Inspired by the engine that fuels Santa’s sled on Christmas Eve in the movie Elf. Red Snapper hot dogs, bright green relish, sport peppers and yellow mustard.
Fast!
Jovie’s Unforgettable Christmas Eve Ramen
In the movie Elf, Jovie forgets her plain bowl of ramen to find Buddy the Elf. Here are simple add-ins to make packaged ramen unforgettable.
Sonoran Tortilla Stars with Guacamole and Pomegranate Seeds
Topped with chunky guacamole and jewel-like pomegranate seeds, these crispy tortilla bites from The Unofficial Elf Cookbook by Jackie Alpers exude holiday joy. Use Jackie Alpers’ Sonoran-Style Chunky Guacamole Recipe or your favorite store-bought version.
Arizona Cheese Crisp
Tucson’s Sonoran style Mexican Arizona cheese crisp made with flour tortillas, roasted Hatch green chile strips and a creamy green chile Ranch salsa. Thank you Fry’s Foods for sponsoring this recipe.
Late Night Improv Snacking
This snack is best eaten very late at night, preferably after attending a party of some other festive gathering. It’s easily assembled and pleasant to look at, even when blurry.
Spicy Sonoran Coleslaw
This crunchy, salty, and spicy no-mayo Thai/Mexican coleslaw is an excellent companion to Sonoran style dishes. It’s inspired by Som Tum (green papaya salad).
Spicy Sonoran Chicken Salad
Southwestern chipotle chicken salad recipe utilizing all of the elements of a great chicken salad: something oniony, something crunchy, something pickled, and something a little bit spicy. This recipe is Paleo, low-carb and gluten free.
Beth Dutton’s Smoothie
How to make Beth Dutton’s famous “2 scoops of ice-cream, 3 shots of vodka” smoothie from the Yellowstone TV series from The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook by Jackie Alpers.
Carne Asada CRUNCH Quesadillas
Sonoran carne asada, scallions, cheese and crunchy tortilla chips stuffed in quesadillas and grilled. Many years ago, Ben Galaz owner of BK Tacos taught me how to make Sonoran-style carne and cebollas asada. I’m using his recipe though he cooks the meat on a Santa Rita style grill with a wheel to adjust the height of the grate, and I use a Weber Kettle. If mesquite wood is not available, hickory, pecan or cherry are good substitutes.
Sonoran Street Corn Cups
Recipe for Elote en Vaso, Mexican street corn in cups. Pan fried corn kernels tossed in a creamy sauce seasoned with chile and lime. From the Taste of Tucson Cookbook by Jackie Alpers.
BLT Lettuce Wraps
Tomatoes are at their best, and something about the heat and humidity of the Arizona monsoon season makes me almost totally inert and immobile. This is about all I can muster dinner-wise, so I’m lucky that it’s fairly healthy… It turns out that mayo and bacon are better for us than expected, and my versions is also low-carb.
Sunny Parmesan Pepperoni Crisps
Bake a little sunshine into your life with these bright and happy two-ingredient pizza flavored cheese crisps.
Sonoran Chicken Tortilla Soup
Make this Sonoran-Style Mexican chicken tortilla soup from the Taste of Tucson cookbook in 30 minutes or less!
Parmesan Crisps with Caviar
Festive enough for New Year’s Eve, this pretty appetizer only takes about 5 minutes to make. Bacon infused caviar adds a unique smokiness that will intrigue your guests and is fairly inexpensive, but any decent quality caviar will do. The one-ingredient parmesan crisps are a savory, no-carb alternative to blini.
Nachos Supreme Stuffed Bell Peppers
Sweet bell peppers stuffed with creamy nacho cheese, avocado, pickled jalapeños, black beans and crunchy tortilla chips.
Chiltepin Hot Salsa Recipe
Chiltepin salsa is an all-purpose salsa that can be used for dipping, for seasoning, and as a taco sauce. A little goes a long way, so if you prefer a milder salsa, cut the amount of chiles down by a half or a third. This recipe is from the Taste of Tucson cookbook by Jackie Alpers.
Chorizo, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Taco
I ate this for breakfast every day for weeks while writing my Taste of Tucson cookbook. The fat from the chorizo makes the egg really crispy and adds a lot of flavor without too many extra calories.
The Moist Maker Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich
The Moist Maker Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich inspired by the classic episode of Friends, “The One Where Ross Loses it Over a Sandwich,” is made with a dinner roll soaked in gravy in the center, leftover turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, proving that Monica is a culinary genius.
Spooky Spaghetti Carbonara
This spooky spaghetti carbonara with mushrooms is elegant enough for a Halloween themed adult dinner party.
Linguine with Walnut Pesto
Walnuts taste even better in pesto than pine nuts. Spinach linguine keeps this easy pasta recipe a lovely shade of green.
Bavarian Cheese Dip
Beer, cheddar cheese, and pretzels — what more could you want? How about that it’s only got two ingredients and you can make it in ten minutes or less?
White Chocolate Oreo Bark
Three ingredient white chocolate bark with Oreos that can be made in 30 minutes or less for a quick dessert or snack.
Rainbow Sprinkles Cream Cheese
Rainbow sprinkles for breakfast? Yes! A crunchy and slightly sweet sprinkles cream cheese recipe for everyone who needs more rainbow sprinkles in their lives.
S’mores Microwave Mug Brownie
A decadent single-serving brownie in a mug with marshmallows and a soft, melted chocolate center. Make this recipe in the microwave in minutes, just for yourself, day or night.
Three Sisters Masa Pizza
Corn, beans and squash are three of the earliest domesticated crops grown by Native Americans in the Sonoran region. For this recipe, prepared corn masa, which is usually used to make tortillas or gorditas, is pressed into a cast iron skillet for the crust. If you’ve never tried tepary beans, this recipe is an excellent way to experiment with them, but you can substitute black beans instead if you want.
Two-Ingredient Pizza Dough
This Greek yogurt pizza dough recipe has only two ingredients! With this pizza dough trick, you’ll be a pie-making pro in no time.
Sriracha Lime Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
This super easy salad dressing recipe is especially good on a Greek salad, cucumber salad or Asian Chicken salad and you can make it right in the bottle if you only have a little bit of Sriracha left.
Chocolate Caramel Apple Pops
A cute, kid friendly recipe for slices of apples dipped in chocolate and decorated with sprinkles candy or nuts. This recipe was originally developed fro Refinery29.
Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches With Sprinkles
This may be one of the easiest recipes ever. It was originally written for and published on Refinery29 where you can find seven more of my Oreo recipes. I literally wrote the book on sprinkles, so if you’re interested in learning more ways to cover everything in sprinkles, pick up a copy of Sprinkles!: Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts.
Sweet Pepper Poppers
MIni Sweet Mini Pepper Poppers stuffed with jalapeno cream cheese and topped with panko bread crumbs. Recipe development and food photography for the Food Network.
Chicken Pot Pie in a Mug
For centuries, people believed that it was impossible to make a chicken pot pie in the microwave. I have proven them wrong.
Italian Grilled Chicken with Parmesan and Sun-dried Tomatoes
This is a healthy and extremely flavorful way to dress up boneless skinless chicken breasts. Adding just a small amount of butter on top, and using grated parmesan for a garnish, keeps the fat and calories down.
Breakfast Taco Cups
Recipe for healthy breakfast taco cups. Low-carb tortillas filled with eggs, bacon, pinto beans, cheese and salsa.
Mini Fudge Puppies
Covered in chocolate, whipped cream, and all your favorite toppings, Fudge Puppies are a carnival and state fair food classic. Here’s how to make them at home.
Sprinkles Fairy Bread Sandwiches
Make any day a celebration! Just barely sweet, these sparkly sandwiches make a fun breakfast surprise, after-school snack, or party food.
Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “Fairy Bread” from A Child’s Garden of Verses, fairy bread is a popular treat at children’s parties in Australia, New Zealand, and other little pockets of the world.
This recipe is from my book Sprinkles!: Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts. The photograph is previously unpublished
Monster Eggs!
These monsterized pesto-fried eggs are green and frightening looking, but delicious and monstrously easy to make.
Vegan Hot Dog Bites
Cute bite-sized vegan appetizer made with veggie dogs and spicy jalapeno sauerkraut filled Fillo cups accented with a dollop of yellow mustard.
Greek Country Salad
A classic Greek Salad of chunky vegetables and feta tossed in a light vinaigrette will prove that you can indeed win friends with salad.
Iceberg Wedge Salad with Bleu Cheese Vinaigrette
Iceberg wedge salad with bacon bits topped with a smashed bleu cheese vinaigrette. Recipe and food photography by cookbook author Jackie Alpers. The Wedge salad is one of these very classic, simple recipes that’s accessible to everyone. One that’s been loved for generations and modified along the way to accommodate changing tastes. This version is topped with a lighter vinaigrette.
Mini Candy Apples
These easy candied apples are a healthy, sweet treat that are fun for kids to make. I used Lady Apples, which are stunning, tiny, sweet apples that resemble crab apples. Also called Christmas Apples, they are generally available in stores starting in mid-October. The candy melts are small discs that come in a variety of colors and are available at Michael’s and other craft stores as well as some supermarkets. I chose pink because I thought it looked nice with the red apples, but it’s fun to play around and find the colors you like best.
Chopped Liver, Chicharrones and Cornichons
A crunchy, keto Sonoran and Jewish deli snack mashup that is definitely not kosher. Chopped liver pate smeared onto pork rinds and topped with cornichons!
Chicken Parmesan in Spicy Arrabbiata Sauce
This grain-free chicken parmesan in spicy Arrabbiata sauce takes about 10 minutes to make using store bought sauce and rotisserie chicken.
Salsa Scrambled Eggs With Gorgonzola
Eggs scrambled with Gorgonzola and Salsa. A salty, spicy twist on a traditional breakfast dish.
Mini Peppers Stuffed with Cheese
Miniature sweet peppers are adorable and perfect for little snacks and appetizers.
Sicilian Shrimp with Hot Peppers and Lots of Garlic
These shrimp go great with a glass of wine and a conversation. It’s a dish to be shared, because if everyone is eating it, you won’t have to worry about reeking of garlic… or you could just eat it all by yourself when no one else is around to the same effect. It’s fun either way.
Lavender Limeade
Here’s an easy summer beverage. Lavender Limeade is super easy and you don’t need to add a bunch of sugar. The lavender flowers add their own sweetness.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Triscuits
This is a great snack when you want something sweet with not a lot of calories. It’s high fiber with balanced protein and very tasty
4 Triscuits or Woven Wheat Crackers
Rolled & Baked Breakfast Tacos
Wake, roll and bake for breakfast with these crispy rolled and baked sausage, egg and cheese breakfast tacos.
Thai Cabbage Salad
Here in Tucson it can be hard to get fresh green papaya, so I use packaged coleslaw mix instead in this spicy Thai cabbage salad inspired by Som Tum.
Black and White Nachos
Things aren’t always black and white, and so it goes for my Sonoran style white cheese nachos with black beans. White corn tortilla chips are really a pale shade of yellow, black beans could be called dark purple, and there had to jalapenos on my black and white nachos too – of course!
