Friday, March 18, 2011

New Cooking for Real Sunday! Easier Than It Looks!

Hey there! I'm on the hunt for the elusive 15-pound lobster tail :-), but in the meantime I have a new Cooking for Real airing Sunday I want to tell you about!!

It's called Easier Than It Looks and a friend I met right here on the blog stops by to help me prepare the whole menu. This season, we added diner-like seating on one counter in the kitchen and I had guests come by and hang out while I cooked for a few of the episodes. Well, Darius Williams, owner of The Cupcake Gallery in Chicago was a guest on one of those shows alongside two more of my friends. We had so much fun taping that episode and he clearly has such great cooking skill, that my producer and I agreed asking him back to tape another show would be a great surprise and idea. So, after taping what he thought would be his one and only show, we approached Darius to ask him if he had it in him to do another show with me. He said yes instantly, what a champ! Here's Darius in a pic we took just moments before we asked him to come back for another show ...That's Jenna, Darius, myself and Fiona. Jenna thankfully filled in for a guest that couldn't make it due to weather and Fiona is a friend I met years ago and she was actually on another episode of Cooking for Real called Irish Eyes Smiling

We took lunch and Darius came back to tape Easier Than It Looks. We made my Sweet Glazed Butterflied Chicken and Tater and Asparagus Toss. Want to hear a funny little behind the scenes tidbit? Okay :-) ... after going through and reading the introduction I wrote for the show once, we stopped and decided to changed the title of the latter recipe because at first it was called "Asparagus and Tater Toss", but that sounded too much like I could be saying "Tater TOTS" at the end and confuse people and quite possibly upset the tots biz, so my solution on the fly was to simply switch around the words and call it the "Tater and Asparagus Toss". It sounds so simple now, but when I said it as a solution it seemed genius! Teeheehee ...

OK, catch the show this Sunday at 11AM and check out the blog Monday for my first ever guest blog from Darius himself recounting his experience taping Cooking for Real with me! Then don't forget the rerun of the episode Monday afternoon at 4!

8 comments:

White Fox said...

Looking forward to your new season. I have tried many of your recipes and love them! Especially the trick on using wonton wrappers. Maybe one day I will perfect the folding style. You make it look so easy!

BerryBaby

jen @ one curly fry said...

I can't wait to check out the new episode! The Sweet Glazed Butterflied Chicken looked SO good at SOBE! I can't wait to butterfly my first chicken and try it! :)

And pick up a 15 lb lobster for me if you find one, lol! I have Lobster Risotto on the menu for next week!!

t2ed said...

Just made your Dirty Fried Rice from last week. Really good. Thanks for the idea for that leftover rice I always seem to wind up with.

But you need to score a non-stick wok and a real spatula!

Holly said...

Oooh! I just checked out the recipe for your chicken - it looks sooo yummy! I am excited to see your new set - my DVR is ready!

Charles said...

Wow, Darius is a lucky duck. How cool! I assumed you had a chicken dish since this wknd is all about the bird on FN haha! Sweet Glazed Butterflied Chicken-I'm so in! That just might be what's for dinner tomorrow night.

brian w said...

LOVING this episode! Love Darius!!

The Duo Dishes said...

Been following Darius for a while now too, and he's been amazingly successful in a short time. Congrats to him for all of that, and it was cool of you to bring him in. Looking forward to that episode!

Lindsey Christensen said...

Shoot! Only caught the tail end of today's ep, but looks like you guys had a blast. How fun!! And that sweet & sticky chicken...oohh weee! Mouth watering girlfriend!