Weekend Cooking- Food On TV

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

With the unfortunate turn of weather recently, I have been inside a little more and able to catch some great food segments on TV.

First up, March 9th was National Meatball Day, and we are lucky enough to live near The Meatball Shop, a restaurant that I love to take visitors to for their delicious variety of meatballs.

Local TV show New York Live had a segment on places to get great meatballs, and the three that correspondent Lauren Scala visited are new to me. They all looked good, from the old school spaghetti and meatballs at Emilio's Ballato in NoLita, a place popular with celebrities like Leo DiCaprio and Lenny Kravitz, to Adoro Lei, a Hudson Street eatery that serves an off-menu Meatball Flambe that looks amazing to White Gold Butchers, a new Upper West Side restaurant where you can get a tasty meatball sandwich that will fill you up. Click on the link below to see the segment.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/National-Meatball-Day_New-York-415796513.html?t=170

Daphne Oz from ABC's The Chew visited Do, a little place that has hit on a great concept- they sell different flavors of cookie dough that you can eat raw or buy baked goods made from their cookie dough.

Do has a long line waiting outside, and they even have rules for the line listed on their website. They have become so popular that they no longer can sell their product online. The most popular flavors are Cookie Dough and Cake Batter, and if you are like me and can't resist eating cookie dough right out of the freezer, this is a no-brainer. I will be visiting Do.

Here is the link to The Chew story.

The Today Show ran a segment this week with Meredith Rollins from Redbook magazine on the best new grab-and-go snacks. I bring my lunch to work at the Book Cellar (yogurt and a snack), so I'm always looking for new snack ideas.

One of my new favorites, Sargento Balanced Breaks, which my Pittsburgh sister-in-law turned me on to, made the list and another, Sun Chips Harvest Cheddar Chips, used to be a family favorite when my sons were younger. I'm going to try some of the others to mix my lunch treats up a bit.

The link to the segment is here.

Have you seen any interesting food segements on TV lately? Share them in the Comments section below.

Weekend Cooking- New Thanksgiving Recipes

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

I am a purist when it comes to Thanksgiving. My family likes to stick to the basics- a whole roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, my Mom's stuffing (which has no recipe, it's done by instinct and to taste and is delicious), broccoli casserole, rolls or sweet breads and dessert. We don't like to try new recipes at Thanksgiving.

That being said, I love to watch all of the morning shows and cooking shows this time of year because they spend all of November highlighting new Thanksgiving recipes that I do like to try, just not for Thanksgiving day.

The Today Show had chef Jeff Mauro on last week and he made Bacon Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Chips, something that I would definitely put in my appetizer rotation. It starts with making Pig Candy- bacon rolled in brown sugar, baked in the oven and then chopped.

He uses a mandolin to thinly slice sweet potatoes, lays them out on a sheet pan and tops them with a a mix of maple syrup and butter. After baking them in the oven, they get topped with chopped pecans, pig candy and parsley. It looked so fabulous.

Bacon Maple Pecan Sweet Potato Chips- from Today Show

The link for this recipe on the Today Show page is here.

The Today Show has an entire month of Thanksgiving recipes from great chefs and you can get them all here.

Country music star and Food Network show host Trisha Yearwood was on The Chew this week and she made a Turkey and Dressing Casserole. Her recipe is a way to use up Thanksgiving leftovers, but it would be perfect for someone hosting a smaller Thanksgiving celebration, or if you just want to have turkey on a weeknight.

Trisha Yearwood's Thanksgiving Casserole- from The Chew

The recipe can be found at The Chew here.

Do you like to try new recipes for Thanksgiving, or are you more of a traditionalist? Share your thoughts in comments.

Weekend Cooking- Fridge Raider Frittata

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food!

I saw a few minutes of ABC TV's The Chew, and one story caught my eye. Daphne Oz, daughter of Dr. Memet Oz and co-host of the show, went into one viewer's home to help her make an easy, healthy breakfast for her family.

Daphne took one look in the fridge and put together a frittata that looked so tasty, I decided to try it myself. She found a leftover baked potato, some roasted vegetables from dinner the night before, some bruschetta and some spinach.

She heated 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a small oven proof skillet, crushed the baked potato (skin on) into the skillet and added 1/2 cup chopped onion. Let this cook for a few minutes, then pile the roasted vegetables and spinach on top.

Whisk together 4 eggs and 1/4 cup heavy cream (or half and half), season with salt and pepper, Pour the eggs over the vegetables in the skillet, top with 1/4 cup shredded cheese, put the skillet in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until the eggs are set.

When the frittata comes out of the oven, she topped it with some bruschetta, and then served it on a mini bagel. (I served my bagels on the side.)

My sons liked the frittata, and I liked that I could use leftovers in a new dish that could be breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Daphne's complete recipe is here:
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/Fridge-Raid-Fritata-Daphne-Oz

My frittata looked like this
What are your favorite frittata ingredients? Let me know in comments below.

Fun Food Day in NYC

It's been a long time since my sister-in-law Brigette came for a fun day in NYC. She is a big foodie and a fantastic cook, so I knew I could entice her to come when I got tickets to a taping of ABC's new talk show The Chew, with two of her favorite chefs, Mario Batali and Michael Symon.

The taping stars at 9am, so we had to be at the studio on 67th St. and Columbus Ave. at 7:30am. We were hoping for a good giveaway, and since it was publication day for Mario Batali's new cookbook, Molto Batali, we walked away with a free copy.

The show was fun, with host Clinton Kelly and executive producer Gordon Elliot putting on quite a show with their dance moves to 'bad 70's songs'.  Former Top Chef contestant Carla Hall, also a host on the show, showed off some goofy dance moves too.

Michael Symon and Brigette

On our way out, Brigette got to meet Michael Symon and tell him that her husband is a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan too.

The Live with Regis & Kelly set is right down the street, and they were looking for new audience members for their Eddie Murphy interview. I've been to Regis before when Bette Midler co-hosted with Kelly, but seeing Regis on his TV show is on my Bucket List, so I got to cross that off when we got in to see this. It was pretty cool to see Eddie Murphy too, he is one snappy dresser.

Eddie Murphy, Regis, Kelly

Regis talking to the audience

After that, we raced to get downtown to meet Josh from Sidewalk Tours of NY. The traffic was bad, and there are all kinds of security barricades up down there, so we got there in the nick of time. Josh was a great tour guide, and we only had two other people in our group, Tom & Diane, a married couple from New Jersey who were very nice.

Josh gave us a little history of the area, and then we visited five Food Trucks. There are a bunch of Food Trucks that park near Hanover Square and serve lunch to the hungry hordes of workers in the Financial District near Battery Park.

At the first truck we ate Korean tacos from Big D's Grub Truck. I had never had a Korean taco, and it was really tasty, with the crunch of cucumber and the heat of the spices adding a unique dimension.

Next we had souvlaki on a stick at Souvlaki GR, winner of Rookie of the Year last year at the Vendy Awards, and this year taking home the Customer Favorite award. We had the pork souvlaki, and it came with two small pita triangles and a tangy yogurt sauce. The pork just melted in your mouth, it was so tender.

We headed down the street to Jiannetto's for a grandma slice of authentic NYC pizza. The sauce was just perfect, as was the melted mozzarella and basil.

Our fourth stop was San Luis Tacos, which featured Mexican and Equidorian food. We tasted something like a quesadilla, with chicken, cheese and sauce that was heavenly, and my favorite of the day.

We finished with a mini Rocky Road cupcake from the Cupcake Crew, and it was one of the best cupcakes I have had in NYC, second only to Two Little Red Hens.

If you come to NYC and love to eat, check out the Sidewalk Tours of NYC. They have several different ones from which to choose. It was so much fun, and a great chance to try different foods. You'll never look at the food trucks in the same way. (Food Network also has a cool show called The Great Food Truck Race that features gourmet trucks like these)

Big D's Grub Truck

Cupcake Crew Truck

We ended the day at Eataly, the new Italian marketplace near Madison Square Park. It is owned by Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and her son, Joseph. I had been there before, but never eaten at any of the restaurants. I had the best pasta I have ever had anywhere; it was a spinach ravioli, with a lemon butter sauce topped with pistachios. Brigette has been to Italy, and says that this pasta dish rivaled the pasta from Italy.

It's a wonderful place to shop for Italian specialty groceries, and the gelato is melt-in-your-mouth delicious. This is a place you want to be able to spend a few hours in.

And so ended our Foodie Day, with full stomachs and aching feet.