Hiatus ... or Hi, ate, us

Hey there!! Wow, well I have been gone from here for over a week *slapping my own hand*, sorry if it was a trusty click here and there for you during the week for an escape. I know the feeling, if TMZ or CNN ... my two sources for online news, lol, were down, I'd go crazy. And not that I'm either of those, but I do regret not being able to post blogs regularly. Good news is it's because I'm busy. I feel like I have plenty of stuff to chat about too! Miss the regular unloading of stuff. Ok, so how do I do this? I'll number the stuff...

1. I just got back from Eleuthera, one of the outer islands in the Bahamas. It's my new favorite place and the food there is crazy! I've been so much some of the locals have taken me in like family and on this last trip I made Bahamian Peas and Rice with them and took videos of it! Look for the edited version of it here soon!

2. Next Food Network Star: After Party! It's back this season and Adam Gertler and I are back to talk about all the fun happenings on NFNS. Last year our episodes aired on Cooking Channel, this year they are scheduled to be on Dish Network. We won't begin airing After Party until the final weeks of the show and we begin taping them later this week! Last week I actually got copies of all the episodes up to the 9th show and I've been watching them, taking notes and living out weeks of stress and anxiety in just days. I could tell ya who gets kicked off, but it would be a whole 'nother form of "death by chocolate" TEEHEEHEE!! Get it!?!? That's another reason I miss writing, you totally accept my corny side. Ok, on to the next one like Jay Z and Swizz Beats ...

3. Website relaunch: I have discussed this forever, but it is finally very close to relaunching. I am working on some fun giveaways and stuff to relaunch and I hope for it to be a place you visit regularly for recipes, tips and smiles. Stay tuned here for all the details, but as it stands, it's sitting at SunnyAnderson.com and my web department (sounds so big right?) is working on an announcement page that should go up in the next week or so. I'll also have newsletter sign up, just trust me, I won't spam you or send you daily stuff. I dislike it in my own inbox, so I wouldn't do it to you. Just major announcements and stuff.

4. Sunny's All American Celebration; This is a special I've wanted to do for years with The Food Network and if by some chance in life I ended up on ESPN, I'd still want to do the special, just with a concentration on sports, not food. So, that should tell you how close this is to my heart, I've wanted to tell more people about the real stuff that happens in the military for years. Not just the artillary and war-time missions, but the humans, just like you and I, that have jobs to do everyday; for the benefit of the country. There are mechanics, doctors, teachers, language experts, artists, photographers, radio hosts (that's what I did), and for all those people, someone has to feed them. That's where the special jumps in. I'll show you how and where the military trains it's chefs, it's stuff never before seen on television. I also take a trip home to cook for some war veterans at a cookout, but before I do that I head over to my grandma's house close by to prepare some of the dishes in her kitchen and it's all caught on tape for the show. I cannot wait for you to see this. I've shown some of the early edits to friends and they are the kind that tell me when they don't like something (yes men get you no where) -- they all liked it and have mentioned it days after I showed the preview! So, it looks promising. Mark your calendar or, act like it's 2011 and mark your DVR and Tivo, July 2nd 10AM, July 4th at 6PM!!!

5. Hi, I'm on Hiatus: Some have noticed I'm not on weekends anymore. I knew this was going to happen, but didn't have time to tell you, nor did I know it would upset some enough to ask where I was. This is really sweet of you to notice I was missing. Thing is, we ran out of shows! When I started you supported me so much that Food Network put Cooking for Real on everyday during the week. I talked about it in a blog called I'm Getting Stripped!. I'm still stripped Monday - Friday 1130AM and 4PM eastern on Food Network. When that happens before you have about 100 episodes taped, you can run out if you don't tape often. That's basically what happened, No new episodes means, no weekends. We had to move around my taping schedule to work with taping for the 4th of July special I did for the network. I just finished taping Season 10 a month ago and if you ask me I don't know how they get things done so fast over there, what with all the other shows they produce in-house. Cool thing is, when Cooking for Real comes back on weekends, it's perfect timing ... I return July 2nd! The same day as the All American Celebration!! And I'll remain on Saturdays at 1230PM until further notice, or how it usually works ... you tell me, then I explain. Sorry, I've been so gone from the blog :-(. Missed ya! Ok, So Cooking for Real returns to Saturdays at 1230PM July 2nd!! Spread the word! Which leads to ..

6. I tweet now. I have to tell you I fought it for some time, but it's fun. I just have the same issues there as I did here, do you care about what I write? I look at some people's tweets and some seem very convoluted and thought out and as if they are building an image instead of just being themselves. Ever see a tweet and wonder if the person is really doing what they say or eating/cooking what they say? Where are the photos?!? Lol, So look, I'm no food stylist, I just love to eat and cook, but rest assured, I'll always live and cook, for real :-) and post the evidence lol. We need to start asking for evidence, I see plenty of "theater of the mind" out there. I dunno, just doesn't seem like me to tweet, but I do see the benefits, I can reach more people in an ever increasing social media age. When are we gonna get back to the old school pow-wow, eh? So, get on my twitter feed and let your friends know about show times and stuff going on. Click here Sunny Anderson twitter.

7. Crest and Scope. I just started working with them, seems they liked my smile and wanted to work on my breath lol. Really, there's some new stuff on the way and if you are mouth obsessed like me, stick around for some new products from Scope and Crest. As before with Viva and Lipton, this is a product I already use and love. So, trust me and my smile, it works, this isn't just business. I understand when I say I use something it's important for that to be true :-). I mean I once took an ex to the dentist to get his teeth checked out and I even stopped the beginnings of a great relationship with one guy because he had no oral hygiene and I was too dumb to figure out how to bring it up. What a missed relationship, he was so smart and funny, just funky. His breath stunk up his whole apartment lol. Oh gawd, the memories and stories I could tell. He ended up getting picked on about his teeth in a very public way by someone else, went to the dentist and started dating her! It didn't work out (maybe because old habits die hard?), but he did eventually find true love and got married. Too funny. So, stick around there are some new Scope and Crest products I've teamed up with that are coming out for us food lovers this year hint hint ...

8. Cooking for Real ... the book. It's on the way! Well, it's going to feel like my website talk, it's going to take a while, but the process is started and I'm excited!!! I've heard some good buzz, I just want you to know I'm totally emotionally connected to getting published and it has everything to do with me wanting it as a kid. I grew up in love with words and reading and always wanted to be published. I still have my childhood dictionary. It was my best friend. Throughout school and travel to different countries, I just fell in love with language and words, they almost tried to talk me into being a cryptologist in the Air Force because my language skills scored so high on the entry test. But I fought it, I wanted to be a television news writer, what I was already doing in high school. Little did I know, I'd get trained for television and radio, then get put in a radio department as a disc jockey. So, it was a goal early on to write and be published, but I didn't know for what or how. I would sit in the DJ booth in San Antonio, New Orleans, Montgomery and Detroit thinking, maybe I'll write a book on getting ahead in the radio business. Then, when I got the gig at HOT 97 in New York, it seemed to make sense, because I'd done well for myself in the business, without a manager or lawyer or anything. Just hard work, a resume and good ratings. Reality was though, even back in 2001 when I moved to NYC, radio was a shrinking business, so who would buy the book? Plus, who cares what I have to say and how do I market it? These were the things I thought about. (I also want a farm one day, there I said it). Then, I'd sit and daydream about maybe a book of poems? A travel book? Then, the stories I could tell from being in the business, it would sell, but I'm not a sell out lol, I'd have to change so many names and places to protect the parties involved, it'd be like a Million Little Pieces. Trust me, I sat for years and years always wondering not just how to get published, but what would make sense and how I, as an author would have enough weight to sell the book. So, here I am now in this career field where people expect you to put a book out?!?!? Not me thinking and dreaming about it, but people asking me "when is your book coming out?"!!!!!?!????! I have to tell you, I feel like someone listened to my dream back then as a grade school kid, they just didn't tell me to relax and wait. So, I'm now content with working and waiting. I've actually always worked to make myself happy in the moment, but who knew as a kid that work could make you happy years later after the work is done? All these things I've done in life add up to now and it sounds simple, but really there are just some things you can't get to directly, it has to be presented to you due to your work and proximity to your dream, then you take the path towards it. Pretty cool. Finally, a military special to show my love to the people that raised me and a cookbook on the way to solidify a childhood dream. Unbelievable. If you do it right, or shall I say do it write :-), it'll all fall into place one day. Just trust it and realize that if it doesn't happen before you are done with your trip here, it's ok. The goal sometimes isn't the goal, the pursuit of happiness is and I'm on that trip every day. I think my thank you page will be a chapter in and of itself. Cannot wait for you to see the book! Heck, I can't wait to see it all printed and bound myself!! Ok ... has it been a year already cuz the ...

9. AC Food and Wine Festival is back!! My pool party on the deck aka "Sunset Sliders" is back as well!! Get tickets now, they sold out last year!! Click here for Sunset Sliders TICKETS. I'm also hosting Sweet & Stylish this year, I have the menus for both and will put them up here soon! Get the Sweet & Stylish TICKETS HERE. Actually catch all the details of where I'll be that weekend by checking my page on the website here Sunny Anderson at AC Food and Wine Festival. Also, if you want to see how it went down last year, just look at all my posts here Sunny Anderson at the 2010 AC Food and Wine Festival.

10. Finally, I'm headed to California soon, I was hoping to get to the Garlic Festival, but I'm in Atlantic City the same weekend as the funk fest in Gilroy, Cali. :-( I will be on the west coast soon though to chat about the special I taped for my All American Celebration.

Stick around!!! (excuse typos, I'll catch them during the day and fix em, working on a double dose of cold medicine to kill the cold before I start shooting NFNS After Party Friday. Ok, take care!!!