All About Alton Brown

Next Iron Chef recap and Alton Brown running silent

2011-11-09T14:16:00.000-05:00

I was remiss in talking about Next Iron Chef last week. I was trying to launch my NaNoWriMo idea; however, that seems to be heading down the tubes this week. So to re-ignite my writing mojo, I thought about talking a little about Sunday night's installment of NIC and maybe a little from week one.

The second installment had the nine surviving chefs heading off to San Diego and the home the Major League Baseball team, Padres, to do a little ball park cooking.Honestly, the first challenge should've been who can look at Alton Brown and not laugh their ass off at his clothing choice for the day. I say this with great affection, AB the gray plaid sport coat, yellow slacks, navy blue polo shirt and light blue pocket square just didn't come together for me.

All giggles aside, the first challenge, to reinvent ballpark food seemed to be something fairly easy. I mean, traditional ballpark food isn't the best grub in town anyway so to elevate it wouldn't take much. But either its been too long since I've been to game, or the offerings of the minor league team here are behind the times, or these chefs had no clue what ballpark food is because I didn't understand most of their "reinventions."

It was bad enough to hear the new judge utter the word "foodgasm" last week. However this week's word was deconstructed. It seemed most of the chefs' concept of reinvent a dish was to deconstruct everything. I was beginning to think I was watching HGTV or DIY instead of Food Network with the number of times that word as bandied about. Ugh!

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Updates

2011-10-27T15:37:00.001-04:00

In case anyone has noticed I haven't been keeping up with a lot of Alton Brown news here on this site of late. Mainly because I have taken the plunge with Wordpress and since I'm hosting my own site why not!

I have officially moved all of the news and posts to: http://news.altonbrownfans.com so this is where you can find me from now on. Also, if you subscribe to the site's RSS please update to http://feeds.feedburner.com/altonbrownfans/DQXc My twitter for the fansite is @_altonbrownfans

There is much to talk about with the visit to Pittsburgh on the tour but I have even neglected to write on that over on the new site. I do have video and will try to share soon.

Remember that Sunday starts a new season of Next Iron Chef. Alton will, of course, be hosting the show and annoying the chefs as per unusual. Gotta love that.

I will try to recap the episodes, however, I have doing my annual National Novel Writing Month challenge again this year so free time will be very limited. No promises!

Sometime in November the one-hour Thanksgiving Good Eats special will air. Still haven't a date on that. And the Saturday before Thanksgiving the Food Network will have a Turkey Day live show with AB as host. It will be from Noon until 2 p.m. EST. Viewers have the opportunity to submit questions ahead of time via Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/foodnetwork), Twitter (http://www.twiter.com/foodnetwork, use #FNThanksgiving) and can simultaneously submit questions during the broadcast with Skype. (Username: FoodNetworkThanksgiving).

For those of you who helped with the Heifer International fundraiser, THANKS SO MUCH! We were able to buy the cow for Alton and I gave him the card in Pittsburgh.

One last thing, I'm still wishing for an interview with Alton. Since he has changed is outlook on social media and the reasons he gave me in the past for not allowing an interview with me as no longer valid, my hope is he will see the value and benefit of this site and be ever so kind as to talk with me for an interview. After all, my site now ranks #1 in Google searches for him being an asshole and mean... so its not like no one is reading out there in cyberspace.

It's pretty funny that my site would get that ranking for these searches since I'm constantly bemoaning the fact AB seems to care more for the haters than the good folks like me. Maybe he thinks since I took the time to do this site I will always be in his corner, while the haters need to be shown the light. Who knows. It is beyond me. I still don't think he cares to read the site, which is very disheartening. I hoped he would at least change his outlook but judging from his retweeting of mean comments that goes much further than any act of kindness does. Maybe he's paying it backward?

Anyway, I'll leave you with the reminder of the new site: http://news.altonbrownfans.com

and NIC on Sunday.

See ya,

Lisa :)

Win a signed copy of Good Eats 3!

2011-10-13T09:11:00.000-04:00

Last week when I saw Alton at his book signing in Sewickley, Penn., he asked me, "Don't you ever run out of these things?" He was referring to the fact that two weeks earlier I had my copy of Good Eats 3: The Later Years signed in Chattanooga, Tenn. So I promptly explained what happened, I didn't know there would be an early release of the book and I had an impulse buy!Anyway, I told AB one of the books came from his publisher for a giveaway and since I was coming to the event, why not get it signed as well. Alton was nice enough to sign the book for lucky person.

The contest is open until October, 19 at 11:59 pm EST.So now, to get this copy of GE3, click here!

A funny thing happened at the Serve and Protect event

2011-09-26T13:17:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday's Serve and Protect event for the Tennessee Aquarium was my 13th Alton Brown event. Yeah, lucky 13. I'm not that superstitious, however after the whole summer of AB being on Twitter and crap with things there, and reason for writing and flack he received for the Fanifesto, I was a bit nervous attending this one.

The evening started off with an odd incident. I was in the Aquarium's office purchasing a copy of Good Eats 3 to beat the rush later at the gift shop and after securing said copy I turned to exit the room. At that moment, a group of people came through the room from the stairwell. As I turned, I almost ran into one them. Then I realized it was Jim, Alton's assistant. He stepped back and I stepped forward and at that moment I looked up to see none other than Mr. Brown looking right at me!

He looked a bit surprised. And I know I did as well. He said, "After you." I giggled and and said, "Are you sure you want me to go in front of you?"He tipped his head, extended his arm and said, "Yes ma'am." I giggled like a schoolgirl and went ahead of him and the group. As I thought about it, I wasn't certain if Alton didn't know me or was just surprised that we ran into each other in the office. I know I was extremely surprised.

FIND OUT THE REST HERE!

Attention Alton Brown fangirls and people interested in Next Iron Chef

2011-09-20T13:09:00.001-04:00

I just found this publicity photo of Alton Brown for the Next Iron Chef, which debuts on October 30 at 9 p.m. EST on Food Network. While I'm strictly informing everyone of the upcoming series, I have to include a nice little photo of AB.According to a FN press release the first episode, entitled“Primal: Heat and Meat,” is described as:

In the much-anticipated season premiere of The Next Iron Chef, ten of the most respected chefs in the culinary world take a trip to the middle of nowhere, where their primal instincts are put to the test. Split into five teams, the chefs arrive to a bare bones set-up and supply depot, where they must create a makeshift cooking station and build a fire in order to whip up an Iron Chef worthy meal. Using only basic tools including cinder blocks, metal skewers, flat iron and stacks of wood, this challenge tests the resourcefulness of the contestants in extreme conditions. After a deliberation from the judges, the least successful duo battles it out in the first-ever Secret Ingredient Showdown. After a grueling challenge, only one of the two chefs will live to battle another day for the coveted Next Iron Chef title.

See the real reason I'm happy about the press kit by clicking here. :)

Alton Brown does not suck

2011-09-14T13:18:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I had a wonderful idea to do something for Alton Brown to show him how much his fans appreciate his work, especially all of the years of Good Eats. Also, to wish him well on the new project. And now, to help him see the Internet can be used for good, not just bad things.

Figuring AB would rather for us to give back than to give to him, I surmised something to Heifer International would be great.

The best gift to give? Well, why not a heifer!Yes! A heifer to Heifer International to thank Alton for everything!Now, this where I need your help. A heifer costs $500. So if enough of us ban together then accumulating the amount would be simple.

Also, it would be great to tell Alton, in person, we got him a cow as a thank you present for the years of Good Eats and our appreication. If we could get the money before October 5, that would even more awesome because I could show him all of the folks who helped out. And have a thank you card with it!

Please give something to cause, a small thank you for anything you've learned thanks to Good Eats and AB.

Alton Brown swimming with sharks

2011-08-25T10:03:00.001-04:00

Video of Alton Brown diving at the Tennessee Aquarium to launch the "Serve and Protect" project. I'm excited about heading down to Chattanooga for this event. From what AB says in this video, I hope to learn about new types of seafood critters to purchase and cook.

Alton Brown and Tennessee Aquarium's Serve and Protect Project

2011-08-16T09:15:00.003-04:00

Alton Brown will help the Tennessee Aquarium with their new sustainable seafood endeavor later this fall. The "Serve and Protect" project will raise awareness and promote local and sustainable seafood choices.

At the main event on Sept. 22, Alton will conduct a demo with recipes he's developed for the project.Tickets for the event are $150, which includes the demo and a dinner. They are available at the Aquarium's website. To make your reservations, visit here.

Right on Q: The Review

2011-08-10T16:39:00.003-04:00

It is only fitting, to me at least, that Alton Brown would chose to feature barbecue as topic for the first of the final one-hour long Good Eats specials. For me, if not watching that first episode on smoked salmon oh so many years ago I would have never ventured into the magical world that is barbecue. Therefore, as this long time fan sadly bids Good Eats adieu I am reminded of what AB and the show have given so many over the years--strong culinary know how, sound science and... you know the drill.

Working from his normal modus operandi, AB first told of the history and etymology of barbecue. Surprising how many ways it is used, noun, verb, adjective. And as all Good Eats fans should know, the method of cooking meat in this manner comes from the native people of the Caribbean and the Europeans "discovery" of the lands.When it comes to producing great barbecue as Alton said, it all comes down four basic things: heat, smoke, meat and time. Anyone who enjoys smoking meat knows how crucial time is to produce quality Q.

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Good Eats 3 Tour

2011-08-04T15:04:00.003-04:00

For those Alton Brown fans champing at the bit for Good Eats 3 booktour dates, you will be happy to know that I have procured them!

It is an extensive tour this time, 21 cities and several weeks. So many. many of us will have the chance to meet AB and thank him for everything related to GE!

The complete list is over on the new Wordpress blog, so click away and see where and when AB will be visiting.

Complete GE3 Book Tour Dates

Your True Fans Love You, Alton!

2011-08-02T11:27:00.000-04:00

I awoke to some extremely disconcerting tweets from Alton Brown thismorning. Apparently a low-life bunglehole decided to create a Twitteraccount trying to pass itself (I'm using "it" because this scum is notworthy of being considered human) as AB's wife. In his replies back tothis frog-toed nutjob, it was very clear the event rattled AB. Sincethe offender's account is now gone, there's not a trace of what wastweeted.

Not really knowing what happened overnight I,too, wasjust saddened and upset by AB's tweets to this creep. Immediately, mymothering instincts kicked in and I wanted to show AB support anyway Icould. Right now, if he's off Twitter for good, then he won't see thegood and supportive things many, many of his true and admiring fanshave sent. I sent AB a virtual hug in one and this:

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Alton Brown is Right on Q

2011-08-01T21:21:00.003-04:00

Alton seems concerned we won't be watching the first of his one hour Good Eats specials. "Right on Q" airs this Saturday at 8 p.m. on Food Network, of course.

AB will be exploring the magical and mystical world of BBQ

Personally, I'm hoping for some kind of smoking rig to build, although I love my box smoker and it works so well.

Also, if your can't watch and have GE set on your TIVO's season pass, check it because mine didn't include this special in the regular run.

It’s Alton Brown’s birthday!

2011-07-30T19:59:00.001-04:00

Of course early this morning I sent a tweet to Alton Brown to wish him a happy birthday today. In case you didn't know it his 49th. Forty-nine and looking fine :)

In the tweet I sent along a little virtual card as well. I had to include a cute little corgi for AB too.

Cook Smart vs Molecular Gastronomy

2011-07-26T21:31:00.003-04:00

Odds are good if you've had any one of Alton Brown's cookbooks signed in recent years he has inscribe it with "cook smart." This simple, two-word phrase perfectly sums up AB's cooking philosophy, one he has propagated since 1999. Applying science and knowledge to how and why it effects food brings a better understanding to all who attempt the process of cooking. Needless to say, employing science in the kitchen and Alton are synonymous and no one on the Food Network is more identified with it.

With his science geek outlook on food and cooking, it apparently shocked those in the food writing world that Alton is not a fan of current and all the rage food science trend--molecular gastronomy. At the American Culinary Federation's national convention in Dallas last weekend, AB talked about salt for the crowd of professional cooks. During said demonstration the topic of molecular gastronomy arose only to be quickly put in its proper place by Alton.

The quote which stirred the cliched pot for many food writers and champions of molecular gastronomy, “My worry about molecular gastronomy, especially with young cooks, is that they will try to use it to replace knowing how to cook food,” had the likes of Eater and The Village Voice pointing fingers for AB's lack of embracing this type of science in cooking and his disdain of using falsely created foam sauces.

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Alton Brown, Twitter and Burning Questions

2011-07-19T10:36:00.004-04:00

Like an old fire horse still answering the bell, sometimes no matter how we try to give up our favorite activities something always draws us back. Case in point, the site and me. A few days ago I was all but ready to give up, throw in the proverbial towel and just maintain the site for archival purposes.

A funny thing happened on the way to the archives.

First, Alton started tweeting me. No one was more surprised than I to see a reply from AB and lo and behold there it was last Friday along with several others in the past few days. So, that got me thinking about what else may change if I only hang in and keep up the fight? Maybe something wonderful will happen (like AB follows my Twitter account) or I may be setting myself up for a bigger fall, who knows. However, right now I have decided, while working on restructuring the overall site, I will write about a few things... if I have the time. Blogger's new interface still sucks by the way so I will be heading over to the new site for that, http://news.altonbrownfans.com.

Besides, how could I stop doing something that I love (writing about cooking?) and helping others with their Alton Brown information? Or give up seeing some of the new, exiting and belly laugh producing searches?

Judging from the recent keyword analysis of the site, I'm going to have a lot to play with (insert maniacal laugh) now that Alton is conversing with the masses. In his first few months of tweeting, AB has managed to influence the keyword search terms on the site from benign cooking and show related searches to some more interesting queries.

Many people are searching for him on Twitter, understandably. However, I have to laugh and roll my eyes at the number of folks trying to figure out why AB is deleting his tweets. "Alton Brown deleting tweets" seems to be a favorite phrase of late. Which begs the question, why is it so important that he deletes or not deletes them? Why the uproar? They are his tweets and he can do what he damn well pleases with them, bottom line. It maybe be unorthodoxed to remove tweets but when has Alton been mainstream in what he does? If he were, Good Eats would be another dump and stir cooking show.

Alright, tweet removal is one thing and kinda funny seeing folks getting their collective panties in a wad over 24 hours, 12 hours, or whatever length the tweets remain on his page. Even better, however, is the increase in searches about AB being mean, nasty, ass, and/or jerk (not the seasoning). Yeah, it seems the Twitterfied AB is rubbing some people the wrong way. But I do offer one word of advice to potential searchers: if you're going to try to find out about someone, and if you can't get their name correct, at least spell the insult right. This was by far the best term of the week:

Seeing that was just what I needed to start the day with a laugh. Maybe the person meant he's a complete ass. I joke, of course, AB.

Although it hasn't been easy for me with Alton tweeting (still confused as to why he blocked my accounts back in May) and he even seems to be weary of it at times, I will remain here in some capacity. Well, not here as in Blogger but here as in lending my support and blathering.

Dear Blogger, you suck plus Alton Brown info

2011-07-15T10:44:00.004-04:00

Recently Blogger updated its interface to something that is not as user friendly with custom templates. Therefore, the old look of the site is not going to work any longer. All of that wonderful html coding and whatnot Blogger once allowed isn't available for the template I formerly used, so I have decided to revive the self-hosted Wordpress interface I started some time ago when debating the benefits of free versus free. Guess Blogger made that choice easier.

That site is: http//:news.altonbrownfans.com

As for a day-to-day updated posts like this site offered, I'm afraid that too will a thing of the past. In the few months Mr. Brown has been on Twitter, in addition to his updated site, I see no reason to write posts for news and information purposes. If you want news you can get it in real time with Mr. Brown, now.

In fact after everything that has transpired over the few months Mr. Brown has joined the Twitterverse had changed my outlook on many things regarding the site.. I had hoped all of the times I met Mr. Brown and our seemingly great interactions had gone a long way to build a great rapport, unfortunately that is not the current reality. He chose to block the fansite's old Twitter account along with my personal account for no reason. I never did anything but tweet questions and supportive statements to him, and replies to his tweets. Maybe someday I will get that answer to way he did it, who knows.

Today, however, he did reply to a tweet! So maybe not all is lost. The site's new handle is @altonbrown_fans

The most unfortunate thing for me not that he did this but that his new opinion colored his judgment toward the two fundraisers conducted here. I had hoped Mr. Brown would have sent a thank you to the readers who supported three causes near and dear to him. I'm a afraid, since the fundraiser was tainted by this site, he chose not to thank anyone who supported it. For that, I offer my deepest apology. My hope was he would send a personal thank you to be shared on site for those of you who supported the causes. Instead he chose not to thank you, the readers/his fans, for contributing. I am very sorry he didn't respond in anyway and I hope it was just an oversight on his part.

The old blog posts will remain for archival purposes, however, it will also be stored on the new blog as well. I am in the process of restructuring the overall fansite to include the old posts of how recipes turned out, show reviews, reports from events, etc. in their respective areas of the fansite. I want the information to remain for others to use and hope it will be of use to others. I may do write ups on some of the remaining recipes I want to try for the new blog, but I'm not making any promises about when that will start up again.

As for events, outside of Mr. Brown's October booktour for Good Eats 3, there is nothing currently scheduled so probably will not be including this type of news in any new incarnation of the blog. Again, I will retain the reports of previous events for others to read, along with photos and video from them.

By the way, the first of the three one-hour Good Eats specials, "Right on Q" airs Saturday, August 6.

I wish to thank everyone who read, commented, emailed, and helped build the site over the past three years. You guys are the best. Hope to catch ya around sometime in the future with the new version of the site.

oxoxo
Lisa

Let's give Alton Brown a great birthday present

2011-05-26T21:53:00.008-04:00

Alton Brown tweeted to today what he would like for his birthday this year...

His tweet got me thinking about how to help even more. Remember the little fundraiser we did for Monterey Bay and Heifer International? I was happy to report of the $300 we raised. So I thought, why not try to help out this cause for AB's birthday here too.

I've been wondering what to do with this site in light of the new developments with Alton and his social media forray. In my current poll a lot of you have said you enjoy the news and reports of his events. So, if you have ever enjoyed anything on this site or got anything, please donate. It will be great to have the wonderful readers and Alton's fans banning together to bring in another good amount of money for another worthy cause. This would mean a great deal to me as well as AB.

So here's what I want to do.

Donate what you can, but remember PayPal takes a percentage 2.9% + $0.30 USD here's a chart to figure in the fees if you would like to include that.

Then I will send the whole pot to Samaritans Purse from all of AB's fans for his birthday.

Update
As of June 13, the birthday fund raiser is complete.
We ended with $100 to donate to the organization for Alton's birthday. I have contacted them and am waiting to find the best method to send the money

Thanks to all who participated!

Alton Brown at Cooking for Solutions

2011-05-25T20:50:00.004-04:00

Last weekend Alton Brown did two demos for Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions, while I couldn't travel cross-country to see the event, one loyal reader did (well from Seattle). Big thanks to Amy for her account of the demo and photos.

The talk itself was about Sustainable Seafood. For those that have seen the Good Eats episode “The Once and Future Fish”, it was similar. He got the audience involved with asking what Sustainable Seafood was, and talked a lot about the Seafood Watch app for smart phones that lets you know what seafood was on and off the watch list. He also explained about the word “organic”, and how it used to mean something important, but because the Government got involved, it became too expensive to get certified, and “organic” became a marketing term. Within the last couple of years, Sustainability has been a term that’s caught on, but in order for it not to become like the word “organic”, we have to educate the people. You don’t have to care about the bottom of the ocean (he says); just pick a fish, learn how to cook a fish, and do it because it tastes good.

The talk itself was probably only 15-20 minutes. (Authors note: He did go off subject for a minute when he talked about how he lost weight, and how people would come up to him and say “I hope you get better soon”, and “what’s the treatment like?” He told us that yes – he had lost too much weight at first but has gained some back.) The rest was spent doing the demo. The demo itself was going to be a marinade of swordfish and salmon, using the Blowhard 3000 in order to make it into jerky.

He got the audience involved again when he asked: “What is cooking?” and “What is a marinade, and how is it different from a brine?” He totally ranked on some 12 yr old kid about what cooking was – that was kind of funny. Someone in the audience thought that leaving the fish in the marinade for two hours would “cook” it, but they were probably thinking of ceviche, which isn’t exactly the same lol. He teased the lady about offering the marinated fish to eat, but then pulled back joking about the liability issues.

The best part was the banter between AB and his chef Tammy. Alton’s witty comebacks not only made me laugh, but made me slightly jealous. I love that he has a response for everything and that he can think on the fly. My favorite scene was when AB got “angry” and slammed the knife tip first into the cutting board – a plastic cutting board mind you, and it stuck. I loved being so close to the action because when he finished putting the fish into the filters and let the air blow into the room, it smelled wonderful!

The room had a nice setup with the Q&A after the demo. Not only were there microphones, but he had an iPad set up at the front of the room where people could email him questions. Someone asked about the difference between tank-raised fish and open pen-raised fish. The difference being that in a tank setting, the environment is controlled and therefore not only do the fish not escape (like the crawfish did in China) but the tanks filter the water and diseases don’t develop (and so the fish don’t need to be pumped full of antibiotics). Another good question was “What is your favorite beer?” His answer – “The next one!”. The last question of the day was one asked many times before, and if anyone has seen his Q&A’s, he gives the same answer. “Who is your favorite Iron Chef?” Yes, they are all precious snowflakes and good in their own, unique ways.

Swordfish or Salmon Jerky

Yield 8-10 ounces Jerky

1lb. Swordfish or Salmon fillet, skin on, pin bones removed

½ cup soy sauce

1 Tbsp. Molasses

1 Tbsp. Lemon juice, freshly squeezed

2 tsp. Black pepper, freshly ground

1 tsp. Liquid smoke

Place fish in freezer for 30-45 minutes, until firm but not frozen

Place soy sauce, molasses, lemon juice, black pepper and liquid smoke into a large ziptop bag, seal and shake to combine. Remove fish from freezer, slice off skin and cut into thin strips. Add strips to bag with marinade, reseal and allow to marinate for 2-3 hours.

Drain strips in a colander and pat dry on paper towels. Evenly distribute strips of fish onto two paper air-conditioning filters, laying strips across grooves. Stack two filters on top of each other and top with a third empty filter.

Lay a box fan on its side and place filters on top of it. Strap filters to fan with two bungee cords. Stand fan upright, plug in and set to high. Dry fish for 12-18 hours. If using a commercial dehydrator, follow manufacturer’s directions.

Once dry, store in a cool, dry place in an airtight container for 2-3 months.

Where from here?

2011-05-24T09:50:00.002-04:00

Alton Brown is still on Twitter, having not been eaten by the deadly social media cootie. Psst, Alton now that you're on Twitter, you are a micro-blogger... just thought you should know. ;)

Anyway, Monday evening AB tweeted about the status of his revamped website:

Again, this made me wonder what, how, where, when, etc to do with this site. It is at all possible that AB's improved site will, again, fall victim to not being updated regularly or other problems of the past. I still receive emails from people with questions about food, equipment, Good Eats, events, etc. Therefore, keeping this site updated and operating still would help others.

However, it may be slow going and sparse in the transitional phase, only 3 more Good Eats episodes to review, the book tour isn't until October, and AB only will be in a few specials like Next Food Network Star.

In a way, I hope this site showed Alton the need to get his message out to his fans with a better method that he currently had with his own website. If that's true, I am a little sad I didn't get to help him do that for his own site.

Anyway, I would love to hear from the loyal readers was I re-invent this site. What's been your favorite part(s)? What is something I must keep doing no matter the new direction? Your input is important.

What do you like about the site?

Good Eats 3 cover revealed!

2011-05-19T09:42:00.002-04:00

I have asked Alton Brown twice since he's been on Twitter what the cover for Good Eats 3: The Later Years will look like. Sadly, both times he didn't answer. Well, yesterday he sent out a general tweet with the clue: "It ain't the years, it's the mileage." That happens to be from one of my favorite movies, in fact until a few days ago its theme was my ringtone.

Well enough with the blathering on to the cover art. I give you GE 3:

Alton Brown All A Twitter

2011-05-10T09:19:00.005-04:00

Now with Alton Brown in the Twitterverse it is all a-buzz with his comments, yesterday, about Good Eats. It seems since AB tweeted, in clear frustration that so many people misunderstand canceled vs. stopping, it is news that the half-hour segment of the series is over. Only a week ago when the last regular half-hour episode, Use Your Noodle 5, aired there was little fan fair of it leaving except among loyal fans.

As AB takes to tweeting, I share his frustration in conveying the message. He did succinctly phrase it. Cancel means the network canceled their order. In the case of Good Eats, AB chose to retire (his word) the show. Being someone exceedingly proud of his show, his precious snowflake, labeling it canceled most certainly hurts and, of course, is not true.

I don't understand the fervor this statement caused among his Twitter followers and why it suddenly became news a week after the final half-hour show aired.

Yes, fans who love the show can be sad of its end. But all good things must come to an end. He has tweeted, and before that in Food Network's news release said, of his next project.

In the meantime, fans have the three one-hour specials and the final GE book to look forward to. In addition, fans who enjoy Alton outside of Good Eats will have Iron Chef America and the Next Iron Chef.

Seeing the happenings within the first few days of AB being on Twitter, I understand why he shied away from social media oh these many years. Still, I offered him some advice, there be dragons. Sometimes it is harsh, darn near brutal at times, and most certainly not for the faint of heart.

I hope once the initial excitement of him joining Twitter dies down he will have to deal less with questions of the moment and more things about cooking, food, TV, and whatever strikes his fancy for the day.

I wish him happy tweeting.

Alton Brown on Twitter & the Beard Win

2011-05-07T18:18:00.009-04:00

From all accounts Friday must have been a chillier than normal day in Hell because Mr. Anti-Social Media himself, Alton Brown, joined the ranks of Twitter.

Yes, your heard me... AB is on Twitter.

I was skeptical that he would come aboard since he said publicly for his disdain for social media. So, I didn't believe it until late Friday night after Chris Cognac, the Hungry Detective, got to the bottom of the mystery and confirmed AB indeed is on Twitter.

If you want to follow AB he is @altonbrown

I have tweeted AB several times today and yesterday but he's failed to answer any of them, apparently I'm not important enough for him to even send one minuscule tweet to. :(

With his sudden foray into social media and a tweet telling of a website overhaul (btw AB is erasing his tweets every 24 hrs), I am at a crossroads with the site. The primary function was to tell fans about AB's events and reports on things related to him. However with Mr. Brown now talking to the masses, I do not see a point to continue the site as is.

So, I will either have to revamp the entire concept for the site. I also has wished that Mr. Brown would've enjoyed my PR skills so much that he would've hired me to do the same for him on a full-time basis. Another dream destroyed so back to my meaningless crap job I suppose.

With AB doing his own talking, I know this site would never be as great and I don't see a reason to keep it going.

The other big news from Friday, Alton won a James Beard Award for best TV host. Although he told me he didn't expect to win when I congratulated him back in March, he did.

Bitter Sweet Good Eats

2011-05-02T14:35:00.003-04:00

Tonight is most likely the last regular episode of Good Eats. When announcing Alton Brown's contract renewal last month, Food Network's press release stated AB was moving on to develop another project while continuing his role as Iron Chef America commentator. For fans of GE, there are still three one-hour specials to look forward to but alas, Use Your Noodle 5 appears to be the final episode in the long running show.

For me, it has been more than just GE. I have enjoyed ICA and Feasting on Asphalt and Waves just as much. I am most certainly a fan of Mr. Brown for ALL that he gives his fans, not just one show at one time.

While it is sad to see the best cooking show on TV, and possibly ever, end I know that AB will still give us great projects in the future.

Best of luck Alton on whatever is next, ICA, Next Iron Chef and everything!

This devoted fan looks forward what's next and has confidence those will be great projects as well.

Not Really Alton Brown Info, I'm Just Gloating!

2011-04-27T14:43:00.002-04:00

This post has no Alton Brown news at all, just a note to let all of you loyal readers know that I just finished a conference call with Bobby Flay (!) regarding America's Next Great Restaurant and the finale on Sunday night.

WOW!!

I still am a bit shocked that I was let into the conference call. I mean, it is NBC... the National Broadcasting Company, a pioneering giant in the television industry for goodness sakes. One news organization I've long dreamed about working for. And Chef Flay one of the first Food Network stars!

WOW!!

So there I am at the conference call thinking about how I just scored another pretty darned impressive event but wondering how it is that Alton still sees this site as lowly and unworthy of his time and interest? Even when I had a media pass he still didn't treat me as he would any other member of the press.

Makes me confused as to why all of these other people seem to be overly happy to comply with my requests but he still says no.

The one person I call my culinary idol, the person who has been my teacher for so many years, the person who has inspired me to make so many dishes and the person who, in a small way, inspired me to start being a reporter again, says flat out no every time I ask him for a small bit of his time. What makes him so special?

As grateful as I am to NBC for being included in the call, as thankful as I am to all of the people who HAVE agreed to an interview with me (including the one with Harold McGee), I would trade all of that in a heartbeat to be able to interview AB. It is the one thing that will always be important to me.

Unfortunately Mr. Brown does not care to see it that way.

Anyway, if you're interested in the article on America's Next Great Restaurant and Bobby Flay here is it!

America's Next Great Restaurant Opens Soon

Rolling dough of confusions

2011-04-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

Bread doughs have long been a culinary area that has escaped me until recently, so I was excited to see Alton Brown taking on the cause of rolls in one of the newest Good Eats episodes. While I always enjoy Good Eats for its production value and entertainment, for me, the best episodes give equal treatment to the food topic at hand. Unfortunately, the rolls offered in this new episode seem a tad bid too complicated even for most dedicated fan and home cook.

The good

The storyline for the episode was most certainly an entertaining mix of characters, food and fun. The "letting go" of the yeasties was by far my favorite part of the show. Their slow exit from the Good Eats house, complete with hobo bags on sticks, was purely inspired! Just when I thought it couldn't be topped, came the homage to "The Trouble with Tribbles," which may be my favorite episode of Star Trek... ever. Die-hard GE fans will note this wasn't the first time AB referenced the Tribbles on the show. I couldn't stop thinking of the eggplant episode as well.

However, this reference was even better than the multiplying eggplants since it was complete with the new yeasties cooing and chirping, and failing out of the cupboards.

And a big grin for the Incredible Mr. Limpet nod, one of my favorite movies.

The not-so good

I'm not so sure how much of the show was tongue-in-cheek and how much was serious. I was looking forward to a good instructional on making rolls, so I was a wee bit disappointed in the complexity AB brought to the party. His "simple" mnemonic device made me laugh for sure, but remembering it, let alone the stages of his dough method will be difficult.

I have imagined seeing a demented, rabid platypus carelessly drinking blue cocktails.

Also begs the question, can a platypus contract rabies? It is a mammal so I suppose it is possible.

I was further confused by AB backtracking on bread flour vs standard AP flour and rapid rise yeast vs instant yeast.

A few years ago I came across an old New England cookbook published in 1939. In this cookbook there is a recipe for original Parker House rolls, which says to use bread flour. I have made said recipe a number of times and have produced the best rolls ever. Yes, using bread flour. If you recall in the original pizza dough episode, Alton said the higher protein was important in making a chewy crust. So, was that just for pizza doughs and not other yeast doughs?

It just so happens that breads are the topic of my next cooking class, so I've been brushing up on flour, yeast, gluten, etc. I read Cookwise just this weekend for refresher and caught this after watching the show Monday night. "A loaf made with high-protein flour (like bread flour) will rise well in both risings and bake into a light, airy loaf with good brown crust color," Shirley O. Corriher writes. She also makes note that unbleached AP flour has more protein than bleached AP flour thus being better for yeast doughs. (p. 8)

I now don't understand why AB didn't explain this a little more. Maybe he didn't want, need, care about this for his rolls, I don't know since he didn't go into details, but I'm confused now because it seems the style of flour you use does make a difference. Or some seem to believe that it does.

Oh bother.

To further complicate matters, AB then says he now likes rapid rise yeast!

Oy, it is enough to make my head spin.

Long ago, thanks to the first pizza episode, I traded in my pouches of rapid rise yeasties for larger bags of instant yeast because of the ascorbic acid added and the ability to add it directly to the dry goods sans waking them in warm water.

So the making of the rolls left me less than happy to say the least.

But I will say thanks for the fun show, AB. However, I think I'll be sticking with what's been working for me in the roll department.

Elite Chefs Go Knife-to-Knife in High-Stakes Challenge to Become ‘The Next Iron Chef

2011-04-19T13:22:00.003-04:00

Food Network Selects Roster of Ten Superstar Chefs for the Ultimate Culinary Battle - Each Looking to Become The Next Iron Chef Hosted by Alton Brown, Season Four Set to Premiere Sunday, October 30 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

NEW YORK – April 18, 2011 - Food Network, the leader in food and lifestyle entertainment, today announced the all-star casting and start of production for the ultimate season of The Next Iron Chef. Slated for premiere on Sunday, October 30^th at 9pm ET/PT, Alton Brown will again host this 8-episode, top-rated series, which will shoot in Los Angeles and New York. The elite cast includes ten renowned chefs:

Anne Burrell – Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Worst Cooks in America (Food Network)

Michael Chiarello – Bottega Restaurant (Napa Valley), Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello (Cooking Channel)

Elizabeth Faulkner – Citizen Cake, Orson (San Francisco), Iron Chef America – challenger (Food Network)

Alex Guarnaschelli – Butter, The Darby (New York), Alex’s Day Off, Chopped (Food Network)

Chuck Hughes – Garde Manger (Montreal), Chuck’s Day Off (Cooking Channel), Iron Chef America – challenger (Food Network)

Robert Irvine – Robert Irvine’s eat! (Hilton Head Island), Dinner: Impossible, Restaurant: Impossible, Worst Cooks in America (Food Network)

Beau MacMillan – Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain (Phoenix), Challenge, Iron Chef America – challenger (Food Network)

Spike Mendelsohn – Good Stuff Eatery (Washington D.C.), Kelsey & Spike Cook (Food2.com)

Marcus Samuelsson –Red Rooster Harlem (New York), 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, Chopped (Food Network)

Geoffrey Zakarian – The National, The Lambs Club (New York), 24 Hour Restaurant Battle, Chopped (Food Network)

Judges include the original ‘Next Iron Chef’ Michael Symon, esteemed food journalist Simon Majumdar and UK Iron Chef Judy Joo.

In The Next Iron Chef, the contestants bet on their culinary skills and put their reputations on the line for the chance to compete in legendary Kitchen Stadium. The winner will join the ranks of chefs including Bobby Flay, Marc Forgione, Jose Garces, Masaharu Morimoto and Symon as a member of the Chairman’s team on Iron Chef America.

Alton Brown's Chocolate Bread Pudding

2011-04-18T13:12:00.003-04:00

In one of the more recent episodes of Good Eats, Alton Brown talked about the wonders of bread pudding. A few years ago after attending a diabetic cooking class with my mom, I encountered a decent version of cinnamon bread pudding using Pepperidge Farms Cinnamon Swirl bread. However, after watching Good Eats, I wanted to try the chocolate variation.

Of course it wouldn't be right if I didn't play around with AB's recipe... er... application a bit. First problem, the megamarket didn't sell challah. Now I recently acquired a Jewish cookbook with a challah recipe but just wasn't in the mood to bake bread so I opted for the next best thing, a boule.

With the bread procured the rest of the ingredients were easy to find. But I did change from bittersweet chocolate to milk chocolate just for a taste preference and I didn't have an espresso to add so I used regular coffee.

Fresh from the oven this tastes like warm chocolate chip cookie. When it cools a bit, it still has cookie properties but less than right out of the oven. Either way you eat it, however, it is a great dessert... of in my case breakfast since I soaked it overnight. ;)

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

2 large whole eggs
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot chocolate mix
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup whole milk
2 ounces espresso, slightly cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and divided
18 ounces stale challah bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into 1/2-inch pieces

Directions

Place the eggs and yolks in the carafe of a blender and combine on the lowest speed for 30 seconds. Slowly add the sugar over 30 seconds, then add the hot chocolate mix and blend until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add the half-and-half, milk, espresso, and vanilla and blend until well combined, about 30 seconds.

Butter a 9 by 13-inch metal pan with 1 tablespoon of the butter and place the cubed bread in the pan. Spread the chocolate on top of the bread and slowly pour in the custard. Press down on the mixture with a spatula or back of a spoon to thoroughly saturate. Cover and set aside at room temperature for 2 hours, or refrigerate for up to 8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Bake until the internal temperature reaches at least 170 degrees F, about 45 minutes. Set the oven to the high broil setting with the oven door ajar. Remove the bread pudding from the oven. Pour the melted butter into a spray bottle and spritz the top of the bread pudding. Return to the middle rack and broil for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack for 15 minutes before serving.

Alton Brown 2011 NECI Commencement Speaker

2011-04-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

Alton Brown will return his other alma mater this year to give the commencement speech to the graduating class at the New England Culinary Institute. The ceremony is June 4.

AB will have a lot to talk about and advice for the students, for certain.

Thank to my friend Anne for rooting out the find!

Hey, Alton Brown has never made that... But I did

2011-04-13T17:41:00.002-04:00

Today's tale is about what I've always enjoyed about Alton Brown's philosophy on Good Eats--learn culinary techniques so when you find yourself sans recipe you'll know what to do. My example, the tempting and delicious chile relleno. Now AB has never made this specific item on Good Eats, nor in any of his cookbooks for that matter, but thanks to what I know and one application from an episode I had all I needed to complete said dish with marvelous results.

I love Tex-Mex food and there is certainly no shortage of this cuisine here locally; however, there are days when I just don't want to shell out the bucks or drive to the restaurant and wait or I'm just overtaken to bring on a new challenge to myself. That's when my brain starts plotting, planning and scheming... no good can come from that. Well, sometimes it does.

Since I'm a chile relleno fiend, I've had a fair share of them over the years. Some with a cheese only filling. Some with beef and cheese filling. They all, however, share a commonality,a roasted chile stuff with something and battered then fried. So what's so hard about making some of my own?

Nothing really.

Where to start? I asked myself knowing that Alton had never taken on the item. Well, Bobby Flay certainly came to mind. The Food Network's king of Southwestern cuisine. I had watched him make them enough on Iron Chef America alone to know the process. And I'll give AB the credit there as well because the only reason I started watching ICA was that Alton is the commentator. I also consulted some recipes online just to get feel for the dish, not that I didn't know about from merely consuming it.

It started with large, green chiles, poblano to be exact. Now, the important part of prepping the pepper (ok, it is a chile but my alliteration wouldn't work otherwise-sue me) is charring the waxy skin. This is needed for the batter to adhere to the chile's flesh.

First up in the technique portion, fire roasting. This simple technique was covered in "Chile's Angles" when AB roasted jalapenos and more recently when he roasted a red bell pepper in the bouillabaisse episode. Simply place the chile over the burner, I used a medium-high flame, and char the skin completely. Keep the chile rotating very few minutes so it doesn't burn too much. After the chile was completely chared, place it on the cutting board with an inverted metal bowl to allow steam to loosen the skin for about 5 minutes.

While the chiles steamed, I turned to the filling. I wanted the beef/cheese combo since those are always my favorites rather than just cheese. This gave me an opportunity to give one of Alton's newer applications a try. The Taco seasoning from "American Classics: VIII." My only change to the mix was using mild smoked paprika. That is all I have and finding any kind of smoked paprika in my area is difficult.

Taco Potion #19
Ingredients

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons hot smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Place in a jar and shake to combine.

After blending the powder, I turned to browning the meat and cooking the onions for the rest of the process of the seasoned beef.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped

16 ounces ground sirloin

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 recipe Taco Potion #19

2/3 cup low-sodium beef broth

Add onion to skillet and cook until softened and lightly browned around the edges, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the ground meat, 1 teaspoon salt, and garlic. Cook until browned, about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, to break up the meat. Add Taco Potion and beef broth. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until sauce is slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.

The taco seaconing has wonderful smoky flavor unlike any premade, store bought mix around. Also since there's not much salt added to the mix, it is far less salty than packaged mixes. With seasoned beef made, I cut Monterrey Jack into sticks (had to use Jack because getting real Mexican cheeses are another thing I have problems with).

Working with the roasted chiles is a delicate matter. The skins can tear if you are not careful. To prep them for the filling, cut a small slit from top to almost bottom. Then pull out the seeds, or as much as you can. I put a couple of cheese strips in then the beef mixture then some more cheese to close up the hole.

The batter came next. Here's where I flew by the seat of my pants. I mixed some masa flour with white flour and added buttermilk until the consistency looked right to me. I know, that tells you absolutely nothing! I wish I had measured it all out to recount it properly but sometimes in the heat of cooking retelling the story isn't my first thought. I know, hard to fathom but true. Each stuff chile got dipped into the masa batter and allowed to sit a few mintues. I opted to pan fry them instead of deep fry. That was a little tricky around the opening. Overall, they stayed closed and the cheese didn't run out. Some of the batter did slide off and onto my tongs though!

Now I have chile rellenos to add to my culinary arsenal. Without a real recipe to boot. Okay, AB's taco seasoning but the overall making of was sheer technique and application of knowledge. If I ever get the chance to sit down and talk with AB this is something I'd love to share with him. One of so many things he's helped teach me.

Alton Brown appears in first episode of Next Food Network Star

2011-04-11T13:33:00.004-04:00

It's almost time for another incarnation of The Next Food Network Star and this year Alton Brown will be in the premier episode. TNFNS beings Sunday, June 5 at p.m. EST. According to press release from FN, AB will lend his behind-the-camera, know-how to mentor teams in developing promotional TV commercials.

2 Alton Brown applications, 2 great treats

2011-04-07T14:06:00.001-04:00

Milk and I have a long standing love/hate relationship. A few years ago when Alton Brown did an entire episode on it, I joked just watching it made my stomach hurt. Nevertheless, I watched and was intrigued by dulce de leche. Caramel has always been a favorite and according to AB this caramel-y treat was a little less sweet but just tasty. On the plus side, it was darn simple to make.

Things happen, as they do, and my dulce de leche making took a backseat to countless other things, other applications from the show, other treats, and the like. Until a few days ago when something struck me again that I needed to make this. Part of this need stemmed from a dirty little secret... ok, confession time... I enjoy the iced caramel mocha from McDonald's.

Runaway in abject horror if you must, but I do. Driving back from seeing Alton in Alabama we stopped at some gas station where a McD's resided inside and I heard the siren song. Justifying with the need to stay alert on the highway, I purchased said drink. However, somewhere on the Interstate, it hit me I could make these at home for a fraction of the cost. All I needed was some good caramel sauce.

Enter dulce de leche.

It was the perfect time to venture to making it. On top of making AB's dulce de leche, I was using his iced coffee frappe app from Kitchen Gear. Another thing I had been meaning to make as well. It all started with milk, one quart, 12 ounces of sugar and one vanilla bean. Knowing my issues with moo juice, I opted for 2% milk. Also, I used white table sugar/Splenda mixture, weighing 6 oz of sugar and using 3/4 cup for the difference.

Not too long into the cooking, the milk started to take on a light tan color. The vanilla bean gave the kitchen a wonderful aroma as well.

Although Alton's directions call for cooking the milk/sugar mixture for up to three hours, I found at the one hour post-vanilla bean extraction mark it was becoming near the correct consistency.

After it was cooled and placed in a jar I turned to the next project, the iced coffee frappe. One benefit of working where I do, is we offer coffee to our patrons, so there's usually leftovers. I confiscated the unused coffee from working a long, boring Saturday for frappes the next day. AB's frappe is ridiculously simple.

2 cups of ice

1 cup cold coffee

1/3 cup powdered milk

1/4 cup milk

I varied from AB version, his calls for 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup and 1 teaspoon of sugar. I just placed a wallop the dulce de leche instead. All of the ingredients go into a blender, I used the ice crushing function on mine. Within a few minutes I had a luscious, frothing cold coffee drink on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon.

A dozen meetings with Alton Brown

2011-04-03T23:02:00.002-04:00

It is even hard for me to realize the last event with Alton Brown I attended was my 12th time, one whole dozen!, going to see him. Wow, that really blows my mind. But I had wanted to meet AB ever since his first book tour way back in 2002 with the release of I'm Just Here for Food. At that time, I had only been watching Good Eats for a little over a year but loved the show so much that there was no doubt I wanted to meet the man behind it.

Well having a crappy job (another thing that's hard to believe I had a worse paying job than I do now) and limited transportation options there was no way I could ever see him in some far off city because he wasn't coming anywhere near W.Va. so I could just drive to Charleston to meet him. So I waited and waited and waited for circumstances to change--either AB would come to my neck of the woods or I would make a trip to see him.

A few years ago somethings did change and I have managed to see AB do many demos, lectures and book signings. By the time I first met him in person, I had moved from just loving Good Eats to enjoying just about anything AB put his name to.

Since starting this fansite I also get a chance to share these events with others still waiting to get their chance to meet Alton. I know it is not where near as awesome as meeting him, believe me I've been there reading others' accounts and stories and hoping for that same opportunity, but I hope it can help.

As with tradition here's the details of seeing Alton on Dauphin Island, Ala.

At the evening's big VIP event I spent the first part of it weaving through the crowd trying to talk with Alton. While I had a media pass for both this event and the morning's gumbo cookoff it didn't give me real access to talk with Alton as I hoped. I appreciated having the pass to get in very much and still can't believe I even had it, but I was saddened that during the morning I wasn't allowed to go with the rest of the out-of-town press on the shrimp boat to hear from AB and the scientists from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the FDA Lab about the state of Gulf seafood. I had all intentions of doing some write ups on that as well as all of the Alton related events. For some reason I was told the boat ride was for out-of-town press but not me even though I was five states and one time zone away. Who knows why? I really wanted to go so I could help get the message out about Gulf seafood.

Not having a chance to speak with him in the morning, that left me with trying to track down Alton at the evening event to tell him a few things, like a big congrats on the James Beard Award nomination. He seemed to think he wouldn't win. But I told him I was hoping for the win AND he should've won last year.

Sometime before I manged to sneak up to him, mom caught up with him first. He signed her program and asked if she had enough things with his name on them. Mom told me later she should've told him no because you (meaning me) give away most of them. I told her, you have to be on your toes with him.

After Alton spoke on the state of Gulf seafood for a few minutes he resumed meeting the folks at the event. Although the weather was turning bad and he wanted to exit for Atlanta earlier than planned, he stayed to sign items and talk with as many people as possible. When he came off the stage the horde descended on him. I was a few rows back watching people surrounding him, asking for autographs and posing for pictures.

I brought two books with me, figuring that getting in on a media pass wouldn't entitle me to a free Good Eats book. After waiting and watching the people moving in and around Alton, I finally went up to his assistant, Jim, and gave him the gifts I brought for AB. I didn't know if I would ever push through that crowd of people or if Alton would ignore me since I had met him so many other times. At one point and older gentleman came up to me and said, "We'll wedge in up there and get to him." I smiled and let the man go first.

Finally some of crowd thinned. I was very close to AB and next to get my chance. He turned away again worked some other part of the crowd. I stood with my copy of I'm Just Here for More Food waiting. Then I heard, "You have a book left?" come from Alton as he grabbed it. I told him it was one of my last ones. I had the softback copy of Gear for Your Kitchen with me but didn't pull it out. While Alton signed the book I told him about the fundraiser for Heifer International and Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sadly, he said he didn't know about it so he must have not received the card and letter from the organizations. But he knows now.

Then the most surreal thing happened. I've known for a long time that Alton remembers me. He even told me at the 10th Anniversary show that he did. Of course after all of my interview pursuits and doing this fansite, I know that he knows me by facial recognition. Sometimes telling people this brings out the haters who want to call me nasty names because they think I've made this up. But now I have the most awesome twist to add to the "yes he knows me story." In taking my book to sign, there were no post-it notes as usual at book signings and there were no name tags, so when AB started to make out the book I saw the sharpie go down then he wrote "To Lisa," without asking me anything or even hesitating. Yeah, he remembered my name and how to spell it (not that its hard to spell). I paused for a second to realize what had just happened. Its one thing to know it but another thing altogether to witness that yeah he really knows my name.

I wandered around the Sea Lab for a bit longer watching people talking with AB. I saw one woman ask him to sign her arm, which he did, and a young fan ask for a hug. He was accommodating to everyone. I stood around with my iphone snapping a few photos (the ones above). Then I saw AB walk over to me. Honestly, I didn't know what to make of it. Part of me thought he would make a comment about the amount of photos I had been taking. But he didn't. He told me he was going over into the next section of the Sea Lab. So I followed with my iphone in tow.

Before we entered the event I was talking with several people outside of the Sea Lab. One couple ran into me again and the woman asked if I got my book signed. I showed them and the man said, "Oh you got the little guy. But what does that mean?" I explained to him that I had seen Alton many times, did the fansite, and this was my last book. Shortly after they left the other couple came up to me and the woman asked if I thought Alton would sign her book, the free one with the tickets. I told her probably.

Eventually Alton moved toward her and since I was talking with her, I ended up right next to him again. I tapped him on the shoulder and asked about the next book. He said it is coming out in October and there will be a book tour. He didn't, however, know the cities yet.

Lastly, I wished him a safe flight home and he went on to talk with more people before heading out and I left to explore the island some more.

I have a Flickr album with all of the photos from both the gumbo event and the VIP event up if you'd like to check them out. Go here!

I leave with a photo from outside of where the event was held. This is looking toward Mobile Bay. Also, I have fallen in love this this area and hope to get back there soon.

Alton Brown Champions Gulf Seafood

2011-04-01T08:29:00.006-04:00

My article for the VIP event is posted on Suite 101, hope you go over there and read it.

Food Network host, Alton Brown, champions seafood safety from Gulf of Mexico after last summer's oil spill.

Lisa Hechesky

Last summer the outlook for the Gulf of Mexico region seemed bleak as barrels of oil spewed from a broken pipeline. Throughout the summer, oil covered animals, tourists turned away from sun-filled destinations, and fishermen couldn’t bring in seafood catches. With the oil now capped, people of the Gulf look for a comeback in one hard hit industry. And in Mobile Bay on Dauphin Island, Ala., the road to recovery enlisted the assistance of Food Network star Alton Brown.

Brown, the host of Good Eats and Iron Chef America commentator, is a long-time proponent of sustainable seafood and spent time on Dauphin Island learning about the science used to assure seafood safety in the aftermath. “I spent a lot of time today learning about the systems that were invented, the methodologies that were invented to test seafood to insure the safety of seafood when things like this happen,” he said of his visit.

Gulf Seafood Recovery

At an event to raise awareness and funds for fishing families and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation, Brown played cheerleader for Gulf seafood. “Nature can take care of itself and human beings have a really hard time keeping nature down. I think we have that to be thankful for because even after such a horrific tragedy we now have safe seafood again. And it's certainly going to be part of the message I'm going to take to the rest of the world and certain to the people I touch on a daily basis, which is Gulf seafood is back with a vengeance. It's delicious as ever. There's more of it as ever. And it's safe,” said Brown.

Read more here...

Alton Brown talks gumbo, seafood in the Gulf

2011-03-29T23:49:00.003-04:00

Thanks to a little visit from Alton Brown, the second annual Dauphin Island Gumbo Cookoff tripled attendance over the inaugural event last year. No doubt having a top-notch food TV personality on the island increased awareness for the community event and brought many folks to the quaint beach town who normally would have never known of the place or thought to visit it, especially after news reports of gloom and doom for the Gulf region last summer.

While gumbo headlined the palates of many visitors and residents, AB used the time to discuss sustainable seafood, an issue he's passionate about, and how the Gulf region is a great supplier of seafood for the US.

Before the day's festivities, Alton spent some time talking with the contestants about their gumbo, posing for photos and signing books. As luck would have it, in trying to track down my media pass for the event early that morning I took the two-minute drive over to the cookoff locale several hours before the official start. While there guess who was also milling about?

None other than Mr. Brown, decked out in Mardi Gras beads, and talking with people getting ready for the cookoff. Thanks to my quasi-insider status I followed AB around snapping some candid moments before the cookoff.

Alton Brown inks new contract with FN

2011-03-28T22:46:00.002-04:00

After a long drive home from Dauphin Island, Ala. and seeing Alton Brown again, I have a load of photos to go through before relaying the details back to everyone. In the meantime, news of AB's contract with Food Network came out today. I'm kicking myself got not asking on Saturday but I felt maybe it wasn't really any of my business, even if I do this site and his fans are very interested in knowing about his status with FN.

The good news is that AB and FN have an agreement for another three years. It appears he will only be doing three hour-long Good Eats specials for Thanksgiving then working on some new project. He retains his commentator role on Iron Chef America and host for another season of The Next Iron Chef. Of course, that's sad news for everyone who loves Good Eats. But wonderful news that Alton will still be a major presence with network for the next three years.

I can say as both a Good Eats fan and an AB fan, I'm sad to see it end but know he will give us more great TV. I loved the Feasting on Asphalt/Waves shows as much as GE. I loved his books, the non-GE ones, very much.

While I started and came to know of him through GE, I'm now his fan in addition to a fan of the shows and books. Therefore, I cannot wait to see the new show and know Alton will still teach us and entertain us in whatever the new form will be. Much luck and success in the new venture Alton!

I just wish there were a way I could, somehow, work for his new project. That would be a dream job to end all dream jobs for me.

As for the weekend event, here's a photo to hold everyone over until later.

Alton Brown nominated for James Beard Award

2011-03-22T11:52:00.002-04:00

A big congradutions goes out to Alton Brown for being nominated for Best TV Food Personality by the James Beard Foundation. The awards will be handed out in early May in New York City.

AB is up against Bobby Flay and Duff Goldman, so in my mind its an easy win for him. Last year he was nominated in the same category but lost, sadly, to Andrew Zimmern. AB also emceed the event. So let's take a walk down memory lane and revisit the wonderful video my friend, Anne, got from talking to the owner of D S Simon Productions while watching people on the red carpet.

I can't wait to personally congratulate AB on Saturday. :)

News and Notes

2011-03-21T09:30:00.006-04:00

This week promises to be one of those long drawn out spans of time, not just because it's Spring Break week and I have to work day shift but because at week's end I'll be heading south to Alabama to see Alton Brown for the Dauphin Island "Good Eatin'" event. The event is sold out, and it is wonderful to see success for organizers and folks benefiting.

However before I set off (and probably will not want to return from the warmth and seafood of the Gulf Coast) there are some housekeeping items to address.

First, the winner of the AB signed Good Eats 2 book is Bob Allenbrand. Bob's comment:

He says "Thusly" at least once per episode. It cracks me up. If there were a Good Eats drinking game it should be in it.

It was the luck of the draw for Bob, but thusly makes me laugh too. ;) Enjoy the book!

Speaking about the book, it won About.com's Reader's Choice Awards for best cookbook in 2010. I think we played a big hand in getting it nominated and the win!

Of course a new episode airs tonight in the beastly 11:30 p.m. time slot. This will be a challenge for me to watch since I'm getting up at the butt crack of dawn this week. It does, however, look like an interesting episode with three versions of chicken pot pie. Wondering if these apps will beat the curry chicken pot pie from "Casserole Over" episode, which turned this chicken pot pie hater into a major chicken pot pie lover.

As for the event on Saturday, I will try my best to tweet live(@altonbrowngeeks) from the gumbo cook off and VIP event. I don't know about photos for the VIP event, like last time with the "blackout" but I will bring everyone what I can to make those of you too far away feel like you're there as well. I am hoping the gumbo cookoff will yield lots of good photos and stories.

As the cliche goes, stay tuned...

Alton Brown Offers Chocolately Goodness in Cake Form

2011-03-13T13:03:00.005-04:00

I don't know about you, or Alton Brown, but in my opinion red velvet cake should be the one with the evil moniker not the luscious chocolate goodness of Devil's Food. I've never cared much for red velvet, thinking it has nothing in the way of flavor or chocolateness. So there is high hope for the next installment of Good Eats on Monday, March 14 because if anyone can improve or convince me to give the vile red velvet cake a second chance, it would be AB.

The two questions I am pondering, however, aren't about the food to but the production of the show. One, will Lucky reappear as the Devil? He was great as Old Scratch in the Tamale episode. Secondly, will there be a Steel Magnolias reference to the armadillo cake?

We'll only know for sure by watching. Remember the new episode airs at 11:30 pm (EST), after that new dimwit show about ice carving. I refrain from hopping on my soapbox and whining about the brilliance behind that show... for now.

Recipes are available on Food Network's site, yay!

Remember: New Episode and Get an Alton Brown Signed Book

2011-03-07T11:33:00.001-05:00

In the new Good Eats tonight at 11 p.m. (one thing I know, someone is smiling me because Good Eats is airing at 11 p.m. so I CAN see it live after work. I was worried before) Alton Brown will discuss the wonders of the chickpea. From the applications listed on Food Network's website it looks to be jam packed with things to do with the little legume. Check here for the full list.

AB mentioned hummus being in the show at his demo in Cleveland. I do enjoy his Turbo Humus from the first bean episode. Looking forward to falfel and the roasted chickpeas.

And if you haven't entered, remember sign up to win a signed copy of Good Eats 2: The Middle Years. There's still two more weeks to go!

Win a signed copy of Good Eats 2! #winning (sorry, I had to do it :P )

Angry Cows, Chalkboards, Alton Brown and Another Shameless Plug

2011-03-01T21:21:00.009-05:00

Chalkboards are synonymous with teaching and learning and just about as common to see somewhere near Alton Brown; whether that's on TV or at one of his demos. It just wouldn't be right if a huge ol' slab of slate and a stick of calcium sulfate weren't somewhere in the vicinity of Alton pontificating, in fact he quipped at Cleveland's Fabulous Food Show that he traveled with a chalkboard, a leftover fetish of childhood. He's even been spotted in New York City with one during last year's NY Wine and Food Festival.

Most of the demos I've attended, AB has broken into drawing molecules, illustrations and meat maps, going so far as drawing his "angry cow" meat map (seen below) to liven up his Cleveland demo. On Good Eats, no episode is complete without getting a look at what is drawn on the refrigerator's chalkboard door or when the old, squeaky board rolls in frame.

Chalkboards and learning about food and cooking go hand in glove, in my mind at least. So when I recently scored a chance to teach a cooking class for my county's parks and recreation departments, one of the first comments I made to mom was "I need a chalkboard."

Yeah, I'm that warped.

The room were I'll be teaching the classes has a mighty fine kitchen set up, better than my home kitchen, but lacking in the classroom end of things. After checking out my class' digs, I rattled on about what I would be doing for the sessions and what I'd need. Chalkboard came up and my Mom immediately said she had chalkboard on an easel. Mom's countless yard sale and church rummage sale ventures always pay off eventually.

Lo and behold, she did have a chalkboard. A chalkboard on legs no less. A perfect, albeit small, replica of the Good Eats chalkboard! The only thing missing were wheels (oh and the squeaky sound effects). I gave the board a test run buy drawing the most appropriate image I could think of...

An angry Cow mini me.

Its a little short and the board itself isn't as wide, so no posing like AB did with his board. It will, however, help me teach my students something about cooking techniques, food and maybe I'll throw in a fun illustration as well.

One small step to becoming the next AB or Julia Child, after all she started by teaching classes while living in France.

If you're in the Charleston - Huntington, W.Va. area and would like to attend my class or know someone who would be interested, drop me a line at lisa@allaboutalton.com. The classes start in April. The room is small so I'm maxing out the class at 15 people. And I hope to get that many so I can gloat that my class outsold Sandra Lee's demo slated for Charleston back in 2009. Seems Aunt Sandy canceled a charity event because she only sold 14 tickets. I know more people would like to learn cooking from an AB wannabe anyway, so I'm sure to pack them in. ;)

March may be a slow posting month as I extrapolate all of the cooking info and recipes from my brain. That, I have discovered, is one of the more difficult things about this journey thus far, taking what I've been cooking for years sans recipes and making it approachable to beginners. Something else I'd love to talk with AB about someday. Perhaps when I trade in the not-for-profit food writing for the bright lights and fame of TV cooking he'll think I have the cred to chat it up with him and we can talk about some of those things I've yearned to discuss on a deeper level than a few minutes at a book signing.

Until then, I'll be a little sardine in a little pond trying help people understand more about what's going on in the kitchen and how to make a decent meal for their families while passing on my passion of cooking.

Signed Good Eats 2 Giveaway

2011-02-23T19:50:00.003-05:00

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

2011-02-17T14:38:00.003-05:00

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

2011-02-15T21:12:00.005-05:00

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

2011-02-15T00:40:00.002-05:00

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

2011-02-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

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

2011-02-09T13:19:00.000-05:00

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

2011-02-08T14:47:00.001-05:00

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

2011-02-07T13:58:00.002-05:00

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

2011-02-03T13:56:00.002-05:00

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.

Alton Brown Event in His Hometown

2011-01-24T13:56:00.001-05:00

Next month fan in the Atlanta area have a chance to spend the afternoon with Alton Brown at the Walker School in Marietta. AB is doing the to support the school, which his daughter attends.

I'm not sure what he had planned for the event but several years ago he did a lecture as a fundraiser for the Cobb County Public Library at the school entitled: AB's Practical Guide to Cooking and Eating Planet Earth. It was an outstanding talk for both intellectualism and wit. That was only my second time meeting AB, ah the good old days. It was one of my first posts here too.

This event has two levels, a general admission seat for $35 and a VIP package that includes a lunch, a goody bag and a meet and greet for $125. A book signing will follow the demo.

Tickets can be purchased online from the school's website.

Since I still can't have that interview with AB, here's an article from the Marietta (Ga.) newspaper about the event.

Nominate Alton Brown for About.com's Readers' Choice Awards

2011-01-23T16:04:00.001-05:00

The folks at About.com are running their Readers' Choice Awards, while there is no actual award to be won--more about bragging rights--it would still be a nice thing to claim. So, I searched the site to see if there would be a place to nominate Alton Brown for something like best cooking show host or something of that nature. The closest thing is in the Food & Drink category under Cooking Equipment there is a best cookbook published in 2010.

Perfect! So just head over to About.com's Readers' Choice Awards Your Favorite Cooking Equipment and type in Good Eats The Middle Years so AB can win! We have until February 4 to get the book nominated!

Alton Brown in Baltimore

2011-01-19T16:15:00.005-05:00

The main attraction for this year's Second Annual Foodie Experience at the Hippodrome in Baltimore, Md. is none other than Alton Brown. This event is Saturday, March 19. AB is scheduled for an evening main event with a special VIP event before he takes the stage at 8 p.m.

The VIP event costs $250. Tickets to the Foodie Experince are $94. Ticket sales begin January, 21 and are available at the Hippodrome Theatre Box Office, by phone 410-547-SEAT or 800-551-SEAT or through Ticketmaster

Alton Brown's Refrigerated Banana Pudding

2011-01-18T16:23:00.000-05:00

Banana pudding is a long time favorite of mine, being one of the dishes my mom made a lot when I was a child. Since it was a sample in my family and most everyone else I knew, it was, in uncertain terms, as Southern a dish as collar greens and cornbread. But imagine my surprise when Alton Brown delved into the history of this dish in the "Yes We Have No Banana Pudding" episode of Good Eats and told us the version I knew as a child, the one taught to my mom by her grandmother was, in fact, not the Southern variation of the dish.

Huh?

While I normally trust AB on his info, I would like to ask him what could be the issue as to why this dyed-in-the-wool Appalachian mountain girl's family makes the Yankee version? Being in the heart of Appalachia, our food is traditionally in line with other classic Southern dishes. So it quite the puzzler... well for me it is! I surmise being not so far from the Mason-Dixon Line, we may have more Yankee influences than we care to admit. That, or the fact that the great-grandmother I mentioned who taught my mom the dish had a strong Pennsylvania Dutch lineage.

Who knows. What I do know is that Yankee or not, the cold application was the one I wanted to try.

The quest to make the dessert started with locating a one teaspoon cookie disher needed to create the small wafers. Well, I searched all of the stores in my area to no avail. But, finally located a 1.5 teaspoon cookie scoop on Amazon.com. Close enough.

With a reasonably sized scoop, I ventured to make the vanilla wafer critical to the application.

Although I've been cooking for a long time, it still surprises my how simple it is to make things we so often buy. I would have never thought of making my own vanilla wafers. Other cookies, yeah I will make, but for some reason I never gave these little cookies a second thought. Maybe it was their size that tricked me.

Anyway, the cookies are nothing short of spectacular. While I didn't have the vanilla sugar AB said to use, I couldn't imagine them being much better. In making them twice, I strongly recommend that you flatten the cookie balls thoroughly. My first batch came out a bit domed because I only lightly mashed the dough. The next batch looked just like wafers because I flattened the heck out of them.

I also used 1.5 oz of white table sugar and 1/4 cup of Splenda in the wafers. Since Splenda is airy and hard to portion via weigh, I opted for the 1/4 cup figuring is was 2 oz. It worked well for the creaming.

Va nilla Wafers

Ingredients

* 7 ounces all-purpose flour

* 3/4 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder

* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

* 4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

* 3 1/2 ounces vanilla sugar

* 1 large egg

* 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

* 1 tablespoon whole milk

Directions

Position 1 oven rack in the top third of the oven and another in the bottom third. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and vanilla sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl after 1 minute. Add the egg and incorporate on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl. Add the vanilla extract and milk and blend on low speed for 15 seconds. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just to incorporate. Chill the batter in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes before scooping.

Scoop the batter in teaspoon-sized balls and arrange them on 2 parchment paper-lined half sheet pans, approximately 35 cookies per pan. Use the heel of your hand to slightly flatten each ball. Bake, 2 pans at a time, rotating the pans halfway through the baking, until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans to a cooling rack to cool completely before removing the cookies from the pan.

After the wafer phased was completed, I turned to the pudding phase. I've made a lot of pudding fillings over the years and this looked to be a simple, straightforward method. It was. Again, I opted to use Splenda in the pudding. Since the thickener was cornstarch I surmised it wouldn't be gain much from the sugar in the way of thickening up. Changing out the sugar didn't effect the final texture at all.

I skipped the part about the banana liqueur because, mainly, I like the cookies when they are a bit soft. And second I didn't know where to find it. I discovered these cookies hold up well despite not using the liqueur. In fact, the were not soft or mushy at all after sitting overnight. For the whipped cream topping, I had to add it to my individual serving because my mom doesn't like whipped cream. Still used the whipped cream method in the application, but again, swapped the sugar for Splenda. (My goodness this is sounding like a promo for them, they are not paying me, honestly! I use a lot of it because my mom diabetic.)

Refrigerated Banana Pudding

Ingredients

* 3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
* 3 tablespoons cornstarch
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 2 large eggs
* 1 large egg yolk
* 2 cups whole milk
* 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces and chilled
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 45 vanilla wafers
* 4 ounces banana liqueur
* 3 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
* 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
* 1 cup heavy whipping cream, very cold

Directions

Combine 3/4 cup of the sugar, the cornstarch and salt in a 3-quart saucier. Add the eggs and egg yolk and whisk to combine. Add the milk and whisk until well combined, about 30 seconds. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 172 to 180 degrees F, approximately 5 to 10 minutes. The mixture will begin to

thicken and bubble around the edges. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, 1 piece at a time, being sure each piece is fully incorporated before adding the next. Whisk in the vanilla extract. Cover the surface of the pudding with a round piece of parchment and refrigerate until the pudding reaches 45 degrees F, approximately 2 hours.

Lay the vanilla wafers on a half sheet pan. Slowly and evenly pour the banana liqueur over the cookies. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Toss the banana slices with the lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside.

Spread a small amount of pudding in the bottom of a 1 1/2-quart glass mixing bowl. Cover with a layer of vanilla wafers, followed by a layer of banana slices. Spoon 1/3 of the remaining pudding on top of the bananas and repeat, ending with a layer of pudding.

Put the whipping cream in the bowl of a stand mixer, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and whisk just until stiff peaks form. Spoon the whipped cream over the cooled pudding and spread to cover completely. Top with any remaining soaked cookies. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

The verdict on the dessert is 100% outstanding. The cookies are more flavorful than pre-made and pudding is rich, creamy and smooth. Whether or not it is the Southern variation, the cold whipped cream, pudding and bananas are heavenly together. The only critique my mom made was to add more bananas, so next time I will go with four.

Tick Tock Give Me a Clock

2011-01-14T15:13:00.001-05:00

With what seems to be a ton of snow on the ground here, I've been baking a lot. I promise to get a review of Alton Brown's refrigerated banana pudding application up this weekend. In short, awesome. In the meantime, I have an exciting chance to partner with CSN Stores.com for a product review. In the past they have also sponsored several of this site's giveaways. So, if you're snowed in and have an urge to shop they have 200+ online stores where you can find anything from a cool laptop messenger bag to a Kit-Kat clock.

Even though I need a toaster and have been trying to find a large, single slot model like AB recommended in the toast episode, I'm eying that darn cat clock! Nevertheless, their store, cookware.com, which is my go to site of theirs, has a nice T-fal 4 slice model that has the extra long slots for big slices. I want it.

So will it be the clock, which I don't need but want, or the toaster, which I need plus is a lot like the one AB recommends? Oh bother.

Somehow I think the kitschy clock would be suited on an episode of Good Eats, except AB said he doesn't like cats. But its retro cool! So I should get it. Normally I select a nice cooking item, I have a cast iron Dutch oven to talk about that I got right before Christmas but haven't used. I don't think there's anything in the offical rules I have have to select something related to cooking just because this is a cooking site, that's just be my MO.

Well, I'm breaking with tradition and getting the clock. Then again, they have the Guy Fieri knives...

No I'm sticking with the clock.

Alton Brown Autographed Program Winner

2011-01-05T11:32:00.005-05:00

Thanks to everyone who visited and entered for the Alton Brown signed program giveaway. I have a winner. He posted over on Your Mise en Place or Mine as CookinKen and had this to say:

Only thing more humorous than AB this season was the way my Christmas diner turned out. :S Hopefully someday I’ll be able to use the knowledge AB shares to create some delectable edibles. Peace on Earth and good will towards all.

As an added bit of good news, Ken told me he was planning to attend the show but couldn't because an unforeseen circumstance, so it was great to learn he's at least getting a bit of the Fabulous Food Show.

I hope to have more things to offer in the coming year. I really enjoy giving away autographed items but that all hinges on seeing AB so I can't promise those. But I will try to find somethings of interest for everyone.

Also, I hope readers will venture over to Your Mise en Place or Mine to read more about cooking and food even if it's sans AB. :)

Happy New Year.

Ring in the New Year with Alton Brown

2010-12-27T21:49:00.001-05:00

While I'm on a mini sabbatical from work, sometimes not getting all of those Monday holidays off is a good thing, I have tried a few new and old applications from Alton Brown and looking forward to the new Good Eats on Thursday and Iron Chef America on Sunday.

First, the Christmas ham was AB's city ham again this year. I had a bit of a technical difficulty with it. While searching high and low in the Charleston metro area for a shank end ham I failed to notice the one I did procure was spiral cut. That made peeling the rind very hard. Though it turned out great anyway.

Last night I made the dried cherry scones from I'm Just Here for More Food, post to follow soon with a decent photo. This is from my iphone and has very bad lighting.

Remember!

New Good Eats on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Egg Files VII. I have a ton of egg whites in the freezer so this may be good.

The second day of the new year, Iron Chef America features a battle with Iron Chef Mike Symon and Anne Burrell vs Iron Chef Cat Cora and Robert Irvine. A cross promotional thing and at 8 p.m. so head's up on the time change. Last year's Super Chef battle will air at 10 p.m.

On Monday, January 3, if you have the day off unlike me and for some odd reason your employer gave you Dec. 23 off rather than Jan. 3, there will be a Next Iron Chef marathon starting at 9:30 a.m.

And if you haven't registered to win the program signed by AB, do so now by heading over to my newest food site: Your Mise en Place or Mine. com

Alton Brown at Cooking for Solutions

2010-12-22T13:28:00.004-05:00

The Cooking for Solutions 2011 event will include Alton Brown. The event at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Montery, Calif. is scheduled for May 20-22. Tickets go on sale Jan.4 for Aquarium members and Jan 24 for non-members.

The Cooking for Solutions website will have all of the details, visit it.

3N3VVBF8EAHH

An Alton Brown Related Giveaway

2010-12-22T10:06:00.002-05:00

Up for grabs now is a program signed by Alton Brown. While attending the Fabulous Food Show last month in Cleveland, I asked AB to sign one of the programs for a giveaway on the site. Altought he thinks bloggers lack integrity and I'm not good enough to interview him, I suppose he doesn't mind signing things for giveaways on the site... kinda strange but I'm happy he agreed to do so someone has a chance to get a signed item.

When I told him it was for a giveaway on the site, he drew a long line after writing "to" then promptly placed "you name here" under that line. Of course I chuckled all the while watching AB do his goofy thing.

Now I'm happy to give this interesting piece away to a lucky reader.

To get this you have to jump through a few hoops, of course. Starting in January, my goodness 2010 is almost gone (good riddance!), I will be giving more attention to another food site called, Your Mise en Place or Mine. My goal is to get it loaded with readers interested in a variety of food and culinary news and information. So to drum up some business for the new site, I connecting this giveaway to it.

All you need to do is, hop over to the site and find the post about the giveaway (www.yourmiseenplaceormine.com/win-program-signed-by-alton-brown). The rules and everything are posted there. Good luck!

It wasn't Alton Brown, but 1st FN host interview!

2010-12-20T10:04:00.011-05:00

One of the wonderful things about having a writing outlet is that many others enjoy reading what I have to say. And while it still dumbfounds me that people and companies not associated with Alton Brown, in any way, want me to write about them while AB still is completely against giving me a shot, I am one thousand percent (or more) grateful to those people who are willing to give a review book, sit for an interview, etc.

If anyone would have told me the first interview with a Food Network host I landed would not be Alton, I would have call that person nuts. After all, why or who else would want to talk to me other than Mr. Brown? Well, it has happened. My first interview with an FN host! A few weeks ago I had the wonderful pleasure of talking with Daisy Martinez. She is the host of ¡Viva Daisy! on FN and ¡Daisy Cooks! on PBS. Her newest cookbook from Atria Books, Daisy's Holiday Cookbook, is a wonderful guide to making holiday meal planning and execution easier. All with a Latin spin.

Daisy brings her Puerto Rican heritage to her cooking style. She trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York City and worked as a prep kitchen chef for the PBS show Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen before having her own shows.

The best part of the experience was talking to Daisy. From the start she was warm, bubbly and fun. It was like talking with an old dear friend, though I had never met her before that phone call. We talked a lot about Latin cuisine, although most of that didn't make into the final article, the misconceptions from people the United States, the broad scope of the cuisine, the diversity of seafood and the ethnic influences from the unexpected. Like, did you know there's a huge Chinese population in Cuba and the Dominican Republic? Or a huge influence from Italian immigrants in Argentina? That, of course, impacts the cuisine in these locales.

My goodness, I could've spent an entire afternoon talking with Daisy about cross-cultural cuisine sharing and the vast expanse of the Latin palate. The whole interview was a blast from start to finish.

Holiday Cooking Tips from Daisy Martinez

Dec 20, 2010
Lisa Hechesky

Food Network host and Latin cuisine expert, Daisy Martinez, offers easy holiday meal planning in her book "Daisy's Holiday Cooking"

In her holiday themed cookbook, Daisy’s Holiday Cooking (Atria Books), Daisy Martinez offers both easy entertaining and meal preparation ideas with her signature Latin twist. Martinez, host of Food Network’s ¡Viva Daisy!, infuses her Puerto Rican heritage into her cooking and also brings a greater awareness to true Latin cuisine in the process.

Daisy Martinez Holiday Cooking and Planning Tips

The idea to create a cookbook and holiday entertaining guide came from the hectic modern lifestyles of many people, which impinges on having time to bring together friends and family for the season. “People today find holiday entertaining so daunting,” she says. “The thing is to come together around a table with people that you love and break bread. That’s what it’s about. But with the holidays, with so much more going on, today moms really don’t have the luxury of being at home just to take care of those things—decorating the house, buying the gifts and the other stuff that we [women] end up doing by default. After all is said and done, we have so many responsibilities put on us that entertaining is out of the question.”

To survive all of the demands of the holidays from meal making to event planning, Martinez, the mother of four children, offers several ideas. “You want a nice festive, appealing meal for you to come together with your friends and family. So one of the things that I do in the book is that each chapter is menu driven but the menus are such that you can swap out and mix and match so you can create your own menu. Then I have a prep schedule because I’m all about the do ahead. Anything that I can do ahead, I do.”

Read the rest at Suite101: Holiday Cooking Tips from Daisy Martinez

Talking Good Cooking with Harold McGee

2010-12-14T16:25:00.002-05:00

For me, this interview was the equivalent of hitting a bottom of the ninth, game winning homerun. While it still baffles me about Alton Brown and his stance against interviewing with me for this site or my other writing outlets, I am always grateful that others in the culinary world find it worth their while to spend a few minutes to talk cooking and food with me.

And no more so than Mr. Harold McGee. I was quiet honestly in shock, and still am, over opening the email and reading about setting up the interview. After all, he's the man who wrote the book, literally, on using science to improve cooking. Way, way before AB even thought he might someday change up the cooking show genre.

So, to talk with Mr. McGee about his new book, Keys to Good Cooking, was just about the best thing ever for a cooking/food geek ever hope for. Now if AB ever changes his mind, that will be a tape-measure grand slam.

Harold McGee Offers Sage Advice in New Book

Dec 14, 2010 Lisa Hechesky

Looking at the science of everyday life lead Harold McGee to discoveries in kitchen and about food. In his newest book, Keys to Good Cooking, the renown food science guru provides expert advice for the home cook to improve his or her knowledge and skills.

Keys to Good Cooking

Building on the success of On Food and Cooking, the gold standard reference book explaining the hows and whys of cooking and science in the kitchen, McGee presents a succinct manual for curious cooks wanting more than just a collection of recipes. Keys to Good Cooking demystifies the act of cooking, debunks popular culinary myths and delivers information to assist any cook, from the novice to the seasoned. The 24-chapter tome discusses an array of topics from food and kitchen safety to recipe selection. The crux of the book, however, explains science and how and why it effects what is done in the kitchen. Also, it serves as an essential companion book for most many cook.

McGee, a former literature and writing instructor at Yale University, penned On Food and Cooking in 1984 and the subsequent revised edition in 2004 won a James Beard Award for best reference book in 2005. He currently writes the food column, The Curious Cook, for the New York Times and his own food science blog also by that name.

Q&A with Harold McGee

* Why did you decide to write this new book?

People who have read and enjoyed those others have pointed out to me that when they were having a particular issue in the kitchen, a particular problem or question, it often took them quite awhile to find the answer in the many, many pages of those other books that also include cultural history and chemical makeup and that kind of thing. So, I thought it would be useful to put together a book that would concentrate the practical elements of those earlier books of mine and expand on them. And make a book that would be usable not so much in the armchair but standing up in the kitchen in the midst of cooking.

* Are you steering away from recipes? You’re book is more about understanding the technique and the concept behind what’s happening.

Yeah, but I wouldn’t say exactly steering away from recipes. But there are lots of recipe books out there already. We have no shortage of recipes. But we do have a, maybe, too strong reliance on recipes and not enough of a basic understanding of what we’re doing, especially if we cook only a few times a week, as most home cooks do these days. If you’re a professional and cook everyday you develop, very quickly, an understanding—even if it’s just intuitive—of what’s going on. So this is a book that’s meant to supplement recipes with information that they often don’t provide.

* Why do you think recipes are written more as directions, step-by-step, rather than trying to understand those concepts the home cook may not know?

I think for a recipe writer those things may not be directly relevant or they assume that most people are going to know or something like that. It is hard to say, there are so many different writers of recipes and styles of recipe writing. Often there are space constraints, especially if they are writing for newspapers or magazines. Their editors are always trying to cut out stuff, so you end up with the bare bones.

* Which, then, puts the novice at a disadvantage.

That’s right

* And that’s where you come in to try to help us understand what’s left out.

Yes, and also to give you some perspective on recipes because recipes often sound as if this is the only way to do things. Usually there are lots of different ways to get to a good result. So I try to include that information as well. How to chose a recipe based on what is you’re looking for or what your kitchen has to offer in way of tools.
* Do you see science as being more accepted in the kitchen now versus when you wrote your first book?

Oh yeah, back then everyone thought it was kind of a strange connection to try to make and assumed anything to do with science and food must have to do with manufacturing of strange new snack foods and that kind of thing. Happily times have changed and people now realize that science isn’t a particular application or a particular body of knowledge, it’s more of an approach of curiosity and desire to understand things. And that it has a lot to offer the professional cook and casual cooks that don’t get to put in that many hours at the stove. For them, especially, understanding a bit about what’s going on can make a big difference.

Read the rest at Suite101: Harold McGee Offers Sage Advice in New Book

If you are interested, the book would be wonderful as a present for yourself or another cooking geek in your life.

** Photo credit: Karl Petzke**

Alton Brown's Whole Pumpkin Pie Soup

2010-12-09T11:18:00.003-05:00

Today the pumpkin soup Alton Brown made in a recent Good Eats episode is pulling double duty. One, of course, I am going to tell everyone about my experience making it. And second as part of Share Our Strength: Share Our Holiday Table a progressive virtual dinner where food bloggers contribute dishes to help raise awareness and funds for the SOS program. View the entire list of the good folks using their blogs to make a difference here. My dish for the dinner party is soup.

Any viewer of Food Network knows it is a partner with the organization to help end childhood hunger in America. As a viewer and AB or Good Eats fan, think a moment about this wonderful organization's mission and help out with contribution.

After seeing the pumpkin episode, I knew the whole pumpkin pie soup would be an interesting dish to try. First came procuring the pumpkins. Surprisingly, after Halloween all of the megamarts here stop selling all pumpkins, not just the Jack-o-lantern style. There was nary a sweet pie gourd to be located. My mom asked a produce man at a Kroger if they had any pie pumpkins. His reply, "The season is over. Good luck finding one."

I then remembered the Capitol Market, that's Charleston's farmers market. Lo and behold sitting outside of the Purple Onion, a bin of sweet pie pumpkins! I scarfed up a few!

On to making the soup. I didn't rush out an buy a drywall saw to open the top of the gourd. My serrated bread knife worked just fine. Besides if you've carved up a few Jack-o-lanterns in your day, this step is easy. Clean out the seeds and membrane and you are ready to go. The ice cream spade does work well in this case, I had an old one not used for ice cream anymore because it didn't work that well. I saved the seeds to roast later, a yummy and healthy treat!

Lube up the outside of the pumpkin with oil and place in a baking vessel. This was a tricky spot for me. I planned to use my souffle dish like AB did in the episode, but the kitchen is currently in a messy state because of a broken washing machine and I couldn't get to my casserole dishes. So I had to make do. I devised that baking the pumpkin in my saucier would work because the shape was about the same. Turns out, it worked wonderfully.

The only thing I didn't like about the soup was the goat cheese. I don't have the taste for it, tried it a long time ago and didn't like it then. At first, tasting the cheese from the package it seemed ok. But the heat of baking it 30 minutes must have intensified the flavor and made it too strong for my liking. Next time it will be sans goat cheese.

Whole Pumpkin Pie Soup

Serves:
4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

* 1 whole baking pumpkin, approximately 4 pounds, rinsed
* 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 1/2 small yellow onion, diced
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 small apple, peeled, cored, and diced
* 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 2 ounces goat cheese
* 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Directions

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Make a lid on the top of the pumpkin by cutting around the stem at a 45 degree angle. Make sure the opening is large enough to work within. Remove the seeds and fibers with a metal spoon or ice cream scoop and kitchen shears. Reserve the seeds for another use. Brush the exterior of the pumpkin and the lid with vegetable oil. Oil a round casserole dish large enough to hold the pumpkin and place the pumpkin inside.

Combine the butter, onion, salt, garlic, apples, chicken broth, and heavy cream in the hollow pumpkin. Replace the lid of the pumpkin to cover. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Remove the lid. Add the goat cheese and thyme and bake an additional 30 minutes, uncovered. Remove the pumpkin from the oven, and gently scrape some of the flesh into the soup mixture. Puree with an immersion blender to desired consistency, being careful to avoid the sides and bottom of the pumpkin. Serve immediately.

Keys to Good Cooking

2010-12-08T12:02:00.008-05:00

If not for Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking, Alton Brown may very well still be directing commercials for diapers and toilet paper instead of teaching viewers the ins and outs of science in the kitchen.

Today, as in moments ago, I had the fantastic opportunity to interview Mr. McGee! Yes, you read right! Mr. McGee, the guru of food science, talked with me about his new book Keys to Good Cooking and food science. This has to be THE most wonderful news in a long, long time!

Of course if you do not know who he is, then you're not a good Good Eats fan now are you! :P But his first book, On Food and Cooking is one of the foundations AB used to create Good Eats and his approach to instructing viewers about science in the kitchen.

I will be working on my article today so watch this space for the interview, I will be sharing it here shortly!

Vote for Alton Brown at Tasty Awards

2010-12-07T15:05:00.000-05:00

The 2nd Annual Tasty Awards have announced the list of nominees and this years Alton Brown is among honorees. AB will be receiving the The Kikkoman Pioneer Award. And he is up for Best Male Host in a Series. Good Eats is also up for Best Food Program: Television.

Voting for viewer favorites is open, so let's vote AB a couple more awards! Tasty Award Voting

Last year AB was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award and voted best male host in a series.

Christmas Cookies NOT from Alton Brown

2010-12-06T18:49:00.001-05:00

While I wait for Alton Brown to have a change of heart about granting me an interview and not lumping me with the vile bloggers who lack intgrity--hey, even the Grinch's heart grew and it is Christmastime after all--I want to share the latest article about a cookbook I have written. This fall, I was blessed with obtaining a few interviews with other cookbook authors who do appreciate getting some exposure on this site; therefore, I want to share with everyone here as well.

This time I was given the change to review The Christmas Cookie Cookbook by Ann Pearlman. Her book is a companion to her first fiction work, The Christmas Cookie Club. Pearlman was a Pultizer Prize and National Book Award nominee for her memior.

The cook book offers tips on starting a cookie exchange and many recipes for a varity of cookies and some candies.

Author Ann Pearlman Shares About Christmas Cookies
Dec 6, 2010
Lisa Hechesky

Cookies are nearly synonymous with Christmastime. Whether leaving them for Santa Claus or the original purpose for the animal cracker box (to hang as an ornament on the tree), it seems everyone enjoys the little sweet treats and make an extra effort to find, bake and eat them for the holidays. In her latest book, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee Ann Pearlman offers cookie aficionados a fun way to enjoy the little baked delights.

Before the Christmas Cookie Club

The Christmas Cookie Cookbook both a handbook for starting a cookie exchange and cookbook filled with recipes for cookies and candies. The cookbook stems from Pearlman’s first fiction work, The Christmas Cookie Club a story detailing the lives of a group of women involved in a Christmas cookie exchange.

Pearlman, a practicing psychotherapist, lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., is a mother of three, grandmother of four and has penned several non-fiction books. Her book Infidelity: A Memoir exposes the effects of men’s extra marital affairs on the women in their lives through three generations of her own family. Nominated for the Pulitzer and National Book Award, it became a movie for the Lifetime cable network in 2004.

Q&A with Ann Pearlman
Your background isn’t in food and your previous book, The Christmas Cookie Club, wasn’t necessarily about food, did that make it challenging to write a cookbook?

I often wrote kitchen scenes and narratives of recipes in my fiction so that one of my readers commented that reading my books made her hungry. Being in a kitchen and cooking is one of the things I remember most about my childhood. My great grandfather was a baker and my grandmother made complete from scratch meals every day and enlisted everyone to help. So, whether it was experimenting with curry powder with my Mom or baking a coconut cake to look like a lamb with my grandmother, I associate love and fun and, of course, delicious food with cooking.

How is the process of writing a cookbook different/similar from your other writing?

The research is different! For example, I made several recipes to come up with the most perfect almond cookie. Instead of bugging people to read various chapters I shoved food at them, requesting, “Taste this please and tell me what you think.” You get an immediate response from tasters, while it takes time to get feedback from readers. I tried to capture that research in the story about the molasses cookie bake off that is included in the book.

With both food and stories, there’s a wide diversity and variation in all our tastes and opinions!

Read more at Suite101: Author Ann Pearlman Shares About Christmas Cookies

Thanks for reading the whole article on Suite 101.

Alton Brown's Brined Turkey -- Tried and True but New Too

2010-12-02T10:25:00.005-05:00

Every Thanksgiving since 2001 I have heeded the advice of Alton Brown to utilize a brine for the turkey. And for every years since then, the turkey came to the table moist, succulent and tasty. This year, no exception.

But...

There's always a but, right?

I decided to change some things up. It isn't that I just did a turkey breast, typically that's what I do rather than a whole bird since my Turkey Day is a very small affair.

Since watching a Food Network holiday special some years ago when AB did the honey brined smoked turkey, I have wanted to smoke one as well. Smoking meats just may be my favorite method of cooking and most certainly a method which AB introduced and taught me how easy it is to do at home.

However, November usually brings cold weather, sometimes snow, and that isn't conducive to outdoor cooking. Nevertheless, I was determined to smoke a turkey breast this year. Luckily, the weather held up and I was blessed with a 65 degree, albeit windy, morning to smoke some fowl.

Since 2001, I have sworn by AB's original Good Eats Roast Turkey. Not varying from it in the slightest, until now. Because I liked the idea of smoking the turkey and that AB used honey in the brine for that fowl, I wanted to make a combination of the two brines.

I only had raw honey on hand and that did not seem to be appropriate for what I wanted. So I thought about the contents of the original application. Then the light switch moment arrived... brown sugar.

The sweet component of the original brine was in the form of brown sugar. Ok. What is brown sugar? (Sounds like a Jeopardy! answer doesn't it?) It is white sugar coated in molasses. Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. Why not add molasses instead?

Molasses has long been a staple in my BBQ sauce and those tasty pork chops from AB, so the flavor works well with smoke. I knew it work here.

In building the brine, I added some molasses (of course, I didn't measure to tell you exactly how much) omitted the brown sugar but kept everything else as with tradition. Soaked it and prepared it as for the oven. The fun thing was prepping the bird while trying to watch for AB on that giant turkey in the Macy's Parade.

I have my version of AB's Army surplus smoker but I wasn't certain if this would be big enough so I turned to my big Kingsford grill/smoker, which was still out from summer. This would be perfect.

A chimney starter's worth of natural charcoal briquettes--I like Stubb's brand and luckily the local Lowe's still had bags--and some well-soaked hickory chips and I was ready to go. For this smoking project, I used indirect heating by placing the charcoal and chips on half of the rectangle grill and the bird on the other half.

Probe thermometer set to 160 degrees, rest for 15 minutes... you know the drill.

Anyway, I when I cut into the breast and saw that glorious smoke ring (you can kinda see it in the photo), I was very pleased with myself.

As for the taste, well simply fabulous. My mom said it was the best turkey I had made and she even hinted to this being a summer smoking project.

Of course the brine made the turkey so moist all of the way through like with the oven roasted version.
Whether its smoky or from the oven, brining the turkey is the way to go. Next to inspiring me to do smoking, turkey brining is one of the top things I have learned from AB.

Now, if he could only convince me to deep fry a turkey. If I ever do, I'd build that turkey derrick.

Alton Brown Weight Loss Motivational Poster

2010-11-30T11:36:00.002-05:00

With Turkey Day come and past, many of us may have overindulged on food and treats. So for those of us in need of a little motivation to recover from Thanksgiving and steer clear of the cookies, cakes, eggnog and the like pitfalls of the Christmas season, I offer away to keep our motivations high.

I have created the Alton Brown weight loss motivational poster:

Something About Cooking

2010-11-29T13:44:00.001-05:00

Cyber Monday is here, I'm back to work (bleh) and I still haven't caught up with everything from Thanksgiving! Of course, I brined the turkey breast. Alton Brown would never forgive me if I didn't! :P But this year, I smoked it instead of oven roasting. I tried the pumpkin pie from the last new Good Eats episode, my first from scratch pumpkin pie. Details on that to follow this week.

Until then, I don't think I shared the books AB signed for me while in Cleveland this month. I brought I'm Just Here for the Food and IJHFTF 2.0 because they are the last two books that remained unsigned. If you remember, AB asked me in Lexington, Ky. at the signing for Good Eats 2 if I had anything left for him to sign. Well, not now!

As I'm talking with AB I noticed that he was not inscribing the typical "Cook Smart" in the book. It wasn't until I took the books back to my car that I had a chance to read it. He wrote: To Lisa, Something about cooking.

Mom took my other book because I was getting one signed for someone else. She told AB that the book was mine and she said she saw him writing and writing in it. So when I looked at it he had written: To Lisa, blah, blah, blah cooking.

I was laughing hysterically in the parking lot at the I-X Center. AB never fails to unleash his wonderful wit :)

Alton Brown Owns Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T15:54:00.004-05:00

I have a lot of cooking to talk about regarding Thanksgiving but had a ton of other things to do as well. So instead talking about the food, I'll offer up screen caps of Alton Brown riding the giant turkey in the Macy's Parade. He looked extremely happy to be up there.

Alton Brown's Recipe for Fun

2010-11-24T11:59:00.001-05:00

Remember that Alton Brown will be in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

And on Black Friday, if you're like me and would rather spend the day as far away from any store as possible, then tune into Sesame Street to see AB explain the word Recipe to the kiddos.

Thank to a tip from a reader, the video is online and quiet frankly adorable.

Click here for AB's recipe for fun.

Alton Brown at Dauphin Island Gumbo Cook off

2010-11-23T18:45:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted about the possibility of Alton Brown doing a demo and appearance on Dauphin Island, Ala to help out the folks in Gulf region revitalize their tourism hit hard by this summer's oil spill. Well, word is that the event is on and AB is slated for the second annual Dauphin Island Gumbo Cook-Off on March 26, 2011. Ticket and exact details are still in the works so I will be sure to pass along that info as it becomes available. But save the date if you're in the area or would consider visiting to see AB.

Alton Brown's Pumpkin Mousse

2010-11-23T09:47:00.001-05:00

Since seeing Alton Brown make pumpkin mousse a few years ago in a Good Eats short online, I have wanted to try it myself. Unfortunately, locating the pumpkin spice pudding needed for the application was not to be found where I live.

Until this year. By a happy accident, I ran into the item this holiday season... right next to the nuclear gummy fruits for the wretched fruitcakes.

Right away I made the mousse and stored them in my nifty Fiestaware ramekins like AB suggests in the video. The mousse is quite simple to fabricate and even tastier.

Pumpkin Mousse

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold
15 0z can of pumpkin puree
1/3 cup milk
1 box pumpkin spice instant pudding
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
With a stand mixer or hand mixer, whip the cold heavy cream to medium peaks. Start the mixer on slow.

Combine pumpkin puree and milk in a bowl. Whisk together. Then add dry pudding mix to bowl of pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.

Add whipped cream on top of pumpkin mixture and stir together until well incorporated.

Spoon into ramekins and refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.

So after I made this delicious pumpkin treat, the wheels started turning. Wouldn't this make a wonderful pie filling? It would be a pumpkin chiffon kinda thing. So I decided to whip up another batch and this time combine it with my gingersnap crust.

By the way, I saw that AB made a gingersnap crust for the new pumpkin pie episode... hmmm. Coincidence that I use this same style crust for AB's sweet potato pie... I think not ;)

Anyway, my gingersnap crust is simlar to the one AB made. I use 30 gingersnaps, 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of sugar (or Splenda). Press into a 9 inch, deep dish pie dish and blind bake for 10 minutes at 350.

After the crust cools, add the mousse filling and chill as before.

And if you want to see AB make the mousse here's the video:

How We Helped Heifer International

2010-11-22T08:50:00.006-05:00

The final leg of the fundraiser for two organizations Alton Brown supports, Monterey Bay Aquarium /Seafood Watch and Heifer International, is completed. On Friday, I made the donation to Heifer for the other half of the total raised. The nice woman there said they will send AB a card with the notice of the donation.

I picked several animals to spread the help.
Here's the list of what we got... yeah I had to get bees!

2 Honeybees $60
1 Heifer (share) $50
1 Flock of chicks $20
1 Goat (share) $10
1 Pig (share) $10

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

If you missed Alton Brown on South Park

2010-11-18T10:47:00.003-05:00

Just when I thought South Park had jumped the shark, the creators come up with a cooking show spoof that included Alton Brown! I haven't laughed so hard at an episode in such a long time.

My favorite line was during the cook off segment when AB is doing commentary and says, Jamie Oliver is crying again.

The only thing that would have been better... AB doing his own voice.

The South Park-ized AB was a pretty good likeness. And a lot of laughs without making personal attacks on the hosts.

If you haven't seen "Creme Fraiche" is online now!

Alton Brown plating tip for the day

2010-11-18T09:03:00.000-05:00

Another snip from the Alton Brown demo at the Fabulous Food Show. This one is when he plated the beef tenderloin. It also shows that even AB misfires on his applications from time to time.

Everything can't be as perfect as seen on TV, right? ;)

Enjoy AB and his garnishing tip:

Alton Brown Video at Fabulous Food Show

2010-11-17T13:16:00.002-05:00

Finally! I have a couple of videos from the Fabulous Food Show and the Alton Brown demo from last Saturday. These are just a few of the fun moments from the event.

First one, AB was lubing up the tenderloin and getting some fun in with his FN colleagues
and their catch phrases:

Next, AB answers about where to get his famous salt cellar:

More Alton Brown and Fabulous Food Show

2010-11-16T13:27:00.003-05:00

At the Fabulous Food Show demo Saturday afternoon, Alton Brown discussed salt and made his salt crusted beef tenderloin from the GE special Eat this Rock! The reason AB talked about salt was from the bad press it received earlier in the year.

Of course, people who cook understand that salting your food in something you make at home is entirely different from the salt added to preprocessed foods. In fact, Michael Symon did a visual demonstration of the amount of salt in a can of soup at his demo on Friday. It is startling to see the amount of salt in premade items and there in lies the problem.

AB's demo was completely about cooking with salt and making the beef tenderloin.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the demo:

AB removed the beef tenderloin from the oven and picked it up sans oven mitts. And said, Ouch, hot, Crap, hot.

This one looks like he's telling me to stop taking the photos. ;)
AB's internal commentary: All right Lisa, you've been to how many of these? Enough photos.

Some interesting hand gestures while talking about the salt dough.

I have a ton more photos, I like to "shoot fat" but that always leaves me with a boatload of photos to process.

Alton Brown referenced on South Park

2010-11-15T19:32:00.003-05:00

I know Alton Brown referened South Park in the Cheesy Poof application in I'm Just Here for More Food. Well, now the South Park guys have returned the favor. Apparently Randy is addicted to the Food Network.

Creme Fraiche
Tags: SOUTH
PARK Randy Marsh,Sharon Marsh,more...

Its a pretty good likeness.

Alton Brown and Fabulous Food Show Part 1

2010-11-15T14:09:00.008-05:00

So much to do and so little time. I am still working to get my crap together to report on the Fab Food Show and Alton Brown and Michael Symon.

I think a lot of you will be happy to know I have video of AB's demo. I will be working to get some of the best segments up soon.

The piggy bank was famous all weekend. Here's AB with it.

I have my own problems, besides getting back to a boatload of crap at work, when we got home Sunday some hooligans had knock down my satellite dish so I was sans FN last night and may be for awhile. Apparently Direct TV doesn't know the meaning of "customer service," they canceled the service call to fix the dish this morning.

But that give me lots of time to work on video, photos and posts!

Quick update from Alton Brown at Fabulous Food Show

2010-11-13T23:42:00.002-05:00

A late night in Cleveland, still looking through my photos from the demo Alton Brown did at the Fabulous Food Show.

Here are a few to hold everyone until I get home tomorrow and catch up with everything.

AB signing my copy of I'm Just Here for the Food and my devil, flamed piggy bank.

The demo was about the salt crusted tenderloin and helping dispel the bad rap salt has received of late.

Help Alton Brown help Dauphin Island, Alabama

2010-11-10T14:26:00.003-05:00

As most everyone knows, the Gulf coast region suffered a great amount of damage this summer with the BP oil spill. Marion Laney, Director of Photography for GE, is trying to raise awareness that the Dauphin Island area was not damaged by the oil spill and revitalize the tourism industry plus help the area's seafood industry as well. AB has agreed to go a demo on the Island, donating his time and travel expenses. However, more support is needed to host the event and the state's tourism board nor BP will help with the other part of arranging the event. This morning, Marion started a poll for fans to show support for such an event. It only takes a second to vote and tell the powers that by you would come to an event like this, so please vote on Marion's poll! Edit: Marion has a new poll here that doesn't require Facebook or a "real" name. I would certainly consider going down to the Island for an event, it looks so beautiful there. And if were in, say, February that would be a nice birthday present. ;) Here's what Marion posted on the GE Facebook site:

In support of this hard hit (by bad publicity, not oil) island on the Gulf of Mexico. Alton Brown has offered to show his support for our recovery by visiting Dauphin Island. Since I have no money to host him I need the support of fans to show the Alabama State Tourism folks, Alabama fishing industry and BP that we really want him to come visit. Alton is donating his time and travel expenses. A huge gesture. The costs to have him visit are many, a portable kitchen, staging, security, traffic control (no traffic lights on the island) clean-up, etc Please vote and contact these organizations directly and insist they support his visit. Without you it will not happen. http://westbaygulfcoasttdc.org/ Make your voice heard, vote in the poll!

Fundraiser Finale

2010-11-09T11:31:00.002-05:00

Our fund raising attempt for two organizations that Alton Brown supports is officially over. While we didn't rake in a big amount, the grand total was $300, it still is a great amount to the two organizations.

I have already sent the half to Monterey Bay Aquarium/Seafood Watch in! Waiting to hear back from the person at Heifer International about how to arrange the donation in AB's honor.

What I did with that contribution was make the donation to Monterey Bay Aquarium/Seafood Watch in AB's honor from his fans at All About Alton. :) The nice lady said they would send him a card telling him about the donation in his honor.

Now I'm not sure if I want to tell him on Saturday in Cleveland or not. I planned to tell him about it and get him the names of everyone who donating.

Either way, it will be a major surprise for him and that's all that matters!

Thank to everyone who contributed!!! Many hugs and blessings for being apart of the fundraiser.

oxox
Lisa

Exciting Product Review to Come!

2010-11-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

My dream kitchen will most certainly include a large island an plenty of kitchen bar stools. Until I hit the lottery or marry an exceedingly wealthy man, that's just a dream. However, the good folks at CSNstores.com have made an offer for a product review, so I can at least get something awesome for that dream kitchen.

The CSNstores.com site boasts of 200+ online stores covering a wide array of items for the home, the pets, the kids and yourself. I normally gravitate to the shops with cooking items, especially with the offer for a product review.

Over on cookware.com there's a sweet cast iron Dutch oven with a flat lid and legs like the style Alton Brown recommends in the "Going Dutch" episode. I've wanted one like that, mine is a domed lid sans legs, but they are out of my price range normally. That No Kneed Sourdough bread would bake up nicely in this.

I will have to peruse the site more to see if they have a single slice toaster, been trying to find one of those for a long time as well.

But whatever I pick, Dutch oven most likely, come back and check out what I do get and how it turns out!

Iron Foodie challenge

2010-11-04T14:21:00.002-04:00

Barring a personal invite from Alton Brown (which will not happen because I'm not sure he if he likes, respects or appreciates this site one bit) to join the Parthenon of Iron Chefs, judges or audience members in Kitchen Stadium, I'm must seek my Iron Chef thrills elsewhere. Today I have found something just may be a proper substitute until that invite comes along.

Recently, my site was approved to join Foodie Blogroll and they are co-sponsoring a contest with Marx Foods. To enter, all one needs to do is answer these questions:

Why do you want to compete in this challenge?
Who else but a dyed in the wool AB fan would should be invited to a challenge based on Iron Chef? Not only would I be able to whip up something fun and tasty but I would be able to yammer endlessly on the item at hand.

Additionally, having the opportunity to use interesting ingredients is plus since where I live there isn't much of a selection of grocery stores.

Limitations of time/space notwithstanding, whose kitchen would you like to spend the day in & why? Julia Child, Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, James Beard, Marie-Antoine Careme, or The Swedish Chef?
Since I'm currently trying to read My Life in France, Julia would be top on my list. That, and the fact I remember watching old episodes of her show on PBS on Saturday mornings. Other kids liked cartoons, I watched cook shows.... bizarre child.

What morsel are you most likely to swipe from family & friends’ plates when they aren’t looking?
I am a notorious French Fry bandit. This is especially the case if fries were not a part of my meal. Seeing those long strips of potato-y goodness is a siren song to my fingers. Beware!

Sum your childhood up in one meal.
Hamburger Helper.

I grew up on the lower end of the economic scale, so mom usually made things to stretch and save money. I can still remember picking out the different types of Hamburger Helpers at the store.

The one mainstream food you can’t stand?
Hold the mayo. I've had a long term hate relationship to the condiment. Something about the smell puts me off mainly. People tell me homemade mayo is superior to the commercially made stuff but I don't believe it. Mayo is mayo no matter what and not welcome on my sandwich.

Alton Brown on Hulu

2010-11-02T17:52:00.001-04:00

Alton Brown and Good Eats have come to Hulu.com! Right now there are a limited number of full Good Eats episodes the site, five in all, and segments from the show. However there are several of the web shorts AB has done for Food Network's website both newer and ones dating back to 2008.

I love "Mashed Potatoes of the Third Kind" because of homage to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Yeah, the film geek in me was happy.

And one from the NY Wine and Food Festival in 2008

Trick or Treat Alton Brown Style

2010-10-30T12:05:00.011-04:00

The recent Halloween episode of Good Eats had to be one of the best episodes in awhile. There was no doubt Alton Brown was having a little too much fun creating his devilishly delicious treats. Some of the shots of AB looking a tad bit sinister were my favorite parts of the episode.

I did squeal at one point when AB talked about pink lady apples. I had recently made a trip to a you pick apple orchard and got some pink ladies fresh from the tree. Those may be my favorite apple. Although, I prefer caramel apples to candied.

If you are brave, go forth and create some dangerously delicious treats from the mastermind.

Atomic Apples

Ingredients

* 6 small apples, at room temperature, Pink Lady, Gala, or McIntosh
* 14 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 2 cups
* 15 ounces light corn syrup, approximately 1 1/3 cups
* 2/3 cup water
* 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon oil
* 15 to 20 drops red liquid food coloring
* Special Equipment: 6 chopsticks

Directions

Put 3 inches of water in a 3 1/2-quart saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Insert the narrow end of a chopstick into the bottom blossom end of each apple. Dip the apples, 1 at a time, into the boiling water for 20 seconds to remove the wax coating. Wipe dry with a paper towel. Transfer apples to a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a 2-quart saucepan and set over medium heat. Cover and bring it to a boil, 4 to 6 minutes. Remove the lid and clip on a candy thermometer. Continue cooking the syrup until it reaches 300 degrees F, approximately 15 minutes. When the syrup reaches temperature, take the pot off the heat and remove the thermometer. Add the cayenne, cinnamon oil and food coloring, stirring thoroughly to combine. Cool until the bubbles calm and begin to subside, about 3 minutes.

Dip each apple in the warm syrup, turning slowly to coat. Continue to turn, allowing the excess to drip back into the pot. Cool the apples completely on the prepared half sheet pan. Wrap individually in waxed paper and plastic wrap or store for 2 to 3 days in an airtight container.

Candy Corn

Ingredients

* 4 1/2 ounces powdered sugar, approximately 1 1/4 cups
* 1/2-ounce nonfat dry milk, approximately 6 1/2 teaspoons
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1/2 cup
* 3 3/4 ounces light corn syrup, approximately 1/3 cup
* 2 1/2 tablespoons water
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 to 3 drops yellow and orange gel paste food coloring

Directions

Combine the powdered sugar, dry milk and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 4 to 5 times until the mixture is smooth and well combined. Set aside.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a 2-quart pot. Put over medium heat, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Add the butter, clip on a candy thermometer, and bring the mixture to 230 degrees F, about 1 to 2 minutes. When the sugar syrup reaches 230 degrees F, take the pot off the heat and remove the thermometer. Add the vanilla and the dry mixture, stirring continuously with a silicone spatula until well combined. Pour onto a half sheet pan lined with a silicone baking mat. Cool until the mixture is cool enough to handle, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Add 2 drops of yellow food coloring to 1 piece and knead the dough until the color is consistent throughout. Add 2 drops of orange to the second piece, and knead until the color is consistent throughout. Leave the third piece white. Roll each piece of dough into a strand, about 18-inches long. Cut each strand in half.

Roll 1 of the white pieces into a strand that is about 1/2-inch thick and about 22-inches long. Repeat with a yellow piece and orange piece. Lay the strands side by side and press them together using your fingers. Cut the strand into 4-inch pieces. Lay the strands, 1 at a time, onto the silicone mat and press into a wedge shape, like a triangle. Use a wire butter slicer to cut the candies into pieces. If you don't have a wire butter slicer, use a knife, metal bench scraper or pizza cutter to slice the dough into small pieces. Repeat the procedure with remaining dough. Lay the finished pieces on a piece of parchment or waxed paper to dry for 1 hour. Store in an airtight container with parchment paper between each layer.

Popcorn Balls

Ingredients

* 1 recipe Perfect Popcorn, butter omitted, recipe follows
* 1/4 cup cocoa nibs
* 7 1/2 ounces light corn syrup, approximately 2/3 cup
* 7 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 cup
* 4 1/4 ounces molasses, approximately 1/3 cup
* 1/3 cup water
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* Unsalted butter, for shaping

Directions

Combine the popcorn and cocoa nibs in a very large mixing bowl. Make sure to remove any unpopped kernels.

Combine the corn syrup, sugar, molasses, water, salt, and vanilla in a 3 1/2-quart saucepan and put it over medium heat. Cover and bring to boil, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the lid and clip on a candy thermometer. Continue to cook until the mixture reaches 250 degrees F. Take the pan off the heat, remove the candy thermometer and immediately pour the mixture over the popcorn. Stir to coat the popcorn evenly. Cool until the mixture can be handled safely, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Using a large ice cream disher, scoop the popcorn mixture into 3-inch rounds onto a parchment lined half sheet pan, smoothing with buttered hands as needed. Cool completely. Wrap individually in plastic wrap or put them in an airtight container. Store for up to 2 days.

Perfect Popcorn

3 tablespoons peanut oil
3 ounces popcorn kernels
1/2 teaspoon popcorn salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Put the oil, popcorn and salt in a large, 6-quart, metal mixing bowl. Cover with heavy-duty aluminum foil and poke 10 slits in the top with a knife. Put the bowl over medium heat and shake constantly using tongs to hold the bowl. Continue shaking until the popcorn finishes popping, approximately 3 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat and carefully remove the foil. Stir in any salt that is on the side of the bowl. Melt the butter in the microwave. Slowly drizzle over the popcorn, while spinning the bowl. Serve immediately.

Side effects of an Alton Brown blog.

2010-10-29T13:33:00.001-04:00

Through this site I have been given the wonderful opportunity for review copies for cookbooks, while none have be related to Alton Brown, I still want to share this with readers here. Besides being a fan of AB's projects, I'm always looking to discover new cookbooks and chefs.

Last month an offer was made by Atria Books, division of Simon and Schuster, to review Annabel Karmel's Princess Party Cookbook and she agreed to an interview.

This morning I spoke with Ms Karmel from her hotel room in NYC. She had just returned from a segment on the Today Show. Learning of this floored me! I'm in the same league as the Today Show? Wow!

Anyway, the book is so cute. If you have little girls check it out. But the recipes and some ideas could be for little boys too. There's a diner themed party and a Hollywood themed party. Plus the food can be made at anytime and is simple and kid friendly, so great for families.

The best part of the experience was learning more about the author. Ms. Karmel is British and has written many books on child nutrition. We talked about teaching kids to cook and eating better. She shares a lot of our Mr. Brown's ideas about getting kids in the kitchen and learning about cooking before they head off on their own and fall into bad eating habits.

I'm working on an article about the cookbook and Ms. Karmel for my freelance publications, so if you are interested I will post a link to it here. In the meantime, watch her segment from this morning on the Today Show about making treats for Halloween.

Buff Like Alton Brown

2010-10-28T09:39:00.003-04:00

Fervor for Buff Like Me is rampant judging from the top search terms this site gets on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. The diet book Alton Brown jokingly featured on Good Eats back in January may rank was the most sought after non-existent tome ever.

In addition to five of the top 10 search terms, for the site, being a variation of the book's title, I receive emails from fans looking for said book and asking where to buy it. Even had one very insistent person asking if I ever watched the diet episode because he had in the show, therefore it must be published. She didn't believe me when I said it was a dummy book made for the show.

Oh bother.

Once and for all folks....

THE BOOK DOES NOT EXIST!

If it did, however, AB would certainly have a #1 bestseller on his hands judging from the interest in his plan.

I can't fault anyone for looking for this book to gain some inspiration and knowledge. After all, who could argue with anyone wanting to be buff like AB. Especially now. In case you haven't noticed how he's looking these days...

Enough said.

Alton Brown Fashionista?

2010-10-27T21:15:00.001-04:00

I've been remiss in talking about The Next Iron Chef of late. This past episode, Transformation, the remaining chefs answered the Chairman's call to recreate fair food. However, the real challenge and penalty should have been to stand next to Alton Brown wearing that hideous jacket and hat but not laugh for one minute. I would have failed miserably.

Watching the repeat, I think that jacket was seersucker too. And the horrors of horrors, such a beast exists.

Also, AB said in an interview at the After Dark Party in NYC earlier this month that he's a clothes horse. Really? Judging from his sport coats in recent Food Network shows, clothes nightmare is about the only horse in that stable.

I rest my case.

Maybe he just loves plaid.

Vote for Alton Brown

2010-10-25T13:32:00.000-04:00

My friend Anne informs me the People's Choice Awards didn't give Alton Brown a slot in the voting for best TV Chef. However, this oversight can be remedied by writing in his name in the other category.

Go to the site and vote for AB!

http://www.peopleschoice.com/pca/nominations/vote.jsp?pollId=110032&_requestid=9300

Spooktacular Alton Brown

2010-10-24T17:37:00.002-04:00

This week, Alton Brown will scare up some treats filled with tricks in a new episode of Good Eats. Although FN is lacking with posting the applications from the new Good Eats episode, AB has recently discussed the treats with tricks lurking inside them. The episode is suppose to feature candy corn that turns the tongue black, popcorn balls with a veggie center and a candy apple that makes the victim go lick, lick, lick... scream!

He also said in a recent USA Today Weekend article that kids should be scared. Maybe he'll come to the front door like this:

More from Alton Brown in Lexington

2010-10-21T07:39:00.001-04:00

More video from the Q&A with Alton Brown in Lexington, Ky. In this group, a boy with the giggles (hey, kid it happens to the best of us), challenges posed by Morimoto's ICA pantry, bad food and the infamous trout ice cream.

This boy got the giggles when AB chose him to ask a question:

Challenges of ICA:

Bad foods and what's the deal with trout ice cream. This question was asked by a woman to my right so the mic picked up her question, it wasn't me honest!

Alton Brown in Macy's Turkey Parade

2010-10-20T12:23:00.002-04:00

According to my blogging buddy over at the Alton Brown and Good Eats site, AB will be in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in the Tom Turkey float.

So will AB have his water cooler filled with brine and his stuffing is evil sign for the big day?

I suppose I'm a Communist or something because I never watch the parade. Truthfully, I'm usually cooking so I don't have time to watch it.

Alton Brown in Lexington the video part 2

2010-10-19T13:30:00.002-04:00

Answering fan questions with his own brand of wit, here is more of the Alton Brown Q&A from Friday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, Ky. In this installment, AB expounds on Good Eats, Next Iron Chef, Iron Chef America, food science and what to substitute tomatoes for in making tomato sauce, just watch it because its too funny his reply.

The best moment from the session was when Alton's 5th grade reading teacher asked him if he remembered her. A very cute moment. Oh the stories she could tell on him ;)

Scaring Next Iron Chef contestants and Iron Chef America secret ingredients AB and the Chairman are prepared for:

Some things about filming and characters on Good Eats

Thoughts on food science and a Shirley Corriher / Harold McGee smackdown

How to have the tomato sauce experience without really using tomatoes.

Alton Brown in Lexington the video

2010-10-18T12:33:00.004-04:00

This time meeting up with Alton Brown, I was fortunate to be able to shoot some video. Actually, my mom shot the part when I was talking with AB at the signing part, so it's a bit shaky. And I forgot my tripod so the portion during the Q&A is a bit wobbly. Nevertheless, I have some video! In the past readers have asked for it and most of the time the event venue doesn't allow recording. This time it was ok.

Up first, meeting AB at the signing. If you had any doubt the man remembers me, check this out. He even knows the Kentucky stop was close to me! As usual I bring him gifts. What he is looking at in the video is a fairy cross. The fairy cross is a mineral called staurolite and is the state mineral of Georgia. I learned of the fairy cross legend in an Appalachian folklore course years ago. My professor had one given to him by an Appalachian author, Jayne Anne Phillips.

The legend goes the crosses were formed from the tears of the woodland fairies upon learning of the Crucifixion of Christ. I had wanted a fair cross for years after the folklore class and finally located one several weeks ago. Knowing AB has been more open about his faith of late, I thought it would be a perfect item to give him because of the faith connection and the Georgia connection. He seemed to like it very much.

By the way, my mom shot the video of me with Alton, so it was a little rough. You'll here her "commentary" and she turned the camera sideways near the end for some reason. LOL.

This is the opening part of the Q&A Friday night. I have a ton more, he talked for 47 minutes, but it needs to be edited into segments to be uploaded to YouTube. First question was about cooking with kids and AB's macabre take on the question.

Alton Brown in Lexington, Ky Part 1

2010-10-17T14:09:00.004-04:00

I'm in the process of editing clips from the Lexington, Ky book signing with Alton Brown. I have a few photos to tide everyone over until the video is ready.

The book display at Joseph-Beth, pre siging:

AB during the Q&A:

As I was making it through the line:

By the way, that's "Twitchy" helping at the signing, he's a nice guy and even remembered me when he took my camera. Wish I could've spent some time talking with him too, he's adorable.

He's signing my copy of Gear:

Another Best Seller for Alton

2010-10-14T11:03:00.001-04:00

Alton Brown has another best selling cookbook to his credit. The current list of the New York Times Best Sellers for Hardcover Advice has Good Eats: The Middle Years at #10.

Yay!

With a full slate of stops on the tour still ahead, let's help AB reach a higher spot on the list. Maybe #1, wouldn't that be nice?

I'm doing my part tomorrow in Lexington, Ky.

Alton Brown at NY Wine and Food Festival

2010-10-11T13:27:00.004-04:00

Originally uploaded by Food Network

Didn't make it to the Big Apple to see Alton Brown at the NY Wine and Food Festival this year. But I did find a whole set of AB with his fans during the festival's book signing.

From the expressions of the people in the photos, looks like a lot were very happy to chat with AB and get a book or two signed.

Check out the entire set on Food Network's Flickr site.

Late Night with Alton Brown

2010-10-09T08:16:00.001-04:00

Despite it not really being my cup of tea (I'm a Craig Ferguson kinda gal) and the fact I had to get up at the butt crack of dawn for work the next day, I stayed up to watch Alton Brown on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon. Thankfully AB's segment, which of course was the last one of the night, had great fun with making jerky.

For Good Eats and AB avid fans, this technique is already well-known but for new comers and people who were just watching the show it was probably a shock to see a dehydrator made from a box fan and furnace filters. And AB always brings something fun, the part of rolling the plastic cow out with him was just a stroke of brilliance.

If the show was well past your bedtime, here is the segment:

Alton Brown tackles tempura

2010-10-08T22:17:00.002-04:00

Opening with an homage to Godzilla (honestly what other cooking show would even go off-topic?), Alton Brown reassured home cooks making tempura could be accomplished without stepping into a Japanese restaurant.

In a recent Food Network chat with fans, AB called the puppet used in this episode the "best ever." The opening scene with the Godzilla theme featured this new puppet, large, Cycloptic fiend attacking cooks who attempt making tempura. Of course, Alton gives sound science and inspiration for the home cook to make tempura thus banishing the evil monster wreaking havoc. After all, people in Japan make tempura outside of the restaurant setting. So Western cooks can as well.

Besides the new puppet, the new episode featured a fantastic anime segment to explain the history of tempura in Japan. This segment, again, illustrated what makes Good Eats unique and entertaining.

As for the cooking portion of the program, in fact making tempura is quite simple with the right ingredients and tools. It is important to use flour that is low gluten. AB recommends unbleached cake flour and rice four. Also, I vital step is to keep the batter chilled.

Right now the application for the batter, frying and the dipping sauce is not online at Food Network. Here's what I transcribed.

Tempura batter:

1 egg, beaten
5 oz unbleached cake flour
5 oz white rice flower
1/2 cup vodka
1 1/2 cups seltzer water

Combine the dry items together and the wet items together. Then split in half both the wet team and the dry team.

Place a mixing bowl over another mixing bowl filled with ice.

Dry team goes into the bowl. Wet team next. Mix with a whisk. Use about ten strokes then stop mixing.

Frying:

1 1/2 quarts vegetable oil
Heated to 375 degrees

Start with hardest veggie

Coat thoroughly in the batter. Drain excess batter off.
Put one at a time in the hot oil. Do not over crowd.

Manage heat at 375

Once the item is light brown, remove from the oil. Drain on paper towels.

Soy ginger sauce:

2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce

Place ingredients in a jar. Shake to combine.

Win $70 gift certificate at CSN Stores

2010-10-07T12:05:00.005-04:00

When many of us return home from the various book signings in October with the second book in the Good Eats trilogy, Good Eats: The Middle Years, by Alton Brown we may be in need of a sturdy console table. The new book weighs in at three pounds, eight and a half ounces, many of us tired from standing in line to see AB will need a safe place to stow the freshly autographed books.

To celebrate the start of AB's booktour, and thanks to my friends at CSN.com stores, I will giving away a $70 gift certificate to CSN.com! There are 200+ online stores to browse, I tend to gravitate to the the cookware.com but the prize can be spent at any of their online stores.

For this contest, I'm trying something different. I found a snazzy little contest form. So just fill it out and you are entered to get the $70 gift certificate. Please forgive the ads, its a free form generator. I'm on a budget here ;)

I will pick a winner via randomizer.org's random number generator.

Contest is open until October 17 at midnight, EST. US and Canada residents only, please.