To my dear Creative Loafing.…
We’ve had a whirlwind of a romance these past 6 months. You’ve been a wonderful partner but, sadly, I must go. I’ve found someone else. And no, I’m not fucking Matt Damon.
There’s no easy way to break up, except to just tell the truth. He’s older, more mature and…sigh…has a bigger masthead. I’d be lying if I told you that size doesn’t matter, because right now at this stage in my life and career, it does.
I’ve got a regular schedule now for my local ABC appearance - the last Thursday of every month. So, I’ve got a week to go and would love you to choose which blogger dish to cook in my live 5-minute bit. as part of the ABC morning news Of course I’ll post the video online for all of you to giggle at me!
Here’s the criteria for how I choose which dish to feature.
Asian Food: Since I specialize in modern Asian cuisine, the dishes that I like to feature has to be East Asian, SE Asian or even South Asian. I’m just starting to dabble into Indian cuisine (LOVE IT!!) and I’m sure with the help of my Indian blogger friends, I’ll soon be whipping up classic Indian dishes soon! Perhaps next month I will cook an Indian dish on TV. Plus, I just received the MOST amazing vegetarian Indian cookbook directly from the authors of Cooking at Home with Pedatha in India, more on that later.
Easy & Fast: The dish has to be something that a home cook can make in their kitchen. So anything fancy, expensive and time consuming is out.
No Oven: Unfortunately, the studio on set doesn’t have an oven. So I’m limited to stovetop.
Timing: The set looks like this:
and I’m just yards away from the newscasters, so NO LOUD foods like butchering live animals (ewww!)
The newscasters do their morning news, then 40 minutes into it, they cut to the kitchen. I’ve got 5 minutes-ish to demo something. I don’t have to cook the entire dish during this time, but I get to talk about whatever I’m cooking (giving a nice shoutout to blogger’s dish of course!) and demo something. Then the news continues on and towards the end of the newscast 20 minutes later, everyone ends up in the kitchen and we show the final dish (and eat too!)
So, it’s quite a feat of coordination and timing to make sure that I can finish in time. So, anything that can be made within an hour’s time is great (I can cook while the news is going on)
Ready to vote?
A couple of months ago, Sarasota Magazine called and asked to feature me as their “NoiseMaker,” quite appropriate as I can be a pretty gregarious, controversial gal. You see, I live in a city where the average age of the patrons at Outback Steakhouse is twice mine. This land of Sarasota is paradise. It’s where the rich retire. It’s a city full of restaurants where you’re guaranteed that 3 out of the 5 appetizer specials are “gummable.”
OH GOSH. I’m just kidding.
Sorta.
I do love this area, even though I miss my San Francisco grocery stores and ethnic corner eateries, living here actually inspired my cooking career, a fun story for another time.
So when John, the photographer for Sarasota Magazine showed up at my doorstep, I already had rehearsed in my head how I was going to convince him not to take a boring ol’ shot of me smiling-happy-holding-a-wok-spatula-pretending-to-cook-in-the-kitchen pose. YAWN. Thank heavens John was cool. In fact, he suggested that we photograph me eating on my Balinese day-bed.
We had to take several shots before John and I were happy with the lighting, pose, setting and of course, my LOOK. Because I had to decide if I was going to look:
a) Giddy
b) Hungry
c) Insane
We chose the “Draping Seductively Over the Balinese Love Lounge” look.
I’m a thirty-frickin’-five year old mother of two and I can still look hotter than habanero sunbathing in july.
yeeeesssssssssss………
oh and yeah, THAT is how Scott, Nathan, Andrew and I eat dinner every night. On dry-clean only embroidered silk.
Thank you guys for almost 750 votes - to help me decide which food blogger dish I should cook live on TV this morning. I’m here to report back the results….
It went fantastically well! It was my fourth time cooking in front of a camera…(i.e. talking, cooking, smiling at the same time with no boo-boos or naughty words) and I’ve got to say, it was so much easier this time. I really think I’m getting the hang of it.
I cooked Rasa Malaysia’s Malaysian Coconut Butter Prawns - and modified her recipe just a teeeeeny tiny bit…
I added Cognac to the dish!
As RM promises, the dish reveals layers upon layers of flavors…the savoriness of the prawns, spice of the chili, sweetness of the coconut and the magical aroma of curry leaves PLUS the depth of the added Cognac could seduce a buffalo to breakdance.
Lovely Melinda and Dani both sent me gifts of Maldon Sea Salt - and I got to use it on the dish too! You’ll see me sprinkle it on the prawns. I am SO addicted to Maldon. How did I ever live 35 years without ever cooking with Maldon Sea Salt?!? Thank you SO MUCH, my girlfriends!
The video after the jump….
But first….a little laugh…
As I mentioned in my last post, our house is usually stocked with good, wholesome breakfast foods. Because running around the playground and singing, "Itsy Bitsy Spider" requires quite a bit of energy. A good breakfast is essential to becoming the superstar student, outrunning the bullies and beating up the rugrats.
We always have mini whole wheat bagels by Pepperidge Farms at the house. Usually, the kids love a bit of cream cheese and some fruit to top.
This particular morning a few months ago, Andrew asked for the the bagel, plain. He just wanted to eat it as-is, whole. As I handed him a warmed mini-bagel, this little 4-year old wiggle-master examined the bagel.
Looked at it from the front.
Looked at it from the back.
Curiously peeked throught the hole.
and then proudly proclaimed to me,
"LOOK MA MA!!! I’m gonna eat a BUTT-HOLE!!!"
Smart-ass
So deviant, yet right-on.
But…concerning to me…how does he know what a butt-hole looks like?!? It’s not like we randomly run into butt-holes in his nursery rhyme books, Disney channel or at the park.
Oh. But wait. He must have remembered the time we walked by a construction zone and 2 workers snickered lewd things to me in Spanish. That’s when covered Andrew’s ears and I shot back with, "!@#! off and go shove your hammer up your asscrack." And I think he did.
BTW, don’t judge my parenting skills based on his uncoordinated pajama set. He dressed himself.
***
Ok, on to the fun part of this post. As you know, I showed my face to the world on television last month, cooking live on our local ABC station. My next performance is October 9th. I’d love to promote the world of food blogging, so I’ve decided to cook a dish from one of you!! Will you help me choose?
Voting on the next page!
