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

This week’s recipe came from August 10th’s, Boy Meets Grill with Bobby Flay.  It was Black Pepper-Basil Farmer’s Cheese Bruschetta with Tomato.  The biggest difference between my method of making this and Flay’s method was the fact that I used a grill pan as opposed to an actual live-flame grill.  It was just easier for me and I wasn’t making a billion little bruschettas, I was only making a few, six exactly.  I also don’t have a very big food processor.  It’s one of those tiny personal sized ones and made mixing the cheese spread a chore.  I probably won’t make another recipe like this until I get a grown up food processor.  I’m taking donations if you have an extra food processor laying around.

Back to the dish.  It looks good, doesn’t it?  Well I do have to confess and warn that the cheese is misleadingly salty.  I know, I know, you are supposed to taste things before you add salt, but like a true novice, I added salt because the recipe said to.  I’m an idiot and I’ve learned my lesson.  I never had farmer’s cheese before.  It was saltier than I thought it would be and it was hard to find (there was only one kind of farmer’s cheese in my supermarket and it took a while to spot.) 

The little bruschettas were edible and I had them cold for lunch today.  They were actually better cold.  Maybe the lack of heat mellowed out the salt.  I think these would be great, maybe even better with goat cheese.  I think I’ll try that next time.  It’s easier to process into a spread.

Once again it’s time for the weekly amateur Iron Chef pick!

Here is part two of New Paltz’s Battle Tofu.

Why, he’s the Ace of Cakes of course!  This hot new chef is coming out with a brand new Food Network show where he will make extreme cakes and live an extreme life.  According to a news story from The Cincinnati Post, this new show will follow the exciting life of this eccentric cake decorator along with his friends and family.  It’s almost like a new reality show featuring a chef, his business and his hobbies.

I’m interested to see how Food Network is going to handle this guy.  I don’t know if I’m interested enought to go out of my way to watch the premiere, but I might catch a re-run.  I’ve never been a fan of the Food Network Challenges, and this seems kind of like the cake challenge over and over again.  Maybe he’ll prove me wrong, but I do give him credit for using a blowtorch.  That could be cool.

According to an article in the Seattle Times this morning, more and more groups of acquaintances are taking to restaurants to catch up and get to know one another.  A lot of groups, such as alumni, co-workers, and old friends are making regularly scheduled appearances at local eateries in Seattle and surrounding areas.  According to Jenni Frere, an alumni from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wa., “If you don’t have something that brings you together on a regular basis, then it gets really difficult to stay in touch.”

Thinking of starting your own dining-out club?  Tonight on Tasty Travels with Rachael Ray (11:30pm), Rachael explores Little Rock, Ar. and visits a number of the local eateries in that town.  Even if you don’t live in Arkansas, she’ll give some helpful tips on how to sniff out favorite local joints that are always a fun adventure, especially when you get to discover them with old and new friends alike. 

I was just watching Food 911 with Tyler Florence and he was making antipasto dishes for someone with an entertaining emergency.  I was with him for the marinated olives.  I nodded in agreement with the mushrooms, but then he pulled out the peppers.  I love roasted peppers and usually find that making things myself makes them better.  However, once he started to roast the peppers and steam the peppers and peel the peppers and wipe the peppers, I began to get tired.  Watching him prepare the peppers was exhausting and made me never want to attempt it.   

Why do it?  You can buy roasted peppers in nearly every grocery store nowadays and a good sized jar is usually less than $5.  Buying enough peppers to fill the jar would cost that much, and never mind the huge amount of effort it would take to roast all of them.  I guess this is one food I just don’t understand why anyone would want to make it.

The Food Network loves beautiful food as well as beautiful chefs.  According to About.com, the Food Network has the pleasure of having four of the world’s most beautiful chefs to grace it’s line-up.  Everyday Italian’s, Giada De Laurentiis, Good Deal’s, Dave Lieberman, How to Boil Water’s, Tyler Florence, and the Naked Chef’s, Jaime Oliver look good cooking and cook stuff that looks delicious. To see all of these chefs, along with other pretty food celebrities, check out the gallery on About.com.   

Alton Brown rides again and this time, he rides with a little food for thought.  On Saturday’s, August 5th, episode of Feasting on Asphault, Alton chowed down on a brain sandwich.  Honestly, I can’t remember anything else from the episode besides the valiant effort he made to look as if he enjoyed the sandwich.  If you noticed, they only showed him eating two bites of it.  It looked like a big fried donut, so maybe it didn’t really taste like anything except fried batter.  If you would like to try this sandwich for yourself and can’t find a restaurant that serves it, I found the recipe online.  It took a while to fish it out but I found one on RecipeLand.com .  Try it!  Let me know what you think.  This one looks a bit too exotic for me to attempt, but I would love to hear any opinions on the sandwich.

It’s Friday night and your sweetheart is coming over.  Time to panic!  Wait- maybe not.  Michael Chiarello is here to help.  Today on Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello at 3:30PM ET/PT, Chiarello will show you how to make a romantic evening for someone close to you without breaking your bank. 

On this “Romance on a Shoestring” episode, Chiarello makes Saltimbocca Zucchini, Stuffed Chicken Thighs with Red Pepper Tomato Sauce and Hazelnut Semifreddo for a groom-to-be eager to impress his soon-to-be-wife.

If your looking for a romantic getaway, but can only afford to stay right here, this menu might be the way to get the amore flowing without emptying your wallet.

Here is this week’s amateur Iron Chef pick of the week: 

New Paltz takes on Battle Tofu!

Let’s do lunch…online!  Food Network is launching another on-line only show starring Dave Lieberman entitled “Dave Does.”  According to an article posted on ABC News.com today, the first on-line only project starring Lieberman called “Eat This” garnered more than one million page views in it’s first two weeks.   Natali Del Conte of PC Magazine, interviewed Beth Higbee, the senior vice president of interactive for Food Network.  In the interview Higbee said, ”the show (Eat This) taught them that viewers want online shows to be shorter than a typical TV show.”  

There will be 13 five minute episoded for “Dave Does” first airing August 14th.  Lieberman’s new show will highlight culinary trends and eateries in New York, Boston, Portland, Ore., and Philadelphia. 

 To view the entire ABC News.com article click here .

To watch Lieberman’s latest installment of “Eat This” click here .