rosemary roasted garlic focaccia

In these early weeks of the new year, blog posts webwide begin by paying homage to the New Year, or New Year’s resolutions, or some variation along those lines. So—in being unique—I won’t mention the New Year at all. Here at Chow Creations, we pride ourselves in being independent…wait a second. By acknowledging that other food bloggers acknowledge the New Year, haven’t I inadvertently began this post with an homage to the New Year. This column is beginning to sound a lot like the subpar metaphysical food blogging I confused readers with last year. AH HA! You fell for another one of my traps. I wanted you to think I didn’t want to begin this post by mentioning the New Year, when in fact I've been in control of this rambling the entire time. So how exactly does this all relate to focaccia? The receptionist at my asylum hands me focaccia to get me to stop talking to her. Ohhhhh Margaret...my New Year’s resolution is to see a psychiatrist. 

Despite the exotic-sounding name, focaccia is deceptively simply to make. You won't even need a stand mixer to make this recipe. Although I've written the directions for the do-it-by-hand gal, if you’re not as strong as I am (cue the picture of my saggy biceps), follow along with the stand mixer’s specifications. Focaccia gets most of its flavor from the taste and quality of the olive oil you use. In addition to using the finest olive oil allowance-money can buy, I fry the rosemary and garlic in the olive oil (a quick and dirty trick to getting the most out of your most pungent ingredients) to amp up the flavornoids in focaccia flavor town. The result is a soft and crispy bread, packed with warm flavors of roasted rosemary and garlic. Beginning and advanced bread bakers will be delighted at this wonderfully easy and delicious treat!

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.

fire roasted pepper salsa - {fire}sta time!

No, no you don't need a blowtorch for this recipe. The truth is, if you have a couple veggies and a stove, you've got everything you need to make this bright & delicious spring dip! This salsa is perfect for parties and potlucks. And the best part is you can make this hours, even days in advance and it'll be perfect, maybe even better as I'll explain later. 

Roasting the peppers and the tomatoes (and even the limes) not only gives this salsa a better texture, but it makes it sweet and fruity. I know fruity is a weird adjective to describe salsa, but it's all my sleep deprived mind can produce. Get it. Produce. As in fruits and vegetables. Okay, now I'm just freestyling. Combined with the acidity of the limes and the spiciness of the jalapenos, I haven't found a salsa that is more balanced or delicious than this one. Chowtinue reading for the directions and recipe!

roasted strawberry tart - featuring cheater's puff pastry

A couple weeks ago I made for ya'll a delicious Mini Blueberry Tart. And that was fun and all but, you really haven't had fun until you've made this tart. And I know you're probably thinking to yourself, what's the difference, this one is just going to be topped with strawberries instead of blueberries. It's okay to be wrong sometimes. Instead of a pate sucree for the tart crust, we're going to be using a puff pastry. But not just any puff pastry dough, our own homemade one. That's right, so if you've been itching to now how those fancy french get their dough to become all flaky and such stick around for the answer.

The donations at the Chow Creations studios have been basically nonexistent this week. Which means a couple things. The first is that I'm broke. And the second means that I'm too broke to buy puff pastry dough, or good puns. Which means I have to make my own, which isn't the easiest thing to do, a close second to performing open-heart surgery on a fly. That's why I've devised this Cheater's Puff Pastry Dough which allows you to make puff pastry in less than 5 minutes. What what.