foodtvandme.com is the unofficial food network fansite with news, reviews, and my attempts at those great recipes you see on tv.

Looking for some fun ideas to commemorate the unoffical end of the summer?  Food Network has some tips and videos that could help get you inspired.  I viewed the Maryland crab boil video and was almost inspired to give it a try.  Almost inspired.  I would have to purchase a boil thing (I’m sure the “thing” has a name but they never said what it was.)  Then I would have to buy a bunch of crabs alive (I don’t really eat seafood so I have no idea where to buy live crabs.  The docks maybe?  Anyone know where the docks are in Southern California?) 

If you do know this crucial information, and have the necessary equipment, a big crab boil looked pretty easy.  Take all those beautiful live crabs you bought from the docks, or your fish monger, or wherever (can you tell I have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to seafood?) and put them in a huge pot of boiling water with beer and Old Bay.  Old Bay is very important.  They mention it about twenty times in the span of thirty seconds. 

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Ok.  There are a couple of things I have to say here before getting into the actual recipe.  I’m not exactly a big fan of Paula Deen.  I don’t know if it’s her voice, her use of copious amounts of fat in her dishes, or the insipid catch phrase she uses at the end of each show, “best dishes from my house to yours,” but I can’t watch too much of her.  This brings me to the number of reasons for my selection of one of her recipes for my weekly attempt.

Firstly, I was tired.  It was hot here in Southern California (almost 100) and I had just gotten back from a 6 mile walk.  I wasn’t in the mood to cook anything.  It’s also rent paying week. That wonderful week where my latest paycheck goes toward putting a roof over my head.  I wanted to use the stuff that I already had as opposed to going grocery shopping where I would inevitably purchase more than I came in for, yet again.  That brings me to the last reason.  All the great grilling or brunch recipes or just plain things I wanted to cook are being saved for the weekend.  My friend Valerie is coming up and we are working on a special Labor Day menu for the blog.  

With all that being said, I am willing to suffer through Paula’s show to get this recipe which I bring to you today:  Marinated Tomatoes.

This recipe was perfect for what I wanted last night.  I had just gone for a walk in the blistering heat and wanted something light and cool to eat.  The ingredients were easy to assemble, no cooking required, mere whisking is all this one takes.  There was quite a bit of oil in the recipe.  I wouldn’t recommend eating the tomatoes by themselves.  I put them on top of some mixed greens along with some left over peas and white beans.  I used them like a dressing with big heaps of tomato.  It was quite tasty.

I give this recipe an 8 out of 10.  It gets a high score because of it’s versatility.  You could even use the tomatoes a sort of a Southern style bruschetta if you put the mixture on top of toasted bread.  Hmmm….  Maybe I’ll try that tonight with the left overs.

Alright all you Lieberman lovers out there, the lastest enstalment of his internet show “Dave Does” is a must view.  On the fourth webisode, Aphrodisiacs we get the pleasure of seeing how our “Good Deal” man trys to make a deal with a blind date. 

In the beginning of the episode, we find Dave shopping for his date night food items with a reknown aphrodisiac expert.  The trick, according to Dr. Reinisch, is to keep things light.  Aphrodisiacs are named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love who was born from the sea.  This is why sea food items such as sea bass and oysters, are the perfect love food.  Dave prepares these foods and himself for his blind date.

How often do you get to see a celebrity on a date?  At first, I thought the date was a fake one.  After a couple of minutes, though, it was clear that Dave’s producers really were trying to link these two good looking people together.  It was clear that Dave was way too nervous for this to be fake.  If I were the one out with Dave, he would have freaked me out a little.  I don’t know how much of this was due to editing or if he was trying to play things up for the camera, but he came on way too strong.  He actually said the phrase, “suck and slurp” on his very first date with this woman and he kept talking about everything “getting the blood flowing to the right places.”  The woman played along after a while, and a couple of glasses of wine, but sadly, this did not end well for fair Dave.  There wasn’t a love match despite his desire to see the cute girl again, but I don’t really blame her.  He was a bit scary.

This episode is a must see.  Catch it when you get the chance.

Where did Applebee’s go when they had a menu emergency?  They enlisted the help of Food 911 star, Tyler Florence, of course, to help liven up the neighborhood eats.  According to Kansas.com, Applebee’s will begin unveiling it’s new menu September 18th.  The new Florence inspired items will be included in an addtion of 20 new items rolling out of the kitchen. 

According to the Kansas City Star, some of Florence’s items include:

• Penne rosa with Sweet Italian sausage.
• Herb-crusted chicken topped with Italian country salad.
• Crispy brick chicken with warm spinach salad.
• And a bruschetta burger.

To find an Applebee’s near you please visit Applebees.com .

Ok before you say anything, I know the last recipe I did was one of Giada’s as well, but the thing is, I had leftover pancetta from the biscuits and saw an opportunity to use it up, so I took it.  I decided to make Giada De Laurentiis’ Dirty Risotto from the August 23rd episode. 

Weekly recipe attempt: Dirty Risotto

I took a certain amount of liberty with this recipe.  Giada’s called for Italian sausage, but I don’t like sausage.  I was willing to give it a try, until I saw how much it was in the grocery store.  It wasn’t that expensive, but you only needed one in this recipe but they come 5 to a pack.  I wouldn’t eat the other 4, so it would be a waste of money for me.  To compensate for the lack of spiciness without the sausage, I added some red pepper flakes and a couple of dashes of hot sauce, which I feel worked out best in my opinion.  If you like sausage, by all means use it.  My version didn’t have as much depth as it was supposed to, but it was delicious nonetheless.

I had never made risotto before.  Honestly, I was a little nervous.  It wasn’t the kind of dish you could put on the stove and walk away from.  You have to watch it and stir it constantly.  It was a little more work than I was used to, but it was necessary and a little relaxing after a while.  Pour the broth.  Stir the rice.  Watch the bubbles.  Pour the broth.  Stir the rice.  Watch the bubbles.  I did that for half an hour.  The time and effort paid off.  I made a good batch of risotto, although I think I should of stopped at 4 and a half cups of broth as opposed to 5.  It was a little too creamy, but still delicious.  I give this one an 8 out of 10.  If you like sausage, perhaps the original version of the risotto witll give it a 9 or a 10.  Definitly try this one.  Risotto isn’t as hard as it looks.

Congrat’s, Paula!  It’s a grandbaby boy!  Deen’s oldest son, Jaime and his wife Brooke had a baby on Monday.  He was a 6 pound 9 ounce little boy that the parents named Jack.  I wonder if this kid will grow up to join the family business of Food Network hoopla just like his daddy, uncle, and grandma.  Hey y’all, let’s congratulate the Deen family on thier brand new addition! 

I was so excited yesterday when I was watching the Food Network, more so than usual, because I saw a promo for a new show, Nigella Feasts.  I used to watch a Nigella Lawson’s last show, Nigella Bites, early in the morning on the Style Network and it is a very stylish, sexy, English cooking show.  And now she is coming to a more appropriate station, one that actually revolves around food.  For those, who don’t know who she is, she is kind of a cross between Giada DeLaurentiis and Ina Garten, and she’s English.  If the new show is anything like the old show, she cooks fearlessly and isn’t afraid of ingredients that might make us Yankees squirm.  Click on her website if you would like to read more.  According to her website, she is very excited that the Food Network has asked her to do this show.  And we are very happy that she has accepted.

Nigella Lawson’s new show, Nigella Feasts, debuts in October.

I decided to be adventurous this morning and attempt to bake something.  When I was watching Giada make these Pancetta Biscuits, I wanted to try them.  Since the television set isn’t a vending machine, I had to make them myself.  I hate baking.  I always make a mess.  A big, floury mess.  I decided that since Giada took a shortcut and used ready made biscuit mix (which I already had collecting dust in my pantry) I decided that if there ever was a day to attempt to bake, today would be that day. 

Weekly recipe - Pancetta Biscuits:

The recipe called for pancetta, a meat that I wasn’t used to using.  When I was in the supermarket, I found pancetta, but it was a bit too pricy for me to justify using it.  I almost opted for ham, but decided to try Trader Joe’s to see what they had in the way of this Italian meat.  Lo and behold, it was half the price at Trader Joe’s, so I stuck to the original recipe.  The fontina cheese was cheaper, too.  If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s by you, you’re missing out because Trader Joe’s is a ton of fun, but you can find this stuff fairly easily at any mega mart, just be prepared to pay a little more or use substitutions. 

For the butter, I didn’t have a vanilla bean, nor did I have vanilla extract.  I thought I did, but I didn’t.  So, I used a dash of maple syrup and it turned out to be pretty tasty.  I also didn’t have actual sugar, so I used Splenda, which was great, too.

The recipe was easy to follow, easy to put together, and baked quickly.  It’s also pretty fool proof.  No salt was added by me, so there was little chance of making it too salty.  I highly recommend this dish.  I give it a 9 out of 10 for being delicious and for the fact that I didn’t burn it even if it was something that I baked.  I gave myself a pat on the back for that.

I kept checking foodnetwork.com/davedoes all day yesterday and the day before and his new show hadn’t been released.   It wasn’t until last night that the show finally premiered.  I was under the impression that since the promos said the show would come out August 14th, that would mean they would come out August 14th.  Oh well.  Now that rant is over, feel free to click on the link to watch the shows.

There are two episodes available. The first is on school food.  While the other is on doughnuts.  I found this pairing odd.  The first show spent a great deal of effort trying to emphasize the importance of healthy meals for school going children, and then immediatly after that, we watch the deliciousness of doughnuts.  I’m not sure that that was the greatest choice of back to back shows, but that’s what they did.  Maybe kids will only watch the first one and try to ignore the doughnuts.  I think a show on fruits and vegtables after the school one might have been a better path. And then they could eventually lead into the sugary pastries. 

Once you get past the apparent lack of continuity from episode to episode, the shows on their own are pretty entertaining.  I was amused to see that the crazy owner of VooDoo Doughnuts’ favorite doughnut was the buttermilk doughnut and my personal favorite as well.  I guess unique minds think alike.  Try to watch an episode or two and tell me what you think.

I was watching Friends last night, and I saw the episode after Ross and Emily’s wedding.  If you rememeber, The party after the wedding had a buffet that served steak.  A clever humorous moment had Joey standing in the middle of the room eating a steak with his hands like beef jerky.  It made me wonder, is there a correct way to entertain if you do not have enough seating?  Can you in fact, properly throw a dinner where the guests are allowed to eat on the couch with their plates on their laps?  Obviously, I knew steak wouldn’t be the best choice for a casual food-in-your-lap get together, but someone somewhere must know how to appropriatley have the kind of casual dinner us new entertainers want to throw. 

Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself, to the rescue.  She answers questions for iVillage’s House Beautiful column on the best way to entertain.  Some tips for lap dinners include the obvious:

• No food should require a knife and fork.

And less obvious:

• Match the temperature of the food to the season.  Serve warm soup if it’s cold out to help heat the holder up.  
• Avoid messy food.  If you don’t want it on your floor, you probaby shouldn’t serve it to your guests.

The article also contains other helpful entertaining tip from the Contessa.  Check it out. Try it out.  And let me know what you thinK