Food TV

Over the last week I have finished my present shopping for the Little Dude, and made a big, important discovery in the world of food. If you think it’s cheaper to buy a prime rib raw and cook it yourself, than to buy one of those pre-made meal thingies… you are WRONG!!! While doing said Santa Shopping, I wandered over to the meat department to price the prime rib. First thing I noticed? Nothing, and I mean NOTHING in the meat department is labeled “prime rib”. What I did find, though, was a “standing rib roast” which is the same thing … I think… At $5.68/lb, I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. There are only 5 of us, and one is a toddler, I’ll get about 5 or 6 lbs and be done with it. $30-40 … HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA Yeah… The smallest one ran at about 10.5 lbs and was priced at about $62. All of them were over 10 lbs and ran in the $60 range. I don’t know about you friends, but I don’t have $60 to spend on one hunk of meat. No matter how tasty it is… (mmmm … prime riiiibbb….)

My point is, today was going to be a post on how I was planning on preparing and cooking a beautiful Christmas Prime Rib for my family. In truth, I have no idea what we are going to eat tomorrow. My folks are out shopping right now for the components of a beautiful meal. That meal will probably be Ham. Ham is good, ham is cheap, ham says “holiday meal”. So, the planning of this holiday meal was a complete carastrophe, as opposed to the streamlined feel of Thanksgiving this year. It’s not my first bout with Christmas Chaos, and it won’t be my last, but now I want to know about yours. Tell me about your holiday plans that just “didn’t go quite right…”

Now, why don’t you go check out what’s going on with my favorite new TV show, Pushing Daisies?

Well, I suppose by now you know that I am a fan of Duff, and the guys over there at Charm City Cakes. But I think I like them even more now, due to their holiday show. There are so many celebrities and reality shows that completely ignore the holidays, and the opportunity to give. But not the Charm City crew. This year they did a wonderful thing for the Ronald McDonald House. Not only did they make and deliver a wonderful holiday cake with a “presents” theme, they also got in touch with the folks over at Mattel toys and provided the kids with a veritable boatload of toys and games!!! Beyond that, Duff and Mary Alice actually went and delivered the cake, and toys, cut the cake (which Duff is not prone to doing…) and stayed and partied with them for awhile. They talked with the kids and generally helped make one of their days better.

Good for you Charm City Cakes…

In light of this, rather than some food knowledge, I’m going to share with you some information on the Ronald McDonald House. Here is their history according to their own website.

Ronald McDonald House Charities was founded in 1984, a decade after Dr. Audrey Evans and Philadelphia Eagles’ tight end Fred Hill, whose daughter had leukemia, opened the first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia. In memory of McDonald’s founder and children’s advocate, Ray Kroc, RMHC was established to help seriously ill children and their families and to continue the success of the first Ronald McDonald House.

Because of the Ronald McDonald House program’s success, RMHC started Ronald McDonald Family Room in 1992 and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile in 2000. The three programs are the core of the RMHC mission to improve the health and well being of children. Our commitment to children and families everywhere and our global network of local Chapters have helped RMHC become one of the most expansive not-for-profit organizations in the world.

We’ve been accomplishing our mission for more than two decades.

They hold a special place in my heart, as a few years ago I had a niece born severely premature, and had to be hopsitalized in a city quite a distance from here home. Thanks to the folks at RMHC my brother and his wife and their other two kids had a place to stay and meals to eat while they were waiting to see if my niece would survive. Because of them that little girl was able to be visited by her parents every single day in the hopsital. I think that is a large part of her survival, and blossoming health today. And it wouldn’t have been possible without Ronald McDonald House Charities. So, thanks Duff, and thanks to all your crew for giving those kids, and their families a happy holiday.

“With the frigid weather that is currently gripping our country”, I thought to myself, “what recipes should I put up that would make everyone feel better?” I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite comfort foods in life is a creamy bowl of Broccoli Cheese soup, and a grilled cheese sandwich. It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy all the way through. Even if I have had a horrid day, sitting down with this particular combination makes everything feel better. There are rules though. No canned soups!!! Even if I don’t feel like cooking I’ll make a special trip to, (for example) Quizno’s or something, because their Broccoli Cheddar Soup is awesome. But nothing is better than homemade, right? And the sandwich, well that recipe will be my own. While most of the recipes I give you are direct from the food network, I have a grilled cheese sandwich recipe that I think beats all the others, hands down…

First thing’s first though. The recipe that I have for Broccoli Cheese Soup comes to us courtesy of Emeril. I am a pretty big Emeril fan, although most of his recipes look far too fussy and “fancy” for me. This one, though, caught my eye as being really easy and tasty. I would probably replace some of the onions in the recipe with carrots. I love carrots in my broccoli soups. And the rest of the onions would probably be finely minced. I am not a huge fan of pieces of onion in stuff… I know, who am I to talk about fussy, right?

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I realize that I have been a very naughty blogger. I have every intention of blogging something every single day, and then, BAM, blog-block. I now have a cure for blog-block, and I am going to share it with you. Planning. Simple, I know, but there it is. I have decided to plan what I am going to be blogging daily. Not the specific blogs, but I have come to the decision to have a specific theme for each day. If I happen to see something that strikes my interest that doesn’t really fit one of my themes, then hey, BONUS. Otherwise, you will see a post on at least five of these each week. OK, are you ready? To see my ingenious daily schedule of blogs? Really? OK, here they are…

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This is one of my favorite Secret Life Of’s. Being a pagan, people often wonder why I celebrate Christmas, and not Yule. The fact is, to me they are one and the same. Many of the food and the traditions come from the celebration, known by the Scandanavians as Yule. And this show starts of right away by talking about that. The Yule log, specifically, is something that I make every year. A small one, of course, that I may spend hours decorating, just to burn it. But these days, I would much rather make a Buche De Noel.

One of my favorite parts of this show is seeing host Jim O’Connor deal with “Jean the French Chef”. Heehee, he hasn’t had much experience in a real kitchen it seems. The Chef says, “You are lucky you don’t work with me!” And “What part of boiling don’t you understand?” I am therefore surprised to see such a high maintenance chef making the log in such an amateur way. making a sort of half-log in a weird lasagna style with a PVC pipe. Between this and Iron Chef America’s sad square Buche, I am wondering what ever happened to the art of rolling a cake. If I can do it, any of these guys can. Geez.

Next he goes to an authentic Medieval Christmas Feast. Where they serve Roast Pig and Beef Stew, and monay other things that look yummy, if all about the same shades of brown. He looked more than shocked when presented with the Boar’s Head at the end of the meal. After that it’s off to save the reputation of the dread fruitcake. Now I am one of the few people in the world that is a fan of fruitcake. That is, well made fruitcake. There is nothing better to me than a spice cake basis with nuts and dried fruit. mmmm…. And he was able to find someone to help him make just that.

This show is wonderful teaching not only the ancient pre-Christian holiday foods, but the Christian ones as well. The again who didn’t know that Candy Canes were created by a monk the keep the kids in the choir appeased? What’s that? You didn’t… oops… The secret life of Christmas covers way too much for me to go over here, so I suggest that you watch it yourself! It is a wonderful way of learning the history of one of the most celebrated holidays in the world. Education and food, in the same show! Who can ask for more?

In my house Christmas has always meant one thing. Cookies. Cookies of every shape and size and flavor. Plain sugar cookies, decorated sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookies … We love cookies!!! That is why I’m so excited to be getting the Food Network’s 12 days of cookies newsletter. Finally a chance to expand my cookies to things that I’ve never tried before. As you may remember I was disappointed with the All Star Holiday Christmas Cookie Special that was recently aired on FN, but I am not disappointed in the wide variety of cookies available from this newsletter. I am looking forward to trying a whole bunch of them. There is a recipe from years past for Mexican Wedding Cookies, which my mom LOVES, and we have never seen a recipe for. And some fabulous looking Chocolate Cheesecake Candy Cane Bars. Which, strictly speaking, are not cookies, but are super yummy nonetheless!!!
But the ones that we are most looking forward to trying are these “S’more Rockin Reindeer Ravioli”

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You know the one I’m talking about. The commercial that has all of our favorite food network personalities portrayed as claymation caricatures. Am I the only one this commercial creeps out? Apparently not, because over and over since it first aired I have heard foodies here and there talking about “that” commercial. “That commercial is weird.” “That commercial is slightly scary.” “That commercial is like a bad acid trip.” And while I do agree that the commercial is creepy, I also find it cute and intriguing. I know, I am a woman of contradiction, sue me. It reminds me, a little bit, of those caricatures that we had drawn in 10 minutes at Knott’s Berry Farm when we were kids. Most of the personalities are portrayed pretty realistically though, and all are recognizable. But there is ONE, that everybody is talking about.
What’s up with Giada? One of the most notably beautiful woman on the food network she is shown with an enormous head, and feet that are just unreasonably large. Everybody knows that feet are not what Giada has a large pair of… I’m just sayin’…

Anyhow, wanted to give kudos to whoever thought of “that” commercial. Whether or not you like it, whether or not it scares the bejeezus out of small children. Or whether or not you can only focus on Giada’s “assets” or lack thereof, at least you are talking about it. “That” commercial accomplished it’s goal. We see it, we remember it, and we talk about it. And after all, that is the goal of any commercial, isn’t it?

With all of the different “All Star Holiday this and that” that the Food Network does, when I turned on All Star Holiday Cookies, I expected something different. Actually, to be clear, I expected exactly the same as all the other All Star Holiday Specials. All of the stars getting together, sharing their favorite recipes, and in the end, gathering and eating them. I must say I was disappointed, because instead, what we got was as mishmash of each of their respective shows, and the cookies they made on them. Reruns. Cookies I had seen before, year after year actually. Nothing new. And no interaction between the stars. What’s more, the average cookie dough is exactly the same. To me the show felt very repetetive, building a basic sugar cookie dough over and over again. Sure there were changes here and there, everyone has their own method, but all that really does is confuse people more. Which sugar cookie do I make? I think it would have been a lot more interesting to me if I had not already seen the recipes on the original shows on which they aired. It just seemed to me a very “cost cut”y kind of way to make a special. I look forward to new dessert recipes, and this just didn’t deliver.

Will I make the cookies? Sure, I have before. Was this a decent special for someone who wants a bunch of cookie recipes? If they are not too easily confused by too many options, absolutely. Will I watch it again? No. In my opinion a special should be, well, special.