Bon Bons and a Kitchen Boogie!

Hey there! A week can really breeze by, huh? I started my week with a trip home from Foxwoods where I hosted the Bon Bon Boogie Bash at the 4th Annual Foxwoods Food and Wine Festival. Here I am with my "Bon Bon" for the night ...That's my Molten Chocolate Cinnamon Pots topped with a scoop of my Butter Pecan Buttermilk Ice Cream with Butter Sauteed Bananas. Lots of butter in the latter part recipe description because it's what I made for Paula Deen on one of her future shows! I blogged about visiting her set in "Just got back from Savannah!" and can't wait to see the episode when it airs.

Want a little background on why that was my "bon bon" for the night? Well, up to just a few weeks before the festival myself, Anne and Alex were to host a gala dinner together with each of us handling a course. It was cancelled for some reason so, to fix things they put us at the bowling party together. Then, so I could still do something with food, I ended up hosting the then host-less Bon Bon Boogie Bash. The event planners decided the same recipe I was going to present at the dinner would work as a dessert for the new event, just in a smaller version. I was all ready to send over some new options, but when they gave me the solution, I thought why not? Other things at the event were very loosely bon bons, so I didn't feel too crazy for such a big serving! Take a look ...Popcorn!! Reminds me of those biiiiig canisters of popcorn you see around the holidays. And check out these cuties ...Those little egg-cups are filled with Creamy Ginger Polenta, Pumpkin Gelee & Candied Chestnut.

Thanks to everyone that came out to the festival and the party! I had so much fun!

Then, I went home to boogie in my kitchen and do some Cooking, for real :-). I recently shared the great news about being picked up for season 9 of Cooking for Real. Well, I tape the new episodes in January 2011! What a way to start off the year and that also means the end of my year is all in preparation for the next 13 shows. Actually I plan 15 and pitch 15, then they choose the 13 they like the most. The decision is usually based on seasonality and variety. I write the recipes, then theme the shows, title them and even write the show introductions. Here's something I made last night to add to an episode I'm planning ... It's a stuffing I thought up when I saw that the green plantains I bought a week or so ago were now black :-). From hard and starchy to soft and sweet, my kind of transformation! I was already making some pork chops so in the blink of an eye, I decided to stuff em and work the plantains into the game plan. I sauteed the plantains after the veggies then tossed them together for a really nice stuffing. I always save the specifics for the show, but it was sweet, spicy and savory. I stuffed it into 2-inch thick chops I pre-seared and split, then wrapped them in bacon to keep the stuffing in. It was really a huuuuuge portion. I think I'm going to call the episode "Bigger is Better". Hope it makes the cut, the final dish was so tasty my guy and I barely talked much at dinner. Can't wait to share the recipe with you!! Speaking of, Holly is still Cooking for Real over at her blog RandomCravingsBlog.com. Check out how her Cooking for Real @ home is turning out! Btw, if you are Cooking for Real @ home and have pics, let me know in comments! I'd love to see them!

Ok, hope you've had as swift a week as I have! One day until the weekend. Hey, did you hear Conan O'Brien may start working at Food Network one day???
Teeheehee, I am so happy Coco is back! I was actually down to watching a web feed of the stairwell at his office building in the weeks leading up to his debut. The stairwell show was actually funny, but the real show is obviously better! Glad it's back! Ok, enjoy your Thursday, if that's when you catch this :-).

Foxwoods Food & Wine Festival 2010: Celebrity Bowling Bash

Hey there! Hope you are enjoying the weekend if that's when you catch this :-). I took a ride out to Connecticut yesterday from my home base in Brooklyn so I could hang out at the Foxwoods Food & Wine Festival. I remember my first time here back in 2005 was on a near perfect date--minus the guy lol (isn't it horrible to say that? but I can't be alone, the person that goes on a date and thinks about how much more fun it would be with someone else. Coincidentally, the someone else I was thinking of ended up not being so great in the end so ... tmi, huh?). Ok, so then my second time here was my first ever food and wine festival as a Food Network host. I blogged about the experience in "I survived my 1st Food & Wine Festival!". So now on my third visit, I think I'm finally getting the full complex covered. It's huge here and really hard to see everything in just a day or two.

Last night was the Celebrity Bowling event here within the complex and the last time I was here, I don't remember there being a bowling alley. I asked about it and turns out it is brand spanking new and was broken in by Kim Kardashian and her heels, she kept them on even while bowling they said. Cute, but my feet can only handle heels for a cumulative of about 8 hours a week lol. So I got my size 9.5 bowling shoes and went to work on some gutter balls. I'm not saying it to be cute, look at our final scores ...I love how the graphic conveniently covers up all of my zeroes lol. My gutter balls were like the O's in Warren Buffet's bank account ... they kept going and going and going. That's until a guy on the team in the lane next to us offered some help. I used it and began actually hitting something. Midway through the game I looked over to ask him his name and noticed the screen said "Jesus". Teeheehee, Jesus taught me to bowl. Sounds like a t-shirt. He and his girlfriend and another couple hung out with us all night. Here's Alex Guarnaschelli on another one of her day's off :-), finishing her last frame -- one foot in her heels and the other foot out of the bowling shoe, but not yet back at home in the matching heel ...I had to get that photo because Alex actually had a great last frame, but missed most of the game because she was being interviewed. It was a loose game and anytime someone was missing in action, we brought in a pinch-bowler ...Joey Fatone!!! Woooohoo!!! Did I just bury the lead? Teeheehee, well he was super nice and a GREAT bowler, I half wished I'd been MIA during the beginning of the game so he could give me some of his pin-action. He's here at Foxwoods hosting a casino version of Let's Make a Deal. I always thought he was one of the better dancers in 'Nsync, so it only made sense that his footwork and coordination were both on point to make some great frames.

Ok, that's it for last night! I did an interview with FollowCb.com before I started throwing gutters and he already has it up! It's called "The Extremely Sunny Anderson". Then I also spoke with Track Gals TV from Boston. So plenty of clickin' around if you want to read up on their coverage of the festival.

Tonight, I'm headed to host the Bon Bon Boogie Bash. They had me at Bon Bon and sealed the deal with a Boogie. :-).

Hope you liked the new Cooking for Real: After School Special today, if you missed it, reruns! Monday at 4PM eastern!