Cyndi Coon

Food & Ink: Pork Torta at Gallo Blanco

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

Food & Ink: Ahi Tuna at Latitude 8 in Chandler

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

True Food's "The Natural" Ginger Soda -- At Home

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ True Food at the Biltmore and Scottsdale Quarter is a local favorite for fresh and healthy food. One of the treats on the menu is a drink called The Natural. It is a fresh ginger and agave syrup soda. So this Thrifty Cook wondered if this could this be made at home. It ... More >>

Food & Ink: Green Tea and Panini at Starbucks in Apache Junction

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

Arcadia Farms Strawberry Chicken Salad at Home

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​Summer in Phoenix means salad. A favorite among the locals is the Arcadia Farms Strawberry Chicken Salad. But if you are feeling too hot to head out to eat why not make it at home yourself? Learn how to make Arcadia Farms Strawberry Chicken Salad after the jump.

Food & Ink Spinach Gnocchi at Frank in NYC

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

Iced Green Tea and Creme Brulee At Fred's in Barney's

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

Cornish Pasty At Home

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​The Cornish Pasty Co. is a big hit with Chow Bella. And why not? This is comfort food at its finest, all wrapped up in a package you could hold if that meat/veggie-filled pastry wasn't so darn gigantic. Don't feel like leaving the house? Make your own. Learn ho ... More >>

Snacks at Scottsdale Six Drive-In Movies

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

Tacos at America's Taco Shop

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

Starbucks Oatmeal At Home

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ The convenience of a drive-thru is good and options for eating healthy are good but saving money in this economy is really good. So when Starbucks came out with instant oatmeal with toppings in cup we wondered, how much more would we pay for that convenience ove ... More >>

Pulled Pork at the Arizona BBQ Festival

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

Bar Plate at Hanny's

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Follow Chow Bella on Facebook and Twitter.

La Condesa At Home: Pecan Salsa

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​One thing you learn, living in Phoenix, is that all salsa is not created equal. We are particularly partial to the salsa bar La Condesa. Want to save a buck? Try to make their Pecan Salsa at home.

Ribs and a Gin & Tonic at Hillstone

Illustrations By Cyndi Coon​ Introducing Food & Ink -- a new feature on Chow Bella, cataloguing Cyndi Coon's weekly consumption. Stay tuned for more.

The Cupcake Trend: Alive and Well and Camping in Chandler

Photo: Cyndi Coon Cupcake Camp Tee Shirt​ Photo: Cyndi Coon Joan from Honey Moon Sweets chatting with attendees ​ If you are under the impression that cupcakes have jumped the shark, you clearly have not attended ​Cupcake Camp. That's right -- a daytime event (this is no sleepawa ... More >>

Irish Soda Bread

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ Okay, so soda bread came long after Saint Patrick. Bicarbonate of soda arrived on the scene in the mid 1840's as a leavening agent and was used in Ireland to work with the wheat grown there. Whatever, who needs the details of St. Patrick anyway. This bread is to soak up ... More >>

Caramel Tea

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​With Caramelpalooza only days away, all of us here at Chow Bella are feeling caramel crazy with excitement. So the question came up can you have a thrifty, tasty, quick caramel treat? Indeed -- and in a simple sip-it-down liquid form. Learn how to make a creamy ca ... More >>

Quick and Sneaky Lasagna

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​Lasagna can seem like an ingredients-heavy meal with a lot of steps and full of fat from the noodles and cheese, but there are ways around all of the road blocks. Make it simple by using "no-boil" lasagna noodles, skip the meat and add in grated vegetables for a sn ... More >>

Curry -- It's A Crock (Pot)

Illustration By Cyndi Coon​ This curry recipe is all about the Crock Pot. The Crock Pot might be the thriftiest small appliance you could have in your kitchen. That's because it is not only thrifty with your ingredients money, it is efficient on energy and your time. You just plop everything into ... More >>

Laying It All Out

Make your own art book at MADE

Vegetarian Super Bowl Chili

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ The Super Bowl is but days away. Do you know what you're bringing to the party? Why not be the hero and make something to make the vegetarian friends happy? And no one needs to tell the meat eaters that those are veggie crumbles and not beef. Make this chili the day b ... More >>

Narcisse Champagne Lounge

Photo: Cyndi Coon ​ Things got bubbly in more ways than one last night with a grand opening for a new concept at the Scottsdale Quarter: the tea lounge and champagne bar. Narcisse Champagne and Tea Lounge offers tea and biscuits during daylight -- and much more at night, including "mem ... More >>

Butter Stuffed With Bacon

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​After a delicious introduction to locally-made Fleurt Butter, this Thrifty Cook wondered -- can anyone make flavored butter at home? The answer is yes. It can be fun to mess around with flavors to infuse your butter with, too. For this recipe a traditiona ... More >>

Leafy Greens Made Easy

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ At this time of year, while half of the country is covered in snow and ice, those of us in Arizona are enjoying abundant gardens. The raised beds are providing us with an overflow of herbs and leafy greens. Wondering why you listened to the guy at the garden store w ... More >>

Candy Addict Now Open

Photo: Cyndi Coon​Say you just worked to develop one of the most popular tech devices, ever. Whatcha gonna do now? Open a candy store on Mill Avenue, of course! Photo: Cyndi Coon​ Frank Ellis left Silicone Valley after working as part of the Amazon Kindle team. Exhausted and ready for a ne ... More >>

Cheater Donuts

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​Have you given up on your New Year's resolutions yet? Let us help you get there a little quicker by making some cheater donuts. This way you can enjoy the crispy fried taste without the risk of being caught in a donut shop by your friends that you made the resoluti ... More >>

Easy Roast Chicken

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ If you are like everyone else, you are spending this first week of the new year cleaning and organizing. This can be hard work and leave you feeling too tired to make dinner. This roast chicken recipe is even easier then ordering take out. It is also much cheaper when y ... More >>

New Year's Day Brunch In A Mug

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​Serve New Year's Day brunch in a mug -- that's right the whole thing. Clean up will be easy because all items in the dishwasher will be the same shape. This is all about economy of time. Ideas for a New Year's Day brunch in a mug after the jump....

Holiday Fixins Panini-Style

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ Do something different this year for your holiday open house. Why cook in advance and do all the work? Just do the shopping and leave the action to occur during your event. Plan to buy bread, meat and cheese and grilling up some panini sandwiches on the spot. Pressure's ... More >>

Cookie Showdown: And the Winner Is . . .

​The Chow Bella team came out in force for our latest food showdown, this time a battle of holiday cookie recipes. Thank goodness somebody showed up with a gallon of milk! I had an entire plate filled with all kinds of baked treats, and somehow I had to taste through them all and pick a winne ... More >>

Tomato Soup Spice Cupcakes

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​While helping an elderly neighbor of mine to unpack all of her Christmas things I came across a vintage ornament printed with a recipe for Campbell's tomato soup cake. She shared with me that this was a popular thing to do bake in the day when you were trying to b ... More >>

Basic Dough Makes Cookies 15 Ways

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ Have you been invited to yet another cookie exchange this holiday season? Racking your brain on which recipes to make? What if you could make just one batch of dough and then add in different things to make variations off of the basic recipe? Guess what? You can!  ... More >>

Craft Punk

It’s a making marathon

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​It's cold and flu season and that means getting ahead of the game by pre-making a big patch of chicken noodle soup. You can bag it in small batches of freezer bags and take out only as much as you need when you are in the mood for soup or home sick with a flu bug a ... More >>

Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranates

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​It is pomegranate season and if you are like some of us here at Chow Bella maybe you have neighbors with overflowing pomegranate trees. If they are friendly then by all means ask but a little late night neighborhood walk is totally acceptable in this beautiful fall ... More >>

Pilgrim Cookie

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​With Thanksgiving upon us -- and knowing that some people are already pie'd out -- we figured that making some cookies for your guests to snack on post dinner would be a good idea. Sticking with the pilgrims, these cutie cookies serve the sweet tooth and the theme ... More >>

Grape Pie

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ The Thrifty Maker likes all things that have value and safe some bucks. Right now grapes are in season. Most supermarkets carry them year-round, but peak growing season in North America is July to December. The thinking was to buy grapes while they are in season and the ... More >>

Jack O'Lantern Cheeseburger Pie

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ It's time to start thinking about what to serve the trick-or-treaters in your house before they head out to fill their bags with the sugar. This recipe allows everyone to get involved and will tempt the taste buds of the junior set right along with the more senior memb ... More >>

Coming Soon: Candy Addict on Mill Avenue

Photo: Cyndi Coon​ What are we so excited about over here at Chow Bella? Candy! No, not just Halloween treats. There's going to be a new candy store in town. Candy Addict is coming soon to downtown Tempe -- a family-owned candy store near ASU at 414 Mill Avenue. They will ca ... More >>

Homemade Classic French Bread

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ It is beginning to look a lot like fall - can you feel it in the air? Soon enough we will be able to turn our ovens on and bake and there is nothing thriftier then making your own bread. It really is inexpensive and is not hard at all. This is a perfect Sunday afternoon ... More >>

Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ Looking for a taste of fall without having to work too hard? Pick up a can of pumpkin puree and everything thing else for this recipe is most likely in your cupboard already. This is a quick and tasty soup made from mostly canned goods, so if you don't have them on ha ... More >>

Cold Oats Never Tasted So Good

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ This recipe is a throw-it-all-in-there breakfast inspired by Jamie Oliver's Pukkolla. It isn't even a recipe, really, but more of a handful of this and a handful of that sort of thing that will make your tummy happy. What do you do when you take a peek in your cu ... More >>

Old Herbs Get a Life

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ You've heard that dried spices and herbs only last so long before they lose their potency and should be tossed. Well, what if you are cheap and can't part so easily with your spices? They are expensive, after all. Here is a recipe to use up your about-to-expi ... More >>

Homemade Yogurt in a Box

Illustration by Cyndi Coon​ Got a little bit of yogurt left in the refrigerator but not enough for your brunch in the morning? Use the remaining amount to create a new batch of homemade yogurt. Yogurt takes time to make. We all take this for granted because we can buy it for fifty cents a cup in ... More >>

Blueberry Crisp to the Rescue from the Thrifty Cook

​ Every week, artist, writer and cook Cyndi Coon will bring you an idea for making the most of what you've already got in the pantry or the fridge. Ladies and gentlemen, we introduce the Thrifty Cook. How many times have you ventured into Costco for a single item and walked out with a cart fu ... More >>

Arty Girl: Make Valentine's Day Cards with Cyndi Coon

By Corrieb on flickr Creative Commons.Uh oh. It's a Valentine's Day blog.​I'm so relieved to hear that someone else in town doesn't hate Valentine's Day.And that someone is Cyndi Coon of Laboratory5 Inc. (Lab5 is a joint venture with fellow artist and husband, Jeremy Briddell, where they both show ... More >>

Arty Girl: Writing for Kids!

Now isn't that just the sweetest damn thing you ever saw?Writing a story can be disastrous if you've not received the proper education (just ask my editor). So if your kid is a little storyteller, likes to draw and you need a place to stick 'em for a week over the summer, local artist Cyndi Coon is ... More >>

Arty Girl: Save money at MADE art boutique tonight!

By Carly Jane1 at flickr creative commons.I swear to God, if I make another, "Hey kids, with the economy being down and all..." comment on this blog, my creativity is officially tapped out.So I tread carefully as I write about MADE art boutique's celebration of the recent, mini-recovery of the econo ... More >>

"Bank: Artist-Made Banks" Opening Reception