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

According to Richard Johnson of the New York Post, the Food Network has crowed a new queen.  Due to Rachael Ray’s recent network TV fame, Paula Deen has stepped into the royal footsteps and became the queen of the Food Network.  Funny, I don’t remember a coronation? 

I agree that Rachael has a lot on her plate right now, and that Paula seems to have stepped into the spotlight, but Paula doesn’t scream regal to me.  I guess neither does Rachel.  I say we have a vote. Don’t we live in America?  I think Giada would make a lovelier queen than either of those guys.  Her food is prettier, too.  What do you think?  Who’s the Food Network Queen in your opinion?

Fellow Rachael Ray fan, Madeline, has a new look for her Everything Rachael Ray blog.  It’s a beautiful new site.  If you get the chance, click over to it and check it out. 

Her latest posts include an interview with her for Food Candy and the Manifesto of a Grudging Rachael Ray Fan.  In the Manifesto, she bites her tongue as she summarizes a recent article where a writer criticizes Rachael Ray.  I agree with Madeline when she says:

“Rachael’s demystification of meal preparation is exactly what helped me try cooking that very first time.”

You’re not the only one, Madeline.  She helped me, too.  Without Rachael, there probably wouldn’t even be a FoodTv and Me blog, and how sad would that be?

Check out her newly remodeled site.  You might just learn something new about Rachael, and you’ll definitley be entertained.  Keep up the good work, Madeline!

I picked this week’s recipe for a variety of reasons.  I was going to pick one of Nigella’s recipies as a kick off to her new show, but they were both kind of heavy: chili with cornbread and a trifle with whipped cream and other bad-for-you yumminess.  For the next few weeks, due to an upcoming wedding where I have to squeeze myself into a tight fitting bride’s maid’s dress, I am going to try to eat a bit healthier.  Therefore, I will try to pick slimmer recipes or modify recipes to cut some calories.  That having been said, this week’s recipe came from the queen of quickness herself, Rachael Ray.

Weekly Recipe Attempt: Chicken in Tarragon Cream Sauce, White and Wild Rice with Walnuts

First off, I love chicken.  It is by far the thing that I cook the most and what attracted me the most to this recipe.  So I took that building block and followed the recipe pretty much to a tee.  After the pot roast disaster (click here to read about the pot roast that ate Orange County), I had to return to my tried and true roots of poultry. 

While the chicken cooked, instead of rice (to make things a bit lighter) I oven roasted some green beans.  I would like to thank Emeril for this idea.  I don’t really like his show, but this was one great idea.  It made the beans all crispy and yummy.  If you have a hard time choking down vegtables, or getting the little ones to eat their green beans, try the oven roasted trick and tell them the beans are actually green french fries.  Just stick the beans in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes with some olive oil, salt and pepper.

It then came to the cream part.  I used some fat free half and half (yes there is such as thing.)  I found mine at Trader Joe’s.  If you don’t have a Trader Joes, or if you can’t find it at your supermarket, try fat free sour cream.  I used what I had on hand.  If you don’t have a bride’s maid’s dress to fit into, by all means use the full fat stuff. 

It was good.  I’m not a huge fan of tomato-type sauces with my chicken, but the balsamic vinegar definitley helped take away some of the tomato flavor.  Go lighter on the vingear than you would think.  When this stuff concentrates, the aroma can hit you in the face like a sucker punch.  Just wanted to warn you.

All in all I give this recipe an 8 1/2.  It doesn’t get a 9, but I think with fat free sour cream instead of half and half, it would.  If anyone out there tries this with the rice, let me know how that turns out. 

I was sorry that I haven’t had a chance to catch the show, but after reading the reviews, I think I might have made the right choice, for me anyway.  The fears that I had about Rachael Ray’s new daytime talk show, which premiered this week, were that her bubbly attitude would go on for an hour.  According to many reviews, it did.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Rachael Ray, but I can only take 30 minutes of her.  I can actually only take 30 Minute Meals of here, I’ve never gotten into her other Food Network shows. 

According to viewers, Ray sticks to what she knows, quick time saving tricks and never ceasing energy.  I have to admit, this combination might work.  She doesn’t claim to be an expert on anything.  She doesn’t even claim to be a gormet cook.  She’s just trying to be everyone’s overachieving big sister, which kind of works for her.  She does say, and do, everything with a smile.  Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times News Service, agrees that this one-two cheerfulness punch might turn out to be a winner.  To read her full story on the show, click here for an article in the Chronic Herald .

For a more comprehensive run-down of the show, feel free to go to our blogging Rachael Ray guru, Madeline with her Everything Rachael Ray site.  She has many more reviews along with her own take on the show.  Feel free to let me know what you think.

Check local listings for Rachael Ray’s new daytime show.  Here in the O.C. her show is on CBS at 9am.  Set those Tivos!

This week’s attempt was a simple one: salad.  I always love making salads in a pinch for a meal, but I usually use dressing from a bottle.  Today, I thought I would take a que from the quick-cooking queen herself, Rachael Ray, and make one of her lovely little salad dressings for a tasty, healthy weeknight meal.

Weekly Recipe Attempt:  Iceberg Lettuce Chopped Salad with “French” Dressing

This is simply a salad.  I suggest adding whatever you want for the bed of the salad.  I added canned, sliced beets because I love them and they happened to be in my pantry.  Corn would have been delicious on this salad, but that I did not have.  Rachael had cucumber, carrots and radishes.  I didn’t have any of these things on hand, so they didn’t make the cut.  The radishes would have been a pretty addition to match the dressing.

As for the dressing, it actually did taste like French dressing.  It may not have been that brilliant red color like most of the bottled stuff, but it looked real.  And I knew what was in it, which is always a plus. I think a dash or two of hot sauce woiuld have spiced up the dressing, but I thought of that after I sat down to eat.  I was too hungry to go back to the kitchen at that point to add another ingredient.

All in all, I give this recipe a 6.  I know the score is pretty low, but this recipe lacks the “wow” factor.  I do like it’s versatiltity, but let’s face it, it’s a salad.   Most salad ingredients are pretty interchangeable.  I don’t know that I’ll make this particular salad again for a while.  It was a little to boring for me.

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. 

According to an article on The Detroit News.com, Wednesday, Food Network’s quick cooking chef is stirring up more than convinent recipes.  Rachael Ray, the 30 Minute Meal star, is coming out with a new daytime talkshow produced by the talkshow queen herself, Oprah Winfrey.  The show will focus on more than just food.  Ray will also present advice about travel, relationships and pop culture.  Click here to read the entire article.

I’m not sure about this show.  I love 30 Minute Meals, but an hour long talk show with Rachael Ray might just be a bit too much.  I view her as an expert on speedy dinners, not a relationship guru.  She is already on the Food Network hours a day.  I guess for those people who, unfortunatley, do not have cable, this will be a great time to get a glimpse of this sometimes way too cheery food host.  I’ll keep my mind open until I actually see the show.

Here is my attempt at one of Food Network’s recipes.  This week’s recipe comes from tonight’s 30 Minute Meals and is Grilled Baby Vegetables.

Ingredients: 6 baby zucchini, half an eggplant (the original called for baby eggplant, but I couldn’t find any of those), 6 baby portobellos (the original had 12, but that was way too many veggies for just me), 1/2 a lemon, 2 tsps Dijon mustard, 2 tsps Grill Seasoning, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 garlic clove, 3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil.

I cut the vegetables into the pieces that made the most sense (the best way they would fit on my grill pan.)  I left the mushrooms whole, although in hind sight it would have been better to cut the stems off.  I then combined the dressing ingredients, as Rachael Ray did on her show.  I released some stress while crushing the garlic, then tossed all the vegtables in the bowl with the dressing.  Then I grilled it.  It was easy, but the vegetables smoked a lot.  I was a little worried that I might set off the smoke detector.  Make sure you turn on the fan. 

This dish was good and suprisingly tasty.  The only thing I didn’t like was the eggplant.  I knew this might be a problem going in as I’m not that big of a fan of eggplant, but they looked pretty so I gave them a whirl.  I still didn’t like them, but the rest of the veggies were delicious.  I had a ton left over and plan on turning it into a delicious soup, minus the eggplant. 

I give this recipe a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.  (I was lenient since it was healthy.  It’s a good way to eat veggies, but I’d rather have pilaf as a side dish any day.)

Hoping to find some of Rachael Ray’s colorful bowls in stores?  Good luck!  Most of her G.B.s (garbage bowls) and other mixing bowls are vintage Metlox bowls and can be found on eBay and antique stores.  Her yellow oven is a vintage Chambers oven circa 1950 model 90c which can also be found on eBay.  I found a red one for about $1,500.  I, personally, would love to see her come out with her own line of cookware.  She does have some knives that you can purchase through foodnetwork.com, but I would rather be able to find her funky kitchen wear in a store. Who has the time to search eBay for cookwear?  I’d rather find my pots and pans at Walmart, even if it isn’t as colorful.  At least it’s easy to find.