Twice-Grilled GMA!

Hey all!
What a week! I've been moving, doing voice overs for both How'd That Get On My Plate? and the national commercial, handling long calls and the end of the week was punctuated with my second appearance on Good Morning America! I didn't even have time to get nervous! I think that's the key, fill up my week with stuff and move into a new place every time I have an important event or occasion! Teeheehee ... ahhh, but really boy did I look forward to Friday morning! First things first, I must say how hard it was to get up that morning in the heat of my new place, we had no A/C yet (it got installed that day) and my muscles were tired from the move.

So, Clark my trusty face maker (make up artist) did my make up in the humid heat of my new place ... he was in the trenches of a battle against heat and moisture lol! Ladies know what I mean ... ever go on vacation to a warm climate and just say to heck with all the make up? I seldom wear it on my own and when I do, it's pretty basic like mascara and lips, on vacation it's neither one of those. Just some lotion is fine with me. So, boy did Clark work in tough conditions to make me camera ready for GMA, thanks to him :-). So, I was set to make 3 recipes; Picnic Potato and Chicken Salad, Mango and Avocado Salad and Refrigerator-brewed Sweet Iced Tea. The salad is usually poached chicken and roasted potatoes, but for the summer we thought we'd take it to the grill so we converted my recipe and grilled the chicken. Very yummy and I love the grilled flavor. The mango salad recipe isn't up on the FN website yet because that episode of Cooking for Real hasn't aired yet, but you can catch it here.

When we got to Bryant Park everything was ready to go. All I had to do was step in and grill away. Last time I did GMA, it was 4th of July and Chaka performed, the weather was overcast and it began to rain right as we ended our segment. Not this time! It was lovely and Chris, Diane and Sam were all very kind and sweet. I watch them every morning I'm in front of a TV at that time and have for years. Even before Charles Gibson and Diane began to "sub" until permanent hosts were to be found. I was happy they didn't find anyone and here I am years later about to feed the current lineup ... how surreal and neat and bizarre and plenty of other things is that?! Plus, I think Chris is one of the few anchors that can do a serious story, then a light one and use humor to tie it all in, he does it with ease and he feels like a guy you'd want to be friends with. I was like ... I gotta tell him how refreshing and funny he is to me ... so I did :-). Then after the segment was over I got a chance to tell Sam Champion how happy I was for his transition to GMA, watched him locally for years. And Diane! Well, she's a sweetie and I loved her more when she grabbed Robin's hand at a serious moment in the newscasts past ... there's a great cover story about the two in Ladies Home Journal, check it out if you do mags. Really, I had a great time!

Here are some more pics and the video is up here.



Ok, well I'm off for another food journey! Looks like some Denver, Seattle and another city in there somewhere ... check in, I'll try to post from the road! Hope you like today's (Sunday, Aug. 3) Cooking for Real! It's called Pizza Pizza! and I do my best to simplify, mimic and pay homage to my local and favorite pizza artist :-). Plus, I steal a recipe from my mom and share it with you. Hope you like them and put pizza on the menu soon ... don't worry, no crust traditional crust makin' or buyin' needed. Trust me. Not that that's a bad thing. :-)