Belinda Powell has been around pickles for almost as long as she can remember; she learned a special family recipe from her mother and grandmother at a very young age. In fact, when her grandmother died, she left about 30 family pickling recipes, which Powell gladly snatched up. But oddly, Powell –…
Nothing beats homemade gravy dripping over just carved turkey; a ladled puddle swirled on a mound of mashed potatoes, drizzled and mixed into bread stuffing. No need to rely on cans of goopy creamed soups or dehydrated over- salted packaged mixes. If you are using herbs and vegetables for another…
This weekend kicks off a new farmers’ market that will take place on the front lawn of the Wigwam Golf Resort and Spa every Sunday. The market will emphasize on producer-only farm products and will have 15 vendors set up, offering goods ranging from preserves (Cotton Country Jams) and honey…
Every week we watch Zach Fowle walk into the Chow Bella staff meeting and can’t believe he doesn’t weigh 500 pounds. The guy eats. Lots. Fast. That’s sort of his gig on his regular Chow Bella column “Feasts of Fury.” This week, the fury was released in the print version…
Dustin Christofolo opened his own restaurant, The House at Secret Garden, with the help of his mom, Pat, just years out of culinary school. Today, he shows off his talent in true Italian simplicity: Grilled Romaine Salad with a Lemon-Herb Dressing.
Our Thanksgiving motto is brine baby, brine! After experimenting from year to year with methods and recommendations for a satisfying bird, brining consistently delivers us a bird that cooks faster, is moist, and flavorful. Brining takes some forethought and planning, but it is a simple process. Meat or poultry is…
We blogged a couple weeks back about Amaro Pizzeria and Vino Lounge opening in Cave Creek, and even brought you a first look of the posh new digs. The new restaurant smell still hasn’t worn off at this locally owned joint. But the smell of wood-fired ovens and fresh-baked bread is…
When you’re a first-time restaurant owner, it doesn’t hurt to have a sense of humor. And for Chaka Chaka’s Charlie Blonkenfeld, a banana will do nicely. “I was experimenting with my jerk chicken sandwich, and my roommate wanted to put cheese on it,” Blonkenfeld says. “I told him, ‘Screw that…
Read: all of Zach Fowle’s battles in “Feasts of Fury.” We begin with a burger. A foot tall it stands, each of its nine third-pound patties thick and glistening with gristle, cheese spilling out from every layer like molten gold. Hefty slices of tomato, pickles, onions, and lettuce sit softy…
There’s a reason why Food Network’s Man vs. Food and our own Zack Fowle’s Feasts of Fury are so popular. People love BIG food. We’re amazed by dishes so large that one order could feed Bill Paxton’s Big Love family or provide a starving college student with leftovers for two weeks. For this week’s Battle of the Dishes, we dared…
Mother-and-son restaurateur team Pat and Dustin Christofolo are proof that cooking ability is genetic (and don’t believe the hype about it skipping a generation, either). The Christofolos opened their family’s first third-generation restaurant this October: The House at Secret Garden.
Football meets the footlong? Yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch, especially when it’s a Tex-Mex Footlong. But if Friday Night Lights has taught me anything, it’s that Texas loves its football and 30-year-old actors who play teenagers. Sonic’s new Tex-Mex Footlong Quarter Pound Coney, available for a limited time,…
Just got off the phone with famed Chef Chris Bianco, who confirmed that Chef Claudio Urciuoli, who announced his departure from Prado last week, will be working for his team in an as yet undetermined capacity. Stay tuned for more details on Chow Bella…
Chef Dustin Christofolo is a natural-born restaurateur, even if he didn’t fully embrace it until his early 20s. His mom, Pat Christofolo, is the owner of Santa Barbara Catering and The Farm Kitchen at The Farm at South Mountain, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit behind the Farm’s Morning Glory Café and Quiessence (the latter two she’s since entrusted to Chef Greg LaPrad).Now the mother-and-son pair are taking their relationship with food and each other to a whole new level: They’re business partners running The House at Secret Garden, another South Phoenix restaurant aiming to inject some life and culture into the area.
Right in time to feed the holiday cookie exchange frenzy, Brady Breese of Urban Cookies shares his Cocomint cookie recipe. Lucky for us we found Shaun, Brady’s wife and business partner, handing out cookie samples Saturday, at The Local First Fall Festival. We tasted chocolatey-minty goodness, a perfect holiday combo!…
Today is the day Jack in the Box gives away two free tacos after 2 p.m., thanks to Jack’s visit to the dentist, where, hopped up on laughing gas, he makes the announcement. Note to dentists everywhere: More laughing gas for fast-food mascots, please! According to my e-mail from Jack…
Andrew Levi Hiller The singer/songwriter for Wizards of Time, who also loves to paint, is currently working on the band’s first 12-song album, called Will the Soft Curse Plague On?, to be released in early 2011. You can hear a teaser with three 15-second song clips here. He also plays in…
A while back, we blogged about The Center Bistro re-opening (sans Damon Brasch) after a two year hiatus. This last Friday, the official Grand Opening Celebration re-christened this Tempe establishment. An abundance of locally-sourced and organic small bites, freshly prepared pork tacos, and delicious honeydew martinis were all on hand…
The business: Paradise Melts What they’re packin’: Comfort food-grade grilled sandwiches that will kick crappy grilled cheese’s butt — Must-trys include the Veggie (provolone, tomato, basil, arugula, roasted red pepper, and balsamic on sourdough) and the Ruben (pastrami, swiss, cole slaw, and 1000 island on marble rye). Other menu items…
It’s true. Pie is love. At least, it’s true that people in Phoenix love pie. You turned out in droves for the first-ever Pie Social, this past Saturday, co-sponsored by Chow Bella and Roosevelt Row, to raise funds for after-school programs. We loved seeing you, and tasting your pies! An…
True Food Kitchen brings health-conscious food approved by integrative wellness guru Dr. Andrew Weil to Scottsdale Quarter. We grabbed a seat on the heated wrap-around patio and checked out the lunch menu at the second Arizona installment of this Fox Restaurant Concepts’ joint this weekend. The ambiance and the menu fit the good-and-good-for-you bill, but the entrées especially didn’t wow us.
Lisa Bedford wears many hats — she’s a local blogger, mother of two, and a survivalist. She combines those hats regularly by running TheSurvivalMom blog, where she dishes out advice on how to prepare for everything from a natural disaster to financial crisis. One survival technique Bedford is a big…
