We must be craving sweets these days because we just realized we’ve cooked two chocolate dishes back to back. Ah well. What can you do. It’s fun to cook with soda pop because you feel like you’re breaking some unspoken rule of the kitchen. There are actually dozens of recipes…
First off, the name “Mexican Chocolate Tofu Pudding” has too many adjectives to sound as though it would taste any good. It’s like it was invented during a bad game of culinary Mad Libs. Second, who the heck puts tofu in pudding? Nonetheless, we spotted this recipe in last week’s…
What’s up with those recipes that seem too intimidating to try on your own, and then you go visit a friend and they cook them from scratch without even blinking? This week’s dish is one of those. It comes from our pal Margret; she makes a mean cranberry sorbet. Now…
We’re cross-pollinating Martha Stewart with Rachael Ray tonight. The dish is called “Stuffed Potatoes with Ham, Thyme and Gruyere” AKA “I bought a flippin’ huge bag of potatoes and now I don’t know what to do with them.” We uncovered the recipe in Ray’s book 30 Minute Meals, a classic for…
Artichokes rock. If you don’t believe us, check out these photos from the annual Artichoke Festival in Castroville, California. It’s held every May and celebrates all things ‘choke – fried artichokes, pickled artichokes and even creamed artichokes…
Apparently spring is over. Brace yourself because the temperature is supposed to rise to 100 degrees Tuesday. To keep cool,we’re making strawberry limeade. It’s a makeshift recipe we pretty much created on the spot…
We’re pulling back the curtain today on Dutch Baby Pancakes. You may have had them before if you’ve ever gone to the Original Pancake House in Scottsdale. Dutch babies are towering, eggy creations served with lemons and powdered sugar. Truth be told, they’re easy to make and require few ingredients…
We’re bringing you Depression Era Dining Part Deux tonight with teeny faux cheesecakes. The recipe comes from Grandma Hernandez who was born during the Great Crash of 1929. The mini cakes are cheap to make and are beyond cute…
This week’s dish is adapted from Mark Bittman’s Curried Chicken Salad recipe in his cooking bible, “How to Cook Everything.” We have deep respect for Bittman, who writes the Minimalist cooking column in the New York Times, and it feels quasi-sacrilegious to alter Bittman’s recipe in any way. But it’s…
Wenchell’s and Krispy and Dunkin’s! Oh my! Chain store donuts are sweet and fatty and yummy but they lack a certain je ne sais quoi. If you really want to impress your friends and show your sweeties that you love them, then next Sunday morning make your own donuts. Your…
Not long ago, we had some scrumptious strawberry basil martinis at Caffe Boa in Tempe. That got us thinking that it would be pretty easy to make the classy cocktails at home. Strawberries must be in season somewhere because 99 cent palettes can be found at every grocery store. This…
We share a modest but scrumptious family recipe this week: no-bake cookies made of peanut butter, oatmeal and cocoa. The cookies were originally called “Oatmeal Candy” but that’s a lame name that doesn’t accurately describe what you are making. Sometime many years ago, our family renamed the cookies. We call…
I’ve long been a fan of Cris Williamson and Tret Fure. They are folksingers who produced several albums together. They also dated, and merged their musical identities into one onstage presence which they called “Cris and Tret.” You said it quickly, as though it were one word: Crisentret. They sang upbeat…
Let’s get this out of the way from the top – yes, gelatin is more than a little bit gross. It’s made of pig skins and bones and bovine hides. Marshmallows, however, are not gross. Especially when they’re fresh and gooey and heart-shaped. They make us think of soft pillows…
Nothing says “packed lunch” more than rolled-up fruit leather. It’s cute, it’s portable, and what’s great about making it from scratch is that you can guarantee that it’s actually made from fruit. What you find in the grocery store could be more accurately described as sugary, pectin-filled fruit candy. Screw…
You don’t have to be ultra-rich to pamper your puppies. Here’s a recipe for DIY dog biscuits that costs of next to nothing to make. Best of all, your mutt will go nuts because the treats are packed with garlic. In small quantities, garlic is good for dogs. Some folks even…
There is a shell of a building at the southeast corner of McClintock and Broadway in Tempe that can’t hold a restaurant to save its soul. Every time some aspiring businessman gets the bright idea to open a new venture there, I want to go in and slap them upside the…
In honor of the massive cuts sure to come to Arizona government soon, this week Chow Bella is dipping into the archival recipes of Grandma Hernandez, who was born in 1929, the year the Great Depression began. What’s lovely about grandmotherly recipes is that they often have a heavy reliance…
The new cookbook from Alinea certainly topped a lot of Christmas lists, and some of us were lucky enough to get it. For those not completely obsessed with molecular gastronomy, Alinea is the hoity-toity Chicago restaurant that’s famous for its ueberly deconstructed food. The twenty-five course menus include oddball delectables such…
