Hey there! Hope you had a great time grilling over the weekend! I prepped my 4th of July spread early yesterday and then headed into the city for a rehearsal with The Today Show culinary team and producers. Then this morning, I got up while my neighbors were still partying from last night and headed into the city for a little party of my own. Today was all about kabobs and keeping the grill dusted off for the summer. Here's the team I worked with today;
That's Amy Robach, Lester Holt and Peter Alexander. If you read about my last visit to The Today Show, you'll remember I forgot to tell Lester I love watching another show he hosts, Dateline on ID, but this time I made sure to give him some love and I think it caught him off guard. He was surprised and appreciative. Pretty nice guy with such a rich history in news. Cool to be able to meet him, I'm a news junkie and often when moving from state to state all I worried about was how good the local paper would be as well as the local newscast. Great to be in a city with great local and national news hosts. Ok, here's the spread ...
I made my Lamb Kabobs with Tzatziki Sauce, my Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce and my BBQ Bacon Shrimp on skewers. Kabob madness! Here's a little behind the scenes information; the producers pick what I will make instead of me pitching to them a menu. I thought it was pretty cool they looked over all my recipes and found a theme with kabobs. I also had my Red Cabbage Slaw and Celebration Trifle on deck. The trifle is going into an upcoming Cooking for Real show when I tape soon, so the recipe isn't available on FoodNetwork.com just yet, but check The Today Show's recipe page and they are all there. Here I am powering through my three kabobs so I can get to dessert!
And here's the video if you missed it ...Thennnnn, I was too excited to have my second bump-in with a Major League Eater in just a few days! That's Joey Chestnut, 2010 winner of Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. He ate 54 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes and that's not even his record. He's won 4 years in a row and last year he ate 68, the year before that, 59 dogs and buns and in 2007 he first won by eating 66 in 10 minutes. Pretty serious eating! I caught a piece on him over the weekend on CBS and found out he has a regular 9-5 as a construction engineer, but his eating gig pays him about 250k a year! I told him of my run-in with Badlands Booker the other day on Coney Island and he said they were good friends, neat to have buddies on the eating circuit. I bet only they can truly understand the ups and downs of the business. Here I am hoisting his championship belt above my head ...
I've always wanted to do that and he was kind enough to let me move the belt from it's perch and give a victory yell lol. Cool guy and I think next year I'm going to brave the heat, crowds and madness and watch the event in person instead of on ESPN. Ok, I'm back taping episodes of Next Food Network Star - After Party tomorrow. If anything happens I can talk about without getting sued by my employer, you know I will :-). Take care!!!
Posts
16 comments:
Oh those Barbecue Bacon Shrimp sound so good! YUM!!!
Looks like you had a great time at the Today Show!!!
And that Trifle?! I can't wait to see your show so I can get that recipe!!! :)
Just peeked at your peanut sauce recipe, and it's so interesting. Made one this weekend, and definitely want to do it again. The allspice on the chicken is nice for a different flavor element. That dress is awesome, by the way!
Wow. That much money for eating. Imagine that. Still, no way I could choke down that number of hot dogs all day long much less in 10 minutes!!
Very nice spread there on the Today Show - everything sounds delicious - especially that Celebration Trifle, yum!!!! Loved the background music intro too. You always do such a great job on these quick segments. You are such a natural!
Caught a rerun episode of your stuffed Cuban peppers yesterday afternoon. Really reminded me of one of my all time favorite go-to meals…stuffed tomatoes and stuffed zucchini! In the summer when the produce is fresh and abundant, I love hollowing out a few of my favorite veggies and filling them with ground beef, rice, chopped veg and topping with some cheese. Yum! Yours looked great and I will have to give your rice trick a try…toasting it and then letting the oven do the work of cooking it instead of boiling first.
And your Coney Island kick off to summer? Looked picture perfect! Sunshine, hot dogs, MJ – can you get more quintessential than that? :)
You can never go wrong with bacon and shrimp.
You should totally have Joey on one of your shows. And whenever he gets to taste something, he has to completely shove it down his throat like he's trying to eat 100 of it. That will never get old.
That dress is GORGEOUS! So on point with the ombre Sunny!
I'm going to have to check out that vid - I've been neglient in catching up on my shows, etc. Now let's see if I get busted watching :)
How good do those chicken skewers w/peanut sauce look?!? Printed that off to make soon. Love that your sauce doesn't get too complicated with tons of ingredients like some of the recipes I've seen.
Hi Sunny, those kabobs look delicious. I'm really excited about trying them. I've realized that I really am a lover of a great hot dog like you. Are you ever going to showcase a jazzed up hot dog on Cooking For Real?
That looks great Sunny, but I am wondering (and stop me if you already done this) Will a good shrimp/fish and grits recipe ever make it on Cooking For Real? I'm on the gulf coast and it's a staple here and I think America needs to know about this delicious combo :)
Sunny! I saw the Today show segment-it ROCKED! Loved the dress, and loved the food of course! Speaking of food, I tried the Chocolate Chip Butterscotch Pie recipe...I'm a chocolate fiend so I LOVED it...even took it over to my folks house and they DEVOURED it-thanks for the recipe :)btw, SO looking forward to the website :)
-A'Driane Dudley (AddyB)
I love the dress you wore on the Today show on July 5. Please share the brand/designer.
Dawn in Chicago
jen, i bacon really should get 90% of the credit on all recipes, right?! you are right, i had fun at the today show. it always feels like a wedding, plenty of planning and it's over in 5 minutes.
the duo dishes, hope you like the sauce! the allspice is great to me, very warming taste and it's a nice twist. plus i get to use up my spices :-)
mary, crazy money right?! and he still works on the side, pretty cool. and about the celebration trifle, girrrrl ... i can make it with my eyes shut!! so easy and very baaaaaad. the fruit helps me feel not so bad though
lindsey, i almost planned a stuffed zucchini for the next 13 shows and decided not to, didn't know if people would feel my love of tha zook! :-), now i'll put it in the next season if i get a chance and it fits the menus and season! thanks for the comment!
t2ed, ita!! i wonder what i'd make joey if he ever came on the show?! i wonder how much bacon that guy can down or cake or something. reminds me of a scene in stand by me teeheehee
lys, thanks girl! how have you been??
lindsey, thanks! i like to keep it simple!
cassandra, thanks! i love the lamb the most, bacon and shrimp second and everything else after that! i'm on a ground lamb kick this summer! and about the hot dog, i actually want to do one. but i am going to try a free form hotdog. working on it and it was in my concept book a couple of years ago. i love casing just as much as the next person, but a free form doggy would be nice and easy! that's what i need in my life!
eric, yes!!! shrimp and grits is on the way ... may take a second, but i have lists of menus ready to pitch to the network if the show gets picked up for another season. i LOVE shrimp and creamy cheesy jalapeno grits! oooooowwwweeeee! my mouth is watering! i was in atlantic city this weekend and had 2 great orders of shrimp and 1 not so great ... so i need to pile on some more good shrimp to forget about the bad!
a'driane pretty name! welcome to the blog!! glad you liked the choc chip butterscotch pie. it is sooooo wrong. i like to say i "dumbed down" marscarpone cheese for that recipe because it is such an un classy combination for such a classy ingredient, but oh well. the belly wants what the belly wants! happy you could share it with the fam! thanks so much for watching. i can't do it without you. i mean, i could but it would be like the seinfeld episode where kramer did the merv griffin show on an old set in his living room ... to an audience of none. :-) so really, thanks so much for supporting the show and stick around i have a new website under development tha launches in a couple of months! plenty of fun stuff and things to do on your stroll through the internet.
dawn, thanks so much! i know i got it right when several women ask where i got the dress. it's a diane von furstenberg, size 14. it's called the "Rosina Wrap Dress" and this is the link...
http://www.dvf.com/dvf/browse/productDetailWithPicker.jsp?productId=D8915834M10&categoryId=cat200004
it's on sale!!! it runs pretty true to size, but her wraps are great for pulling tight on skinny days and loosening on big days :-)
Sunny - those lamb skewers look soo good! I just printed out the recipe - we're definitely having them for dinner next week :-)
Sunny,
Hope everything is going well. I just wanted to drop you a line girlfriend and let you know, you have to give yourself so much more credit. You always look on point in your pics and on the air. You have excellent taste, and the DVF dress on the Today Show, can you say HOME RUN!! You knocked it out the ball park with that ensemble. I am still pulling 100 hr weeks at work, but that comes to an end this month. Keep Cooking 4 Real!!
Kase
holly, hope you like em! don't forget to soak the skewers, sometimes i just do it overnight i a tall glass so i don't forget the day of and then have to waste my time waiting on skewers to soak up water. you can also make burgers or sliders with this recipe. have fun and let me know how it turns out!
kase, well thanks for that, but i must say that after years and years in radio, i never payed much attention to my wardrobe. i mean fresh white t-shirts, crisp jeans and fresh white sneakers were all i needed lol. i'm growing up now long after i should've. all of a sudden i have a dress section in my closet and it blows my mind. so i have silly girlish insecurities, but i also don't really put how i look high on my scale of importance, so it's an interesting balance to please people's eyes instead of their ears not really having as high standards for style as the public. doin my best, but all i can be is me. i'm really happy i have a healthy idea of what matters most, i see now how some of these people get on tv and immediately start looking like they are hungry. if you don't feel good about yourself already, there are people out there that make it their biz to tell you how you are not worthy of any thing and much of it is based on looks or perception. i can't thank my parents enough for a solid foundation. so, nuff about me ... i can't believe you pull those crazy hours ... i was there once, when in the air force. i was young though and could handle it. now i need my naps and sleep ins lol. i'm old! teeheehee
Post a Comment