crunchy honey almond butter

Read the back of a Skippy jar. I'll bet you at least three words in the ingredients list you cannot pronounce. If you can't even sound out what your eating, why are you spreading it on your breakfast toast (some of us for lunch as well). While today's intro comes from the platitudinously uninspired section of my vernacular, the message still rings true. Whether you're a parent with young children or an old fart who likes reading about mushy foods (usually I can get away with insulting the elderly because most of them haven't figured out how to use the "box"), you've arrived at the right place. Even though Homemade Almond Butter falls into the dreaded category of raw, healthy, and organic, it fortunately doubles as a delicious and satisfying alternative to practically anything spreadable. Homemade is not only healthier than Store-bought, it's actually easier to make than having to go to the store. Come along as we discover the one-ingredient fix (and the fixings you could add) to end all pantry guilty pleasures. 

thanksgiving sour cream biscuits

If you're reading this post, you're one of two people: (1) Thanksgiving just passed and you're trying to see how long you can last before the food coma takes you too, or (2) you're panicking because Thanksgiving is tomorrow and you just remembered that mother-in-law Margaret only comes to Thanksgiving dinner for the biscuits! Whether you're the former or the latter, these super easy biscuits can solve your problems. Did I mention they only take 5 minutes (of effort) to make!

Take a quick look at the picture of me in the left sidebar. No matter how strong your astigmatism is, I am definitely not the face of an expert biscuit maker. Nor do my parents look like expert biscuit makers (picture me...thirty years older). The fact is, Chinese people are not expert biscuit makers, nor are they even that fond of eating biscuits. If any person was as unqualified as I was to show you how to make a biscuit, it would be a babbling two-year old. Nevertheless, there in that statements lies my point. If I can make these damn good lookin' biscuits, you can definitely make them...and they'll probably turn out even better than mine. 

chocolate peanut butter chip biscotti

The other day I was walking through my local specialty shop and found that they were sampling "authentic" Italian biscotti. Naturally, I stopped by...multiple times, until the lady cutting the biscotti began to give me looks. By then I was already full. On my third or fourth visit, I caught  glance at the unit price for an "authentic" Italian biscotto (the singular for biscotti): $2.oo per biscotto. I'm all for quality, but at that price I might as well be eating gold bars speckled with diamonds! Then I had an epiphany. I could make a killing selling biscotti around my neighborhood. But because food bloggers are inherently exercise adverse (at least this one is), I set aside that idea for a good three weeks until today. Turns out, biscotti are much easier than the "authentic" Italians are leading them up to be. Follow these easy steps and you too can enjoy authentic biscotti without taking the equity out of your home to pay down biscotti loans. You might even become a millionaire selling them to your neighbors. As always, I hold a 30% royalty on all recipes you sell to your loved ones. ;-)

maple-roasted nectarine pancakes

The photography in this post is going to be a bit erratic because 1) I shot it at different times of the day, 2) I'm not very good at photography, and 3) I'm kind of an idiot. As the days pass I'm slowly but surely degrading into a mushy pile of peanut butter and pancakes. 

But enough about me, let's turn our focus to the important matter, the thing which is captured within the execrable photography - the humble pancake stack. It all started with a question. A question of whether it was possible to incorporate maple syrup, a topping that dowses and sogs pancake stacks all across America, within the batter itself. Finally the answer would come to me a whole 2 hours later - simply substitute sugar with maple syrup. Any simpleton could have come up with that. That's why I had to push the envelope; cue the maple-roasted nectarines.

bacon & parmesan kale salad - another cool kale recipe

At Chow Creations, we pride ourselves in our exceptional ability to adulterate healthy foods with bacon. 

This week I'll show you how to make the most unbelievably cheesy, creamy, restaurant parmesan dressing. You'll want to glug it down when no one is looking. In other words, keep your eyes on your creamy parmesan dressing because someone will want to glug it down if you're not paying attention. Oh, and we're also making a salad. It has bacon. Now you're probably interested. You know what to do, click Chowtinue Reading. :-)

no-bake caramel reese's peanut butter cups

Not a lot of us like preparing huge Thanksgiving meals. In fact, in a study I just made up, that is the number one reason why people make friends at all, so they can crash their friends' Thanksgiving dinners. But you can't go to your friend's mother's house and expect to get a meal without bringing her a gift. That's where these no-bake, super quick and easy caramel reese's peanut butter cups come into play. In fact, in another survey I just made up, it takes longer to say the name, than it takes to make the actual recipe. 

I should also remind you that your friend's mother loves peanut butter and chocolate. Bring these and I guarantee you she'll give you first dibs on turkey. You know what to do. Click Chowtinue Reading.

kale and green apple salad - we're so cool we had to wait till kale wasn't a trend anymore

Before I begin, let me preface this week's post with a statement, a statement of my own character which will become progressively clearer as you scroll further down."I am lazy". (what's new)

This week I've been plagued with a sore throat, so forgive me if I don't talk much in this post. Trust that there will be various occasions in this post where I "cough" to give myself an excuse not to finish the sentence. This week I made a *cough. 

Unless you're blind or illiterate, you know that Chow Creations has finally succumbed to the raw, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, I hate to say it but yes we're getting onto the kale trend. Wait...what do you mean "kale" isn't a trend anymore? So my producers are telling me that "kale", nor "justin bieber" are trends anymore. I know, I'm as astounded as you are. That means Chow Creations has successfully diverted yet another food trend! Yes! Long time readers of this blog know that it's our highest goal to subvert any food trends until we start our own. I'm still trying to get "grapeberries" and/or "rectangular cake prisms" started. 

how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker | coffee oreo parfait

This super cool technique to make ice cream without an ice cream maker (or liquid nitrogen) is not only comparable, perhaps even superseding it's churned variety, but is healthier, lighter, and so much more impressive. Plus, it's really easy.

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I love making things with really fancy french monikers because they sound so much more exotic and more difficult to make than their American counterparts. So in keeping with the theme, this week we'll be making a "sabayon", the French version of the Italian zabaglione. It's merely whisking egg yolks and wine together which I'm sure all of you can do. And we're turning the sabayon, usually served as a sauce for fruits and stuff, into a parfait which is a French frozen dessert with a texture similar to the love child of an ice cream and a mousse. Did you know parfait is the French word for "perfect". The more you chow. Just to be clear, French parfaits are completely different from layered yogurt, granola, and fruit parfaits we have in the states. I mean just look at the pictures. 

easy chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies + white chocolate

The school year is officially in motion. The trees are blushing all different hues of red and oranges, fall is upon us. You know what that means right. PUMPKINS! Yay!!! I love pumpkins, pumpkins make me happy, happy happy happy. And you know what I love more than pumpkins, pumpkin cookies, chewy pumpkin oatmeal cookies with white chocolate. To be completely honest I would be perfectly fine with just a chewy spiced oatmeal cookie but when you add pumpkin and white chocolate, God help me. I never told anyone this but I made two batches. shhh.

These cookies are so easy even your kids will be able to whip'em up. If you're looking for something fun to do with the family before the school year gets too hectic this is your recipe. Did I mention they're delicious? They're delicious. 

apple tart + spiced pastry cream + cinnamon shortbread

"Down the last rolling hill where the perfect untrampled grass met the erratic dirt, the maple trees blushed. The wind blew a subtle sweetness through the woods and it mixed with the grass as it came up and filled the air with the scent of autumn."

That's a snippet of the book I'm trying to write with my brother. But it's also a testament to how busy this past year has been. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has made our recipes and followed us from the very beginning. Over this past year, I've come across nothing but warmth and support from all of you in the food blogging universe, which you may be familiar, is notorious for being intensely cutthroat and competitive (or so I've been told, I'm still new to this). 

With our one year anniversary in concurrence with the official start of the autumn season I thought it would only be proper to make something that epitomizes the elegance and flavors of the new harvest. This decked out apple tart consists of a cinnamon shortbread tart shell, filled with a pastry cream spiked with autumn spices and topped with sliced apples. I mean does it get any better? (no it doesn't)

mexican chocolate pound cake - minus the mexican chocolate

Chocolate porn. Don't be alarmed. Chow Creations is not yet another food blog to resolve to indecency to increase traffic. We simply listen to our viewers and the viewers say more porn, food porn that is. This week, after being away for quite awhile, I return with a mexican chocolate pound cake. Rich and dense however at the same time somehow fluffy and definitely chocolatey. This cake can certainly be the subject of many ahhh's and ohhh's of the next family gathering or church potluck. 

Despite it's lack of "mexican" chocolate, we make up for it with a heaping dose of cinnamon and many other tasty flavors including coconut, buttermilk, and "american" chocolate. Well I'm not sure if any chocolate is american seeing that they all come from Brazil or Columbia or some place of that nature, but it's certainly a chocolate which has an american stamp of approval seeing that it's fortified with tons of sugar and milk. Plus I'm using chocolate that's in "chip" form and you know americans love their chips. 

homemade thin crust pizza + pesto + potato + manchego

It's one of those rare days in San Diego where the clouds congregate low and heavy in the sky, and they choke the air with their presence. They cried. Last week I made this awesome Manchego and Marcona Almond Pesto, which you should definitely check out, but I was beginning to get tired of the ol' pesto on bread or mixed into pasta. After hours of scribbling ideas into a notepad, ripping them out, and missing the trash bin, I decided what I needed was to whip up a batch of fresh pizza dough. 

I love making pizza, even making and kneading my own dough, but what I love most about making pizza is figuring out what to put on it. In the past I've tried Alfredo and Scampi, Sloppy Joe's, even a Quintuple Meat (Pepperoni, Ham, Bacon, Brisket, and Sausage) Pizza. This time I wanted to make something simple, simple but elegant, and I don't think it gets any simpler nor elegant than Pesto, Potato, and Manchego. Plus you won't guess how easy making your own pizza dough can be.

pesto + manchego + marcona almond

Viewer Discretion Advised. This post is home to 99.9% of the manchego cheese porn on the internet. 

Chow Creations usually strays away from the lewd and cheesy concupiscence that inundates the food blogging universe, after all, we're not a pizza blog, wait, what do you mean the next post is a pizza, what happened to the cookies and cakes, and what type of lunatic creates an entire post for pesto, has this all been one sentence, no we're having a conversation, wait, who are you, who am I, *sings Who Am I from Les Mis for a couple minutes, and we're back. 

peanut butter swirled blondies - sweet | salty | creamy

And tilt your head to the right, just a little more...perfect. You'll notice this is the first time in Chow Creations history that the text is slanted in a title picture. I'm trying to stay relatable with the new influx of hipster viewers I'm getting. Hopefully everyone is copacetic (look it up) with the new changes; meet me in the comments.

Blondies are delicious as is in their argent luster. However, if you swirl in some peanut butter you're looking at one satiny, chewy, heavenly hell of a treat. Veins of rich peanut butter course through this dense and chewy bar; adding a salty sweet layer of complexity to this, what would otherwise be, mundane bar. 

the best lemon bars in the world - a classic perfected

Lemon Bars are one of those classic desserts you can find in about any of the supermarkets these days. What's different about my lemon bars is they actually taste good. I know, surprising (not the part about my lemon bars tasting good, the part about lemon bars tasting good at all). Sweet without being cloyingly so, buttery without being too rich, and certainly not dense. If I were to use one word to describe these lemon bars it would be, perfect. The dilemma chefs have always had when making lemon bars, was getting a firm enough top, without sacrificing a crispy bottom. With this recipe you won't have to give up any of that. This is the perfect summer dessert, gift, or picnic item for your next special occasion (or just for everyday eating). It's absolute perfection in a bar, so let's get started (before I go off on one of my tangents). By the way, did I tell you that I finally got a twitter account. @chefchowblog #awesome #madcookingskills #i'mnotmadatyou #i'msorry #don'tcry #nowyou'remakingmecry. Why didn't you stop me!

Like many of our recipes we'll start with the butter. You want to cut the butter into small chunks and put it on a plate in the freezer to harden. Whenever you're baking, often times the temperature of your butter will dictate the success of whatever you're making. Recipes that call for melted butter (i.e. cookies) are intended to have a chewy outcome. Desserts that require the butter to be cold (i.e. pies, pastries) mean the end product will one of these three, crispy, crunchy, or flaky (it could even be all three, oh my). The more you chow.

goji berry cashew granola bars - 1st annual picnic earth day celebration!

Happy Picnic Earth Day Chowder Heads! This is our first National Picnic Day, Earth Day Mashup and I hope to remember to do this for all the years to come. My goal is to show ya'll how to make something that is uniquely Earth Day themed while also picnic friendly. What I came up with are these Goji Berry Cashew Granola Bars. Think of these like an upscale version of the archetype trail mix bar you get at the supermarket. These packable snacks are chock-full of sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. I just think they are the perfect embodiment of what the earth provides for us and the variety of flavors it can produce - #motherearth, #savetheenvironment, #aliensarenotreal. So without further ado let's get started! By the way, I've gotten comments that I invariably say "did I mention this is easy to make" in all my first paragraphs, so I want to apologize and I won't ever do it again. Unless, by pointing it out I inadvertently say it again in which I don't apologize because that was the plan. 

Like I said before, these aren't your average, one note, cloyingly sweet supermarket granola bars. These are naturally sweetened with honey, a little bitter from the goji berries which I will explain later, salty from the sea salt, and just the slightest bit spicy from some black pepper. Although these have the look, texture, and feel of a mundane granola bar, when you bite into one I'll guarantee it'll be an experience like none other. 

chocolate cashew butter - this takes more time explaining than making

Those of you who know me, know that I love desserts disguised as breakfast items. Like coffee cakes, muffins, and danishes. But this Chocolate Cashew Butter is the most incognito of them all. This is like the nutella of kidney shaped nuts. You can market nutella all you want with multigrain bread and floating bubbled nutrition facts. But at the end of the day, all it is is eating chocolate for breakfast. Which is precisely why I love this recipe. It taste similar to nutella, except creamier and nuttier but without all the high fructose corn syrup and artificial additives. 

flat and chewy chocolate chipped cookies

Stop! Slowly read these next sentences with all your might and attention. This...is...the...best...chocolate...chip...cookie...recipe...in...the...world. Got it? Good. Okay, I think we all know that nothing is better than a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. Chewy, chocolatey, and warm. Am I right or am I right. But no one likes those doughy dry mounds of crap people call cookies these days. That's why this week I'm bringing back the good ol' days with America's favorite cookie, The Chocolate Chip. 

Howard Taft. I approve of these cookies. In fact my pockets are full of them.

The best types of chocolate chip cookies are the flat and chewy ones. I even prefer them to be slightly bendable. That's the hallmark for a really good choco-chip. Not too sweet, and dotted with chips of chocolate. This recipe is all that and more. If you follow this recipe to the period, I can guarantee that you will be presented with a batch of the most perfect, classic chocolate chip cookies you have ever tasted and or seen. The ones Ben Franklin, and Howard Taft would be proud of. And you can be sure President Taft had a few cookies in his day.

faux chocolate macarons - easy and french...it can't be

Whence back in the olden times of autumn and such, I wrote a column on how to make your own Macaroons. Like I explained there's a difference between a Macaroon and Macaron, one is the coconut meringue drop and the other is the French cookie respectively. I also said that one of these days I would show you how to make a French macaron...but today isn't that day. Today I'll be showing you how to make my PATENTED macaron making method that doesn't require any skill or talent whatsoever, traits I know very few of my followers possess.

peanut butter cupcakes - nutty personal only

Every morning for the past month I've been eating Peanut Butter Sandwiches. Two toasted slices, spreaded with two tablespoons of peanut butter on the toasted side while it's still warm and folded in half. The bread is soft, but crispy on the inside filled with gooey, peanut buttery goodness, it's been the highlight of my day for, like I've said, the past month which is - pretty sad. But because I enjoy my preday peanut butter sandwiches so much, I decided to make a peanut butter dessert that paid a very special homage to that. 

These "Double" Peanut Butter Cupcakes are moist and dense on the inside but light, crispy and golden on top. Which aesthetically doesn't matter because we're just going to cover it with a delicious Peanut Butter Frosting. However texture wise it almost exactly replicates what I love so much about my morning Peanut Butter Sandwiches.