Quick Tip: Tuna & Apple

Today for lunch I tried a great tip that I took from a recipe that I read in Women's Health magazine. If you want to make yourself tuna salad for a sandwich or whatever, try making it with chopped apple instead of celery. It's such a small change but it really makes a nice difference - you still get a nice crunch like you would get with celery, but the apple provides a little sweetness and a bit of a different texture. It's yummy and healthy. I like it with crackers or on a bed of greens. Give it a try!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope everyone has a happy St. Patrick's Day! I'll be making corned beef and cabbage and traditional Irish soda bread today. Have a great day and watch out for that green beer.

Cooking Channel

I went and visited my aunt over Easter weekend, and she has the Cooking Channel on her cable, so it was my first opportunity to check it out. (My cable company sucks and hasn't added it yet.) After watching it for a couple days, I've basically concluded that Food Network took all of their good shows and put them on Cooking Channel, leaving nothing behind on FN except old tired "personalities" like Paula Deen, who ran out of original recipe ideas about four years ago, and new "original" programming like a show about a team of ice sculptors.

Cooking Channel has so much more variety and a lot more new shows. While on Food Network we're stuck watching Ina Garten make the same French recipes over and over again, Cooking Channel has shows about Italian, Indian, Chinese, and French cooking. While Food Network is showing us reruns of 30 Minute Meals and Barefoot Contessa from five years ago, Cooking channel has reruns of classic shows that people might actually want to watch, like Two Fat Ladies. Cooking Channel has Nigella. (Enough said.) While Food Network is still trying to make Melissa D'Arabian happen with the boring $10 Dinners (never mind that none of the meals could actually be made for $10), Cooking Channel gave Next Food Network Star runner up and should-have-been-winner Jeffrey Saad his own show, United Tastes of America. Bitchin' Kitchen is totally over-the-top and ridiculous but also totally entertaining, and even the food truck show is more interesting that watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives for the millionth time.

To sum up, I'd straight up trade in my Food Network for Cooking Channel at this point. Does anyone else who has seen both channels want to weigh in? I'll be busy trying to think up bribes for my cable company to get them to add this channel.

Man vs. Food

Guest post from: Joe Castro

My favorite travel show is Man vs Food. It's basically about a guy who travels all over the United States - and sometimes beyond - trying all kinds of famous foods and the dishes that put places on the map. Adam, the host, is a big, jolly guy who loves to eat and makes the best faces when he's tasting something for the first time, whether it's a great Philadelphia hot dog or a strange Puerto Rican delicacy.

I watch the show all the time and I've pretty much seen every episode. I have direct tv, so I can watch it whenever I want - my husband gets annoyed sometimes, but I don't bug him when he's watching football, so he'll just have to deal with it!

I love the way the show gives you a great look at both foods and major cities. I mean, if you're going to travel, you'll eventually have to branch out and eat something there - you won't have a choice. I like to think that the next time I go on vacation, I'll go to one of Adam's spots and I'll already know exactly what I should eat, because he's already done it for me.

Plus - and this might just be me - but I think Adam's pretty cute, too.

Wordless Wednesday: Tea Time

Food Network Magazine: October

I picked up the October issues of Food Network magazine awhile ago.  It's actually the first time that I've bought it - I'm more of a Bon Appetit, Food & Wine type of person, but I'd heard good things about it from a few friends so I decided to check it out.  It's actually not bad; there are some cute ideas and some recipes that I would try.  (There's a caramel apple cake in there that looks awesome.) I'll probably buy it again.

There was one thing that made me laugh.  One of the pages in the Table of Contents is called Star Search, and it lists all of the Food Network "stars" and which pages you can find them on in the magazine.  I noticed that Sandra Lee was only listed for one page, so of course I skipped ahead to that one to see what fabulous semi-homemade delights awaited me.

I was bitterly disappointed to discover that the page was a piece about a Food Network stars' pumpkin-carving contest.  The magazine gave out "awards" to each pumpkin, like Most Nostalgic for Aida Mollenkamp's Pac-Man ghost carving, and Best Use of Power Tools for Ted Allen's blowtorched creation.  So what was Sandra's award?  Best Update on a Classic for her pretty basic design, which made me laugh cause it seems to me like it was a case of "Best Totally Generic Looking Pumpkin That We Have To Give An Award To".

It was really funny to me that they didn't let Sandra do anything in this issue except carve a pumpkin, especially since she goes so over-the-top about Halloween on her show and surely thinks she's the Halloween Queen of the Food Network.  Like I said, I've never bought the magazine before, so I'm sure that other issues have included some of her recipes, but I thought it was pretty telling that she was almost completely left out of the October issue.

Wordless Wednesday: Cozy Coffee

I'm A Coffee-Addicted Dork

I got my Starbucks Rewards gold card in the mail the other day and I'm way too excited about it.  What can I say?  I'm addicted.  And if I need my caffeine fix anyway, I figure I might as well be getting discounts and earning points towards some free drinks at the same time, right?

I'm also happy that pumpkin spice lattes are back; I have to go and get my first one of the season soon.  (Now I'm just looking forward to the day when Thanksgiving Blend makes its first appearance because that's a favorite of mine.) I'm also tempted to try the new toffee mocha, but I'm not totally sure.  I love toffee, but I feel like this is the type of drink that will either be amazingly perfect and awesome or buttery and cloying and weird and gross.  Has anyone out there tried it? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought!  I need to take my new gold card for a spin.

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin

Who else hates the new Burger King breakfast ads?

If unfunny and grating is what Burger King was going for with these commercials, I think they succeeded:



I don't think I'll be downloading the BK Breakfast March for my ipod any time soon. I never thought I'd miss the ads with the creepy king. And of course the only woman who is prominently featured in the ad is the stereotypical hot chick who causes the guys to fall all over themselves. Sexism: it's what's for breakfast.

Wordless Wednesday: Tomatoes

Wordless Wednesday: Plum

Semi-Homemade Wordless Wednesday: Broccoli Pie

Okay, I lied, I do have one word...WHY?!

[Photo from Food Network Humor]

Wordless Wednesday: Apples

Cooking Show Classic: Two Fat Ladies Afternoon Tea

I adore the Two Fat Ladies.  I watched it religiously when it was on and I never get tired of looking at their cookbooks and watching old clips.  Here's one of some yummy desserts for an afternoon tea.

Paula Deen's Lasagna Sandwich

Oh, Paula.

Semi-Homemade Moment: Baked Potato Ice Cream

Let's all watch as Sandra Lee makes her Baked Potato Ice Cream.



"If you've ever wondered what to do with the top of your butter dish...".  Actually I never have wondered about that, Sandra.  Silly me, I always just thought that the top of my butter dish was meant to cover my butter.  Thanks for showing me the light.

This recipe is classic semi-homemade.  I'll actually give Sandra a few points here - it's a cute idea, the final product doesn't look that bad, and kids probably would get a kick out of it.  But as usual, the problems pop up when you start to think about how someone would actually eat this.  First of all, that's a LOT of cocoa powder dusted over that potato, and I can't imaging that would taste too good after a couple of bites.  I get that she wanted it to be brown on the outside and white inside like a real potato, but maybe chocolate ice cream would have been a better choice.

Then there's the frozen icing "butter".  She freezes an entire butter dish top full of icing just to use only one slice?  Do I smoosh the rest back into the icing container, or just keep it in the freezer for the next time I decide to serve ice cream potatoes?  And Sandra doesn't say how many this is supposed to serve, but because it's just one big potato, I'm guessing that some people are going to get end pieces that are extra cocoa powdered, and one or two people are going to get the whole "butter" slice to themselves.  Not that I'm that excited about the idea of eating a big slab of frozen lemon icing, but I feel like it might have been better to make some smaller individual potatoes instead of one big one.  Or maybe make use caramel or some other light colored sauce and call it melted butter, just to add more flavor.  I guess that wouldn't be "super simple" enough for our Sandy.

And finally, how truly sad is it that she refers to Reddi-wip as "the fancy spray stuff".  Oh, Sandra.

Cooking Show Classic: Galloping Gourmet

I love Graham Kerr. I've been watching his cooking shows since I was a kid. Here's a classic moment from his iconic show The Galloping Gourmet.

Semi-Homemade Moment: It's Delicious!

This video compilation captures the essence of Sandra Lee in about two minutes. Make yourself a cocktail and enjoy.

Cooking Show Classic: Julia Child on Lobsters

Julia Child takes on some live lobsters in this classic clip from The French Chef.



Side note - I really love The French Chef theme song. It's so cheerful that hearing it just makes me happy. I know I'm a dork.