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

This post isn’t entirely Food Network related, I have to warn you, but it is certainly entertaining and definitly pertains to the cooking world in general.  More specifically, it relates to all those darn appliances we use in our homes that could be replaced by the common multi-tasker, the knife. 

Erica Marcus, of Newsday.com, hits the nail on the head when she describes all those useless appliances that we think we need when we see them on TV, but end up loathing once we put them intopractice.  She pays omage to the multi-tasking gadget king, Alton Brown, and when she explains the uselessness of a bagel slicer:

• I have a great bagel slicer at home … It’s called … a knife.  If you lay the bagel on its side, insert the bread knife around its equator, and then hold the knife steady while you rotate the bagel, you will obviate the need for what Alton Brown calls “a uni-tasker” (i.e., a tool that can only perform one task).

This was a very amusing article.  I have to admit I have a few of the stupid gadgets she talks about (the “as seen on TV” mini chopper, for one) and as I read what she said about them, I was a bit embarassed and agreed with her almost whole heartedly.  If you are like me, and like to comisurate with others who buy useless kitchen products, check her article out.
 

For this week’s attempt, I decided to try to appease all of you that voted in the Resolution poll.  The winner of the poll was, “I love food and food loves me,” but in a close second, most of you would like to increase the amount of fruits and veggies in your diet.  I decided to pick a recipe that involves both of these concepts.  I also saw that Michael Chiarello was doing an episode devoted to California, where I happen to reside, so I couldn’t resist the following choice from his California Here I Come episode.

Weekly recipe attempt:  Tomato Steak with Baked Goat Cheese and Herb Salad

I liked the look of this recipe.  It was very simple, yet pretty.  I decided, in honor of football season, and incidentally appetizer season as well, that I would make a smaller version of this recipe to perhaps be passed around when the big game is on.  I used Roma tomatoes instead of beefsteak and made the goat cheese rounds a bit smaller.  Unfortunatley with the goat cheese rounds being smaller, they didn’t “bake”/ melt as well as the bigger slices would have.  It was still delicious just the same.

The only problem I came across if you were to use this for a big game thing, was the fact that once you put the slices of goat cheese into a frying pan, you have to watch them fairly carefully.  Or else you’s end up topping your tomatoes with little lumps of charcoal.  This might be difficult if one eye was on the game instead of both on the pan.  If you have a TV in your kitchen, then problem is solved.

All in all, I’d give this an 8 out of 10.  It was a little more messy to make than I thought it would be, so it gets a little lower score than the overall taste would have given it. 

I have to thank a reader for the following post.  Fellow Food Network fan, Nicky, at deglazing.com has started an interesting new blog series called Food TV Face Off.  In this version of the face-off, Nicky pits Dave Lieberman’s Arborio Rice Pudding with Ina Garten’s Rum Rice Pudding. 

Nicky proceeds by making both dishes, explaining any variations, and ultimatley crowning a winner.  For the recipes of these two dishes and for the winner of this battle, check out Nicky’s site deglazing.com.

OK all you Duff Goldman fans out there, your favorite blow torch weilding cake man poured his heart out to Newsweek’s Julie Scelfo this morning.  In his interview he explains how he got wrapped up into the whole crazy world of cake building and his motivations behind some of his crazier cakes.

I must admit, until I read this little interview, I never knew just how many sides this guy had.  I thought he was a bit of a poser with his shaved head and rock star style, but he actually is in a band and knows how to rock.  So I guess I need to take back some of the things that I may have said about this guy in the past.  Perhaps I’ll even check out an episode or two of his show.  After all, Goldman’s description of finding his calling in life can be easily related to by anyone.

“When we got to the cake-decorating section, it was kind of like the scene in Harry Potter where the lights came on and the angels were singing and it was like, “Ohhhhh!” This is obviously what I should be doing.”

I also like the fact that he threw in a Harry Potter reference.  It’s almost enough to make me tune into his show.  Almost.

Now this may surprise a couple of people who know me, but this weekend I actually found myself catching a couple of minutes of some football games.  OK I was stuck at an airport for five hours and didn’t really have anything to do, so I popped my head into the bar.  But when I caught some of the game, I was enjoying myself.  I don’t usually watch football or any sporting event for that matter.  People got so into that stuff, that I began to cheer with the rest of them.   

With playoffs in gear and Superbowl Sunday just around the corner, the Food Network helps you plan your parties by giving you some football munchies for those hoop and holler games.  Football week for the Food Network comes along in the beginning of February, but what if you need help now for those equally important playoff parties?  Don’t fear, the Food Network website is here!  You can find yummy food bites and fun tips from Guy.  My personal favorite tip from Guy is tip number 3:

• Consider setting up two televisions: one for the die-hard football watchers, and another for the social viewers.

What a great idea!  I’ve never heard of that before.  This way, when no touchdowns are happening and I’m a little lost on flags and penalties or whatnot, I can drift off to the non-sports fan tv and talk about non-related things like what recipe I made without disturbing the people who are arguing about whether one toe was in or two. 

Check out more tips from Guy and other fun things at the Food Network’s website.

As all of you may know, I’m not Paula Deen’s biggest fan.  However, I was intrigued by her attempt to jump on the healthy band wagon for this week’s Light and Healthy Week on the Food Network.  I decided to try one of her southern-style light fares.  Since I recently purchased a bag of frozen asparagus on an impulse buy at the supermarket, I decided to find something that could use those bad boys up.  I landed on a typical asparagus recipe, Paula Deen style (aka it has butter in it.)

Weekly Recipe Attempt:  Asparagus with Lemon Butter

I liked this recipe.  It’s simple and quick to prepare.  I paired the asparagus with a skinless chicken thigh that I roasted in the oven.  I think that I put a little too much lemon on top, because the asparagus had a little too much of a kick to it, but it was still pretty good.  I like to squeeze lemons and sometimes get a little over zealous with the juice.   Paula’s recipe called for olive oil, and to lighten things a little, since I didn’t want to keep all the butter, I sprayed the asparagus with canola oil from a can.  This method saves about a 100 calories and still had the desired effect.  I love using asparagus because it looks so pretty on the plate.  Even if you use only a few stalks it takes up a lot of the plate and makes things look pretty.  Use extra lemon wedges for garnish to wow a crowd.

I give this healthy recipe an 8.  It’s too simple to merit a higher score, but I do think that this just might be the perfect light side dish to any lean meat entree.

All this week on the Food Network shows will be airing starting at 4:30pm from January 2nd through January 7th, showing the lighter side of the food spectrum.  All of your favorite chefs will be helping this cause by creating menus that are designed to help those of us who decided to cut back on the bad foods this year as our 2007 resolutions.  Three new specials include Emeril Live: In Training, 10 Days to a New You, and  Spa-tacular Destinations.  Along with the specials, count on Rachael Ray, Sandra Lee, Giada, and even Paula Deen the butter queen, to trim back the calories on their daily afternoon shows. 

What’s your resolution?

I found an interesting article this weekend from the Houston Chronicle, chron.com, by Associated Press writer, Kim Curtis.  According to the article entitled Celebrity Chefs Boost Culinary Schools a lot of hopeful chefs growing up watching the Food Network end up regreting their decision to make cooking their life.  When I first saw the title of this article, I thought that it would be a hopeful story showing how celebrity chefs have made working in the food industry exciting again.  While that did happen, the story also goes on to show how the industry is pretty cutthroat and that the cost of tuition for culinary schools can be as much as $20,000 per year.  So in a way, the Food Network is contributing to the debt of a lot of fledgling chefs with images of Rachel Ray’s success in their heads, who end up working in entry level positions due to the lack of stability in the industry.  Just like a lot of things in life, things aren’t always what they seem like on TV.

This Christmas, Sandra Lee’s cup runneth over with festive ways to intoxicate yourself and your tree with a Semi-Homemade cocktail party.  I know there are a lot of people out there who don’t like the way Sandra ”cooks,” but I have to admit, out of all the styles of chefs/cooks on the Food Network, my style of cooking more closely resembles that of Sandra Lee than anyone else’s.  In fact, the picture on this blog is from my Thanksgiving.  It is one of Sandra Lee’s Mayflower Martini’s and I made it for my guests.

Yes, she makes a lot of cocktails, but these Christmas ones look delicious and festive!  She is entertaining her guests with a Frosty Cocktail, a Candy Cane Cocktail, and a Gingerbread Martini.  I don’t know anyone who has all of the liquor’s required for all these cocktails, but maybe if you pick just one festive treat for your guests, I think they’d appreciate the creativity and get into the holiday spirit. 

Even if making drinks isn’t your style, Sandra Lee has come up with the oddest tree decorating tip I’ve ever seen in my life.  She suggests taking all of the glasses out of your cupboard and stringing them upside down on your tree to resemble bells.  I’m on your side Sandra, but this idea was ridiculous.  Let’s forget for a moment that using your goblets on the tree and making your guests drink out of jelly jars is tacky, but they didn’t look like bells.  They looked like you drank a few of your cocktails when you decorated your tree and hung up the first glass objects you found.  Cocktails good.  Cocktail glass ornaments bad.  And if the ornaments didn’t scream drunken Christmas enough, the tree was topped with a nutcracker holding his very own frosty Martini.

Sandra Lee also made some appetizers to go with the drinks and insists that the hearty foods will balance out the copious amounts of alcohol.  If you’d like to check out this episode it airs December 20th at 5:30pm and December 25th at 12:30pm.

I have to start out by apologizing to you all.  I’ve been a little lazy with my blog lately due to life and stuff.  Thanksgiving was a big hoopla and after all that cooking, I took a little break from all things food.  But now, I’m back.  What brought me back, you might say?  My brother.  He mentioned a little tid bit about the shiny happy cook, Rachael Ray that I hadn’t heard anything about.  My brother doesn’t follow any sort of food news and the fact that he heard about the reported sex scandal with Rachael Ray’s husband and I didn’t, was shocking.  I had to look the story up immediatley.

According to a story in the BostonHerald.com, on Wednesday, December 13th, writers Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa state:

“John Cuisimano, the rocker hubby of TV food queen Rachael Ray, is spitting mad over tabloid reports that he had a kinky affair with a Florida woman, whom he supposedly paid to spit on him!”  

The article goes on to say that this story was broken by the questionably reliable, National Enquirer.  I have to admit that even though the Enquirer may not exactly be the New York Times, they sometimes do get things right.  I’m not saying they are necessarily ethical in their methods or that this story is true, but one never knows.  I almost want to believe that this story is true.  It gives Rachael a little bit of a dark side.  Like there’s more to her that we realize.  She isn’t perfect.  Her marriage has problems like so many of us out there.  In a way I like that.  It makes her more relatable and perhaps a little easier to watch.

In addition to the sex scandal stuff, the article on BostonHerald.com does shine some more light on who the husband is.  I never knew he was a rocker.  In fact, I didn’t even know his name is John.  The sex scandal might be a rouse to shoot his band into the rock star stratosphere.  You never know.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think there is any merit to this claim?  Are we all idiots for even entertaining the notion that this might be true?