One day @ a time - #9 Recipe Testing Time! - June 14

Hey there! Hope you've had a fun Friday! This is the last post of the day, I think :-). Wait, it isn't so check back in 15 minutes, forgot something ...

Monday, June 14, 2010

Today was the start of recipe testing for Cooking for Real and the end of menu development for the Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival. Here are some onions going on one of my sliders ...

I should give you the menu, eh? Ok, first the event is my Sunset, Sliders & Spirits rooftop pool party at Caesar's in Atlantic City. The event is in the early evening on Saturday, July 31st. Jen in comments already has her tickets and I can't wait to meet! If you want to come hang out, get your tickets by clicking here.
Here's the menu;

Bar Snacks:

Don't Lose All Your Fried Plantain Chips

Sunny's Sunset Veggie Chips

Spirits:

Brooklyn Iced Tea

Cucumber Cooler

Jersey Shore Juice Head Martini

Sliders:

Sunny's Caprese Sliders

Sunny's Opa! Lamb Sliders

Oyster Po' Boy Sliders

Mini Chicken Chorizo Patty Melts

Sweet:

Chocolate Raspberry Sliders

I may make a few changes here and there, but this feels pretty solid and I'm excited for you to try everything!

Ok, so I woke up this day with one deadline to turn in that menu to my event planner and then I had to head to Chelsea Market to prepare some of the recipes I pitched for the upcoming season of Cooking for Real. Here's Santos playing with something I'll call a Celebration Trifle on a new episode...

I'd spent time layering it and making a cute pinwheel design on the top with strawberries and blueberries, then I turned my back and in an effort to not waste the leftover berries, Santos thought he'd pile on the love ...

That's me pretending to be annoyed with the pile of berries and Cedric aka Ced-lover over my shoulder photo bombing me. If you check here regularly, he'll look familiar. A few months ago I shared with you a picture of him testing a recipe for Food Network Magazine and guess what?? It's in the issue out now! The Cook Out! issue ... subscribe if you haven't already, it's like a cook book every month.

Here's another recipe I'll share when I tape the next season of Cooking for Real ...
I know it's hard to tell what is even in that flat bread, huh? What with all the cheese oozing ... that's heaven for me and I plan to put it in a show with a jicama salad I hope you like as well as some craaaaazy brownies. Totally a kid theme here and I hope to write an intro reminiscent of Mister Roger's Neighborhood. Sounds weird, but I have a plan to make it all work ... hopefully.

Hey remember earlier today when I told you about taping Best Thing I Ever Ate? Well a week before this is when I taped it, but they were still at Food Network taping other hosts while I was recipe testing. I got to shoot a scene with Marc Summers that I hope doesn't hit the cutting room floor. Really childish and selfish ... so I can mentally tap my 12 year old self on the shoulder and tell me that "one day, I'll tape a segment with the host of Double Dare". It only took a few seconds and I don't want to give it away, just in case it actually makes it into the episode. And remember the producer that didn't think my "Best Thing" sounded appetizing?? I ended up taking him and Anne, a camera woman, to the place in Brooklyn for a taste test. Here he is after the first few bites of my secret dish ...
That's Eddie, the creative mind behind Best Thing I Ever Ate. I've blurred out my mystery dish, but I have to tell you ... chances are if I didn't you still wouldn't be able to tell what it was because in just a few swipes, he massacred it! And yep, he liked it! So much that his cell phone is in his hand ready to take his own picture to mark the moment. He promptly emailed it to another person on his staff that usually gets to eat cool stuff, to basically say ... "Take that!".

And with that ... there's just one more blog I need to post to finish my game of ketchup, ahem ... catch up. :-) Gimme 5 and the post will only take 5 to read...