Sunset Sliders is SOLD OUT!!!! Get SWEET with me!

Hey there!!! I just got news that my Sunset Sliders party this Saturday is sold out for the second year in a row!!!! Now the next best way to party with me is at the Sweet & Stylish party later on in the evening. I'm doing double duty, gonna eat sliders with you and sip drinks, then get changed and head down to then fashion show for some sweets! Please join me for the event, there are several vendors with sweets to end the night and I'm also hosting a fashion show. Should be fun!! Get tickets before these sell out, they go fast in the days leading up ...

Sweet and Stylish Tickets

Come party with me this weekend!!!

Hey there!! Whatcha doin this weekend?!? I have a few events this weekend at the AC Food and Wine Festival and tickets are selling out fast! I have a few people from the blog that are going, but several tickets are sold so I'm looking forward to meeting new people. Here's the rundown ...

Last year's sold out event Sunset Sliders is back!! This Saturday at the rooftop pool of the Caesar's, I have a menu of sliders, sides and of course drinks. Take a look at the menu;

Spirits:

Rosemary Lemon Starter

Mango Berry Shake

Bourbon Cider Twist

Strawberry Faux-jito

Sliders & Sides:

Sunny's Jerk Lamb Sliders with Mango Habanero Sauce

served with Tostones

Sunny's Chopped BBQ Pork Sliders with Apple-Raisin Cole Slaw

served with Fried Okra

Sunny's Cajun Clam Slider with Spicy Tartar Sauce

served with Sweet n Smokey Onion Rings

Sunny's Southwest Slider

served with Baked Spiced Tortilla Chips

Dessert:

Sunny's Strawberry Fool

That's plenty of poolside chewin and sippin!! Get the remaining tickets HERE ON TICKETMASTER. A little note ... if you'd like to meet, this is the party! I do my best to mingle while eating and I try to keep food off my face for photos :-). Plus, I love a quick food conversation, so join me, it's really a party with me and I brought back the same DJ that killed it last year! Did you miss it/make it last year and want to look at some pictures? Check out my previous AC Food and Wine posts.


Then, right after the Sunset Sliders pool party, come over and hang out with me at Sweet and Stylish at Caesar's as well. It's dessert and fashion combined. There are a jillion different businesses showing up with everything a sweet-aholic can handle. My table will have Double Chocolate Bread Pudding with Bourbon Whipped Cream and on the side my favorite quickie drink, a Shake Shot. Come out to see what else is on deck for dessert and fashion ...GET TICKETS TO SWEET & STYLISH HERE

Then even LAAAATER on that night, join me at the Chef's Party (I'll be the only non chef there!) Every chef from the weekend is expected to be there and we'd love for you to join us!! Tickets to the Chef's Party are HERE.

Tweet away about it @FoodAndWineAC and of course I'm at @SunnyAnderson

I took a quick trip to Philly last week to chat up the event, here are some videos from the trip ...

View more videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com.

I look forward to seeing you there!!

New Cooking for Real Saturday!! Filling up with Fish!

Hey there! I'm up and ready to brave the heat if only for a few minutes during my morning errands. I'll be back just in time to watch the newest Cooking for Real with ya! Hope you'll join me. It's called "Filling up with Fish" and as the title says, I am gonna fill you up with something that always seems like a light meal, but almost never feels "comforting". So, I add some body to the pot and end up with a healthy meal that makes you feel stuffed!! Hope you like it!!!

Cooking for Real 10 am Food Network!!!

New Cooking for Real Saturday!!

Hey there! I'm in Miami and my hotel doesn't have Food Network!! #FAIL! So, you can have the one-up on me tomorrow! Tell me how it is, I never see a show before it airs, well I saw my 4th of July special before it aired, but I'm talkin Cooking for Real here ...

Tomorrow on the new episode I won't be able to see until I get home :-), catch the Scotto family, owners of famed Italian restaurant, Fresco by Scotto, here in NYC on the next episode of Cooking for Real!I wrote about how we met and their visit to the Cooking for Real set in a blog post you can read up on here. What I didn't tell you is after we taped the show Rosanna and I went out to celebrate Dr. Oz moving to the 4pm slot and I ran into Greg Kelly, her co-host. I watch them on Good Day New York every morning and only flip during commercials to catch my other favorite newscast. I then rush right back for the way they deliver the morning news. It's serious when it needs to be and a big smile on other occasions. Ok, here's Greg and me ...

I'm laughing because right when we went to take the picture he said he was going to puff his chest out so it looked big lol and he actually did. You can kinda tell by the way he's holding his arm, very funny dude.

Ok, tune in tomorrow morning, I'm serving a traditional Italian family Tuna Noodle Casserole lol ... it should be fun!!!

Cooking for Real --- NEW TIME! 10 AM Saturday, with the new show repeating Mondays at 3PM and reruns the rest of the week in the same time slot!

10AM Saturdays!! 3PM weekdays!! Tell a friend and thanks so much for all the support, it's overwhelming and I'm doing my best to keep up with all the comments and hellos and stuff, really love you for being here!

Gettin Piggy Wit It ...

Hey there! Well, last night was a big night for co-workers and sweethearts, the Neely's ...
Love em! We always greet with a smile and hug ... Here's a less candid shot ...We're all chillin at the opening of their first foray into the NYC Restaurant scene, The Neely's BBQ Parlour. It's over in a hood that needs some down home cookin, 1st and 62nd on the mid-upper east side. When I say it was a zoo there last night, I mean lions, tigers and bears, oh my!!! Plus, can we talk? Sometimes when I out solo people think I'm Gina lol ... look, I get it ... ok, I do, but I thought I'd disspell rumors and stand next to her a bit lol. I wonder if she gets the same thing? I've texted her before like "girrrrrl someone is gonna thing you are cheating on Pat cuz they just called me Gina and I'm on a date with someone!". Too funny, ok, anyway it was packed in there and I still managed to get a taste of the shrimp and grits then just as I thought I wasn't gonna get another bite cuz it was so crowded, I turned around to see dessert being passed!!! Woot wooot!!!Red Velvet of course! My chunky butt popped the whole thing in my mouth only see everyone else taking bites ... seriously? It's "bite sized", to me call anything that and that's a challenge to get it done in a bite! I can't wait to head back for brunch and the occasional dinner!! Right after that I headed over to the Red Rooster, Marcus Samuelson's spot. We just started getting grades from the health dept. here in New York for restaurant kitchens. His hasn't been scored so well (a "C", actually) and he's taken a hit in the press, so a friend and I headed out to show a sign of support. Seems like we weren't alone, on a Tuesday night, it was packed ... but Marcus was nowhere to be found. Gotta be tough, eh? I dunno, but I must say anytime I hear people complain about clean kitchens at restaurants, I wonder if the health department came to our homes, would we pass? I would, but omg, ever go to a friend's house and see the kitchen and gag a bit? Lol, anyway, I digress ... The food was good and the service was great. Hope he catches an "A" like my fave banh mi spot in Brooklyn, Thanh Da...That's the "Beef Ball Soup", the broth is were it's at!! I don't really care about the balls, but the broth?!?! Ooooooh it's onion-yyyy and ginger-yyyy and cilantro-eyyyy ... which really equals taste-yyyyy :-). And then the real reason I go there is the banh mi, or traditional Vietnamese sandwhich ...Oooooowwweeeee!!! That's the BBQ Pork Banh Mi and when I go with a friend, I'll order that one, and the traditional one and share halves, but today it was just me, so I sipped half my broth and ate half the sandwich, then walked home in the heat with a smile on my face cuz I knew I had a lil treat for later.

Speakin' of treats, I got a chance to cook for an old friend this past Sunday night. I've told the story here and there about him, but it's so much deeper than words. Suffice it to say, there would be no Cooking for Real without me first cooking for my friends and them encouraging me to chase my dreams. N.O.R.E. was one such person and not only did he encourage me to cook more for a living, he gave me my first catering gig with a real invoice, then on my last day in radio he was there to cheer me on and tell me I wasn't crazy for chasing a dream. The story of that night should go in the books, which book, I dunno lol. But he is such good family, he could ask me to cook in an impossible mission like Robert Irvine and I'd do it!! So anyway, so much more can be said, so much. So with an early morning wake up for The Today Show @430am, I said "SO WHAT?! WHO CAY-UHHS?!?!" (SNL making fun of Joy Behar on The View), threw beauty sleep and caution to the wind and cooked all day for him and his crew. Here he is about to break into some Food Network Wine - Entwine, coming soon!!!(note my Dr. Oz trophy on my mantle :-) ) ... and here's the spread ...It's hard to see, but he requested turkey meatloaf, so I made two with a dark meat turkey-chicken blend. Then I made roasted fingerlings and new potatoes with garlic, rosemary and thyme. I also got some pretty vine-ripe cherry tomatoes and roasted those as well with just some olive oil, salt and pepper. In the forefront is a quick salad of blanched peas, red onion, whole grain mustard, dry porcini mushrooms brought back to life in the same water I blanched the peas in, I just added some apple cider for punch. Then for dessert I made Austin's German Chocolate Cookies. I used to really cook fattening stuff for Nore, and then he'd decide we wanted to be healthy a bit, that's where Nore's Slumbo, comes from. It's a play on gumbo with no pork and a 5-star recipe on FoodNetwork.com ... all from his palate! We really had a good time and it was great seeing him, then 2 hours after they left, I got ready for The Today Show, I didn't really sleep, moreso just roll over and look at the time every 20 minutes lol.

No worries, I wouldn't have to cook or anything, just eat and judge the food. Here I am ready to eat!!!The winner made a really tasty cornbread bottom, BBQ chicken middle, coleslaw topped tower of power ... and I do mean power!!! It was instant, when I and the other judge took a bite, we knew instantly it was a landslide. All the food was good though, things like that, it's already the best of the best, so it's hard to say something didn't taste good, cuz I'd be telling a lie. Firemen eat goooood!! I am waitin on a firehouse show. Ok, here's the winner with his trophy ...And just cuz they are so cute ... my cats. Cheddar (aka Ched-Rock) on top and Truffle (aka Truffle-Duffle) chillin in the center. I took that a few days ago. Both are rescues that bring me joy everyday. I was just recently watching television with Truffle and I tell people all the time, and it's true, there's not a day that goes by I don't look at them and think how sweet they are and how much I hope I'm giving them a nice home life. I constantly thank the ASPCA in my head. Anyway, I was thinking it and Truffle looked so cute as he sat next to me on the couch, so I decided to take a video of him with my cell and something really cute happened ... take a look ...

Thanks for reading! Tune in this Saturday for an all new Cooking for Real at 10am!!!

Catch me on the Today Show Tomorrow!

Hey there! Just checking in on such a nice Brooklyn Sunday to invite you to join me on The Today Show in the morning. I'm not cooking, just eating, for real :-). There's a BBQ contest among some firefighters and anytime someone asks me to eat food for free, I'm in!! Tune in on NBC and maybe find some neat tricks or ingredients to add to your next BBQ! See you in the morning!

New Season of Cooking for Real this Saturday!!

Hey there! Adam Gertler and I are in the studio this week taping episodes of Food Network Star After Party, details soon on how and where to catch it!That's us at rehearsals today just going over the script. I can't wait for you to catch the show, we really are getting some good details this year from the finalists that didn't make the cut on the big show. Ok ...

A new Season of Cooking for Real is on the way!!!!! Wake up this Saturday morning to an all new menu!!! A really easy soup that's great hot or cold, my Quick Apple and Sweet Potato Soup and a nice helping of my Simple Crab Cakes with Celery Root Remoulade! I call the episode "Taking my Lumps".

Catch the Season 10 premiere of Cooking for Real this Saturday July July 9, 2011 @ 10AM (new time!!)

Tell a food friend in need of a few easy ways to do something different in the kitchen. Thanks so much for the support thus far, I don't care how or when you got here, just happy to say hi and invite you to share something I love.

Another programming note, I'm now on weekdays an hour earlier at 3PM eastern! Ok, hope to see you this Saturday or later on DVR or Tivo :-). Cooking for Real, 10am Saturdays!!!

Sunny's All American Celebration - the recipes!!

Hey there! Thanks for watching Sunny's All American Celebration yesterday! It airs again tomorrow, Monday July 4th, at 6PM. Thing is I have some twitter requests for the recipes because before the show runs again, it's BBQ time!!! Seems the recipes aren't popping up on the Food Network website, so here they are!!

Sunny's S.O.S. for S.O.S

Recipe courtesy Sunny Anderson, 2011

For the marinade:

1 pound flank steak

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon hot sauce (recommended: Frank's Red Hot Sauce)

1 lime, zested and juiced

1/2 teaspoon hungarian paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the gravy:

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

5-6 sprigs fresh thyme

1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) frozen pearl onions, thawed

8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, grated on a rasp

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon horseradish

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups beef stock

1 pint heavy cream

salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the toast:

8 slices Texas Toast or unsliced bread cut to 1" thick slices

3 cloves garlic, grated on a rasp

1/2 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

5-6 sprigs fresh thyme

Marinate the steak. Place flank steak, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, zest and lime juice, paprika, salt and black pepper in a large plastic bag. Marinate for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Remove flank steak and pat dry.

Preheat grill to medium-high.

Remove steak from marinade and discard marinade. Season steak with salt and pepper and grill over medium-high heat until cooked to medium-rare, about 6 minutes per side. Let steak rest for 10 minutes, loosely covered with aluminum foil, before slicing.

Meanwhile, make the gravy. In a large pan with straight sides add butter, olive oil, thyme and onions. Season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and cook on medium heat until onions are tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, season with salt and cook gently until tender and darkened, about 5 minutes more. Add Worcestershire sauce, horseradish and sprinkle flour over the entire pan. Stir to help flour to soak into vegetables and cook a minute more to lose the flour flavor. Raise heat to medium high and add beef stock. Cook until slightly thickened then slowly stir in heavy cream. Simmer until cream is thickened slightly, about 4 minutes more. Taste and season with salt, if needed.

Arrange the sliced bread on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. In a small pot on medium low heat add the butter, garlic, onion powder, thyme and season with salt, to taste. Allow butter to melt, but not brown and steep a bit on low heat so the flavors develop, about 10 minutes. Brush the garlic butter evenly one side of the bread. Place buttered side down on the grill. Grill until toasted and grill marks appear after a peak beneath, about 1 minute. Cut each piece in half from corner to corner to create 2 triangles.

To serve, slice rested steak into 1/4"-1/2" thin strips, making sure to do so against the grain of the muscles for the most tender cut. Layer toast 2 triangles of toast on the plate, then a few slices of beef and pour over a spoonful of gravy.

Yield: 8 servings

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Inactive time: 1 hour

*Making sauce on a grill is easy, just make sure to shield the flames from the wind so they give your pot direct heat!

Sunny's Fire Cracker Cole Slaw

Recipe courtesy Sunny Anderson, 2011

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, finely chopped

1 tablespoon, plus more adobo sauce (just keep choppin and addin until it tastes as smokey and spicy as you like it!

2 cups mayonnaise

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 head savoy cabbage, shredded or sliced thin

1 head red cabbage, shredded or sliced thin

2 cups carrots, shredded

2 granny smith apples, cored and shredded

2 bosc pears, cored and shredded

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup dried cranberries

salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl stir together the chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, mayonnaise, sour cream and apple cider vinegar. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed add a bit more adobo sauce to make it spicy to your tastes. In a large bowl dd the cabbage, carrots and apples, pears, raisins, dried cranberries, then toss to combine. Add enough dressing to moisten to slaw, you may not use all of it depending on how you like the slaw. Taste and season with a pinch of salt and a grind or two of pepper. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Yield: 15-18 servings

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Inactive time: 1 hour

*This is great on a slider with BBQ pork, serve the left overs if any with breakfast, perfect with ham and eggs!

Austin's German Chocolate Cookies

Recipe courtesy Sunny Anderson, 2011

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (recommended: Hershey's)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch salt

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup shredded coconut (recommended: Baker's Angel Flake Coconut, Sweetened)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a stand mixer or large bowl using a hand mixer blend butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. In a small bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. Gradually add flour mixture into butter mixture and blend until combined. Stir in pecans, coconut and chocolate chips. Dough will be tight.

Using a small ice cream scoop or melon baller to make all the cookies the same size, about the size of a small golf ball or ping pong ball, drop onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets and bake about 8-9 minutes. Cool on a baking rack. To make bars press dough into a buttered 8X8-inch square baking pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into squares when cooled.

*Take these cookies out even if you are worried about them being done, they continue to cook from the oven heat and stay moist when you don't over cook them.

Sunny's All American Celebration on Food Network this weekend!!!!

Hey there! Real quick then plenty more later .... spread the word!!! Sunny's All American Celebration debuts tomorrow morning, Saturday July 2nd, 10AM! Then Monday, July 4th at 6PM!!!! DVR and TiVo too!!!