SoBe Wine and Food Festival: Best Thing I Ever Ate at the Beach ... ...

Hey there! Well, I got through my third SoBe Wine and Food Festival without a hangover or a tummy ache from all the good drinks and food. I have more pictures to share so let's go backwards ...

That's Dwyane Wade of the Heat visiting my booth at The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Beach party. I met him briefly last summer at an event in the Hamptons and he and his girlfriend Gabrielle Union said they watch Food Network all the time and like Cooking for Real too! Very nice! I hear athletes can burn up to 10,000 calories a day, so hopefully one of them is not just watching, but cooking, for real :-). I actually found my way in to the 1st game between the Heat and the Knicks since they signed Carmelo Anthony and last night headed out to watch the Knicks win it in the last minutes of the game ... I won two bets on that game, both with food pay offs, so I'm pretty excited! The night before before D. Wade stopped by my booth, I made the rounds myself and chatted with a few other participants ...That's Bethenny Frankel just a couple of booths away from her was the newest addition to The Cooking Channel, Debi Mazar ... She was there with her husband Gabrielle. I interviewed them on Valentine's Day when I was filling in on Martha Stewart's radio station at Sirius/XM so it was nice to meet them in person. It was really neat to see what people chose as the best thing they ever ate on the beach. Mine was a no brainer, If you are around here often, especially at the start of summer, you know how I like to kick off the season with a trip to Nathan's for a bacon cheddar hot dog at Coney Island in Brooklyn. So, I put on my pink "I heart NY" t-shirt and passed out a piece of boardwalk history ... I topped them both with chopped onions on a whim, but most of the night I served them the way I love em, bacon ad cheddar cheese sauce. I also left the option of people getting one plain with all the toppings lined up on the side. So chili, sauerkraut, relish and all the other usual condiments were on hand if people wanted to personalize their dog. I had so much fun meeting everyone that stopped by for a dog and a picture. The Nathan's team was pretty cool too. We all joked about how much 'hard' work it would be to hand out hot dogs on the beach in Miami vs. the current weather in Coney Island. Here we are before things got busy ...They were all so much fun to work with and they've invited me to come hang out on the 4th of July for the annual hot dog eating contest. As you know, I'm totally into the MLE scene and obviously Nathan's, so I can't wait!! During the set up of each station before the night began, Andrew Zimmern dropped by to have a dog then just as he was leaving we caught host of Mexican Made Easy, Marcella Valladolid and took a picture ...Her booth was just a few away from mine, so I had my bestie take a shot of it while I was slinging hot dogs ...The tent was filled with booths offering beach foods from all over the country and there were huge screens playing loops of The Best Thing I Ever Ate episodes. There were also these neat decorations with quotations from the show blown up large enought to read from a distance, but one in particular I had to get close to ...(click to enlarge)I don't remember saying it, but as soon as I read it, it sounded like something silly I'd say. It was pretty cool reading all the quotes, so I took another so you can enjoy as well ... Take a look at the tent before it got crowded ...

It's the same tent from the night before at the BubbleQ event. Stick around, I'll post those pictures up overnight. Until then, if you came to my booth that night, thanks so much for the smiles! Here's a video I found from Plum with some of the action at the event ... Everyone was so nice and people in line helped each other with each other's cameras, very nice crew of food people waiting on a Nathan's hot dog. Thanks for a great night!!

Ok, up next ... the Grand Tasting Village and my cooking demonstration, the BubbleQ and more ...

NYC Wine & Food Festival 2010; Demo Recipes!

Hi there! Yesterday was my cooking demonstration at Comix for the NYC Wine and Food Festival and I want to get down to business and share the recipes as requested, then some more sharing ...

Butterflied Cornish Hens with Sage Butter

Recipe courtesy Sunny Anderson, 2010

4 (1 3/4-pound) Cornish game hens, butterflied

1 stick butter, softened

5 to 7 sage leaves, finely chopped

1 lemon, zested

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil, for sauteing

4 strips bacon, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place hens on a sheet tray fitted with a cooling rack in the refrigerator to dry skin out for 1 hour. Meanwhile, in a small pan over medium heat, melt butter with sage, zest, salt and pepper. Remove hens from refrigerator. Preheat 2 large saute pans over medium heat, lightly coat with oil. Season hens with salt and pepper and sear, skin side down, in the pans (if you have a pan large enough to fit them both, by all means reduce the dishes you'll have to wash later and just use one pan!). Sear until skin caramelizes and turns golden brown and crispy, about 7 to 10 minutes. Flip birds over, and baste with sage butter. Sprinkle tops with chopped bacon and place in preheated oven to finish cooking, 25 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 4 servings

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Sunny's Holiday Parsnip Puree

Recipe courtesy Sunny Anderson, 2010

4 parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream, room temperature

1 pinch nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss parsnips, garlic and olive oil on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Roast until edges are golden and caramelized, about 30 minutes. If a check during roasting reveals the bottom of the parsnips are cooking faster than the top, give a toss and return the baking sheet to the oven.

When parsnips and garlic are roasted, pour into food processor with butter and 1/4 cup of the heavy cream and a pinch of nutmeg. Blend until smooth and if needed add a bit more heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Yield: 4 servings

Preparation Time: 35 minutes

Simple Sauteed Mustard Greens

Recipe courtesy Sunny Anderson, 2010

4 strips bacon, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 bunches mustard greens, stemmed and chopped

2 tablespoons stone ground mustard

1/2 cup chicken stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large pan with straight sides on medium heat add bacon and saute until crispy. Add onions and season with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Saute until onions are tender then add garlic and cook a minute more. Add mustard greens and saute while tossing to wilt. Once wilted add stone ground mustard, chicken stock and stir. Raise heat to simmer, then lower and cook for about 5 minutes more. Serve warm.

Yield: 4 servings

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

I sure hope these help you recreate some of the fun we had Saturday afternoon! My cooking demonstration was sandwiched between Tyler Florence and Andrew Zimmern. When I showed up Tyler was still on stage so I caught a quick peak ...

Can you tell that's him? I took that pic then headed to the engineer's booth to drop off my iPod. I decided somewhere during the week that I thought it would be nice to come out after my introduction to a little music. I am such a music person and often like to combine the two when it works, so I gave it a try. Here's the view from the sound booth in the back ...
The music intro turned out pretty nice because my choice, Empire State of Mind, was perfect for the occasion. Here we all were in NYC, the concrete jungle where dreams are made, enjoying a dream weekend for any food person. These festivals are so much fun and I'm not just saying that. I love a food experience! So there we all were yesterday just talking and having fun all while I cooked the menu above. I like to treat these 45 minutes like an extended episode of Cooking for Real, just no commercials and plenty of time to cook and tell stories! I never really have a true plan, other than to finish all of my recipes and have fun. I guess I'd say the hardest part about doing a cooking demonstration like that is choosing the recipes. Things I think about are seasonality, what techniques, methods and appliances I'd like to run through and if I can actually get it all done in the time given because I love to talk and I always worry I'll start telling a story and end up with 5 minutes left for a 45 minute process. Happily, the menu worked out I got to meet some really fun people along for the ride! The recipes are just in time for the weather change we are headed into and if you were there I hope you enjoyed our time together! Thanks again to everyone that made time to join me. If you aren't a parsnip lover like me, it's ok ... I understand, try my Garlic Mashed Potatoes. They're a great substitute!

Ok, then after I was done I headed for lunch at one of my favorite places in the city, Petit Abeille on Hudson Street. I ate a nice late lunch and walked back to Comix just in time to say hi to Andrew Zimmern before he headed to the stage for his cooking demonstration. He is such a nice guy and I love the activity on his website too. Can't wait for my website to relaunch soon! Here's Andrew making a replica of some street food he's had while on the road taping one of his shows ...

Those ribs look nice in the wok, huh? He cooked with chopsticks, goooooooo Andrew! Pretty cool to watch! Ok, stick around I had brunch at a crazy good place in Manhattan at the "Nexus of the Universe" (any Seinfeld fans?)

Please excuse any typos, I'm runnin' on chili cheese fries for fuel :-) ...

Carvin' out pumpkin/burger time

Hey there! Well, today was a full one. It started in midtown Manhattan with Aarti Sequeira, Anne Burrell, Claire Robinson, 8 pumpkins, 2 carving kits and 1 photographer. Confused? Well, it's a bit ahead of it's time, but we all four gathered to carve pumpkins for a feature in Food Network Magazine's Halloween 2011 issue, yes next year's October issue is already in the planning stages! I can't tell you or even show you what I, or anyone else did to their pumpkin, but they were all pretty different and unique. Here's an obstructed view of my pumpkin, not even completed ...

That's Aarti in the background working on another assignment for a future Food Network Magazine issue. Often times when many of us hosts are in town for something like this festival, other people utilize the fact that we'll be together to get work done. So, once she was done with carving pumpkins, Aarti also had another feature to finish for a future Food Network Magazine. If you are wondering why we did work this year for next year's Halloween issue, well it's pretty simple. Magazines are usually produced and planned 3 months in advance and 3 months before Halloween is the worst time to look for carving pumpkins. Pretty forward thinking and I was happy to be invited. If you are looking for some ideas this year, never worry! Because this month's issue has pumpkin carving ideas from many other Food Network hosts, which makes me wonder ... did they do theirs a year in advance as well? I guess so, eh? There were pumpkins left when we were done today so I took two with me for carving at home. Can't wait! It was good quiet creative time! Can't wait for you to see all of our creations ... next year :-).

After carving the pumpkins this morning, I headed off to run some errands before the Burger Bash. I called up my girl Lisa Evers and we hit Brooklyn ready for burgers, beers and shakes. It was sooooo crowded! Here we are with Bizarre Foods' Andrew Zimmern ...

I mentioned before Andrew and I met at an industry event in Chicago and since then we've done some interview stuff for his website and each time I see him he's such a joy. Really nice guy. We said our hellos and I headed out to search for Bobby Flay's burger and found it was still "Crunchified" with blue corn tortilla chips, jalapenos and a creamy cheese sauce over a juicy slider ...That's a tequila shake in the brown hand :-). Crazy! I actually wish I had a couple of them, I'm not a real tequila-only drinker. I like to mix it, but this was a very good combination. Very good. I headed over to another section of the Burger Bash tent and immediately ran into my buddy Spike, dressed up for the occasion ...Teeheehee, he is so funny! His burger (king) was a play on a Vietnamese Banh mi. He followed up the theme with his own shake, a Vietnamese Coffee Shake, pretty smart! His shake, again maybe I have a thing for shakes like cupcakes, but they just make me happy and his, well I couldn't slurp through the custom-cut straw fast enough! My starter shake is a Shake Shot, simple and easy ... what I'm all about! Give it a try if you have a frozen hard corner of vanilla ice cream somewhere and a shot of vodka :-).

Not long after having Spike's burger everyone headed to the stage area to hear the results of the competition ...
Oh, wait ... I didn't tell you? Well, burger bash is more than just a festival of eating, it's a competition. Each chef puts out their best burger and each is evaluated by a judge. Those scores are added to the amount of chips each chef gets deposited in a bank on top of their display table and those chips come from each attendee at the party. If you have a burger and like it, it gets your chip. Can you imagine being a judge and having to eat 24 or so sliders? That's heavy duty work. I had 2 of Bobby's and one of Spike's, that was enough to call it a night for my belly! Ahem, save for a pumpkin ale beer :-). After all the dust settled, it was neither of the guys with the top braggin' rights. Bobby Flay did win the People's Choice award and for the Heinz award of the night and the big overall trophy ... seems us ladies know how to make a burger right!!!Congrats to the team at The Shake Shack! (Ahem, I'm sure there were some guys that helped out, but it's the ladies holding the trophy, quick joke, not a stab at the whole team I'm sure it took to win Burger Bash). Although I didn't have one of the @ShakeShack sliders at Burger Bash, I've had a Shake Shack experience and I know the award is very well deserved! I mean people share tables and pack it in tight for a Shake Shack burger! It's so hard to get around to all the burgers at this event. Anyone that does it deserves a button, plate or a beer stein like the Volksmarches I did growing up.

Ok, that's it. I'm heading out to Comix tomorrow for a cooking demonstration at 130PM. If you have tickets I can't wait to hang out and Cook, for real :-). I have an easy menu perfect for this weather changing that's goin' on ... Take care and a special hello to blog reader and occassional comment maker, John. It was great running into you and thanks so much for taking time to say hi! What an event, eh? Ok, I'll see you out and about if you are in town for the NYC Wine & Food Festival!

P.S. Catch a NEW episode of Cooking for Real tomorrow, Saturday at 12noon eastern/11am central, hey Texas :-). I call it "Wonton Be Startin' Something" Hope you like it!!!

BTW and Didja Know ...

By the way ...

Hey there! Remember when I said here that I'm back in the studio and I had a cool visit from the crew at Airman Magazine? Well, they are putting together an article, but they also shot video I have below. Because they are from the same department I worked in while a broadcaster in the Air Force ... they have file footage of me at work back then so it's cut into this short video ... take a look at me at 20, ahem with my real hair and big glasses! :-)

Who knew back then that video would all be archived?? I had a good laugh watching it! I should've worn makeup or something, which btw, I used to get in trouble for the color of my nail polish in the military, too funny. I get more of a kick looking at the old equipment, boy has technology really changed the face of broadcasting and journalism. Those days we checked and double checked sources, these days some journalists are so lazy, they'll take a tweet and use it as a quote to make a full story. Crazy, but also I guess the natural progression with the changing times, eh?

And Didja Know ...

Remember when I was at the "up fronts"? I mentioned it briefly in an unrelated post, then forgot to share, or didn't have time to share a picture of someone I met there ...

Yep, on the other side of me is Andrew Zimmern! The guy between us works with us in the Chicago office and if you didn't know, Travel Channel and Food Network are owned by the same company now, so it was neat meeting a few of the other people at the Travel Channel that day. Andrew was really cool and about to head out on another eating adventure. He asked if I would do a mini Q&A for his blog and I said suuuuuure! It's on his blog now, just click the link to Sunny Anderson on AndrewZimmern.com and read away!

Annnnnd ...

The best is saved for last ... I just got word yesterday that I'm booked for an appearance on The View!!!! Tuesday!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!! I met Sherri Shepherd last year in New Orleans and blogged about it in my post called Essence Festival Wrap Up. I of course was thinking at the time, boy would I like to cook on The View and feed the ladies and now it's about to happen! My segment is with Sherri and I don't want to give away what we are making, but I am just too excited! Please plan to catch it or Tivo or DVR! More details as they come!