Signed Good Eats 2 Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago when I attended the demo Alton Brown did in Marietta, Ga., I got this book signed for a giveaway, it is a copy of Good Eats: The Middle Years. AB left up to the winner to place his or her name on the book.

To get the book:

Leave a comment about your favorite thing regarding Good Eats. It can be anything you like, but keep it nice and keep it clean.

After leaving said comment, you will have to send your comment (so I can match it) and name (the one you posted under) to this email: contest@altonbrownfans.com so I can email the lucky winner the good news.

For an extra entry, become a fan of the AB Geeks Facebook page and leave a comment under the offical giveway thread there too. If you're already a fan of the page, just comment on the thread.

The contest is open until 11:59 p.m. (eastern time) March 20, 2011.

The legal stuff:

Contest is open to US and Canada residents only. Winner must reply within three days of notification.

Good Luck! :)

March Roars in with New Good Eats

In between doing speaking engagements and demos, Alton Brown and crew have been busily working up some new Good Eats episodes. I have it from a very reliable source the new episodes are:

March 7 -- Destination: Chickpea
March 14 -- Devil of a Cake
March 21 -- A Bird in the Pie is Worth two in the Bush
March 28 -- Use Your Noodle

There are more to come in April as well.

I've been looking forward to the chickpea since AB talked about it in Cleveland. And of late, he has talked about Ramen noodles so I suspect that is the March 28 episode.

Eleventh Alton Brown Meeting

If you're a regular reader, you know I spent last weekend in Marietta, Ga. to see Alton Brown do a demo as a fundraiser for the Walker School. You also know that due to restrictions, I cannot bring you the typical full slate of photos and video that normally accompany the write ups about the events. I am, however, in the process of trying to land some photos. While in the book signing line, two girls in front of us, graduates of the school, said the lone photographer there was a teacher at the school. So, I have contacted the school to see if they would be willing to share some of the photos that they may have.

While we wait, I can offer the recount of talking with AB at the book signing. It is hard to believe, even for me, this was the 11th time I saw Alton at event. I have certainly made up time for the years I couldn't get out to his book signings and demos.

At this point, I don't think he gives me a proper greeting anymore. He just sees me and probably thinks "Oh no, she's back." All joking aside, Alton is always warm and friendly to me if not a little snarky too.

Being the tenacious journalist I know I am and wanting with every fiber of my being to get an interview with AB, the subject of my recent interview with Harold McGee had to be brought to his attention. I proudly told him that Dr. McGee was gracious to talk with me about his new book Keys to Good Cooking. I hoped this bit of news would sway Alton and make him see that not only do I enjoy cooking and big fan of his projects but a serious food writer as well.

The revelation of my interview seemed to surprise AB, he looked down at me with big eyes and stepped back. I told him I had a copy of the article with me, which he promptly asked if he could read. I said I brought for him to see and that I hoped he would make him reconsider giving me an interview. At this point I saw his head shaking and heard a low grumbling "No." Undaunted, I said not for the fansite but for my freelance Suite 101 writing. AB said, "No. I don't do that either."

What happened next surprised me, Alton stepped closer to me and asked, "Was he nice?"

I smiled and said, "Yes, very nice." My snarky side failed to launch because I should've have said, "very nice because he let me interview him unlike you." But I didn't.

After my reply, Alton added, "You know I've never met him." I nodded, remembering that he said that in an interview once.

I confessed that talking with Dr. McGee intimidated me because he knows so much about food science. Immedately, Alton replied. "Oh, me too." Then paused and added again, "I've never met him."

Somewhere after this conversation AB's assistant, Jim, has us take a photo (the one above). Alton put his arm across my back and said, "Another one to add to your 600 other photos." I don't remember replying or even laughing at that crack probably because I was saddened that not even the biggest interview of my life worked to change Alton's mind and heart about giving me a shot.

Still sad, I walked over to talk with AB's assistant, aka Twitchy, for a bit while mom talked with Alton. She brought a cow teakettle for him to sign and it caused quite a bit of interest with AB. I heard him ask if it mooed. That caused me to turn around and say that I asked the same question. Alton was totally engrossed in examining the cow and making jokes about how people actually sat around a table and thought about designing something like that.

Then he said, "The cow says." I chimed in with "moo?" He continued, "Oh dear God, it's hot!" and proceeded to write that on the teaketttle.

Recap of Alton Brown demo at the Walker School

The demo Alton Brown conducted at the Walker School last weekend was one of the best I've have had the pleasure of attending. Sadly, there was a no video and no photography rule. While I was tempted to snap a few because I have a sweet Canon Rebel SLR and know how to shoot in low light sans flash, I didn't do it. Mainly because AB said if anyone posted things to the Internet he'd sue that person for everything they had and didn't care who it was.

Basically my article here would look like this as to the visuals:


So instead of having a lot of visuals with my recap as per usual, I had to get a little creative to bring everyone the experience being at the event. Oh and at the book signing part AB said to me when we posed for a picture together, "Another one to add to your 600 other photos."

Well I've have to put those "600" photos to good use for this recap.

For those of you interested in his attire and overall appearance.


He broke out his favorite apron, which he doesn't wash. His culinary assistant Tammy commented it had the some stuff on it from the Cleveland demo.

For the demo he made baked Alaska. After talking about the origin of the dish, AB started to make chocolate ice cream for the inside of the dessert. He used the tried and true method of liquid nitrogen to freeze it.

He whined the mixers for the demo weren't a manly color and that he didn't pick them out. Tammy added the green apple was lovely (she picked the color). AB said it looked seasick or a like color Martha Stewart would sell. He then smeared the chocolate ice cream base on the mixer.

By the way, there are other uses for liquid nitrogen because you need to justify spending $300 for the dewar to hold the liquid nitrogen. Wart removal and freezing graham crackers to feed to dogs are two other uses AB has found. He said he gives his dogs frozen graham crackers to make his corgis look like dragons.

If you're going to freeze the ice cream with liquid nitrogen, then why not complete the baked Alaska using some other over the top device. That's what he did. To "bake" the dessert, AB scoffed at the wussy torches sold in cooking stores for something with more fire power. Literally, with fire... a flame thrower.

I think AB has gone the route of the character Tim Allen played on Home Improvement. Next time maybe he'll do Tim Taylor more power grunt.

Alton Brown and Gospel Grains

In preparation for seeing Alton Brown this weekend, and if I get some good video, I was setting up an account over on Vimeo because I've heard its better than YouTube. So while I there, I thought about checking for some videos. Like maybe someone uploaded AB's recent talk at GSU. Well, I didn't find that but I found this great little video AB make for his church about how bread was made back in biblical times.

Wow, great segment. Enjoy.

Gospel Grains - Sermon Intro from Johnson Ferry on Vimeo.

PS:
Promise to have things posted ASAP so check the site's Facebook page and Twitter for instant updates.

Alton Brown at GSU

Since I wasn't planning to make two trips to Atlanta to see Alton Brown this week this is best I have for his talk at Georgia State University. Rest assured, this weekend will yield plenty of photos and stories. :)

Alton Brown Event on Dauphin Island, Ala

Info on the Alton Brown event on Dauphin Island, Ala. is available. AB will host the gumbo cookoff and a VIP event at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Estuarium. The event is March 26. Tickets for the VIP event are $125 if you pay by check, $130 if you pay online. The event helps support a lot of people hit hard by last year's BP oil spill. To buy tickets or for more info head over to the organization's website, here. I will be there too so any meet ups are welcome!

Cocoa Syrup or Big Alton Brown Squeeze

Since it is covered in chocolate week on FN, which sounds kinda perverted to me, I wanted to discuss chocolate syrup and of course that would be the one Alton Brown featured in Art of Darkness II: Cocoa. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera card with my photos of the syrup cooking in the saucier, so you'll have to settle for an iPhone pic of it on ice cream. ;)

The need to make cocoa syrup stemmed from a peanut butter pie I made last summer for my mom. She put in a request for the next one (that's how I tell my food is good, she asks for another one) to have some type of chocolate sauce. Since seeing AB make what he called his Big Brown Squeeze (honestly he should called big AB squeeze because after making this I'll never go back to store bought and would like to hug him for that).

The only problem I saw was making this for mom was the sugar. I needed to swap the table sugar for Splenda but didn't know if that would change the texture or make up of the syrup. Before plunging headlong into the project, I researched other attempts at making chocolate syrup with Splenda. The results looked dismal. Most accounts where the sauce never thickened. These reports where from people using recipes found online and I remember one being from Betty Crocker.

Whatever these people did, one thing was certain, I was fully expecting a watery mess if I tried it. Nevertheless, being the relentless and stubborn gal I am, I just had to make AB's cocoa syrup with Splenda. By golly, that's what I did.

Staring with the simple syrup, I replaced the 3 cups of sugar with an equal amount of Splenda then whisked in 2 tablespoons of light corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt and brought it to boil. After that added the 1.5 cups of Dutch processed cocoa powder and finally the 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. To my delight, the cocoa powder thickened the simple syrup nicely. I don't know what those other people did wrong with their recipes. I thought maybe it was the ratio of cocoa powder to water that caused it... who knows, maybe AB could tell me if he'd read this!

After cooling and placing into squeeze bottles, I tried it with milk. It makes the best chocolate milk around. Far superior to Hershey's and Nestle Quick. Mom got her pie with the sauce, she loved it. And made some hot chocolate with it, which she told me was even better than the hot chocolate mix I make every winter (Good Eat's cocoa mix of course).

And as you see from my lone photo, its darn fine on vanilla ice cream.

Cocoa Syrup

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups water
* 3 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions

In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup. Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened. Strain and cool to room temperature. Pour into squeeze bottles. Squeeze into cold milk and stir for delicious chocolate milk or serve on your favorite ice cream. And, hey, it's fat free!

Alton Brown's Peanut Butter Cookies

With old man winter wreaking havok on much of the US over the past few weeks, I have taken that time to do more baking. If you've read some of the posts from last winter, you'll know that of all the cookbooks Alton Brown has I'm Just Here for More Food (aka the baking one) is my favorite. There's more to IJHFMF than sweet baked goods but by and large that's what the cookbook covers... and covers well.

This time, in the many tabbed pages of the book, I opted to try the peanut butter cookies. Upfront I will admit that peanut butter has never been one of my favorites. Whether that's a pb&j sandwich or cookies... ok, I do like the peanut butter and chocolate combo... but that's it.

Attempting the cookies were more for my mom who loves peanut butter. In the past I've made peanut butter cookies from recipes on jars and even adapting AB's Chewies to include peanut butter and chips. I never got those quite right. The texture was crumbly. And not enough peanut butter taste, mom complained.

When I looked at AB's application in IJHFMR and saw the whopping 20 3/4 ounces of peanut butter I knew if these weren't peanut buttery enough for her, no cookie in the world would be.


I replaced the small amount of table sugar with Splenda and used creamy peanut butter instead of the chunky AB recommends. The rest of the ingredients are basic, flour, brown sugar, eggs, leavening, salt, vanilla extract. But they combine to make a luscious treat.

I used a medium sized disher to produce about 2.5 inch cookies. This application makes a lot of cookies! They filled up two cookie jars.


If you're in the market for a peanut buttery cookie, give this one a try. It does use a lot of peanut butter but even this non-peanut butter lover ended up enjoying this cookies. That came as a shock to my mom, who thought she was getting the cookies all to herself. She, by the way, commented they had enough peanut butter flavor to satisfy her. And requests they be made into peanut butter blossoms (the kind with the Hershey's kiss in the center).

Oh yeah, I can support that modification.