New Cooking for Real Saturday!! Quick and Easy!

Hey there! There's a new Cooking for Real on the way, but really quick let me show you what's in the pipeline and do a lil backspin to the AC Food and Wine festival! Yup, it's been weeks but it's still on my brain because I thought I took more pics but couldn't find them, until I remembered they were in my other phone :-) ..That's DJ Sonatra, he has killed my Sunset Sliders party two years in a row, and I mean the good kinda kill :-). Then I went from one great crowd motivator at the pool to the next ...
That's DJ Ed Smooth. He had the crowd dancing on the stage after the fashion show at Sweet &n Stylish. And he did it all with just music, no hyping on the mic, nothing crazy, just killed it!!! Again, the good kill :-).

Here I am at the step-and-repeat at my Sunset Sliders party. The funny thing is it just sat there most of the party because I was walking around saying hi and taking pics, then I said to myself "hmm, maybe people want a pic of me against the step and repeat?" So, I walked over to it, and I got my repeat-on :-). Soon after a line formed and people with candids, also walked off with pics that looked a bit more official...
Then, the next morning there was a lunch I went to for some clients that do business with Food Network. Breakfast and drinks were served, but the best part was meeting an un-crowned sandwich king aka Jeff Mauro. He's now the winner of the latest Food Network Star and his show starts this Sunday at 1130am!! Tune in, he is HILARIOUS!! I couldn't stop giggling and he was only on the microphone for like 5 minutes. I also saw some clips of his show while I was at the network for meetings this week ... looks real cool. Not just in the studio stuff! Here he is striking a pose...
Really happy for him, met his wife too, she's a sweetie! Yaaaay!! Jeff Mauro the Sandwich King!!! Also around for the weekend were other contestants from the show, this is my fave to pick on ...
It's Chris and he's a handful!! I pick on him cuz I love him, as you could see from the judges on the show, there is a quality about him that makes you wanna get him in line like a little kid, but to me it's part of his charm. Wish him much success! Ok, then some friends I met right here on the blog came out for all the fun ...
That's Jen on my left and her girl with the red hair (totally forget your name!! but I know you will remind me in comments :-) ) and the 3 ladies on my right, I just met that night! We took this pic at Guy's Cheesesteak battle. Check out my favorite one from the purveyors...
It was meaty, it was spicy, it was juicy, it was cheesey and I was tipsy. lol. So, I can't remember where I got it from. Very upset cuz I have a Philly visit on the way and would totally revisit this place. I hope to learn in comments from someone reminding me the name of the place lol. Can you tell I had plenty of wine? Actually there was a drink infused with jalapenos at that event and I had a few. Ok ... back to the biz at hand ... a new Cooking for Real is on tomorrow morning (unless you are reading this late and it's today, Saturday. Orrrrr, you are reading it really late and you missed it, in that case it reruns this Monday at 3pm) :-) Ok ...

I call it Quick and Easy and it is truly just that. Everything on the menu has minimal ingredients and prep, starting with my Baked Zucchini. Just zucchini, an herb, some bread crumbs, a spice, cheese, olive oil, salt n pepa :-). Then on the other side of the plate is my Grilled Sweet Potato Wedges with Maple Butter. Seriously, this one is all about the compound butter. It's great on pancakes, biscuits, to saute fruit for ice cream. If you don't have allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg or both work. Seriously good and easy. For the main, my favorite thing to do to grapefruit, the once diet fruit of my youth ... meaning my mom was on the diet and I had to figure out how to make it work for me as a snack. I always start with brown sugar :-). I kept it savory this time and marinated some chicken then grilled it for my Grapefruit Grilled Chicken. It's the pic from the top of the post :-). The marinating part is the longest, the chicken grills up in 2-3 minutes on each side. See, quick and easy :-). Then I wash it all down with a drink we had at this year's AC Food &Wine Festival, my Bourbon Cider Twist. People ask all the time how I come up with things, for the drink. Well, I took a swig of the bourbon and it burned lol. That started the party, but I decided I'd like to sip it. So I added some apple cider from the fridge door. It was a bit sweet, so I added a twist of lime. Quick and easy ... truly what I do at home. I cook and drink, for real :-). So tune in tomorrow morning!!

Cooking for Real!!! Season 10 @ 10am!!! Food Network!! Quick and Easy!! Tell a friend. Turn the TV to Food Network before you go to sleep so you can wake up with food :-). Ok, I leave you with a sign of things to come from my test kitchen ....Those are my Banana Beer Fritters, someone on twitter suggested I call them Drunken Monkey Fritters ... I kinda like it, but I'm a sucker for alliteration and I like the word "beer" so .... Then I made a Zucchini and Roasted Tomatillo Soup.
It was great hot and now on the 5th day in the fridge, it still tastes great and passes the "slurp test". Really hard to do when fat is involved, has to be just enough to roast, but not so much that a could soup will tighten, you know? So anyway, it passes the test and will hopefully make it on a future show!! If you are new to the blog, look around at some of the food pics, they start here and you see them eventually on the show :-).

Ok, don't forget ... new Cooking for Real Saturday mornin' 10am Food Network!

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