Suzanne Calling

Yes, I'm watching it again this season. However, with the workload from TAing, my class, and the comp exam in two weeks, I decided not to do recaps this time around. So far, it seems like they're picking off the people I don't like-except last week. I'm hoping Judson shows up somewhere else, like Cooking Channel. The judges seemed surprised that he hadn't shared the information about his huge weight loss and that it was too little, too late. Meanwhile, I can understand that he wanted to put that part of his past behind him. No one wants to be known as the fat kid, and is ashamed of the teasing and ridicule-so it makes perfect sense that he'd avoid bringing it up. Meanwhile, Nikki seems to be this year's Debbie. She's got that self-important smirk, but I don't feel a connection with that one and probably wouldn't watch a show she hosted. Last week, if not for the rest of her group kicking butt, she would have been in the cookoff challenge...

If you hadn't already gathered, we're big fans of Food Network. ("No, Suzanne, seriously?") Yeah, I know it is a surprise. I tasked Ed with finding places to eat while we traveled this week and out came our Diners, Drive Ins and Dives cookbooks. You have to understand, we end up watching this show late at night, long past bedtime and the refrain is usually 'Yes, PLEASE' to whatever delight Guy's chef du segment is introducing. So, when Ed came up with the Beacon Drive In and their 'A-Plenty' as featured on Triple D. While we didn't get to see caller JC Strobel, who is featured in the segment, we did get a fantastic experience and some great food. Ed insisted we only get one item 'a plenty' and you know what? He was right. There were enough fries and rings for all of us. These are the rules and you'd best follow them. Then again, we were there after dinner rush, so they went easy on us newbies! Underneath all of this is ...

Since Food Network has launched the Cooking channel, we have enjoyed the ability to see older shows that aren't part of the current FN lineup. (Hello, please bring back Doorknock Dinners. Please?) One of the most enjoyable parts of this review of older programming is the nightly Iron Chef America broadcast. We realized tonight that the shows we've enjoyed this past week have all been Season One programming. Thanks to Wikipedia's list of ICA episodes , it was realized that they've begun playing the shows in order of battle air date. Now, I'm trying to mark my calendar for the battles I've always wanted to see, but missed for some reason or another. If you're like us, and want to check out particular battles, they're on episode seven, Battle Catfish tonight. Oh, and Jeffrey Steingarten appears to have judged four of the first seven battles. Woohoo, food geek television!

If Dr. Evil were tasked with a cooking show, Sweet Genius would be it. This man is creepy and weird, and makes the contestants put weird combinations together. Candied apples and wheatgrass in a chocolate round? Salt and vinegar potato chips and brie in a frozen dessert round? Bubblegum and rainbow carrots in a baked dessert round? I'm still scratching my head...

Of course, if Food Network has a reality based competition show that isn't about making fanciful cakes or confectionary sculptures, I'm watching it. Which is how I got sucked into Next Iron Chef Season 3. No, I didn't blog about it, like I enjoy doing with NFNS, because it's just too much to keep track of that stuff while studying. Instead, from the beginning, I had a favorite, and a few that I thought would be cool to see in Kitchen Statium on a regular basis. Ming Tsai was my front runner, because, well, he IS old school Food Network to me. Bryan Caswell and Marc Forgione just exuded calm competence and cooking chops. Dusty Estes and Marco Canora annoyed me from Week One, and I wanted them gone. Dusty's arrogance was her downfall somewhere around week four, but Canora made it to the final. In the whole competition, he took every opportunity to knock Chef Tsai's efforts while puffing his chest about how he was truer to whatever the week's theme was. La...

First off, a blogger with a different point of view won NFNS. Yay, Aarti. My favorite pretty much from the first week, Tom, is getting a show , too! While it's not actually him in the kitchen cooking, I'll take what I can get. Who knows? Many FN stars do double duty, and it'd be cool if Tom eventually did the same. Where does this leave Herb? I am so hoping another announcement is coming, say from Cooking. I love latin foods, and I do a pretty good job of cooking and eating it. To learn how to make it less fattening without losing the wonderful flavors? Sign me up. I mean, the guy had me drooling over a frittata and I hate eggs. Seriously, when I get back home, I may end up making a scaled down version of the recipe in the smallest skillet I have and see if adding all that good stuff to them can convert an egg-hater! So, Food Network, thank you for the two shows-can we please have a third?

We are down to the end. Who will it be? Aarti, Tom or Herb? I’m pulling for the Big Chef, but I like the concepts presented by Herb and Aarti, and they are both such likeable presences on this competition. The Big Apple, and they’re going to shoot their pilots. We see them walk into the Food Network kitchens while Rachael Ray walks out. She will be directing their pilots, while the production staff will be preparing food for the three pilots. The pilots will be shown to a focus group of Food Network people, who haven’t seen the finalists before Aarti (Aarti Party) wants to make an Indian Pizza on Naan Herb (Cooking Con Sabor) will make a Fritatta with Egg Whites and Sausage Tom (Big Chef) wants to make a Roasted chicken with mushrooms under the skin Herb’s up first and he starts calm, cool and collected-and four and a half minutes over. He has a harder time , but comes up with the brilliant idea of taping pictures of his wife and kids onto the camera and the weeks of jitters ev...

Yes, I know this is very late. I didn't get to watch the episode until Friday night, kept a running Word document-and promptly forgot to post it all weekend long. I knew who'd been eliminated before watching, and it disappointed me a little, so that had something to do with the delay in watching. As far as the most recent episode, I again know who got eliminated and thought I didn't have an episode to watch, but Ed very sweetly remembered to tape it while I was at my event. Anyway, here's the recap for week eight: The show opens in the kitchen and the five are talking about homesickness. They walk into the Food Star Kitchens to Giada and nothing else. They are instructed to take 45 minutes to make a dish that is THEM for the camera challenge. Aria-Anchovies brought in by her son Luca. Aarti-Okra brought in by her husband Tom-White Pepper, brought by his fiancé Brad-Ranch dressing, brought by his brother Alex Herb-Canned Peas brought by his wife and kids They’ve got ...

The show opens at the house Aarti worried about being on the bottom. Tom, says six people left makes things very intense. Food Star Kitchens, Giada is standing in front of a table of six Kellogg’s cereals. Breakfast time? Not quite. To assist Giada, in explaining the challenge, out comes Melissa D’Arabian, winner of last season’s competition. Melissa tells the challengers that her life has changed so much since she’s won NFNS, she’s now a working mom and doesn’t always have the time to shop. This means she has to fashion a meal out of what’s in the pantry and the Camera Challenge today is to make dinner with breakfast. Aria- Crispix-Hopple Popple Frittata with Crispix Potato Pancakes Brad-Rice Krispies Rice Crispies Encrusted Tuna with Cucumber Salad Aarti-All Bran-Quinoa pilaf Tom-Rice Crispies-Corn Flakes and Pecan Crusted Pork Chops Serena-Cocoa Krispies-Pork Meatloaf with Cocoa Crispes Herb-Froot Loops- Froot Loop Encrusted French Toast with Latin Sausage The challenge is tig...

Yes, this is VERY late. I started writing it last Monday with plans to come back to it when I got a moment. The moment did not come. Academic pursuits come first, and the efforts on that front paid off. It's not like you were all blog stalking for what I had to say, right? This week, the contestants comment on their highs and lows before we see them enter into Food Star Kitchens. On the tables, picnic baskets. Bobby explains that before them is a party in a basket. The six find that they'll be making party bites for the event with the ingredients contained in the basket, and they find various events, such as a Bachelorette party, New Year's Eve, A Sweet Sixteen, A child's Birthday party, Poker night, and a Tea party. (Herb's will be added in to this when I review the DVR) Brianna was excited to get a Birthday party, until it was explained that the cheese, mustard and apple juice were for a FIVE year old's birthday. The look on her face would have curdled milk. S...

After a week off, NFNS returned with a 90 minute episode. In it, my favorites shone (except for Aria) and the contestants I don't like displayed more of what was unappealing and there were a few surprises in the mix. More details tomorrow morning when I get time to write it all out!

Nine contestants left. This week, the show opens with Brianna saying she needed that win last week. She’s been good at hiding any doubts she may have about her abilities in the contest. Next up, the finalists file into the Food Star kitchens, were they meet up with Bobby and Giada and a table filled with baskets of chili peppers. Bobby explains that he’s made a career out of working and cooking with peppers, and they require an able hand. This week’s camera challenge is to cook with peppers and the winner will have their dish featured on the menu at Bobby’s Mesa Grill locations. Giada instructs them that they will present to camera and since the audience cannot taste their food, it will be the contestant’s job to describe the food in a way that conveys the flavor of the dish and brings it to life. The mad scramble begins as these peppers are first come, first serve. Brianna insists she will be getting the Fresnos, because they are the only red pepper on that table. Serena says...

My apologies, the school work kept me from watching the DVR'ed episode until today. Ihrough a spoiler, I found out who was eliminated, so I wasn't rushing to see the episode. If you, however, have remained in the dark about the contestant who went home, you'll just have to wait a few more paragraphs. The show starts at the house in the hills and Dzintra saying that being in the bottom was 'the worst situation I've been in my life.' Then, we see the remaining ten file into the Food Star Kitchen, with the prep tables lined with movie theatre boxes of popcorn. Giada introduces Season Two winner, Guy, Fieri, who informs the contestants that this week's camera challenge is to create a dish inspired by classic movie genres. Each finalist pulls a card out of the popcorn box and finds what they'll be inspired by. Herb-Mystery Tom-Romance Paul-Drama DAS- Foreign Briana-Comedy Brad-Animation Serena-Western Aarti-Horror Aria-SciFi Dzintra-Action They've ...

Week two, eleven contestants. Still a long way to go, and plenty of challenges to shake down who has what it takes-and who doesn't rise to the occasion. First up this week is a challenge for all eleven finalists at the Food Star kitchens. Giada presents the plan-each of them will have one minute to prepare one part of her vegetable lasagna recipe to camera. If you're going to host a Food Network show, you must cook and talk at the same time. The trick is, if someone doesn't get their part done, the next person has to incorporate that into their challenge. It was surprising that it was done without too many fumbles, but there were some missteps. Dzintra is a frenetic mess, Aarti didn't talk much, Serena talked too fast, DAS spent so much time squeezing liquid out of frozen spinach that Doreen has to catch up and she looks stressed out and mad on camera. Aria is the last and she talks like she's talking to a child. They get good constructive feedback-will they...

It's that time again, Food Network's lineup during the summer includes their reality show, The Next Food Network Star. Those who watch the Network know that one of their biggest stars, Guy Fieri, was the winner of season two-so it can be a good way to find new talent who have great charisma, cooking ability and an idea of their own that's not already on the air. Last night, rather than ending up on the phone with a friend, I got texts-gotta love the technology advances several of us made in the past year. :) Shall we talk about the show? Here's what happened! Bobby Flay introduces the show, what it's about and what the winners will do, then we cut to a house in the Hollywood Hills, where the twelve finalists (up from 10 in previous years) enter the house, a la 'Real World'. They are, in order of arrival: Doreen Fong , who began cooking because she grew tired of her mom only cooking Chinese food. (She looks like Brenda Song, from various Disney Channel s...

One of the shows I occasionally watch on Food Network is Chopped. Honestly, though, I see the commercials for it more than I actually view the show. The premise is this: Four chefs, four ingredients, create a dish while the clock counts down. The worst of the four dishes gets 'chopped'. Then the next round is three chefs, four ingredients and then a final round, with the lone chef who has not been 'chopped' getting a $10,000 paycheck. The four ingredients can be far reaching and might not work well together. The panel of judges rates the chefs on appearance and taste and how they incorporate the four ingredients into their dish. For instance, on one episode, a chef made a phenomenal beef with berry and parsnip dish, but used the pretzels as a garnish. Tonight, we saw another commercial and Ted Allen's voiceover states "Chefs, your ingredients" and my mind immediately came up with four things that might be difficult to make into a cohesive meal: anch...