Quick Tips

If one theme has emerged over the past decade in the culinary world, it is probably that simplicity is king. Gone are the days when fancier, more elaborate and more expensive meant better. Chefs are focused on showcasing high quality ingredients with m…

There’s no question that the chocolate chip cookie is the best cookie out there. Shortbread might be nice during the holidays; oatmeal raisin is right for when you’re feeling wholesome; but chocolate chip cookies are the perfect ratio of buttery dough …

There’s not really a wrong way to eat avocado. But there’s definitely a right way, and that’s with breakfast.

The savory green fruit is an egg’s best friend. It creamifies an a.m. smoothie without hesitation and it transforms a bland piece of toast i…

There may be no crying over spilled milk, but when it comes to cookies, it’s a different story.

After an Illinois woman ate three Chips Ahoy cookies for breakfast, her 23-year-old roommate allegedly tried to kill her for devouring his treat, police said. Allen Hall was arrested in Decatur Wednesday following a dispute at the apartment he shares with a 49-year-old woman, according to The Associated Press. Hall now faces charges of attempted murder and aggravated domestic battery for the cookie incident.

According to police, the 49-year-old victim apparently thought Hall was joking when he pounded on the bathroom door and threatened to kill her.

After she opened the door, “Allen grabbed her around the throat with both of his hands and threw her down into the tub,” the affidavit read, according to The Herald & Review. “She hit the back of her head on the tub and this caused a knot on her head.”

Hall then began to strangle her, the affidavit continued, until the victim’s husband and landlord arrived and separated the two. A search of Macon County inmate records reveals Hall is being held on $7,500 bail for the felony charge. He is due in court in early September.

It’s not the first time a dispute over dessert has turned physical. In 2011, a fight between two female roommates in Florida over Girl Scout cookies ended in an assault charge.

After a thorough round of messing with James, Jimmy Fallon wrote out his weekly “Thank You Notes” on Friday night’s “Tonight Show.”

Summer barbecues, hoarders/alcoholics and the potential spawn of Kermit and Miss Piggy were all recipients, but the mos…

The last thing you’d expect to see at a hotel resort in Honolulu’s Waikiki neighborhood is a swarm of 80,000 bees.

But that’s exactly what happens at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa twice a day as honeybees fly to and from their “room” at the hotel. OK, it’s actually an apiary, and it’s part of Hyatt’s initiative to challenge its chefs to focus on sourcing locally for ingredients in unique, environmentally conscious ways. In Waikiki, that challenge falls on Executive Chef Sven Ullrich.

“It’s something I always wanted but was always afraid to do,” Ullrich told The Huffington Post. After all, the Hyatt hive is on the same level as the pool deck and around the corner from a busy open-air bar. “You always think about wasps. But honeybees — look at them,” he pointed to the hive outside, about a foot away outside a large window. “They’re just working. That’s what they do.”

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Worldwide, beekeepers are still alarmed at the sustained rate in which bees continue to die. Colony collapse disorder has decimated honeybee populations, with some beekeepers saying they’ve lost up to 90 percent of their bees recently, some 10 million beehives in six years.

Honeybees are the most important pollinators of fruits and vegetables; it’s estimated that a third of everything we eat is a product of bee pollination. They fly out every day, sometimes miles away, to flowers and plants. Ullrich says the Waikiki bees fly as far as three miles from the hotel to Kahala, a neighborhood on the other side of Diamond Head crater.

When a bee finds a flower, it holds onto it and vibrates to release pollen, which then gathers all over the bee’s fuzzy body. In the afternoon, the bee returns to the hive, full of nectar and pollen — you can see it in action at the hotel, a freeway of bees streaming in a linear flight path directly to the hive, where the goods are converted into honey. It’s really something to see, and since its installation in November last year, not a single hotel guest has been stung.

Real honey — the all-natural stuff, not the gold-colored mass-produced liquid sold in supermarkets — is delicious, but it’s really a lucky byproduct of the bee’s doing their thing. And Ullrich’s “Hula Meli” (Hawaiian for “dancing honey,” because honeybees dance to signal where nectar is located) is light and floral, perfect for the herbal cocktails, dishes, and spa treatments the hotel will offer that include it as an ingredient.

Ullrich said the lifespan of a worker bee is about six to eight weeks, during which a bee will produce only a quarter of a teaspoon of honey. He anticipates Hyatt’s hives to produce about 10 gallons of honey every year for the hotel’s restaurants, banquets, spas and, if there should be any extra, to sell at nearby farmers markets.