mani-mani

Oh sure, you may have heard of the mani-pedi, but how 'bout the "mani-mani"??. Well, since this blog is all about sharing, I thought I'd share something you may not think about when Food Network is giving you great food-face ... the host's nails. Manicures to be exact. Lemme tell ya, when I was hustlin' and working hard in radio ... which was really more about working difficult hours than anything, there's nothing more I loved after a full week of working on air and hosting parties in nightclubs until 4AM than a mani-pedi from my fave spot on 23rd Street. I'd sit for a few hours and just think. Think about everything, but it was great thinking time.

Back then I had fake nails, not long and crazy, just fake. As soon as I began to work on getting a gig at Food Network the first rumblings I heard were about nails and how fake ones just don't come across as sanitary and stuff. So, me not really being attached to them, I soaked them off like within a day of hearing that. Like really, my nails are NOT gonna slow me down lol. Funny to me. Sometimes I felt going in for a mani-pedi was one of the few times I could also get actual work done. When I worked at a magazine for a bit, I found myself doubling up on editing while sitting around getting my nails done. Now, look, I tell you this not to brag, but really hopefully to get across how much I enjoyed it and it was an escape.

Fast forward a few years and getting my nails done regularly is now dun-duh-dun-dah-duuuuuuuun ... work. Yep, before every run of taping shows I get a little reminder from my culinary team to go get my nails tightened up for their close up. A low trim, cuticles pushed back--not cut, square with rounded edges and a buff, no polish, sounds like I'm ordering a cocktail, eh. Well this time around, we had a lil weekend break in taping followed by almost a full week left of shows. My cursory one-time manicure turned into the need to go back and get a second one so my nails/hands/cuticles would hold up for another 4 days. Not that I didn't want to get my nails done for a second time in 1 week, but when you are taping and other business still has to get done, squeezing in a visit to a nail salon is hard.

Wanna know something else? It's hard to go into a nail salon twice in one week without explaining yourself. The second time I went, I could feel the eyes of the nail techs I've seen regularly since 2001 looking at me confused perhaps thinking "what was wrong with what you got done to your nails the other day?!?!". All I could do was smile because who wants to say "it's for work"?. Sounds very corny. Well, suffice it to say ... I can always find a silver lining ...

Street Food!!!!

So, the first mani visit, my dude ... acting allergic to nail salons took a stroll in the 'hood while I got hooked up and came back with a huge smile on his face. Behind the smile was his spotting of a street food vendor, my fave kind of treat ... and not the typical hot dog, shwarma or knish guy ... the WAFFLE truck!!!!! Ahem, "wafel". Well, needless to say I was pretty happy then and especially happy I always go polish-free so there would be no drying time between me and my fluffy piece of heaven. Now, in all the years I've been to this nail salon, there has never been a food truck within walking distance, so this was a great treat. The guy in the truck said he'd be there for a week as he changes locations throughout the city and I thought to myself "That is wack, because I'll be busy taping for more than a week and won't be able to get back out here for round 2". Well, like I always say, just ask and sometimes it can actually manifest ... when I got the request from my team to go back in for a weekend manicure touch-up, all I could think about was seeing if the waffle truck was there ... and it was!!! Take a look ...


His wafels & dinges truck has done some serious biz, take a look at one of the guys hookin up my vittles ...


I'm surely not first to the party judging by the newspaper clippings and stuff on the truck's side, but OMG ... was this a perfect specimen. Crisp outside and chewy inside. My dude got the pulled pork one on the first go 'round and me, well I stuck to the same thing both times ...


That's what I'm talkin' bout! A mani-mani and a wafel-wafel ... all in one week! If you are a New Yorker lookin' for a sweet street treat, visit the site and stalk the truck, it's worth it! Stick around, I did some dining in honor of Brooklyn Restaurant Week and have good news to report about a new spot I tried. I'll share a flick ... just one really says it all.

I'm Getting Stripped!

Getting stripped ... sounds a bit risque, but it isn't. I've been sitting on some great news for a minute because to be honest ... I couldn't believe it. It was such great news and out of no where that I didn't want to jinx it. Kinda like an I'll believe it when I see it type of thing. Very corny of me because this is business and deals and promises happen, but I dunno ... I gotta tell you I am still in a bit of a way feeling like this can't be true ... like I know I'm working hard at this, but I don't have the market cornered on working hard, people do that every day. So I'm actually very thankful for the results. I know results aren't already promised and then I have you ... you watch (hopefully), you check the Food Network site for recipes, check the blog, keep in touch, spread the word about Cooking for Real and How'd That Get On My Plate? ... and all of that, adds up. And look what we have done ...

Starting today, Cooking for Real is getting a new industry tag ... "stripped". What that means is it's getting aired daily Monday - Friday, every week! Yes ... starting today and every weekday at 4 PM eastern, Cooking for Real episodes will air on Food Network!! Saturday air times will stay the same at noon and shows will premiere on Saturdays with repeats during the week. As a matter of fact, a new season of shows begin this Saturday! With a show I call "Recipes are Made to be Broken".

So, if you've missed some shows or would just like a refresher, the weekdays are for you! To catch all the shows, weekdays at 4 PM is where it's at. Just a tip: After watching and reviewing recipes and comments I find some of the "whys" and "why nots" about a recipe or ingredient or technique is on the show and can really help you easily make the recipe. Many times key tips happen on the shows and not within the recipes online, so I hope you check out the shows to get the full background on the dishes before you give them at try. Kinda like reading the paragraph before a recipe in a cookbook ... sometimes substitutions and tips are there for the recipe that make it so much more simple to prepare.

Check this week's schedule to see which shows and recipes air on my new stripped schedule. :-)

Again, thank you so much for the support. So much.

The first cut is the deepest ...

So, it was bound to happen. I've heard stories only spoken at a whisper about cooking show hosts slicing a little to close to home. Some have cut themselves on the first day taping their shows, some during guest appearances on other people's shows and then there's me. I wait until after I've cried wolf a bit. 

It all started a few days before we began to tape. I was in the kitchens with some of my culinary crew and we were discussing the Christian Bale on-set outburst and how even though it was horrible, there was some humor there. Ok, so then somewhere in the discussion we thought it would be a great idea if I tried to pull a Christian Bale while we were taping. We usually have such a cool taping environment, so it would've been fun to play the joke, all I had to do was find something to complain about and blow it out of proportion. Problem is, things are always smooth sailing. Ok, so the few of us agreed to hold the straight face when I decided to "blow up" because I knew I wouldn't be able to hold on to the serious thing without support. Plus, my fake blowup would have to be directed at one of them so no feelings would get hurt in the short-term. Ok, so we start taping and like the first day, I was searching for a moment and couldn't pull up the nerve to deliver. Then, the second day I saw my moment and began a teeny tirade that lasted all of 2 seconds long. All it took was a look at one of my co-conspirators for the straight face I needed to go on, he smirked and I lost it. I burst out laughing and we all ended up chuckling it off, like there's no way I can pull it off.

So later that day, on a whim I decided to change the direction of the prank. I had just filmed a few takes of my hand inserting a tray into the oven for close ups. As soon as the director said they got the shot, I decided to pretend the tray was hot, not warm and I'd burned my hand. So here I am wincing in pain on the floor of my set, holding my hand and saying something like "it hurts, it burns!", I took a glance at one of my prank buddies and got the straight face ... just what I needed to pull it off! I yelled, someone toss me some ice or something! Not a second later one of the guys closest to me on the set opened my freezer and grabbed a bag of frozen fruit. He held it out to me and just at the right comedic moment, I swatted the bag out of his hand and said "get that outta heya, I'm fine!". We all chuckled and it was over, or so I thought.

Now it was time for me to call wolf. 

Just a few days later ... I was shooting a montage, so we weren't live to tape, but I was still being taped so they could take portions of the prep and cut it into a sequence. Imagine the entire studio is quiet, about 40 people all listening to the sound of chopping. Cameras focused, a mic dangling over my head catching the ambient sound ... I got through all of the veggies and then moved onto a bunch of cilantro. There I was just chop-chop-choppin' away and then ... I felt it ... something connected to me, was now connected to the knife. My 10"-wide Wustoff hamma landed on my fingerrrrrrr! You'd think if I can carve a mango like this ....

... that there's no way I'd carve into my middle-digit like this ....

Click on the flick for a close up. Doesn't look bad, but that's after the gushing blood. It pooled up in my hand a bit. I actually just stood there a bit looking at it. Like, there it is, I cut myself. It was deep enough to where the skin made a real departure from the other side of the cut and formed a valley ...  a valley of blood! Part of my nail got caught in the battle too. Didn't hurt much really and after convincing the team I wasn't joking this time about the mishap, Marni my wardrobe maven floated in and gave me triage. She had spray bandage and all kinds of tricks. A lil pressure, some spray and tlc from Marni and we were back to work.

Moral of the story? Nursery rhymes and childhood stories with moral should be heeded by the young at heart as well ... I won't be cryin' wolf in the kitchen any more. But it'd still be great to do a fake Christian Bale-tirade imitation :-) j/k.

Back to biz, stick around I have a sweet find in the city of NYC for my locals on the way and some good news!

Signs of things to come ...

Hey there! I just wanted to stop in and drop some flicks from recipe testing for the next 13 episodes of Cooking for Real. We've begun to compost in the Food Network kitchens and I thought for some reason the visual was interesting. Kinda like, what's in the bowl? These are remnants from two different days of cooking ... see how many things you can pick out...





Then, every time I head into the kitchens to do a bit of work, there's someone new to meet ... this time around it was Ian. He's currently a student at the C.I.A. and he's from New Hampshire. So, one of the first things I asked him was ... well what do you eat there? What is something people think of when they think of New Hampshire and food? I mean of course seafood, but what else? He said "Whoopie Pie". We all stood there in our kitchen station and almost instantly strongly suggested it would be a good idea for him to whip some up in his free time the next day. We are such foodie bullies! LOL. It was really a full court press from the team. We were like kids really, just the idea of a real homemade Whoopie Pie sounded so good!! So the next day, we waited for his assignment to be finished and then we dug in. Here he is next to his lil bites of heaven alongside Jenna.

I would've taken a better picture, but the reality is, we waited and watched these get put together, so when it was eating time ... I was droooooling!

That's it for now. I've got some great news and I've also got some more flicks to put up from the new shows we are currently taping. Until then, you've gotta take a look at this video. Its a profile on Wendy Waxman, she is a big part of the behind-the-scenes action at Food Network and if you enjoy inside looks, this is a winner.

The Verdict ... ???

Well, after I told you about my Pearly Mussel, I took a quick trip into the city for an appraisal. Seems as though a co-worker's mother had a family jeweler (how nice, eh?) and now, I had his address, phone number and an appointment for an appraisal. I'll make it short and sweet. Here's Jeffrey Liebross of Liebross Jewelry, Inc. taking a look at my lil nugget ...

The verdict? First, Jeffrey is a foodie! He watches the Cooking for Real and even catches How'd That Get On My Plate?! What a nice surprise. According to both Jeffrey and the lovely lady in the background (I didn't get her name, or I'm an idiot and forgot) ... My lil nugget is not a black pearl. He still offered to make an attachment and put it on a chain. I declined, but may do it in the future. Funny thing is, everyone that has seen it with an untrained eye, thinks it's a pearl ... second opinion? Eh, when I get time. For now, I'm in the midst of taping 13 new shows for Cooking for Real! Thanks for watching and for the support. I took some time in the kitchens to test recipes and have some flicks and stories to tell ... stick around.

I Want Mussel(s)!!! (long live Grace Jones!)

Ok, so here's the deal ... my dude and I decide to visit Short Hills Mall in New Jersey last night to pick up some things and afterward we were hungry so we decided to eat at a spot within the mall called Legal Sea Foods. Ever been? Well, I'd been once before a few years ago in Boston, so I knew it was good stuff and felt comfy with a return. My dude ordered the Legal's New England Clam Chowder, the Fried Fisherman's Platter and we shared the Classic Caesar Salad. I ordered the Nutty Atlantic Salmon for an entree and for a shared appetizer, I ordered the Mussels ... they came out ... the waiter commented on how fragrant they were just as I was thinking it and I quickly cosigned him verbally with a "yessssss they do smell goooood". The garlic scent was heavy and I loved it! He exited and my dude and I toasted. He began to taste the soup and commented how creamy it was, better than another place we went to oddly enough in Boston, but not the same trip in which I first dined at Legal Sea Foods. Ok, so that was his first scoop of soup and comment ... my turn. So, I looked over the bowl and picked out the first one. It was large, wide open and ready to go with a big chunk of chopped garlic right on the edge of it's opening. It had first bite written all over it. I released it from it's shell and gave it a go. Just about two chews in I got a hard crack on my tooth, I thought to myself, "Arrrooo?", like Scooby Doo. My dude was watching my face and caught the look because he was intently awaiting my first reaction as I did his. So, I took one more tousle and chew and hit it again, quickly followed by me doing that food isolation thing we do in our mouths so I could better feel it. At first feel it surely wasn't jagged like a possible shell piece or debris. Simultaneously, I could tell my face was confusing because I was in turn getting a confused face from across the table. I grabbed a napkin and as discreetly as possible emptied the clinker into the napkin to reveal a larger than pea-sized, rounded, black, smooth, but irregularly shaped around the edges mass. I said to myself before I passed it over the tabletop, "Is this what I think???? -- It can't be". I passed it and said something close to, "Look at this. Is. This. uhhhh... what is it?". My dude was just as dumbfounded as me, like are we seeing what we think we are? We both decided, let's call our waiter over and give him a look. A second later he passed by and we gave him the nod, he made a swift turn to us and asked what we needed. I told him it was within the first mussel I tried. He took a look and his first guess was that it looked like a "tiny mussel". I immediately said, nooo ... look at it. Then I thought to myself, not that a mussel can't be smooth, but this was smooth and had a different sheen to it and color as well. The waiter said he'd go check with the chef. Ok, I said and he returned with the verdict ... the chef said in his opinion he agreed with me. :-) Looks as though, it may actually be a natural black pearl. WHAAAA!?? So, look, it may be a rock for all I know ... until I take it to an appraiser. What I can say is it was within the mussel where a pearl would be and If you've never heard of a pearl from a mussel, give a quick search online. I've become a bit more acquainted myself in the last day. Here's the pic .... albeit flash heavy due to the low light and the low quality of a cell phone flick ...

What do you think it is???

I guess I need to find an appraiser, huh?