Bonnie Foster

To make cheese puffs, first you make a pâte a choux dough (pronounced "pat ah shoo"), which, if you've never made it before, can seem a little weird. Weird because most of us who bake are used to mixing dough ingredients together and then plopping them in the oven. With a pâte a choux dough, you essentially half cook the dough first, by adding flour to boiling water and butter, and stirring like a madman until you have a ball of dough the consistency of playdough. Then you mix in eggs and then the dough goes in the oven, where it puffs up as the water in the dough turns to steam and expands into air pockets. The dough is used for making cream puffs, eclairs, cheese puffs (gourgères), beignets, and even churros. David Lebovitz has a recipe for making a French tart crust with what looks to me to be essentially a pâte a choux dough, that has been getting raves. So, it's a useful technique, and pretty easy, though the dough can be a little stiff to work by hand. - Bonnie Foster

Nothing says "I'm thinking of you" better than a box of chocolate truffles. Unless of course they're homemade chocolate truffles, and then, well, that's just too cool for words. These yummy Valentine's Day candies come together with only three ingredients. - Bonnie Foster

So, what are you serving up for Super Bowl Sunday? Here are a few of our ideas, as well as a several rather inventive Super Bowl recipe twists from some of our favorite food blogs. Enjoy the game! - Bonnie Foster

Google keeps adding new features to Google Maps and Google Earth. The latest: As of today you can type in a restaurant or other place you like in Google Maps and receive recommendations of nearby places you might like just as much or more. Sure, it’s not quite as radical as something like the rumored store interior pics in Google Street View, but it’s always good to see more robust location services. Yelp offers something vaguely similar with a “people who viewed this also viewed” box, but Google’s algorithm is probably more sophisticated. - Bonnie Foster