Written by Amy Green of Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free.

Photo courtesy Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free

If you’re like me, you want your baked goods to look bakery perfect. No exceptions. I don’t always achieve that lofty goal but since taking Fundamentals of Baking in culinary school I have a better understanding of how the ingredients work together – or fight each other. Here are my top tops to help improve the sweets that come out of your oven.

Written by Michele of Veggie Num Nums.

I used to live very close to San Francisco and I became a spoiled shopper since it was so easy to track down anything I needed. Finding an exotic ingredient was simple. I also used to love to just explore the small grocery stores that sold food from around the world. But since I moved to Central California I no longer have easy access to all those grocery stores. So, if you're like me and you don't live near a large city, or if you just enjoy “window shopping” and drooling over all the really neat foods that you've never tried before, here's a list of my favorite online “ethnic” food shops.

La Tienda specializes in Spanish food and has a huge selection-several hundred items. I would love to try their Marcona almonds and their saffron looks wonderful. They also sell some interesting Latin American products such as prickly pear marmalade and sweet potato flour.

Cuban Food Market sells such Cuban specialties like sugar cane syrup, and a whole page of guava products. I covet the guava empanadas.