Alton Brown in Pop Candy

I was harmlessly looking at my Google reader this afternoon and saw USA Today's Pop Candy blog is tell people about the Good Eats fan contest. Do you heart Alton Brown?

Its a call to all of the superfans out there. Guess my video wasn't good enough to be featured, she picked the guy who speaks like AB. :(

Oh well, I have my tickets away! So, don't need their little contest!



Yeah I do.

I'd love to win just for the honor of winning. Not so much the tickets, I've got those.

Alton Brown's way to fried green tomato perfection

On the prose portion of the recipe for fried green tomatoes in I'm Just Here for the Food, Alton Brown writes, "So, I'm Southern." I must paraphrase, so I'm Appalachian. To me--a mountain gal--fried green tomatoes are the grand poobah of Appalachian comfort food. Since the deep South and Appalachia share common foodways, many dishes cross between us. Even though most people would still call it a Southern food, I still think of this dish as a mountain classic.

The dish, however, had not been one I created at home. My memories of these tomatoes come from my grandmother and great-grandmother kitchen. I hadn't made or even thought of them in years.

But my friend J was talking about making some last week. It is the height of tomato season right now. And little green maters are a-plenty. With my friend's talk of making them and knowing it was primetime for tomatoes, I decided it was a great time to make my own.

Now the type I recalled were coated in cornmeal. That is tradition. My friend J said some times she used cornmeal and sometimes not. She talked about having problems with making them. That's when I told her AB had a recipe in is cookbook. Seriously, I need help. Can you believe I actually knew Alton had a recipe for fried green tomatoes?

Anyway, with my interest piqued I plunged toward making some of my own.

I read AB's recipe and discovered he replaced the cornmeal with Ritz crackers. Hmmm. I figured it was worth giving a try. He also added cayenne pepper. The rest, however was typical.

The best part of the recipe was Alton's explanation on how to get the batter to adhere to tomatoes. Yeah, leave it to AB to explain what's going on!

According to Alton, the reason fried green tomatoes fail is the moisture from to tomatoes. The answer is to place the 1/4 inch sliced tomatoes on paper towels (top and bottom) to get the moisture from them.

Once the tomatoes are dried, salt and pepper them and dip them in a flour and cornstarch mix. The coated tomato then is dipped in an egg wash. Then dipped into the crushed Ritz crackers.

The coated tomatoes then head to a hot cast iron skillet with oil. I used canola. Fry until golden, brown and delicious and drain.

My fried green tomatoes were great! The batter stayed on and knowing you need hot oil for proper frying (something Alton taught me in another show) I turned out a mighty fine plate of fried green tomatoes.

Alton Brown in Entertainment Weekly... kinda, sorta

I have a super find thanks to my great friend L (she operates Writing is Murder blog, go check her site out). Anyway, L is an Entertainment Weekly subscriber and gave me the heads up on Alton Brown being in the current issue.

Of course, that almost made my heart stop because I had been out all day and could have picked up a copy. The thought of rushing out to Wally World was zipping through my head, then she tells me its a little thing for the 10th Anniversary of SpongeBob Square Pants.

Deflated!

Then she took a picture of AB's blurb and posted to Flickr for me to see (and steal).

Thanks L, you are now a proud member of the AB News Reporting Corps!

Did you hear me squeal?

I was completely shocked to find in the mail to my tickets to the upcoming Good Eats Live show. I opted for the snail mail because I wanted to have real tickets instead of print outs. Yay! Not sure how the post show meet and greet with Alton Brown will be handled because there were no extra tickets in the package. But I'm so happy to get the tickets.



I'm not sure if the good seats are still available, I heard the Internet pre-sale sold out. Check the Cobb Energy Center's site for what's available.

I'll be in section CCC seat 6

Alton Brown's Sweet and Sour whatever

Recently I decided to play around with one of Alton Brown's recipes. Since seeing the special one-hour "Down and Out in Paradise," I have been interested in the sweet and sour dish AB made. But, as I have stated before, not much of a pork eater. From looking at the recipe, I figured chicken would be a great substitute for the pork in the recipe, so my experiment began.

I followed the method for marinading the meat in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, flour and cornstarch. With my little cubes of chicken tucked away for the evening soak, I awaited my next day delight.

Upon pulling out the bowl of marinated chicken the next day, I saw something nasty looking. The pink raw chicken had soaked up the dark soy sauce turning it a sickly gray. I was worried the meat couldn't be swapped out. It had been awhile since watching the episode and I didn't know if pork would have reacted differently. Oh well, I was in this deep and had planned dinner based on this, so a plowed onward.

Following the rest of directions, the pallid chicken was dredged salt and pepper seasoned flour and fried. Before I went to the vegetation portion of the program, I sampled that chicken. It had been bothering me throughout the fry session. I sampled.

Oh my.

Despite the zombie skin tone to the chicken, the favor was amazing. This fact made me excited to finish.

Next came making the sauce, ketchup, sugar, red wine vinegar, and honey whisked together.

Now to the veggies:

• 1/3 cup diced Vidalia onion
• 1/3 cup diced celery
• 1/3 cup carrots sliced
  
• 1/3 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/3 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into 1-inch cubes

I only had red bell pepper, so I used all red instead of red and green... besides it isn't Christmas, now, is it?

Combine the meat, veggies and sauce. I used my big cast iron skillet to simmer everything together. And served with white rice.

Who needs Chinese takeout?

I suppose the pork version is just as fantastic. This chicken version is most definitely in the make again rotation.

AB's Sweet and Sour Pork recipe

Good times ahead

I was excited to receive my tickets for Alton Brown's upcoming appearance at the Opryland Hotel on August 1. I have an amazingly good seat, row A seat 12.

So, there's a little warning to AB. ;)

I'm just drooling thinking about the awesome photos I'll be able to take from that spot. Better apologize in advance to AB for snapping pics like a paparazzo. I tend to do that... a lot!

I'm getting, oh who am I kidding saying getting, excited about the event. Alton does a great live show. This will be my third time at the Opryland for one of AB's shows. I know this will be superb just like past events!

My homage to Alton Brown and Good Eats

Alrighty, boys and girls, Alton Brown fans out there in cyberspace the day has arrived, my video entry into the Good Eats Great Fan contest is now on Food Network's site for all the world to see. Point, laugh, make fun at will.



I'm guessing outside of my mom, this will be liked by, oh about, two other people and my dog. Though, he might not like it since I told him not to bark while I was filming.

If you want to check out my competition, go to the Happy Anniversary Good Eats page at Food Network, while you're there look for Good Eats Mega Fan, that's the title of my video.

The good thing about this contest, if I lose, I still get to see AB at the show.

Fun Alton Brown video

Watch this funny referral video Alton Brown did for his Director of Photography, Marion Laney. Big, big thanks to Marion for sending me the heads up on the video. It is a hoot and so AB. :)

Alton Brown on the Marquee

I have a cool find for everyone. Here's a glimpse of the marquee outside of the Cobb Energy Centre. Look what's there, the anniversary show with Alton Brown!


I must give huge THANKS to Marion Laney for giving permission to post this photo on the site. And all of us Good Eats fans should also thank Mr. Laney for the great work he does on the show as Director of Photography.

Thanks Marion, you are super cool.

Woohoo, early ticket sales!

If you're looking for tickets to the upcoming Good Eats 10th Anniversary show, head over to The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre's Ticketmaster link. It now offers an advanced Internet only sale.

The password is GOODEATS