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 was an ambitious attempt on my part.  I decided to try to make a pot roast.  Me and slow cooking don’t go together, but I saw Dave do this so easily, and inexpensivley, that I thought I could give it a whirl.  I had carrots and onions, so all I had to do was pick up some potatoes and a piece of beef, and I was set.  Fortunately for me, pot roast meat was on sale.  I forget what kind of roast it was, but it did say “Pot Roast” on the label, so I thought I couldn’t go wrong.

Weekly recipe attempt: Red Wine Pot Roast with Honey and Thyme

Things were going smoothly with this recipe, in the beginning, anyway.  I did a fine job at browning the meat.  I managed to set it aside while the vegtables sauteed without dropping it on the ground.  I didn’t burn the vegtables.  I put the lid on it and managed to get it into the oven without incident.  Everything was cooking.  Everything was bubbling.  I was patiently waiting for a couple of hours.  Things were going well and I was very engouraged, until, to my peril, I had a lightbulb moment.  The meat that I had bought was significantly smaller, I mean about half the size of Dave’s meat, which meant, it needed less time.  Oh no.  I had this lightbulb moment fairly late in the game.

When I took the pot out of the oven, things looked ok.  I tried a carrot.  It was cooked.  A bit sweeter than I thought it would be (more on that later) but my panic began to subside.  I then cut into the meat.  It wasn’t pot roasty at all.  It was flakey and not in a good way.  I was saddened.  This is the problem with slow cooking.  You look forward to something for two hours or more, and if it doesn’t work out, you just wasted two hours and have no food.  I, however, thought that perhaps, covering it with gravy would make things better.  Covering any food with gravy or sauce usually does a pretty good job at covering the flaws. 

I poured the gravy over the mound of food, and things, once again, seemed ok.  But (remember the carrot) when I tasted the gravy, it was sweet.  Really sweet.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I was expecting or what I was looking forward too.  Maybe it was supposed to be that way, and I just didn’t care for it.  I tried to add salt, lots and lots of salt, but it didn’t work.  Maybe I shouldn’t have substituted red onions for white.  Maybe the sweetness was too much, but I doubt it.  But in any case, it wasn’t the deliciousness I was expecting. 

I think it will be a while before I attempt another slow cooked meal.  I give this pot roast a 5 out of 10.

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!

In an article published today by the Chicago Sun-Times, Florence says that he writes for us common cooks, as opposed to seasoned chefs.  The “ultimate” chef is holding book signings in Chicago for his new cook book, Tyler’s Ultimate: Brilliant Simple Food to Make Anytime.  With this new book, he is trying to reach novice cooks as opposed to professional chefs.  The article states, “I don’t write for chefs, they know how to cook. I write for everyone else,” said Florence. “This cookbook will be one that people will use.”

For more information on dates and locations of the book signings, please visit the online article by clicking here.

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.

I didn’t watch him enough and now he’s gone!  According to an article this morning in the St. Petersburg Times Online, the Food Network says that viewership numbers drive the programming.  If you don’t like the fact that they cancelled Molto Mario, in all honesty, you probably didn’t watch it as faithfully as Emeril. Or you didn’t go onto enough blogs to petition your friends to tune into the soft spoken Italian man. 

In any case, the article also states that the 5 most popular shows this month are Iron Chef America, Throwdown With Bobby Flay, Road Tasted and the new Ace of Cakes.  I looked at the list and found it strange that all of these shows have mostly male cooks (the only female is Cat Cora from Iron Chef America.)  The core audience, according to the article, is mostly women.  Maybe we like to see hot chefs cooking tasty dishes.  I don’t know. 

This was a fun article to read.  It also pokes a little fun at us bloggers who love to voice our opinions about various chefs and the way the sometimes over decorate thier tables or use too much butter.  Check it out and let me know what you think. 

And I’m not the only one!  Fellow blogger jrs agrees that Nigella will be an interesting addition to the sometimes-too-yankee station, Food Network.  Jrs also brings up an interesting point, will there be a grudge match between already established European-American chef Giada DeLaurentiis and newcommer Nigella?  I have to admit, I knew who Nigella was before I knew Giada.  I came upon Nigella’s previous show on the Style Network early one morning while channel surfing before I left for work.  I was hooked, and then it was gone.  Not long after I came upon Giada and my thirst for exotic, yet easy food was quenched once again. 

I’ll have to see the new show to see if Nigella Americanzes things too much, like using pounds of flour as opposed to kilograms, or starts saying cilantro as opposed to coriander.  I liked the English version.  It was like I accidentally hacked into an English cooking station.  She also looks like she actually eats what she cooks.  With Giada, I sometimes feel that the only bites of the food she actually eats are the ones that we see on camera.

I’ll have to wait until October before I can difinitively choose a favorite.

Please visit the food network addict site to see more on Nigella.

I’m just not one of them.  According to an article on azstarnet.com released today, September 11th, Paula Deen has mass market appeal and lots of loving fans who follow her around.  I’m not going to lie.  If I saw the “Grandma of Southern Cooking” in a supermarket, I would probably stop and look.  OK, I’d probably try to get an interview, but that goes for any T.V. star I could recognize.  I just don’t see her appeal.

Paula Deen has become a toursit magnet for Savannah, Ga, the Deep Fried Queen’s home town.  According to the article, people actually go there in hopes of getting a glimpse of the gray haired cook.    “Paula Deen is why we came to Savannah,” said Gerry Adams, 59, of Fort Myers, Fla., reports Russ Bynum of the Associated Press.

Now that’s what I really don’t get.  Going across state lines to get a glipse of the butter packing chef.  I could see trying to spot Dave Leiberman in New York, or Giada in Los Angeles, if you happen to be in the neghborhood, but Paula?  Maybe she’s easier for people to spot.  Or fans can hear her annoying voice from a couple of states away.  I guess I’m glad that I live half the country away from her.  That way there is little chance of running into her, or her equally annoying offspring.

I apologize if there are any Paula lovers out there. If you disagree, please feel free to voice your opinion.  Maybe one of you can shine some light on her appeal.

Want to see the action of food competition live and in person?  Well if you’re from Colorado, hang onto your spatulas because two tapings of Food Network Challenge are taking place in September. 

The first challenge takes place on September 21st, in Centennial, Colorado at the Comcast Media Center.  Watch the chefs construct chocolate creations with the Chocolate Runway Challenge.

The second challenge takes place the following day at the same location.  This time the chefs take on cakes in the Food Network Awards Cake Challenge. 

For more information please visit FoodNetwork.com.

The Food Network has renewed the chef finding show for a third season according to Mediaweek.com.  This show has returning host, Marc Summers, along with guest chefs searching for the next great food personality.  The last winner, Guy Fieri of Guy’s Big Bite, has also been renewed for a second season.  He will also be appearing on specials for the network.  The Next Food Network Star will be premiering in June 2007.

In the last post, I alluded to a special menu that a friend of mine and I were preparing for Labor Day Brunch, and I must give us a round of applause.  We attempted a couple of items from Bobby Flay’s Boy Meets Grill brunch episode in the Labor Day marathon.  We made cheesy eggs and blueberry honey butter for biscuits.  The original accompanyment for the butter was corn muffins, but the biscuits were only 44 cents at the grocery store, so who can pass that up.  Although the corn muffins would have perhaps been better for the butter. 

The eggs were great and pretty easy to make.  I always forget how much you can do with eggs.  I get worried that when I add cheese to eggs, the cheese will burn and get stuck to the pan.  The cheese never does this, but I still worry.  This time we used goat cheese, which is creamier than say a cheddar, so it added more of a creamyness as opposed to a cheesey, gooeyness.  It was delicious.  You also might be tepmted to take out the jalapeno if you don’t like heat, but please don’t.  It definitley adds a much needed kick and you need to give it a try.  Just don’t put too much in it. 

The butter was good, too.  It was more of a method for the butter.  I now see how they make things like garlic butter, honey butter, chive butter, etc.  It’s simple.  Take whatever you want to turn into butter and stick it in the food processor.  Then add the butter and blend away.  It’s so easy, I couldn’t screw it up if I tried, although I don’t usually need to try to screw things up, it just sort of happens. 

All in all, the brunch was delicious.  A Bloody Mary makes a perfect addition to the brunch.  If you don’t want any alcohol for breakfast, Virgin Mary’s are great, too.  In fact, I think I prefer them at 10 in the morning, but to each their own I guess.

Who else had a bruch they’d like to tell my about?  I’m always looking for good brunch ideas.  There’s nothing better on a lazy weekend then a huge spread of delicious and pretty food.