NYC Wine & Food Festival 2011: Meatball Madness!

Hey there! It's New York City Wine & Food Festival time here in the city and like years before, Food Network smartly takes advantage of the abundance of hosts in town and gets us together for some fun. Yesterday Melissa d'Arabian filmed a holiday promo that'll run this fall. I arrived when Giada was wrapping her segment of the promo and headed to Meatball Madness. Check out Melissa recording her lines for Food Network and Food Network UK ...

We finished up and I headed over to Giada's party. I first stopped by to say hi to her, then headed straight for what everyone was talking about ...
This was a juicy, loosely mixed, highly black peppered ball of wonder. Take a close up ...
And then inside ...
I shoulda had two of these. There were too many purveyors to try each meatball or even get to them, imagine the judging!! I turned around and right next to the rabbit meatball was a big and puffy gnocchi with my last name on it. Last name was on it, cuz it meant biz ...
If this was a gnocchi madness party, they'd win. It was like a pillow melting in your mouth. It just spread everywhere instantly. Very smooth. Here's a close up ....
Then, I took advantage of my position in the room and took a long shot. This is just one long room full of meatballs, but there were three in all! Imagine the aroma ... not the heat, that's what I kept thinking. It was hot in there!!
I finally waded my way through the middle room to the last one and caught my extended family :-) ... The Scotto's from Fresco by Scotto.
That's Marion, Elaina, Rosanna, Me :-), Anthony and John. I had their meatball and it was so good I forgot to take a picture. Tragedy, because of the few I ate, it was soooo good. There was a brown sauce that was sweet, but not too sweet and the ball wasn't tight, just really good. Bad reporting, but I was so happy to see my crew. I have plans to get a bite at Fresco by Scotto soon, let's hope that meatball is on the menu!! I said my hellos and headed to the middle room just in time for the announcement.
That's Alex Guarnashelli, Dana Cowin and Lee Ann Wong, the judges. I bet they are pretty full and ready to sleep lol. And I did my best to get a picture of Giada, she looked so cute! But she's blurry and covered up by the other hosts.
If you want to see great photos from the event and all the NYCWFF events as they happen, check out this link.

Ok, that's it. I'm currently doing my best to fast so I can have a full appetite for the Burger Bash tonight. See you there if you have plans to go. Everyone is so sweet, if you see me and you are wondering if it's ok to "bother" me ... yes, it is. It's totally not a bother, I'm there to eat and have fun and meet ya! Best time to interrupt me is when I'm eating ... it's when I'm most happy :-)...

He Made/I Made - Salad or Sandwich?

Hey there! If you are a BLT person this month's Food Network Magazine is forcing you to draw a line in the sand ... wich. Do you prefer it as a sandwich or are you willing to have it in the form of a salad? (Sounds like the Wonder Twins) Anyway, a few months back FNMagazine called and asked if I would participate again in the "He Made, She Made" spread in the magazine. It's pretty easy to explain, they give two people the same dish to prepare and then you get to vote. This month's was BLT and I sat thinking ... well, I do a salad that may work, but they asked for a sandwich. I could've engineered or developed something over the top and crazy, but I cook for real, so I just went to my go-to salad. To make it fit the request, I put it in sandwich form and took a picture to send along with the recipe. Then, I when I sent the picture and recipe I also left a note to the magazine it can be prepped as a salad. Here's the picture I sent to them ...

To my surprise and amazement, the magazine decided to use it as a salad!!! YAAAAAAAY!!! That's how I intended it in the first place! Take a look ...

Food styling and lighting make my salad come to life! Check out the recipes in the magazine and vote here on the website for who made it best!! Aaron's my buddy and this is food, so no real battle here, vote with a smile!! Then enjoy making a BLT at home ... sandwich or salad :-).

If you're in town for the NYC Wine and Food Festival, I look forward to running in to you at some of the events and I hope to see you this Sunday at my cooking demo!! Get tickets and information here! It all goes to charity!!

The Vendy's says I'm kinda like Jane Lynch...

Hey there!! The official announcement is out there, but you already knew if you read my musings here that I'm the host of this year's Vendy Awards!! 7 years in the making, this is the best of all the street vendors vying for ribbons and future long lines where ever they hitch up in the city!!

Get tickets and information here, then catch the 1ish ferry to Governor's Island with me this Saturday for a city full of food all in one spot. If you've heard of all the tasty stuff, but find it hard to track them all down in the city, come out this Saturday. I'm looking forward to eating, ahem *meeting* you there! :-)

New Cooking for Real Saturday!! Seeing Red

Hey there!! Happy Saturday! Is it wishful thinking that you are even up this early on a Saturday? I could be really organized and type this up at another time, but sometimes I like to wake up and write something fresh on the day I post it. I can count on 1 hand the times I've pre-written a blog post and then put it up when it worked for me. So anyway ... I'm up! Looks like it's gonna be a nice day in Brooklyn and I hope you start it off where you are by joining me for another episode of Cooking for Real.

This week I call it "Seeing Red". I've mentioned here before that it's really one of the neat things that comes along with having the show, I get to plan menus and even have fun with the titles. It's a very small part, naming the shows, but I get so much joy from it. Obviously the color red play a big part today...

Ok, here's the menu:

Radish Salad - When I started Cooking for Real a few years back, this was the only ingredient I really didn't favor. I mean, I would eat it, but I didn't look for it on the menu. It shamed me lol. I thought, how can I love food and have this thing in my way? So, I kept buying them and finding ways I liked them, radishes that is. I love them for crunch and texture in a soft taco and that got me thinking one day about making a radish salsa kinda, enter ... my Radish Salad. The pic is above. Tastes good today, even better tomorrow when the colors start to bleed!!

Ok, then to stay with the red theme, I marinate some red meat in red wine and red pomegranate juice then let cipollini onions soak up some of the red too in a recipe I call Red Wine and Pomegranate Hangar Steak with Cipollini Onions. I thought about this after a trip to Boston (my memory is bad, the city was actually Providence, RI and the spot was called Al Forno) for an event with a co-worker. His parents took us out for dinner and I had a steak with a charred molasses, red wine flavor. It was super charred lol and I loved it. Thing is, my steak here isn't charred because it's indoors, but feel free to char away, with discretion :-)

And cut it right! It's easy. Just look at the meat, see which way the muscles run and then across, perpendicular, against the grain or flow of the muscles. This helps it tear easier when you chew. Sounds so barbaric, huh? I know ... I love meat. Sorry to the vegans. I really am. There's nothing better than a steak sometimes. When I did this master cleanse diet a few years back, it took me months to get my steak craving back. It scared me! lol. Ok, here's a quick dessert you can whip together ... and I do mean "whip"...
It's my Strawberry Fool! It's so simple and I love the way if feels when you take a big scoop that's way too big for the capacity of your mouth. It's so smooth from the whip and sweet and tangy from the strawberries. It's also so simple I can't believe I haven't planned to share this recipe sooner. Sometimes things are so simple it's hard to even call them a recipe and that's how I feel about this. I mean, some berries, some honey, some heavy cream and a few other typical kitchen ingredients and there's some dessert on the table. Love it!! Hope you do too!!!

Cooking for Real!! Season 10 @ 1o!!! Today on Food Network and Monday at 3pm as well!!!

Tell a friend. It's natural to tell people when you don't like something, but if you do like something, it's sometimes hard to share ... share my recipes and share a smile with me!

This is How You'll Sonic, Soon

Hey there! Well, I just got back from the 2011 Sonic Drive-In Convention in Las Vegas! Sonic was my first job and they heard about it and asked me to come join in some fun. I judged some contests, ate some Sonic and gave a speech, then I was done with what they asked me to do, officially. Here's the thing though, there was also a biiiiiig room I kept hearing about at the conference with some of the vendors for Sonic displaying their stuff. Stuff like huge frying vats for the crazy good onion rings and tots, drinking cup suppliers for my cherry limeades, uniform suppliers for the carhops, etc. Well, in addition to the "stuff suppliers" was a selection of new menu items for sampling as well ...Now you KNOW .... That was my goal! So after my speech I headed back to my room to drop off my valuables ...LOL, the Adidas are very valuable lol. And can you see my Sonic black card??!?!?! Oh wait, I tweeted, but I MUST tell you here ... I am now the proud owner of a Sonic Lifetime Card!! That's what that is next to my shoes. I asked randomly on a conference call and kind of jokingly, but serious about getting one lol. I didn't know how to let my Sonic crazy show, but needed them to know I reeeeealy wanted it, so I figure saying it on a conference call with all the execs may work. Anyway, I said it and forgot it, kinda lol then just before I gave my speech at the convention, the CFO, Cliff (yaaaaay Cliff!!), handed me my Sonic black card. This is what I look like getting my card ...@kebe8 on twitter said it looks like I'm accepting an award lol, I think I am ... an award of life time breakfast, lunch or dinner from SONIC!! WOOOHOOOOO!!! Let me tell you, just pump my veins with cherry limeade and I'm a happy camper! Ok, let's get to the new food on the menu. This blog is dedicated here on out to @VeeeKaaay ...who asked me politely to snap some shots of tots! Here's the thing @VeeeKaaay .... I got there and these were all the new Sweet Potato Tots that were left ...Crazy right!?! They were all like "There's none left" And I was all "What are you talking about, there's a few there crammed in the corner!!!" Lol. And you know me, I could care less if they were the bottom of the barrel ones, I plucked several out for the tasting. Take a look ...Crispy, sweet, crunchy, fluffy goodness. Pretty darn good. Wow. Wow. If you like sweet potato fries, I mean c'mon, this is a no-brainer. Ok, here are some more of the never before seen items coming to a Sonic menu near you!! Mushroom & Swiss Toaster Melt ...

It was so good I ate two and then moved on to find out I wished I'd left more space for this ...

Bacon and cheddar, 'nuff said. Then, before I could turn around and go to the next table, some one brought me a cup of love that I dove into, then found it's proper back drop and a newer fresher cup, to photograph...
The Sonic Creme Brulee Cheesecake Blast. Geeeeeez ... Geeeeeeeez ... Geeeeeeeez ... I can't wait to use my Sonic card on this!!! Then, ever wonder who makes up these things? Well, after biting into a breakfast burrito and loving the new sauce, I was introduced to the chef that developed it! Here's the burrito sauce maker ... drum roll please :-) ...

Carrieeeeee Pemmmmmbertonnnnnnnn!!!

What a cool gig, thinking up and testing new sauces for Sonic!! Thanks for snappin a pic with me girl!! I should've taken some of those packets home with me, they are less than 3 ounces, carry-on ready!!! I wasn't thinking ... I was on a Sonic high lol ... Ok, well that's it. Thanks for hangin with me as I roll out the Sonic love! That's how I Sonic!!

New show on the way this week and I just signed on to host the Vendy's official announcement soon, but you are here for the behind the scenes stuff, eh? :-)

This is how I Sonic!

Hey there! I'm in Las Vegas hangin' out with the crew, well many crews, from Sonic Drive-Ins across the country. Every year they have a convention and celebrate the crew members and leaders and this year asked me to join. I am more than happy to be here because Sonic was my very first job ... ever. Well, I volunteered with the Red Cross, but this was the first paying job, with responsibilities and boy did it really shape me. Probably why I talk about it on Cooking for Real so much. Good thing I do though, because they heard about me and asked me to come hang out. I kept looking for the onion ring clause on the contract, never located it lol. I did however manage to get paid in Cherry Limeade Chips today ... totally a highlight!!!If you are lucky to have a Sonic Drive-In in your area I hope you have car hops with skates, there is just something neat about it. Well today I judged the "So You Think You Can Skate" competition. There was an obstacle course complete with customers, an agility skating course, and then at the end they had a skate off. Take a look at some of my amateur video ...Pretty cool. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being those people from the 70s doing crazy tricks and acrobatics, I'm about a 1. lol. So, I wore the skates a few times back then, but preferred shoes and a smile as my work accessories. That was 20 years ago, wow I feel really old. 20 years later and Sonic has their own brand of skates ... crazy ...Neat huh? Now I have a reason to practice my skills ... just need to buy some knee pads and a helmet teeheehee. Ok, just wanted to share a bit.

Oh, and I'm burying a lead here ... I've just been asked to host the Vendy's here in NYC!! Can wait for all the food truck action!!!

New Cooking for Real Saturday!! T.G.I.S

Hey there!!! It's breakfast time on the newest episode of Cooking for Real!! I love to make breakfast, and some of my best lunches are breakfast!! So this is gonna be a fun one. Take a look at this ...It's my Open-Faced Breakfast Sandwich and I make a version of this at home about once a week. I love nothing more than a sunny side up egg with the oooooooze of the yolk. Lately, I've been separating eggs, saving whites to the side, and making double yolk sunny side ups. That's right, I'm not waiting for the elusive double yolk egg, I'm creating it!!

Ok, next on the menu is my Sweet and Spicy Breakfast Sausage.I also do this at home all the time, I am so happy to call the show Cooking for Real. You are really seeing how I eat. I'm not just thinking these up to fill up a show. Many times when I make anything with ground beef, I save a little snatch of it to the side and season it up for a few breakfast sausage patties the next day. It's easy, the ingredients are in my spice rack always, so I'm hoping your rack is stacked like mine :-). I season my sausage sweet because I love to put syrup on spicy sausage, so why not build in some of the sweetness?! Hope you enjoy!

Then, the thing I do most every weekend ... HASH BROWNS!!! YAAAAAAAY!!! Lol!! Those are my Saturday Special Hash Browns. I am serious about hash browns!!! I love em crispy, I love em soft, I love em with all kinds of stuff thrown in, hash browns, is where my leftovers go in the good afterlife. I love nothing more than using up all the bits and pieces in my fridge over the weekend so I can start fresh on Monday. Also during the week if I find myself using potatoes, what I do is cut some down to size and store them in water in a container in the fridge. Then before I cook em, I just drain them and dry em off with a paper towel. (Yes, still Viva :-)) Thing here is that potatoes in a water, in a container, in a fridge... well, it only lasts for like a few days or so, after that it's a high school project, if you know what I mean...

I can't wait for you to see this show!! Cooking for Real - T.G.I.S Season 10@10am!!! On Food Network!! With a repeat on Monday at 3pm!!Hopefully it inspires you to get up and make a great breakfast, even if it's during lunch hours :-). Enjoy the weekend.


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I'd like to take just a sentence or two here to tell you that I've been in New York now for 10 years exactly and since I've moved here, I found my true self. It could be maturity and other factors, but there is a spirit in this city that, with all the noise in the streets, it silences noise in your life and allows you to relax into your true self. People are too busy to care about what you wear, what you think, in a nice way of course. Hard to explain. It is such a great city filled with great people and in my first few days here I was filled with the joy and excitement of a city that welcomes everyone with open arms. A few days later 9/11 happened and I fell deeper in love with the spirit of New York. That's it, I love this city. I Love New York. If you follow me on twitter, I will go silent tomorrow out of respect. 140 characters can't capture the character of what happened that day.

New Cooking for Real Saturday!! Fun with the Fam

Hey there! Just in case you haven't noticed, I've begun to link the main page for the episode to the title of the blog post. If you ever watch a show and want all the recipes, just click on the title of the blog post above and it will take you to the Food Network page for that episode, which has all the recipe links. :-)

Ok, I'm excited to share with you more recipes and fun in the next episode of Cooking for Real! I call it Fun with the Fam because I have a crew of guys aka stomachs, that I call Fam. They aren't related, but they come over and eat like family and hang out like family, so why not call them that? Sometimes the hardest thing during recipe testing is having an abundance of food you can't possibly eat without calling in for back up. I'm thankful to have eating partners, because otherwise it could feel wasteful! So, for this episode, I invited two people that I consider friends, but have actually never come over to eat! Imagine that! The first is my girl Betsy Karetnick. She co-hosts a show on Martha Stewart's Sirius/XM channel. It's called Morning Living and I've been on a few times and I think Betsy is so funny and witty and just fun to be around. We all went out to eat last night for a girl's night out and had such a great time! Ok, then the next guest is my friend 9th Wonder, he does so much. Runs Jamla Records (warning-music plays on click), he produces music and is also a professor at Duke University. Tune in tomorrow to hear who he's worked with, it's quite an impressive list!

Ok, so for the show I put together a menu you can make for you and your "Fam" as well, related or not :-). Especially with football season kicking in, it's time to think about good food for stuff like that, even for the US Open watchers. I've been catching it a bit and if you are throwing watching parties at home for anything, these are some good ideas to add to the menu. First, I share my newest favorite and I mean it, I LOVE this recipe (pictured above). They are my BBQ Chip Wings. So, sometimes I am happy that my brain is just totally devoted to thinking about food sometimes because it was on one of my food daydreams that I cooked up this idea. I was eating chips and licking my fingers, sorry. I sometimes think the best part of the bag is the very end with the little bits and the flavor crystals all stuck on the side. It's a bonanza for me! I admit to sometimes crushing some of the bigger chips down to bits to further increase the excitement of this moment. Silly, yes, but it's true and that's when I thought "boy, it's finger lickin' good". Because I was raised when that was actually a slogan that was used my brain immediately thought, chicken. Then I thought ... what if I could get a chicken wing to taste like the end of a bag of BBQ chips?!?!? And then I immediately got my notepad out and started to write down flavors I tasted, spices, heat, sweet, etc. I had a working idea of what I wanted to use, then I just went to work. Trial and error, got me something I am reeeeeeeally happy with. If you love the way the powder tastes at the end of a bag of chips, if you like dry wings with out all kinds of sauce, this is something you really should try!! When I got the flavors where I wanted them I shared them at various gatherings at my house and every time someone left with a few. Who takes home wings?! I'm tryin to tell ya! lol, ok then ...
That's my Peas and Pasta Salad. I make variations of this throughout the year. The key here is admitting that sometimes I like Miracle Whip, this is not an advertisement. I actually like both that and mayo. Time and place for everything. Plus, this dressing has some flavor from Worcestershire sauce and my mom used to always have chunks of cheese in her mac salad growing up. I make it easier with just adding shredded cheese. It's worth a try! My secret to always having pasta salad as an option at home is sometimes I take a whole pound of pasta and boil it al dente. Then I drain it, cool it on a baking sheet, then store it in the refrigerator in an air-tight container. The pasta lasts for a week and I end up having fast pasta salads and quick hot dishes as well. I'll make a quick sauce and throw in the pasta and be done in half the time. Think about it if you have 12 minutes one day, boil some pasta and put it in the fridge ... saves time!

Then, when I have guests over it's only right to offer a drink. This time around I share what I call a Spa-ocktail. Can you see the big game on in the back ground of the picture? I really love to serve this at a game party! Every time I've ever been to a spa, they offer a drink of something that faintly tastes like what they say it is. Like if they say cucumber water, it's as if they just waved a piece of cucumber over the pitcher of water and it smells more like cucumber than tastes like it. This is not a complaint, sometimes I actually like it when your palate has to work for the flavor instead of being bombarded with it. So, this drink is in honor of that. It's light and crisp like at the spa, but then I decided to ahem, make it adult like a cocktail. Hence the name. So there's some tequila. I know, I know, you're thinking all of that crisp and light talk and then you add tequila?!?! I balance it out nicely and it really ends up being one of those drinks with a light touch. Give it a try if you like to play with drinks at home. I do!

Ok, set your DVR!!! Go to sleep tonight with Food Network on so you only have one button to push in the morning :-). It's going to be easy, fun and tasty!

Cooking for Real - Fun with the Fam - Saturday September 3rd, 10am eastern! Food Network!! Season 10 @ 10!!

If you miss it or want to catch it again because you don't have DVR, reruns air Mondays at 3pm eastern!