5am started for me with What Would Brian Boitano Make? featuring a menu focused on sausage for some Secret Society Scooter members (lol!so friggin random), so each major component features sausage. I will refrain from tasteless or tongue-in-cheek jokes at this time. I gotta say, I kinda like this show and the food Brian makes looks pretty darn good. Definitely not too complicated as I can't see him slaving for hours over a dish, but simple and not fussy. Just the way I like it. lol Also, on a fangirl note, I FLOVE Brian Boitano; he was my fav fav FAV male ice skater during the 90s. The 92 Olympics were absolutely fab for me as I developed a love of the Olympics from watching that one. So since I was used to seeing him skate, I wasn't expecting to hear about him getting a cooking show. For some dumb reason, I didn't think about him having any other interests but skating. Well derr, skating is his career. It's not the only thing he does. Leave it to me to put him in a box. lol He's very engaging with the camera, not a surprise to me, and pretty funny to boot.
Anyway, the sausage panini to kick off the epi wasn't bad at all; I can't eat sausage but I would have considered eating this one. The sausage schnitzel wasn't bad either; I'm not big on German food but I liked the way Brian Americanized it without taking the German flair out of it. Creative on his part to use pretzel bread as opposed to regular buns or even ciabatta rolls. Right now he's making a seafood roll with shrimp (or as I call em, scrimps), scallops, and salmon blended together and rolled into little cabbage rolls and steamed. Can't say as I'm a big advocate of this one, mainly because my stomach is skittish and probably can't handle that much seafood. lol The scooter bars looked great and the sausage panini was a good dish to have for an appetizer or even at a game (hint hint for football fans!) The ending was a tad cheesy, but all in all not a bad epi.
Alex's Day Off--"Brunch"
I know I'm not the only one to notice that Alex Guarnaschelli is borderline pornographic when describing her food and the way it tastes, or how she intends to cook it; in general, her descriptions and the tone of voice toe the line of food porn. It's a giggle inducer for me. Today's brunch is starting with some homemade popovers, and I do have to say I appreciate that she makes these things from scratch and wants to make sure the food is appetizing and comforting. On a random note, man I wish I could cut food the way she does; I have so much trouble with it. I think the knives are too big for my hands. lol I like the way Alex makes her food; you can definitely tell she's a chef and knows her food, but its still doable in a home kitchen and every ingredient adds on to the end result of the dish. Now she's doing sausage patties and cooking the apples in some apple cider for the popovers, I believe. The addition of heated fennel, chili flakes and cayenne probably adds a good kick to the sausage and I like that the breadcrumbs were added to bind the sausage and allow it to cook without losing its shape. I hadn't thought of that but its a good idea. Next Alex is making what she calls a 'goopy egg' which I would have to omit if I were making this for myself; I prefer my eggs very scrambled; overeasy just seems like a stomachache waiting to happen for me. Now here's the porn part of the show. She said to turn off the phone, turn the blinds down, and have some sausage and cocktails. Look, when someone tells me those first two things, cocktail being optional, its because sex is usually on the horizon, not sausage. Well.....not the digestible kind anyway. Mhm....Ah damnit. *clears throat and straightens shirt* See? Naughty thoughts! This is all Alex's fault. lol In the last couple of minutes with some like marathon music playing at first lol, the sausage is heated in the pan with the egg, and then the egg is placed on top of the sausage. She did that so the egg would ooze down the middle of the sausage when cut, but again, not my style. I'd rather cut up the sausage when its done cooking, scramble a little of it with the egg and cheese and put it on a sandwich. That's just me. lol The popovers look so light and airy, but I'd use honey butter and then top with the cooked apple rather than ricotta and the apples. For me, ricotta belongs in lasagna, not necessarily a popover. But I digress. All in all, I wouldn't mind making this one at home.
Secrets of a Restaurant Chef--"The Secret to Fish and Chips"
As I said yesterday...or was it last week?...I love watching this show. Much like Alex, you can tell that Anne knows her food and how to make something taste a certain way, what each ingredient brings to the final product, and that she enjoys making the food taste great. Alot of people find this irritating, but I think its hilarious when Anne's talking about her BIIG meat or her BRROWN food...it used to make me O_o huh? but its kinda funny now. She's making some homemade fries for the fish; I didn't know Russet potatoes are better for that, I just got potatoes at the store. Didn't care which ones they were. Same with apples. lol And like I said with Alex, I wish I could control my food and cut it the way Anne does. I really REALLY can't do it well, especially with peeling potatoes. I try though. Over and over again. lol She cooks her fries in the oil twice, something else I didn't know. The first fry is to make them crispy, the second fry is to give them color. She just explained what mayo is. I love this woman. I like watching the cooks make their own batter; its alot better than just frying the fish in flour, isn't it? Apparently, the fizz from the beer allows the batter to bubble up and become fluffier. I'm not a drinker myself so the improvisation would be using ice-cold sparkling water instead. I had no idea how to fry fish or do any of this until this morning. And true to what Anne said, the fish looks golden, fluffy and evenly fried. I've never made mayo so I'd probably use store mayo for the coleslaw. I think this is going to be like the lettuce for the fish rather than just a side. Random commercial notes, I love the little girl in the Cici's Pizza commercial. The chick in the Babybel cheese one is funny. And don't use your dog to mop up your home. That's rotten as hell. Even if your dog's fur is inviting. Stop it. lol Fish is super crispy and looks great, and the coleslaw was just a side after all. Well I just gave you an improv to use. lol
Nigella Kitchen--"I Did it My Way"
Well first, how come its not called Nigella'S Kitchen? Nigella Kitchen just seems grammatically incorrect to me. Yes I know that's an anal and completely random observation to make. I'm a grammar buff. Leave me alone. I love Nigella's accent; its delicious. She's making a dip for her tiramisu and something else I didn't catch. She uses English measurements for her dishes as opposed to American ones so if you're not used to them (I'm not lol) and aren't sure of the equivalent, look up the recipes on FN's website. You know one thing I do appreciate about FN, despite the many many complaints I have? They have real shapes on their network; you definitely can't say that they prefer stick-thin for each show. And I love it. The majority of the shows that have the most followers are with fuller-figured women; all of whom love the food they make, love a lush, comforting and delicious meal and don't mind eating their fill. Personally speaking, I love watching people who have as much an appreciation for making the food as they do eating it. It's not idle or absent-minded eating, its enjoying and savoring eating. Yes, I do believe there's a difference. You can't put 6 hours of skinny women in front of me, let them tell me they love to eat, but don't take more than a taster bite during their shows and expect me to believe them. I'm a skinny gal myself, but if my metabolism wasn't that of a 23 year old girl, I'd be as big as a house. And you'd better believe I would attribute all of it to a love of food. None of the hosts are as big as a house, but you know what I'm trying to say. A question I have is why when there's seafood or some kind of spicy food being served that something chocolate is always served for dessert? That's a setup for more pain later. No tanku.
I didn't review Rachael Ray's Week in a Day as I was starting to lose interest in the programming by then, but I tuned in 90% through Giada at Home, where she's making a series of appetizers to entertain some friends. Right now she's putting some kind of herb butter on some shrimp kebobs and it doesn't look too bad. I generally like the food she makes; Everyday Italian was and is still one of my favorite cooking shows. I don't see Giada at Home to be too much different as she usually has something Italian on the menu, albeit a tad watered down from the more Italian way of cooking it she had on her other show, but I do see a bit more variety this go around. I'm not one for cocktails or drinks myself, so the cocktail part of this epi doesn't really have my attention. Soapheads...did I just see Ricky Paull Goldin at this party? Ooh I did, I did! Per usual, everyone's enjoying the food and I love the backyard. I want one like that. I do have to say I'm not one for walking around the room asking my guests to tell me what part they like about the food; I think its a little self-indulgent to get your compliments all night because you asked for them. But meh. We get our compliments in diff ways.
Giada at Home--
This epi has a flatbread, a gratin and some mascarpone bars. We all know G loves her chocolate, so you know this dessert has an awesome amount of it in there. And I don't complain one bit, if I can say anything about G's desserts its that it has my absolute fav thing in there, @_@ chocolate! She's making the dessert first and cutting up the toffee bars to put them in the bowl with some of the other ingredients; here I go again with the cutting and me wishing I could do it. lol This one's made with prepared cookie dough, but I'm not complaining. I'm not good with the homemade dough. I tried it at Xmas and still haven't recovered. lol I learned about double boilers by watching Everyday Italian and Barefoot Contessa and I gotta say, its prob alot better than putting it in a pot with butter and melting it like I do to make my choco rice krispies. And alot less greasier. However, the butter in the choco tastes great. lol I think the camera used for this show is one of those glossy ones that focus on the upclose but have that slightly out of focus effect for the background, even when Giada's just cooking, not even the entertainment part that usually closes the show. Is this so G gets more shine? I see you FN. I. See. You. lol The gratin is a bacon and cauliflower one and I can def say I wouldn't be on the train for that one. I've only tried cauli once and I regretted it. I made the mistake of thinking it was just some white broccoli, just like I thought brussels sprouts were just tighter, smaller rounds of cabbage. WRONG. On both counts. Ack. >.< I hated them both and kicked myself for my culinary naivete. The episode finished a few minutes later, and I have to admit the gratin didn't look bad at all. I could be tricked into trying it.
Well as I feel the fatigue beginning to catch up to me, I feel my Sunday reviews coming to a close, which is unfortunate as this morning features quite a few new episodes. And alot more diversity with the hosts than yesterday. But not only am I slightly bored, I'm also incredibly sleepy.
After an unsuccessful hour and a half nap, I'm back.
Down Home with the Neely's--Dine-in Diner
Foreplay Central is cooking up some dine in favorites, starting with browning and caramelizing onions for an old-school patty melt. Adding chili flakes to the onions was a nice tip. For these melts, they're using ground chuck and Swiss cheese on toasted rye as opposed to the traditional dine-in eats and I wouldn't mind trying it, even though I don't eat alot of red meat myself. I was a vegetarian for about 2 years and gave up red meat entirely about 5 years ago; I only recently started eating bits and pieces of it a few months ago. I still haven't gotten the taste back for it so I only eat it on occasion. A chuck patty melt would kill my stomach. But darn it looked good when they set the caramelized onions on the up side of the bread, followed by that patty and the other slice of bread with the melted Swiss on it. Mmm. Next they said they'd be making kale chips and frozen peanut butter bites, which I am eager to find out more about. I love desserts and I saw choco on the bites in the preview, so you know I have to find out what's in it. The potato wedges to accompany the melts are typical Southern fries, crispy, golden and large. Definitely not McD's fries. They're awesomely salty and fantastic with ketchup or cheese. Ooh, ketchup AND cheese..........>.> <.< well anyway, I've never had kale before so this kale chips recipe is a new one on me. After seasoned with s&p and olive oil, they're baked in the oven for about 20 minutes. The verdict's still out for me on that one. Ooh the peanut butter bites are being prepared now. These are just regular creamy pb, confectioners' sugar and vanilla extract, then mixed until smooth. Then they are rolled and set on a cookie sheet and frozen for an hour. The @.@ choco part involves 8oz of chopped semi-sweet melted in a double boiler. From the looks of it, its got butter on the bottom and melted choco on top. @@_@@ omg I really can't express my love for choco. Yes, I call it choco. I'm normally not too big on peanut butter because I really don't need it messing up my stomach and the 'digestive process' lol, but these look pretty good. I can't eat like 10 of them since its pure peanut butter, but I can do about 3. lol Meanwhile, I will take my trusty finger and get up all the leftover choco in the bowl after its drizzled over the pb bites. lol The kale chips has flattened and crisped up in the oven then left to cool off before topping with brown sugar--that's a hmm moment for me--, and now the pb bites are halfway dipped in the chocolate and drizzled over the top before they're put back and allowed to set. Why do I feel like almost everything with these two are double entendres and innuendos? I'ma call this safe food porn. Food is the cover for them to talk dirty to each other, I think. lol The meal as a whole looks great. Watching them eat the pb bites brings forth the sex faces and sounds from Gina, which I can do without, but all in all I liked it.
Guy's Big Bite--Guido Goes Garlic
First off, I feel like every other epi features something with him calling himself 'Guido' and using the alliteration trick Rachael usually uses; between you and me it gets old fast. lol Anyway, he's doing a garlic soup, an Asiago crostini and chicken with a bulb of garlic. I refuse to call this meal chicken and the bodacious bulb, which is what he calls it. The meal finishes with a ladyfinger tiramisu. Now I'm not too big on garlic but I do gotta say, its a tasty little thing when not done in excess. Don't make any of these for your spouse if sexytimes are on the agenda later. Garlic is a very pungent food. It lingers on the breath and oozes out of the pores if you even think about sweating. Sexytimes after a garlic-heavy meal reminds me of walking into a kitchen when someone's making Garlic toast from scratch. I would assume that's what it would smell like. You're making love, not bread. Anyway, the stock or the base for the soup I would assume is being put in the pot now; a chicken bone, carrots, onions and of course, the star ingredient. This is an immense amount of garlic; right now about 4 heads of garlic are being roasted. Now mind you, each head of garlic contains about 8-9 cloves, depending on the size head you get. Don't take that out of context. lol So that's 8 cloves, times 4. 32 cloves garlic in total. Now cut each of them in half and you get about 64 small cloves. That's some garlic for yo ass. Whew. Garlic as the central ingredient for this entire meal is a bit overwhelming, but that's just me personally. The tiramisu looks quite lovely though, definitely not the kind of dessert I see Guy..excuse me, Guido, making but it looks tasty and there's @.@ on top. You know what, that's how I'm going to identify my choco from now on. Not even gonna call it by name, I'm just gonna say @_@. Yes I know it seems like the tone of these reviews changed dramatically when I got to Guy's show and its not due to a personal like or dislike of him or his show, although to be frank I'm kinda meh about both. I prefer Triple D more than Guy's Big Bite, personally. No, the reason why I'm not so hot on this epi is because of a personal experience I had with garlic a few years ago. It was late one night and I was making eggs. I FLOVE onions in my eggs, so I reached for what I thought was onion powder and put a heavy shake of it on my eggs. Cooks up great and I'm dying of hunger so I dove right in. And to my almost immediate horror, I discovered that 'heavy shake' of onion powder was actually garlic powder. I only cooked one egg. -_- so the garlic was overpowering like you wouldn't believe. I added a piece of bread to try and tone it down, didn't work. Made the rotten mistake of trying to go back and add a little onion powder to balance it out; all that did was overwhelm my poor egg even more than it already was and have me literally crunching on both seasonings. I was traumatized for months and whenever I even smelled garlic in the vicinity, my stomach turned. I was laid up in bed with cramps for 2 days following that disaster. I added maybe 5 kernels I swear of the onion powder, the rest was all garlic powder. OMG I will NEVER forget that. So when I hear any meal where garlic is the central ingredient, I shy away. lol According to Guy, the soup wasn't that overwhelming garlic I assumed it would be, but was cooked to where it was an undertone rather than the main taste. The chicken didn't look too bad either, especially once it was covered with the gravy. I'll have to take his word for it though; I really killed myself on garlic after that experience.
Well, this concludes the Sunday morning reviews; not a bad morning of cooking to me at all. I can't wait for tailgate weekend next week. Btw, good luck to my Packs! I bleeds green!! And red, if you get literal. Aren't I a festive gal. lol
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