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 Shree of Shree's Blog.

Camping is one of the best ways to enjoy time with your family as well as the outdoors. However, unless you can hunt or fish, food is one of the important things you should consider while packing for a weekend in the wild. Ah! The primal nature of man returns … cooking over a full blown fire. Yes! I am … not understanding ... why can't I find enough sticks? Why isn't the fire burning? Will I freeze before the fire has started? Well ... considering all that could go wrong, a foodie's best friend can be an outdoor stove. This is basically a stove which can be as minimal as a single burner hooked on to a mini portable propane gas tank or as elaborate as your backyard outdoor grill with the fancy side table and the cooler attachment. Of course, all depends on your intention and your budget.

Written by Talia of innBrooklyn.

I have found it increasingly easy to eat sustainably in recent years. I'm lucky to live in Brooklyn and we have great resources for local and organic food. It is no effort to sprinkle pasture raised cow's milk Parmesan over an heirloom tomato sauce on a bed of homemade organic pasta. I can get my shade grown caffeine fix and feed my sweet tooth with fair trade, artisanal chocolate. But when it comes to finding a way to eat ethical seafood, its another story. It sometimes seems impossible to keep track of what fish is sustainable, never mind where to get it. Every species has to be independently analyzed to determine whether it is endangered, to understand the local eco system and method of fishing, even to know about the fish's own diet. But don't despair, here are some tips so you can carrying on enjoying your nutrient rich, Omega-3 fatty acid endowed fish - along with a selection of favourite recipes from the blogosphere that will make the effort to search out sustainable seafood worthwhile!

Since the large predator fish like tuna and salmon have been fished to the point of extinction in the wild, it is much more sustainable to eat near the bottom of the food chain. A single pound of tuna needs a full seven pounds of smaller fish to feed it, so if we simply eat the sardines directly, we retain a significantly higher portion of biomass in the oceans. Also the predator fish have much higher concentrations of toxins, like mercury, in their flesh.

Written by Margie of More Please by Margie.

If you’re reading this, chances are you regularly seek out and prepare recipes with multiple degrees of difficulty. But I humbly submit that you should occasionally put aside your daring deeds in the kitchen and serve up this simple comfort classic – a hot dog -- a Chicago-style hot dog to be more precise.

I realize there are other ways to dress a hot dog, but having grown up on the south-side of the Windy City, it’s the Chicago-style hot dog by which I judge all others. A perfect balance of flavors and textures that hits all the right notes: savory and sweet, spicy and sour, crunchy and tender, meaty and delicious.

Written by Nikki of art and lemons.

I admit it. For years, I stocked pre-made salad vinaigrette in my pantry. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to whisk together a basic vinaigrette made with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, rather I was too busy to do so on a given day.

Or so I said. Looking back, it wasn’t true. But those were the college years, when I consumed bowls of ramen noodles with flimsy tofu thrown for lunch and often dinner and maybe, a salad to accompany it. Bottled dressing, of course.

I no longer think twice about making vinaigrette (which really only takes 5 minutes). Salads taste brighter without a list of semi-identifiable ingredients. The price tag is better too. You also know the ingredients are and where they come from unlike the pre-made varieties sold on supermarket shelves by the armfuls. No strange dies or gums here.

Written by Jill one of our very talented non-blogging members. This is the second of a 2-part series.

Where I was staying outside of Palpa, Ica, we had a woman who came everyday and cooked for us. Her name was Señora Viki, and she was an amazing cook. It’s her food that I remember the most from my time in Peru, so that’s mostly what I’m going to talk about here. We got up at 4:30 and ate a calorie-filled breakfast of eggs, rolls, cheese, jam, yogurt, and oatmeal. We left at 5:00 and were at the site by 6:00. There we worked without stopping or eating until 2:30, and when we got back we had our one big meal of the day. My point is that any food would have been welcome, but Señora Viki always presented beautiful and delicious food, and she was delighted to show us the best of the local cuisine. It was simple, down-to-earth food, but it was filling and extremely flavorful. We’d start with a cool green salad, or maybe cold chicken salad served in half an avocado.

Written by Jill one of our very talented non-blogging members. This is the first of a 2-part series.

A few years ago I traveled to the Atacama Desert of southern Peru to work at an archaeological dig. I had a lot of expectations about my trip, but they didn’t really include any thoughts about what I’d be eating. I guess I’d never considered the cuisine of Peru or, if I had, I probably had some vague impression of spicy beans and rice, and not much else. I didn’t really expect to like the food, instead viewing it as sustenance for my hard days of work, and I definitely didn’t expect to fall in love with Peruvian food. But I did.

Peruvian cuisine is incredibly culturally diverse and geographically varied. Like anywhere else, it ranges from simple and homey to complex culinary creation. It’s so diverse, in fact, that I couldn’t possibly hope to cover all my bases here, so I hope this will just be a starting point for you if, like me, you’d never thought about Peruvian food. This seems like a good place for me to say that I am by no means an expert on this topic. I’ve only been to Peru once and I stayed mostly in one region. That was enough, though, to create a deep and lasting impression on me, and I’ve experimented with Peruvian cooking ever since.

Written by Lis of The Daring Kitchen.

I know! This isn’t really an article – but a product review instead. This is the first of many product reviews that will be featured on the Daring Kitchen in the near future (although they will have their very own home by then).

This is a review on NuNaturals NuStevia products. But first, I must give this disclaimer – which might not give me much credibility after you’ve read my review:

I only use sugar substitutes in my drinks. Specifically coffee. Once in a great while, I’ll feel like sugar & citrus in my iced tea and I’ll use it then as well. But I don’t use it in my baking. A- I don’t bake that often to really warrant using it. B- I’ve experimented with Splenda before and didn’t like the results.

But, I am a middle aged (when the fakk did that happen?), overweight woman with Type II diabetes. I would LOVE to find a product that I could substitute for real sugar in EVERYTHING sweet I might consume.. so this is why I agreed to try their product.

Written by Kelly of Sass & Veracity.

I suppose you could convince me there is a dessert that typifies summer more than shortcake, and you might be able to string me along for a while before I came to my senses to explain delicately that, at least to me, not much else can compete.

My shortcake memories go back years, but they always begin the same: with a biscuit. Not a slice of angel food cake, or pound cake. A lowly biscuit. One that, if you’re me, would normally be found on a plate filled with beans, rice, and coleslaw. That kind of biscuit. The one that not much else can compare to when it comes to soaking up juice and binding everything together, whether it’s dessert or not.

Sure, I’ve tried a variety of recipes, combinations of flavors and ingredients, but in the end I’m only truly satisfied with that slightly salty bite of biscuit and the tart sweetness of fresh berries tempered by the richness of cream. It’s fabulous.

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.