New Show TOMORROW!! It Takes Two to Salsa!

Hey there! Real quick before I tell ya about the new show. A Special thank you to Comcast and the Boys and Girls Club, they let me get my hands dirty today and it was all for a good cause, these people really care!! Here I am about to drop some food in the earth... More on this later in the post ...

In the meantime ... Guess who is on Cooking for Real with me tomorrow?!?!? I titled this one "It Takes Two to Salsa". OK, a hint on my guest... she is a big ray of sunshine, she's a winner and she's always a paarti!! Yep, my girl Aarti is coming over to play in my kitchen tomorrow morning on the newest episode of Cooking for Real. Here we are the day we taped (I totally get now that you'll see the picture and know the answer to the question above, but I'm on a roll and too lazy to edit my free thoughts, leave that to twitter :-P)As a person that is mostly happy all the time, it's so nice to meet another person of the same breed, Aarti is my girrrrrrrl. Just a nice jolt of energy and I can't wait for you to feel it through the television tomorrow!! Here's our menu ...

Curry Coconut Chicken Breasts - from my kitchen ...
Mango and Peach Salsa - from my kitchen ... then
Black Eyed Peas Pulao - from Aarti's kitchen!! It was fun to say and to taste!!!

We had plenty of fun on the show and I don't even know how we got any cooking done, I remember many times between takes my director and producer trying to keep us on track because we were just talkin' and talkin' lol. Too funny when you meet your talking match!! Love it!! Her and I can talk up a storm!!! Ok, set your DVR and Tivos for Sunday @ 1100AM or Monday @4PM for the repeat on Food Network!

Btw, I'm doin my best to keep up with the youngin's so I'm tweeting now semi regularly, i can't do the whole day on my hip, minutiae at all times thing, but I check in, so check in with me. I prefer to do my drivel in long form, but it's fun over there sometimes. Check me out Sunny Anderson Twitter

BTW, I'm on the road a bit before I begin taping the next season of Cooking for Real next week (thank you for watching!!), so I have so much stuff to share, but not all the time. If you've commented, I promise I'm getting to it next after this!! I still have pics and stories to share from my guest role on Are We There Yet and I also did a segment on Dr. Oz that airs soon, it was plenty of fun and it was set up like the Family Feud, so you can imagine there were plenty of laughs. I'll compile the pics and blog em up shortly. Until then thanks to EVERYONE today in Houston at the Comcast Cares event!! I was there to help plant some seeds ... in the ground and in minds as well. Volunteerism is a good thing!! Take a look at some pics ...I posted that pic on my twitter page earlier. The reporter asked me if I spoke Spanish and I said ... "I speak Spanglish!", So I stuttered and "como di say"-ed through the interview. Finally, she was like just say it in English lol!!! I am so happy I tried! I actually watch Telemundo news so I can learn faster. Works well when I'm ordering food and having basic conversation, but in an interview, not so much teeheehee ... I'm gettin there!! Then, here's a pic of Brooke Johnson, she's the President of Food Network ...

She took this before we both got dirty and put some veggies in the earth. I planted some eggplants and fennel. I actually was more interested in the dirt than the interviews, but every minute or so, I chatted then got back to work! It's a tough balance to volunteer, but also know people want you to talk about it so you can get other's to do it. I'd prefer to just do it and be left alone, but I also know that watching others do good stuff inspires me, so I didn't truly mind any of the gardening interruptions. But gardeners know, you get in a zone that is so zen, you just wanna be left to dig in the dirt. I love to garden!! Click the "garden" link below this post to see all my exploits in my Brooklyn concrete jungle!!

Today was fun though, it was so cute to give the kids a snatch of the fennel fronds and have them smell it and then taste the light licorice flavor. I'm tellin you, these gardens in the right areas are the key to getting families in "food desserts" (places where there are more liquor stores and canned foods than fresh fruits and veggies) intelligent about smart food choices. Brooke gave a speech and she was right, fresh berries taste better than a twinkie. Well, unless you had a bad day and a twinkie can solve that problem teeheehee, but seriously. Fresh is where it's at!! Here is a bigger look at the garden and me steppin' in to get to work ...
Ok, have a good weekend and join Aarti and I for the Paarti tomorrow at 11 AM on Food Network!!

One day @ a time - #5 My Garden Grows! - June 2

Hey there! Well, I'm part of the way through a blog-letting ... if you get my play on words. I'm just trying to catch up after a forced break due to computer issues.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Today was my day off. I had plenty of work to do though. Summer is on the way. I'd just finished talking about entertaining with friends for the summer the day before with Lipton, so I woke up energized to get my back yard in shape. Remember when I started my garden? Well, I started it last year and had some success with leafy greens like collards and mixed lettuce, but failed with fennel, onions and pretty much every thing else.

Here are links to my garden blogs if you want to catch up ...

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Mulch Ado About Nothing

7 Things I Learned On Vacation

Mi Lechuga and My Laziness

You Say Tomato, I Say To-not-o

I'm Seeing Red!

Gardening was fun, but I needed much more time to dedicate to it for it to flourish, Martha makes it look so easy. I bet it has something to do with her having help :-) So I called in a horticulturist and took a trip to a nursery in Red Hook, Brooklyn to pick out some babies ...Those are cactus' and succulents. My favorite one is in the bottom left corner. All perfect for me because I don't havee to water them everyday. I did get some bushes and trees, but these lil dry sand lovers are my babies. Just so you know ... I didn't scrap the whole garden. I did have something nice happen ... my onions that didn't bulb underground, grew lonnnng stalks and began to flower! So, we uprooted them and plotted them along my back fence. Look at how tall they grew in just one year from a seed!
Pretty neat, huh? And that was through the winter with snow cover and all that. Those were some troopers! For the people that may be into landscaping, I also got wisteria, clematis, some bamboo, a corkscrew willow, a spidery looking conifer, a Japanese maple and a new word I learned from the horticulturist ... two procumbents.

So now instead of waking up every morning wondering if bulbs of onions and fennel are forming beneath the ground, I wake up wondering how far up the trellis a vine has grown.This is my wisteria vine, it only took a week for it to travel from the bottom of the picture to the top. Pretty neat.

Up next, I get inspired by a chef friend and send my guy to go grocery shopping...

I'm Seeing Red!

Well, I've picked a few green tomatoes this week and totally enjoyed every last bit and bite of them. So, after a few great days of green, I've got a couple of red tomatoes to look at!
Look at my babies! Gardeners know the feeling, I hope. :-). I mean, I talk about my garden every day and think about the weather and watch many different channels for it. I get mad when bugs pick on it. I want the plants to all just get along. My babies, teeheehee. Ok, just some more quick photos of my torrential-rain-ravaged garden. The weather has been brutal, but the strong are surviving.

These are my highest collard leaves. The low ones are being devoured by the herbivores. I don't want to spray chemicals, so let them eat ... there's still some left for me! Look at how big they are!

Like my hand is a ruler, but you get the picture. I'm going to make a recipe when I pick these and feature it on a future show. Hope you like it! Next, I'm gettin' frawny with it!

These are the tops of my fennel. If the bottoms don't bulb, I'll just make a frawny salad! Take a look at this ...

Looks like a collard plant right? It's not though, it's my broccoli! I'm just waiting on the florets. I met a nice woman at the Edible Garden and she told me they would appear soon. Can't wait! Well, that's it for now. Enjoy the weekend and if you garden, hope you have fun and get a little dirty in it.

You Say Tomato, I Say To-not-o

Yep, If you are gardening in my area of NYC or have just heard it around your way ... this isn't the year for tomatoes. The rain up here has been around like the mailman most of the summer and while that makes me happy because I don't have to worry about the lettuce ... I still have to worry about the tomatoes. They aren't going so well, so last week after chatting on Martha Stewart's Sirius show about gardening and my new love of it, despite the bad tomato weather, I decided to harvest my tomatoes green. Why wait on them to ripen and turn red into a bland mush of nothing? So here's my first early harvest ...
Looks neon, huh? It's the flash, but it really is a bright and lively green. I took it a few times and I then decided it was breakfast time, not shutter time lol. I just chopped it into chunks, about 20 or so and then sauteed them in the pan I made my egg in. Used the residual fat in the pan from the pat of butter for the egg, then just some salt and pepper, got a good brown crust on them ... it was soooo good, I forgot to take a picture. I was like, wait ... oh well. Teeheehee ... Anyway, if you are like me and the tomatoes aren't lookin too good in your garden, harvest early and introduce yourself to the tangy-sweet world of green tomatoes! Next up on the list, dredging and frying them, gonna take a culinary-memory trip down South.

Mi Lechuga and My Laziness ...

Hey there! I'm about to head into the city to get my nails done for a huge shoot I have tomorrow and Friday, but I thought I'd write up a quickie.

BTW, that first sentence can sub for what I would tweet, if I gave a twit teeheehee. I remember my blog buddy Jacob trying to convince me I should tweet and at the time of the text conversation we were having, I was getting my nails done. I told him, 'What would I tweet? That I'm getting my nails done and then I'm on the way to one of my favorite restaurants?" ... he said "yes". I have still yet to tweet away. I still don't know if I have an interesting life. I currently am truly enjoying the Wendy Williams Show and she constantly talks about what she likes to do most is pretty much nothing. Same here, I enjoy staying at home and cooking and playing video games and watching television. I do love going places, but I just don't think it's exciting or note-worthy enough.

Ok, so anyway ... i digress ... here's a shot of my lechuga, aka lettuce in my garden!

It grows like crazy when I clip it and because it's mixed, it makes a real pretty salad. My radishes didn't make it and it was totally my fault, I kept saying I needed to thin them out and never did :-(. I am so not letting that happen to my fennel! I'm a bit worried about the tomatoes even though they are looking great, the weather and other reports from gardeners makes me feel like they may not taste as tomatoey as they should. I am thisclose to pruning them while they are green and frying away. In the top left of the pic is a look at one leaf of my collards, they are big and feeding little herbavores, not me ... not yet. Other than that I'm, a lady in waiting for my onions and can't wait to see if they are big and juicy.

Alright now for another picture. I was in recipe development a couple of weeks and back I'm still wrapping up all my recipes for the next episodes I begin taping in August. I always try to bring you the flavors of my kitchen with an emphasis on easy and accessible recipes. I really want you to watch and see that it's possible to do and there are no real tricks involved in getting good food on the table everyday. Well, on a future show I'm planning I wanted to demo a dish that I love to eat in my new neighborhood in Brooklyn. They are called pastelillos de carne and basically it's seasoned ground meat wrapped with pastry and fried, yummy. There are many variations and really a great comparison is an empanada, if you are familiar. So, I was working on developing the pastry dough part and came up with something great, but for such a yummy treat, the steps involved would be lengthy on television. I don't mind showing long steps because sometimes we alllll know good things come to those that wait. But, shortcuts are fun too, when they don't mess with the integrity of the recipe. Look, when I make pot-stickers, I'm not making the wonton papers, I'm buying them. Although I know how to make them, and have a great recipe from my days making their cousin yakimandu in South Korea ... laziness is what will keep me from cooking, so wonton papers are a miracle in my freezer. Now ... on what I call a "spelunking grocery store trip" just yesterday I found the way to faster empanadas and the aforementioned pastelillos de carne I have planned for a future show. Take a look!

Who knew? Not me, so I thought I'd share for a few reasons;

1) If you don't have these at your local grocer, you can get them. All you have to do is take the name of the product to the customer service window where you get the membership cards and stuff and ask for it. Enough people asking, and they are sure to stock them. I've gotten stuff stocked after only asking once ... and don't think they know I work in the food industry, they don't. I just put on a smile and ask. Goya is a national brand, but I find sometimes they are mostly in ethnic areas. So, if you don't have these or any other thing you see being used on Food Network, empower yourself and ask for it at your local grocer.

2) I just want to inspire you to do some of your own grocery store spelunking. You never know what you are going to find when you open your eyes. I know it's economically safe to walk in with a list and a full belly, but try to look at your grocery store in a different way. New items are constantly arriving and you never know what you'll find if you just do a stroll instead of a marathon. I usually take forever when I'm in the mood and it's as if I look at every single row, high and low, very slowly. Like it's a museum.

3) After I took the picture of the empanada wraps in my freezer, I realized the borders reveal a few of my freezer items ... can you tell what they are? Just a fun game to play if you happen to be working when you catch this post and need a little 5 minute distraction. Ok, enjoy the day! I'm headed off to get my nails all pretty for tomorrow's big shoot ... details to come.

p.s. this isn't an advertisement for Goya or it's products, just a friend telling a friend :-).

7 Things I Learned on Vacation

I just got back from vacation last week and I'm so thoroughly rested I'm popping up early in the morning to run errands and just start the day off nice, no snooze button yet! We decided on a two-part vacation. One half roughin' it and the other ... not. We both enjoyed the roughin' it leg of the trip and learned so much more about the country we visited that way. Without giving too many details, here's a list of the things I learned while on vacay ...

1. Breaking down a conch is hard. 

We bought 8 or so from the dock and all the guy did was release the muscle part from the shell and throw the conch -claw and all - into a big plastic bag. I thought, what am I gonna do with this??? I searched the net for some videos and after watching several very shaky and non-descriptive videos, I decided to let my culinary instinct lead the break-down effort. We were in a house with a stocked kitchen, but I really should've brought my knife kit. It took me about 2 hours to trim, clean, cut and pound out all that conch. I smiled the whole time though because, boy was I hungry for some fritters and I knew I'd never run into conch in such a raw form back home. I then chopped it and made some conch fritters adapted from my Codfish Fritters recipe. Very yummy, very. 

2. Fried "Barry" is bangin'. 

After a gentle foodie tussle with the owner of a local take-away spot (that's what they call" takeout"), I got my hands on some fried barracuda and loved it. She warned of it's potency ... almost to the point of not selling it to me! She said that some people get sick from it. I think by people she meant Americans lol ... because not a second later several natives stopped in for some of her Fried Barry and she didn't give them the quiz like she did us. It totally reminded me of my "No Poi for You!" story from last year. Really the thing is, if you tell me I'm not gonna like it ... chances are I feel compelled to try it and know why you think you know my taste buds lol ... boy was it good! So good we saved half and reheated it the next morning for a part of breakfast!

3. Interventions need to happen on the beach. 

I have no flick of this, but at our second location ... omg there was a woman on the beach that was much darker than me and she was originally fair-skinned. She'd sit there from dawn to dusk, just laying there, oiled up! Very unhealthy and I just wanted to go tell her to stop, she was already super dark, why overdo it? Even crazier is she was in her mid-20s. With her tan, she was much darker than me with my tan, feel me? Crazy.  This is me on the balcony after I'd had enough sun, I was sun-screened, sun-blocked ... all of that. Still got a bit darker though ...

4. It's hard to go on vacation with a blog.

I pre-posted some blogs, but found it hard to leave the laptop home. I wanted to make sure if you had questions or comments that they could be posted and answered. It actually didn't bother me to do on vacation, but I think next time I'll have a guest blogger or something, I dunno. 

5. The Amazon Kindle thingy is an amazing gadget. 

I love to read, but hate toting books on vacation. If dedicated I can do a book a day, so imagine carrying all that weight. Right before we left, I buckled and bought one. I am the slowest on technology, mostly because I want to wait until the definitive product is released instead of getting the first-stab offering. Look, I just got an ipod lol. Anyway, had I known about the Kindle earlier, I would've bought it. Full books download in seconds and they are cheaper than buying at the store. Sure the Kindle is expensive, but for a reader it'll pay itself off soon with the discounts. It is so easy to use and the screen didn't even glare in the sun. I read 2 Chelsea Handler books and parts of a Brad Metzler book and it also downloads newspapers and magazines. Very neat.

6. A Garden can turn into a jungle in 10 days flat. 

We had a nice neighbor water our garden, but that doesn't mean weeds don't grow while unattended, heck, that's actually what they need to grow! So, yesterday was garden day. Plenty of weeds, but beneath them all .... my first harvest of mixed lettuce!!!

Doesn't it look store bought?! My dude and I hugged when I showed him the leaves all washed and lined up. Neat feeling. I had to rush and harvest these because they were about to go to seed and flowers were about to sprout. I'll take a wide shot update of the garden soon, it looks so wild!

7. There's no place like home.

Besides missing my garden and my cats, boy did I miss sleeping in my own bed! We were speed walking from the airport to our car all the way talking about how happy we were to get home. Vacation lasted just as long as it should've ... now back to work!

Don't forget to catch Good Morning America on ABC tomorrow morning! I'll have some Memorial Day eats and should see ya in the 8AM hour!

Mulch Ado About Nothin'

I'm still having fun in the garden, but boy is it work! There's a tree that drops all kinds of stuff all over the garden and I've yet to go get one of those screen-dome things. I actually don't mind getting out there and picking the stuff up. Petals and buds and ... wha ... what is THAT?! ARE THOSE WEEDS????!!!!?!!!? Yes, after all that turning and turning of soil little teeny weeds started to sprout. So, to the mulching I went. Here's some of the progress ...

Sadly, the carrots, scallions, cucumbers and watermelon died on me :-(. Well, really the carrots are my fault. I didn't do enough research and I really needed to treat the earth differently for those. In their place I planted some fennel. Then, in place of the scallions I dropped yellow onion bulbs because the red onions are really growing well. I haven't quite figured out what to do with the cuke patch and in place of the watermelon ... more onions! I use them plenty so, If my green thumb pans out ... I'll have some homegrown trinity soon .. well minus the celery and bell pepper. :-P Here's a flick of the new fennel plot ...

Boring? I questioned myself before uploading it. Teeheehee ... ahh, ok. The green sprouts on the right are the radish rows. Gotta thin those out soon . So then, forgot to fess up, the tomatoes weren't lookin' like they were going to sprout up and the decision was made to get some starter plants and do it like that. Here's the new batch ...

The pot said they'll be ready to pick in 50 days ... we'll see. If you get out a magnifying glass you may catch the beginnings of the broccoli.

All this past week all I was doing was gardening and developing recipes when out of the blue I get an email, I've been invited to make a second appearance on The Rachael Ray show! Last time was so much fun and I can't wait to give you some behind the scenes stuff. I am just totally excited about being asked to come back and look forward to it. It's another panel discussion just like the Thanksgiving show and wait'll you see the lineup of the panel this time! I Can't wait to share ... btw, we tape tomorrow, but it airs at a later date. Stick around for that and my new fave place to eat ... I found it by trying to give back a bit.

Sowing the Seeds of Love

It's springtime!!! 

For the last few years or so, I've wanted to have an herb garden. I've thought about it, daydreamed about it and talked about it. I know indoor herb plants are just as good, but I wanted a garden, you know ... one you work in and get all dirty and stuff. Not very eloquently said, but I'm willing to guess I'm also not your typical stereotype for a gardener. At least I don't think so ... we are given some pretty clean images of people gardening. In commercials the women have on cute little khakis and a denim button up, thrown over a white tank or something. The shoes are clean and the gloves, pristine. Can I even say the people usually seem older? I'm 34, for the record. In magazines, gardening is even prettier ... the gloves are clean and tools are shiny with only dirt on the part touching the dirt. Reminds me of how fast food looks in commercials ... it never adds up in real life. That being said, I thought starting a garden would be pretty and easy and breezy lol ... it isn't.

I recently moved into a place with a nice patch of earth in the backyard. It may seem tiny, but in Brooklyn, it's golden to have any outdoor space. I lucked up and got more than the standard concrete found in many of the borough's backyards, I got dirt ... and lots of concrete as well. Everything was covered with years and years of neglect and junk. A definite fixer-upper of a backyard. When we finally decided we were going to tackle it, it coincided with the first days of spring, so why clean it if we aren't gonna use it? I immediately turned an idea of my own herb garden, into a full-on garden of veggies and fruits as well. I ordered some seeds and bulbs online, then when they got here we took a trip to Home Depot for the rest. First, I'm never an advertiser of stuff here, just a talker telling a friend a story, but you must know the Home Depot I go to ... we call it "The Bizarro-World Home Depot" (taken from a favorite Seinfeld episode). We call it that because typically I'm used to going into one and searching forever for something and not being able to find anyone to help and when you do find someone chances are they are tied up with another customer. One time I waited about 40 minutes in the appliance department trying to buy something. I ended up getting it at a locally owned store. Now in the new 'hood I thought I'd give the old standby another try. Look, I know the aisles have headers and all, but there are just some things you need help with. So, anyway every time we go in there now, there are more than enough people to help and twice, we didn't need help, we were just comparing products and someone asked if we needed help deciding. Really nice. We commented at checkout how nice everyone was and we weren't used to it and the guy that checked us out said with a smile, "We aren't trying to see a recession happen over here!". It was lay-off, recession humor that was needed. As I am experiencing growth, I have many people very close to me dealing with layoffs. It sucks and I hope soon things turn the corner on the economy. Oddly, if you have some earth close by and a few bucks, you can start a garden and work off some of the stress. Yes, it's a workout and it's cheap! Seeds are like $1 for a bag of them and topsoil is cheap and so are the tools. All I bought was a hand shovel and a hand-axe/rake thing. There was already a shovel left behind by the last folks, so not really much to upstart the garden. Just plenty of planning and running around.

That's another thing they don't show in the ads or magazine articles about gardening ... it's a workout! Here I am, halfway through raking ...

Don't laugh at the gear, I'm no slope bunny. I don't have the khakis and the cute stuff. Look at that mess though! There was junk under those leaves from years ago. Really yucky, but we had a garden to sow! My dude was such a champ and knows plenty about landscaping and stuff so I had an advantage. We had to turn the soil because it was rock hard and filled with junk, here I am getting that done.

This is a bit later in the day so I had to change because it was cold and I found jeans just don't feel comfy in the garden. Even though we were sure to be past the last frost, it was cold. This was only two weeks ago. I didn't work alone, I had the hand tool and my dude wielded the bigger ones to remove the weeds and stuff. There were all kinds of roots down there. Ick. After we turned it and mixed in some new soil we decided to take a break and start plotting what seeds would go where ... we also needed some refreshment. :-)


Okay, so you know how it goes when kids are in the car on a road trip the question is always "Are we there yet?". I was that annoying kid to my dude while we were turning the soil. Because even after our lunch break after turning soil for hours, he said we needed to turn it some more. I'd work for about 10 minutes and ask him "Can we start yet?", "Are we there yet?", "How far away are we?". LOL. Ahhh he handled it well because I can be a whiner, but finally when all things were turned, I got to sow the seeds!

I was so engrossed, I didn't even notice him snap these flicks. I told him to get pics of me raking, but that was hours before this. Anywho, there's red onions, carrots, radishes, scallions, 3 kinds of lettuce, collards, cucumber, watermelon, tomatoes, broccoli, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bell peppers and cilantro. Not all went directly into the ground. I did a mini greenhouse inside for a backup to the watermelon I planted outdoors, then also planted the peppers and backup seeds of the collards and radishes in the container as well. I just wasn't quite sure the seeds would last and from research knew starting indoors was a good idea for some seeds. Here they are a few days in ...

I was nervous until ...

... these sprouted up a few days later! Those are watermelon, collards and radishes. In the front are the pods for the bell peppers -- slow starters. Also, any other gardeners get giddy every morning like it's Christmas or what?! Because after sowing the seeds into the ground outside, I couldn't wait to wake up every morning and check out the window for overnight progress. I wanted to blog about it two weeks ago when I planted everything, but I thought that would be boring. A flick of a patch of dirt. Not so neat, but now ... I have some green out there. Take a look at my radishes!

They were the first to sprout and the funny thing is I just got over my dislike of them! Cute and ironic twists the world throws us. Take a look at the collards, on the left are the ones sown directly into the soil, on the right are the transplants.

Unfortunately, the watermelons I planted outdoors were killed by weeds. We don't even know how we missed the huge weed bulb because as I mentioned, we turned until turning couldn't turn anymore. We investigated the soil around the watermelon seeds and found a bud sprouted and ate up all the nutrients from the seeds. There were teeny little weak watermelon sprouts in the hill I built. Like anemic versions of the ones grown indoors. Darn weeds! No worries, we transplanted the backups from indoors and rebuilt the hill for them.

That's where I'm at now, just waiting to see if the implanted stuff takes outdoors. Then I have to thin stuff. I'm starting to feel like I need a journal to note what to do to each crop, it's hard to keep in my head. Another thing, I've never checked the weather report so much in my life! Btw, the herbs I mentioned for the garden aren't seeds, they are plants and I actually haven't put those in the earth yet. Waiting for better weather. If the weather warms up as promised, I hope to tackle that sometime this weekend along with some flowers in other areas of the backyard. Stick around for garden updates and I still have BK Restaurant Week stuff to post soon.