Slo Mo Slide Sho - Buh-Bye!

"UHHHHHH Buh Bye!" Remember that from Saturday Night Live back in the day?
Well, I end on the dish I had more times this year than in my entire life ... lasagna. I initially entered recipe testing wanting to do my vegetable lasagna, but we all discussed it and thought it would be great to start my collection of recipes (teeheehee, it sounded so official when we discussed it, very neat) with a meat lasagna. First go classic, then get drastic. I just made that up :-). Here it is disassembled. I still kept true to the original idea and went heavy on the veggies (bottom left), but went heavy on the meat (top bowl). The other bowls are what make this unique ... I really try to bring influences from my travels and this is a very good example. Hope you like the twist in the recipe when it airs. And although I love it, hope I don't have lasagna for a long time, I really think I had it like 6 times this year ... way too much don'tcha think? Or am I crazy?

Here's the finished product ...



That's it! Hope you enjoyed my 2nd Slo Mo Slide Sho if you caught it in real time! Happy Holidays!

Slo Mo Slide Sho - Blue Ribbon Award ...

This is a flick I had to take. Bob is one of the chefs in the Food Network kitchen, in addition to his always cheery disposition, the MAN CAN COOK! He's cradling something I can only describe as pure bliss in a dish. Imagine a very good ham and cheese sandwich, the bread being the perfect thickness and airy without being flimsy and substantial without being too sense. The ham not too salty and the perfect thickness. The cheese - sharp and cheesy. Then imagine that being dunked into a herby flavorful custard and then baked until the custard turns the bottom half into a pudding with texture and the top remains crunchy as if you toasted the bread ... really honestly I can't even tell you how good it was. I was actually mad I'd been eating my test recipes and didn't have room to eat the whole dish. Like, really, I already know what my food tastes like, why didn't I save room for Bob's? Well, so you know, this may be in a cookbook soon and if it makes it, I will be sure to tell you where to get the recipe. Until then, all I have is this pic ... :-(

Slo Mo Slide Sho - Two Sweets

This is a sweet dessert that began as a diet ... go figure. I'd tell you what it is, but you wouldn't believe me ... the tasting team liked it ... hope you do as well when the show airs. I stuck my finger in mine to mark it ... very childish, I know. 

Then, while I was developing recipes for my shows, Anne Burrell was in the kitchens promoting hers. I think it was for Extra!, here she is with the crew setting up ...

And sweet chick that she is, she stopped for a quick flick. Ever wonder where she gets all her skirts? Some of them are custom made by a stylist at Food Network!

Slo Mo Slide Sho - Sho and Tell

What is this???
Really, what is it? I didn't get a chance to look inside, it was taken away from me before I could slice it! Imagine collecting coins and someone walks in with a rare one, it had to go on a pony show around the kitchen and I got so busy I never found out it's origin or if it was a fluke of nature.

Last time I was in the Food Network kitchens, I brought in an unknown food item from my local neighborhood market. You can read about that interesting and possibly deadly ingredient here.

Slo Mo Slide Sho - Something's Fishy Here ...

Ever wanna take a trip back in time to a meal you had growing up?? Well, whenever my mom decided to take the night off from cooking (not often), she'd shove some frozen fishsticks in the oven and put a box of mac n cheese on. Boy, did that taste like heaven then. On a future show I revisit the meal and bring it up a few years, but trust ... if I ever get hungry for it, I won't need no steenking upgrade on the recipe, I'll just visit the freezer section and then go looking for a blue box. :-) Here's something that turned out wheely yummy.

And here's the fish, or is it chicken we have here?? Teeheehee ... remember poor Miss Simpson thinking "chicken of the sea" was chicken?

Anyway, this is also a pretty quick meal and very comforting ... plus there is something about baking anything that I love. The waiting, the free time while it's cooking ... baking is where it's at, especially when mac n cheese is involved.

Slo Mo Slide Sho - BBBQ

Bacon and BBQ sauce, sounds good to me! This is an old standby. I make this plenty during the summer.

This is basically bacon wrapped around shrimp with a homemade bbq sauce. The bbq sauce I usually use is now on some wings in a future show that should air around the big football gameday. For this, I had to come up with a new bbq sauce recipe and really, now I think I like the new recipe more than the house sauce I've made for years. When these both air, maybe I'll ask you for a tie-breaker vote. In the distance are grilled plums piled up and pineapples that go into the grilled fruit salad, with a crazy good dressing.

Slo Mo Slide Sho - All Palates On Deck

Speaking of the tasting team, here they are ...

In addition to the entire kitchen staff and the occasional executive that walks through while I'm cooking, each time I go in to test my recipes, I want as many people to try the food as possible. Then there are people that work directly with me on the show that are constant tasters when I'm in the kitchen. Here's our current team. That's Allison on the left, she's an intern and a vegetarian, so many of the recipes she couldn't taste. I kept telling her how I had some vegetarian stuff on the way, then the day we were gonna do my vegetarian lasagna ... it turned into a meaty lasagna for show purposes and I felt like I let her down teeheeehee. She's in culinary school and I asked her how she does the protein courses without eating the meat and she says her friends in school let her know if it's good ... where there's a will there's a way! Next is Jenna, she works with me on the show and assists my culinary producer, Sarah - she's the next one in line, then there's Santos, who I've dubbed the Culinary Gangsta of All Things Cuisine. Together we all taste my recipes and they give comments and notes. Most of the time when they watch me cook, we are able to shorten processes or make shortcuts and sometimes we even come up with new stuff on the spot. Many times when a recipe is finished and we taste it and it tastes perfect, we look at each other like ... "hmph, guess that's that!" lol ... Usually then we just talk about the salt content. More? Less?

Here's an example of us working/playing at the same time. This is really a part of an actual dessert, trust me. I know it looks crazy, but only 1 item belongs, then everyone came in and put in their own symbol ... I didn't do the sun, that was Jenna :-). This is a great dessert in the making, hope you catch the show and remember it's humble beginnings.

Slo Mo Slide Sho - A Flan By Any Other Name ...

When I wrote recipes for the upcoming shows, it was just about to dip into autumn weather, so I was thinking about comfort food and fattening stuff. This is obviously a flan, but it began as a flan with very autumn flavors, once I was told that these shows will air towards springtime, I made a few changes and voila! Something tasty happened ... here it is about to go into the oven ...

Pardon the parchment and stuff, but in the rush of recipe testing, all we wanted to do was taste, not plate. This was quite yummy and I can't wait to share the recipe with you soon!

Slo Mo Slide Sho - Let's Get It Started!

We'll start where many great meals start ... the mirapoix and the protein! This is the beginnings of a classic French dish. When I tape the next 13 episodes, I'll have friends join me on a few shows and this is one of the recipes I'll make for one of these visits. It all started when I missed a call, then checked the voicemail a few days later only to find my friend called for ingredient assistance for this dish while they were in the grocery store. I get these calls plenty and felt really bad that I missed it. So, when we discussed bringing friends on for a few shows, this was a natural pick. My way of saying sorry for missing the call and at the same time, now I'm sure my buddy will never need the ingredients for this recipe. :-) Here it is post-marinade ...

And now after a little sear action ...

2nd Slo Mo Slide Sho ...

Hey there, the second Slo Mo Slide Sho begins tomorrow morning at 9AM, Hope you enjoy it. The flicks are from my last stint in the Food Network kitchens that just ended last week. There's some food flicks, a Food Network chef makes an appearance and I give you some behind the scenes info on the new episodes and how the recipes were developed for them. Enjoy and I hope everyone enjoyed their time off for the holidays, I sure did :-).

Remember, tomorrow morning at 9AM and then every 30 minutes after that, until 130PM. Enjoy!

Slo Mo Slide Sho - "Is It Done Yet?"

Welcome to my first ever Slo Mo Slide Show! Today I threw up flicks from my time in the Food Network kitchens this week. This is the last flick, but I have more and should post them up soon, you can scroll down for one's you may have missed. If you did this in real time, hope it was fun!

#6. Is It Done Yet?

That's one of the questions we ask and answer all day in the kitchen. One of the main goals is to get realistic cook times for the recipes before we post them online. If you are planning a meal, it helps to know how long it really takes. We have an official time keeper and we constantly check things, but this flick is when it's done. I usually do the spot check with the light in the oven.

It's the base of a sticky chocolate bar that gets a sticky crunchy top. I got the idea from freezing my favorite candy bars. I think this is great room temp, but I can't wait to get the recipe perfect so I can freeze it and crunch away. Looks like one more ingredient can take this where it needs to go, so it's back on the list for the next day. For now, the bottom is dunked in morning coffee and the top is frozen and cracked over ice cream!

Slo Mo Slide Sho - "Slice of Bite"

Welcome to my first ever Slo Mo Slide Show! On the way today are flicks from my time in the Food Network kitchens this week. Check in every other hour today for a new flick and you can scroll down for one's you may have missed.

#5. Slice of Bite

Well, here is an admittedly too close-up flick to tell what it is, but this is the result of the previous post.

Really the key was throwing in one final ingredient that just brought it all together. We still don't have a title for it. We all went home with that to brainstorm away, only a few chats about it today. I think I'll have a title by tomorrow that correctly identifies the flavors and intent of the recipe.

Slo Mo Slide Sho - "Sum of All Parts"

Welcome to my first ever Slo Mo Slide Show! On the way today are flicks from my time in the Food Network kitchens this week. Check in every other hour today for a new flick and you can scroll down for one's you may have missed.

#4. Sum of All Parts

Here are all the ingredients for a recipe I came up with on the fly. We were busy making what we wanted to be a side for another dish. Then we played with different proteins and when I took a fresh look at everything, I thought to suggest the new recipe. I explained it, made it and we tasted it. Turns out it's in the show now! I love recipes like this, ones that aren't deliberate. You are just cooking along and then !!BANG!! a new dish surfaces.
That's chorizo, salami, some roasted veggies in a yummy glaze, cheese and a green mystery :-) sauce. I brought some home and it disappeared in 2 seconds. I can't wait to share it. Speaking of, I'll post air dates of new episodes soon. The teeny paring knife in the flick is the newest addition to my cooking family. I used to treat my 10-inch wide like a paring knife and at length, de-stem tomatoes, remove the cores from bell peppers and such, but really ... it isn't the safest. So, I've finally reformed to the proper tool.

Slo Mo Slide Sho - "Portion Control"

Welcome to my first ever Slo Mo Slide Show! On the way today are flicks from my time in the Food Network kitchens this week. Check in every other hour today for a new flick and you can scroll down for one's you may have missed.

#3. Portion Control

Ever wonder how we come up with how many servings a recipe makes? Well, this is a good example.

This is the filling for a recipe that as you can see, makes more than just a few servings. See if you can count how many. This isn't the total amount, though. When you have several shows to cook through, after cooking off a few for taste, now all we wanted to know was ... how many does it make? Then we can move on to the next recipe and cook off the rest later. It was a funny moment though when we did it this time because the final product was so yummy, we all dug in. Then after we all tasted it and made final notes on cooking time, we went around quizzing each other as to how many we ate so we could get a final count. It was funny because we all were counting aloud and going back and forth from the pan number to the number we thought we ate. A total "Who's On First?" feeling. This is in a show I dedicate to finger foods. The recipes are great for movie night in or friends over for dinner or cards or something. Hope you like it when it airs.

SLo Mo Slide Sho - "5 Thumbs Up!"

Welcome to my first ever Slo Mo Slide Show! On the way today are flicks from my time in the Food Network kitchens this week. Check in every other hour today for a new flick and you can scroll down for one's you may have missed.


#2. 5 Thumbs Up!

Hey hey hey!!!! Lookie heeeeere!!!!

Yup, the gravy made it into the episode! I just put myself in the pan's position and fought for the proper use of the bits leftover after all that saute action and it breezed through! Helps that it really got the thumbs up on taste from the whole team. So you are familiar because someone asked in the comments, the team not only gets to eat the test food, but I neeeed them to. They've tasted the good, the bad and the ugly and speak with honesty. Who better to get an opinion from before I give it up to the official show menu! There's my culinary producer (sarah), culinary prod. assistant and cool chick (jenna), the culinary gangsta of all things cuisine (santos), and our intern this time around is Alison. We all hang out in the kitchen, work my recipes and get work done with a smile. It is such a great work environment. Just today I met Sandra Lee in the kitchens, she was there shooting a news piece and came over to say hi between takes. She is such a sweetie and said she watches Cooking for Real and has wanted to meet me since she saw it! I told her how bad I felt when I had recipes with a store-bought element and the rest homemade, like I don't wanna step on toes and make anyone think I'm trying to be anyone else, I'm just doing what I do. Anyway, she was so sweet, she said to not worry and do whatever I feel, it isn't about her it's about the viewers. How sweet is that? She just has some real warmth to her, that's why she goes there for the viewers. I totally love the fun she has with her show, the costumes for holidays, cooking on outdoor set at events for her show, she just really brings it home for the viewer, imho. Didn't get a flick, I was too happy and it was too brief before she got called back to work.

SLo Mo Slide Sho - "Diggin' In"

Welcome to my first ever Slo Mo Slide Show! On the way today are flicks from my time in the Food Network kitchens this week. Check in every other hour today for a new flick!

#1. Diggin' In

Monday started with a recipe I just finished writing. I had this meal growing up and just recently it came up twice within the same week during conversations with friends. It's my version of Shepherd's Pie, I add cheese a different blend of seasonings and then a red wine gravy to boot! It's the latter that I didn't know would work. Well, it works for me, but sometimes things can't fit in time wise and many times parts of recipes get saved for other recipes. Thanks to a few comments here and smiles and silence from my dude when I served it, I went in rooting for the gravy to stay with the recipe. So this is the first scoop of the teeny test batch each of us on the culinary team had to try and give the verdict.


ooooooooooohh, Santos got the corner, no worries there are three left :-). Stick around and find out if the dark, rich gravy makes the plate.

Slo Mo Slide Sho ...

Ok, so I had an idea last night ...After checking a website I like to go to for news last night, then checking it again a few minutes later only to see no new news lol, I thought this would be neat. Give ya something new if maybe you are at work and boredom sets in and all you can do is search sites you already went to. Ever do that? Check a website a few times a day and never see a change and wish you had something to fill you brain? I thought it would be neat to post up flicks from this week in the kitchen, only in intervals. It's my first ever "Slo Mo Slide Sho" ... Starting tomorrow at 9 a.m. and every other hour after that until 7 p.m., I'll throw up a flick and a little teeny bite about what was going on this week in the kitchen. Just for note, the times are 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., hope you like it!

Let's unofficially kick it off with a flick from last week. I visited Ed Lover and his team to give tips on holiday meal planning for first timers and tips for working it out on a budget. As usual we had fun. It was just two days after the election and celebrations were still in order. So, along with the Roasted Turkey Breast with Peach Rosemary Glaze and Holiday Apple Walnut Salad, I prepared a Barack-atini. The drink was so cute and I didn't even take a picture of it. I served it in a champagne glass and in the bottom there were frozen blueberries for the Democratic party and red sparkling wine poured over them to represent the Republican party and his want for a bi-partisan administration. Before pouring the wine over the berries I drizzled a teeny bit of honey, because it was produced in Hawaii, where part of his family is from. It was yummy and a nice way to toast the great feeling we all had due to the outcome of the election. Anyway, we had fun drinking the Barackatinis and actually it's a misnomer, I wanted to call them something more like a belini and throw in one more ingredient, but I couldn't get over how much Barack-elini sounded like Broccolini teeheehee ... ahhh anyway, here's the pic of the plates all lined up before I went into the studio to hang out and spread some smiles and info. Special thanks to Kersti Bowser and her team!
Hope you enjoy the Slo Mo Slide Sho tomorrow :-)