joined in the search, a reader located the Camaro and notified the blog, who then got in touch with the pizza chain founder. Jeff Robinson from Flatwoods, KY, was able to produce the title to the car Schnatter sold 25 years ago.

In return for the car, Schnatter is rewarding Robinson with $250,000. Papa John's is so excited by the discovery that to celebrate, today they are giving away a free large, one-topping pizza to anyone who owns a Chevy Camaro. Are you surprised that Papa John found his old car?

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Northeastern Tomato Blight Caused by Home Gardening

YumSugar — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:50:39 -0700

A fast-spreading fungus has ravaged tomato crops across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, wiping out this year's crop and causing the price of heirloom tomatoes to skyrocket by 20 percent. But the cause of the pandemic is something that's much more innocent than you might think.

In a recent New York Times column, renowned farm-to-table chef Dan Barber discusses the aggressive disease, known as late blight, that has wiped out 70 percent of this year's heirloom tomato crop. He argues that there are three contributing factors that caused the intense blight. First, a rainy Summer, moderate temperatures, and lots of humidity; second, infected tomato starter plants sold to home growers; and third, the explosion of home gardeners.Ironically, the very community that's engaged in eating locally has set the stage for one of the worst heirloom tomato harvests in history. Barber argues that, despite what Slow Food believers might advocate, future farming must involve nonheirloom plant varieties bred to resist diseases.

The blight isn't limited to new home gardeners; even seasoned pro Martha Stewart has lamented that she lost 70 percent of the 50 different tomato varieties in her garden this year. Have you fallen victim to this year's tomato travesty? What do you think of Barber's argument?