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

In an omage to your pick for the hottest female chef, I thought it would be very fitting to pick a recipe from among the lovely Giada De Laurentiis’ repertoire of recipes.  That is where I started for my selection and to narrow it down, I had to face something.  An addiction that I have.  My name is Jessica and I’m a grocery-store-a-holic.  I vowed this week to break my frequent grocery store going habit and select a recipe that only used items that I currently have in my fridge or freezer.  So, ladies and gentelmen, I found the perfect recipe.

Weekly recipe attempt: Chicken Florentine Style

Off the bat, I knew that I would have to go with a chicken dish.  My freezer is littered with frozen chicken pieces of every shape and kind.  I also knew that buried somewhere in there was some frozen spinach.  I always have that on hand because one day someone on the Food Network told me to always have it on hand.  These are the two main components in this dish.  You probably picked that up already from the title - Chicken (has chicken) Florentine (has spinach). Ta dah!

Miraculously I had some shallots and a smidge of white wine in my fridge.  I think the wine had been in there for a while, but since I cooked it with other stuff, it seemed fine.  I had some half and half from my morning coffee, which I used instead of whipping cream.  It worked just fine, too.

I did not, however, have any parsley.  But the way I see it is that herbs enhance a dish and while they may be delicious, they do not make or break something.  If I were to run to the store to grab some parsley, I would come back with potato chips, frozen corn dogs and tater tots, all the while forgetting the herbs.  So you see, they never would have made it into the pan in the first place even if I took the effort to go out and buy them.

I really liked this recipe.  Not only was it a new way to eat chicken, but it made me eat spinach as well.  I don’t usually use spinach as my main side dish, I mostly put it in stuff like eggs to sneak it into my diet.  But when you put sauce over anything, you have an instant hit.

I give this recipe a 9.  It was simple, pretty, healthy (try using fat free cream and cooking spray in lieu of some of the butter), and delicious.  Once again the beautiful Giada proves why she is number one in our hearts and on our tables.

I don’t know if anyone is surprised here, but the very lovely, very Italian chef, Giada De Laurentiis has stomped the competition in the latest poll.  Who is the hottest female chef?  40% of you who voted said you love Giada’s low cut shirts and fancy measuring cups.

The winner wasn’t much of a surprise to me, but the race for second was a heated one.  Nigella Lawson and Paula Deen battled it out for the silver.  I stopped the poll at an even 200 votes and Nigella, my favorite female, beat the silver haired southerner by one vote.  Better luck next year Paula. 

Surprisingly, not that many people voted for Sandra Lee.  I recieved a few e-mails about this topic and a lot of you felt she tried too hard to be sexy or that she was a little too Stepford Wife for you.  I can see that.  No arguments here.

Here’s how the results broke down:

1. Giada De Laurentiis: 79 votes (40% of the total).  Gotta love those low cut tops.
2. Nigella Lawson:  39 votes (20% of the total)  See, curves can be sexy, too!
3. Paula Deen:  38 votes (19% of the total)  Hey, y’all!  This proves that grandmas can be hot!
4. Rachael Ray: 24 votes (12% of the total)  EV uh-oh! Maybe she should cook something sexier than a burger.
5. Sandra Lee: 18 votes (9% of the total)  Maybe matching your wardrobe to the table is more creepy than sexy, and a little too high maintenance.
6. Ellie Krieger: 2 votes (1% of the total)  I don’t know that enough people know who this is.  Try again next year.

Disagree with the votes?  Feel free to comment. 

I’m not really sure why they asked Giada to pick her favorite home picks, but they did so let’s just go with it.  As you may or may not know, the Today Show frequently asks Giada De Laurentiis about anything food related.  This week they went a step further and asked her to attend the 2007 International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago.  So she did.  She also went on to pick her five favorite home picks from that show.  Here were the five and for more information on each thing, click on the link to the Today Show’s page:

1. Keepeez vacuum lids
2. Thermos Foogo sippy cups
3. Grill mat and Seasoned Starters and Fruit Stickles
4. Cake molds
5. Magic eraser roller mop

Do you want to know what bugged me about this?  I honestly don’t care what Giada uses to mop up her floor.  The only person who actually mentions that she cleans her kitchen is Rachael Ray with her G.B. (garbage bowl).  In my mind, Giada is above cleaning.  She hires people to clean it, or she waves her hands and the mess magically disappears.  But to read that she is endorsing a mop and vacuum lids kind of makes me a little sad. 

Maybe I’m wrong.  Did you find this information helpful?  Are you going to run to Target and buy a Magic Eraser Roller Mop because the lovely Giada said it’s great?  If you are I really would like to know why.  I just don’t get it.  And it still makes me a little sad.

Of all the chefs being profiled this week on the Food Network, I was most anxious to catch Nigella Lawson’s biography on the small screen.  Last night, I did just that.  I had read her synopsis on FoodNetwork.com, and thought that I just needed to know more.  Of all the chefs profiled, she was the newest to the Food Network family and I, therefore knew the least about her.  I think everyone should know a little about this domestic goddess.  She faced overwhelming tragedies and still managed to become one of the spunkiest, sexiest, chefs on TV today.

Nigella had to face the painful deaths of not only her mother and sister due to cancer, but she lost her husband, John, as well, to the tragic disease.  It was heart wrenching and awe-inspiring to watch her become a powerhouse in the television cooking field, all while slowly losing her husband leaving her to raise two small children on her own.  The whole time I was watching the chefography, I fell in love with her all over again.  Even in the face of death and disease, she celebrated life and the time that she had on this planet with her family.  She cherished things that many of us take for granted.  Perhaps this is why she translates so well on film.  Her passion for life shows through in her cooking and zest for food. 

She never wants anyone to feel sorry for her or treat her like some wounded bird.  For all of you who are crying right now about her sad life, take comfort in knowing she found new love and is continuing to live each day to the fullest.  She still counts her blessings and feels that she is one of the luckiest women in the world.

If you’d like to catch Nigella’s chefography on the Food Network, it airs again March 21at 8pm and March 25th @ 3pm.

How did Rachael Ray take over our TVs?  Who taught Paula Deen to use all that butter?  Who put the “BAM” in Emeril’s sauce?  Tune in this week to the Food Network for Chefography week to find out all the answers about your favorite chefs.

• Rachael Ray’s chefography airs March 23rd @ 8pm ET/PT and March 24th @ 9pm ET/PT
• Bobby Flay’s chefography airs March 23rd @ 9pm ET/PT
• Ina Garten’s chefography airs March 25th @ 2pm ET/PT
• Nigella Lawson’s chefography airs March 21th @ 8pm ET/PT and March 25th @ 3pm ET/PT
• Paula Deen’s chefography airs March 20th @ 8pm ET/PT and March 24th @ 7pm ET/PT
• Sandra Lee’s chefography airs March 20th @ 9pm ET/PT and March 24 @ 10pm ET/PT
• Tyler Florence’s chefography airs March 21th @ 9pm ET/PT and March 25 @ 6pm ET/PT
• Giada DeLaurentiis’ chefography airs March 22th @ 8pm ET/PT and March 25 @ 4pm ET/PT
• Emeril Lagasse’s chefography airs March 24 @ 8pm ET/PT
• Mario Batalli’s chefography airs March 22th @ 9pm ET/PT and March 25 @ 5pm ET/PT

Maybe next time they do Chefography week, they’ll delve into Alton Brown’s past.  I’d really like to see how he came up with all those cooky gadgets.  Until then, I’ll have to settle with the chefs above.  I think I’m ok with that.

I just want to preface this week’s attempt by saying, I’m not a baker.  I wanted to make something Irish because it’s St. Patrick’s day tomorrow and fable has it that I’ve got a little Irish in me.  I thought this might help in the baking process, but I was wrong.  I usually opt for the traditional corned beef and cabbage, but this year, I thought that I would mix things up a bit.  I think next year I’ll go back to the beef.  Here’s what happened.

Weekly recipe attempt: Irish Soda Bread

As you’ll see from the picture, this looks like a big lump of dough.  And well, it is a big lump of dough.  It’s supposed to look like a nice, round ball of dough with an X on the top.  My interpretation of, “using a sharp knife cut a 1/4-inch-deep “X” into the top of the dough to let the fairies out,” apparently wasn’t quite what I was supposed to do.  I made the cuts too deep, and ended up with the lump.  By golly, there wasn’t a fairy left in that dough.

It didn’t taste bad, but the recipe yielded a big loaf.  My plan was to give some of it away to friends and family for St. Patrick’s Day, but there’s no way I’m giving out this mutant bread to anyone now.  I’d have to insist that it tastes better than it looks and then watch as they tentativley bite into it.  It would be painful for us both, and I don’t want to put anyone through that. 

I will have to say this.  This recipe led to my first experience with currants, and I loved them.  Good thing, too, because I have a lot leftover from this recipe. 

I’m giving this recipe a 6.  Maybe it would be higher if I made it properly, but I really wasn’t that much of a fan in general.  I gave it an extra half point for the currants.

I swore I wasn’t going to post any more articles about this subject for a while, but with some of the quotes that Patricia Talorico from the Gannett News Service found, I just couldn’t resist this one.

We all know that you either love or hate Rachael Ray.  You can even love her one day and hate her the next.  That’s the beauty of this cook.  The other beauty is the fact that she doesn’t take herself seriously and even if you laugh at her, she still laughs, too.

All this we know.  What we don’t know, or at least what I didn’t, was what Martha Stewart has to say about this loud, cheery chef that is taking her audience away.  Talorico writes:

“In a November 2006 Business Week article, (Martha) Stewart grumbled that Ray’s daily show, which premiered last September, ‘is much less appealing than her Food Network show. It’s very disjointed and loud, and I don’t learn anything,’ Stewart says.”

Talorico also illustrates that, “Ray’s show averages 2.3 million viewers - or 46 percent more than Stewart’s, based on Nielsen Media Research.”  So perhaps Stewart’s comment is merley fueled on by jealousy.  Who knows?

This was an interesting article to read.  It also goes in to some blog comments about Ray, which aren’t very nice.  I’ll let you click on over to the article itself to read those little tidbits.

There’s also some news about a restaurant in the works, which will feature, what else…burgers.

Check it out, and let me know what you think.  The article is called Rachael Ray has plenty of fans - and detractors .

With the South Beach Food Network Awards over and done with, it’s now onto the more important question; which male Food Network chef is the hottest?

The winner, not surprisingly, is Tyler Florence with 46% of the votes.  Not bad for a guy who makes the “ultimate” dish.  I guess HE is the ultimate dish.  OK that was a really bad joke and I apologize.

I was a bit surprised to see that Alton Brown, perhaps my favorite male chef, came in second with 21% of the total vote.  Maybe everyone really likes all of his gadgets…I think I’ll leave that one alone.

Here are all of the results:

1. Tyler Florence  46%
2. Alton Brown  21%
3. Bobby Flay  13%
4. Dave Lieberman  10%
5. Guy Fieri  8%
6. Duff Goldman 2%

Poor Duff brought up the rear.  Maybe his explosions are only contained within the kitchen.

Do you disagree with the poll?  If so, feel free to let me know your thoughts.

This week’s poll is along the same vein.  It’s time for you to weigh in on the women.  Which female chef is the sexiest?

Special thanks to Stephanie from yumsugar.com for this post.

According to Stephanie, Food Network’s quick cooking chef has been made into a wax figurine for Madame Tussauds New York.  Check out her site for the photos, yumsugar.com.

In my opinion, they both look fake, but the smile is spot on accurate.  I think the sculptor was a little kind in the weight department.  That is one skinny wax figurine.  I like how Rachael seems normal size, but I guess if I was made into a wax figure for all the world to see, I would ask the artist to slim me down as well.