Since the premier of my show Junk Food Flip (Tuesdays, 9pmET on Cooking Channel), people have been asking me a lot about re-making comfort food dishes (probably because that is the premise of the show).
So today I had to share with you one of my absolute favorite recipe flips.
I am incredibly excited to announce that my new show Junk Food Flip is premiering June 2nd at 9pm EST on Cooking Channel!!!!!!!!!!!
On Junk Food Flip, myself and Bobby Deen travel around the country in a massive food truck (I can now add food truck driver to my special talents) and put our healthy spin on some of the best indulgent dishes this country has to offer.
Today was a day full of exciting stuff: I stole someone’s car and drove out to Long Island to buy plants for my garden terrace, I tried out a new hair color that’s a little less Barbie doll (but still banging blonde), and I made the most delicious and exciting side dish.
How can a side dish be exciting? Oh now you have opened a can of worms. It's simple; this dish is exciting because I'm preparing a vegetable, in this case cucumber, in a totally different way.
It wasn’t that long ago that I was huddled up under a mound of blankets watching Hawaii Life on HGTV as I seriously considered packing up and joining those happy people on TV.
But no matter how never-ending winter might seem,before you know it the sun is shining and the temperature is rising.
I like so many different things in life; I like to have tea on my terrace while the birds are singing and the people on the streets are yelling. I like to find a spot in yoga class which is far enough away from the smelly man who says his “om” with a bear-like grunt.
However, the things I like most of all is to make meaty tasting meals, without the actual meat and to stretch a little bit of meat with other hearty, smoky flavors.
I like the taste of matzo bread, I know that many people find it dry and bland, I find it flavorful and…no actually, it’s pretty dry and bland.
However, just because on its own it’s not amazing doesn’t mean we can’t make it amazing. I know that it isn’t bursting with flavor, but it issuper crunchy and it makes a great base to build on.
Spring has sprung! Growing up in Buffalo you would think that I would be used to the snow and cold, but that was not the case; instead I was simply over it before I even hit middle school.
So being the kind of person who mumbles obscenities at the weather under my breath all winter long, you can imagine that seeing signs of spring make me a very happy camper.
Many of us can’t imagine having dinner for breakfast, but it seems like we can all get on that "breakfast for dinner" train.
It may be hard to imagine having steak and potatoes at 7 a.m., but having eggs at 7 p.m. always sounds like a good idea.
The Meat On The Side Cookbook is coming!!!!!!
I am beyond excited to announce that my first cookbook will be hitting the shelves in early 2016!!!!! For almost a year now, I have been cooking up a storm testing and retesting (and retesting again) recipes for this book. I have been creating meals that are simple, healthy, come out perfect every time, and are just plain yummy!
Recipe testing photos
The book will contain over 100 Meat On The Side meals, which means that these recipes will not have more than 4oz of meat and the vegetable will always be the star of the plate. Meat On The Side is all about vegetable-focused dishes that bend and twist veggies in unique ways to create meals that will make even the pickiest of eaters love their veggies.
I love anything with Buffalo sauce on it. One time Buffalo sauce landed on my phone and I seriously considered eating it.
Since I am from Buffalo you would think that this love affair started back when I was growing up, eating some of the best wings in the world. However, in actuality I didn’t even eat a chicken wing until many years later after I left those Buffalo winters behind.
I’m a huge cabbage fan...I’m also a huge Buffalo Bills fan, but for now let’s just focus on the cabbage. There is no need to get into a heated football debate until at least August.
Once you start looking at cabbage as more than just a main ingredient in sauerkraut or coleslaw, you will start to see how versatile it can really be.
Bunnies are adorable, they are soft, their ears are far too big for their little heads, and they hop! Let’s face it, they are cute; that is as long as we are talking about a small furry animal and not the random guy hopping up and down behind me on the street. He’s not cute, he’s just creepy.
I tend to make the appetizers for Easter dinner and leave the heavy lifting for my father in-law. It’s hard to help him as I barley have a free hand (no, I cannot put the Sauvignon Blanc down. And what about my other hand? Well, it’s usually helping me taste test the cheese, a very important job).
I recently found myself in Kentucky with my good friend Damaris Phillips. To go along with the bourbon that you know is always on her table, she made me a sandwich with her signature tomato aioli.
Back home in NYC I found myself seriously craving her aioli, I needed more (but not more bourbon, I’m done with bourbon for a while). It was so rich, so meaty and so deep in flavor that I would not be forgetting it anytime soon.
1. Almost all rice is categorized as "long", "short", or "med"; which simply refers to their length. Long grain rice is about 4 to 5 times long as they are wide, while short grain rice is almost round. Let’s imagine rice as people. Let’s say long grain rice would be played by someone like Cindy Crawford; while Mr.Short Grain would be played by Danny Devito. How’s that for a visual?!
2. The shorter the grain the starchier the rice.
3. When making dishes like Risotto, high starch content is essential. The starch released from the rice is what gives risotto its signature creaminess.
4. In general, short grain rice can be used in place of any other short grain rice in recipes, and the same goes for long grains. So feel free to sub Jasmine for Basmatti and Arborio for Calasparra, everyone will get along just fine.
I’ve been obsessed with traditional basil pesto for a very long time.
When I first tried it I was at a point in my life when green things still made me feel a little queasy--but once I closed my eyes and took a bite, I realized how crazy flavorful and addicting pesto can be.
“Where have you been?”
“What have you been doing?”
“Why haven't you posted a new recipe?”
These are frequent questions from my readers. And I’d love to tell you all that I've been busy filming my own show, or that I couldn't come to the computer because I was elbow deep in tomato sauce, but the truth is sadly something very different.
At 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant my husband and I lost our little girl. Her heart just stopped, and we don't know why. We never got to hear her voice, or see her smile, or know what she looks like when she first wakes up. We never got to have all those “firsts” that we had excitedly anticipated.
We were ready for her: diapers unpacked, tiny clothes in her dresser and a place for her to rest her head right next to mommy. It was supposed to be the week we brought her home, the week we stumbled our way through parenthood, laughing as we put diapers on backwards and figuring out the difference between a “boppy” and a “breast-friend”.
But that's just not what happened.
A Horror Story:
Written by: Nikki Dinki
Sue and her date go to a local restaurant for a nice meal out. Sue orders the salmon, her date the steak and each meal comes with a side of vegetables. They chatter, flirt and then...the meal comes...all they can do is stare in horror at their plates.
It’s not the salmon or the steak that get their attention but that sad, mushy, flavorless, over-steamed broccoli thrown haphazardly on the plate. It’s blatantly obvious that no one at this restaurant cares about broccoli. And being advocates for Broccoli’s rights (ABRs they call themselves) they get up and march out of the restaurant.
For they know, as I do, that broccoli should NEVER be treated this way...
The end.
You see, I didn’t always love broccoli, I’ll admit it. The green tree-like vegetable and me had a bumpy relationship at first. But how can anyone fall in love with this green goddess when she is so often treated and dressed, so poorly?!
There are not often tears shed in my kitchen, but the event has taken place before. It actually became a frequent occurence years ago when I really got on a pizza making kick.
I had acquired the ESSENTIAL pizza making tool- the pizza stone. The magical stone that when pizza is cooked upon- the crust is crisp on the outside but remains chewy on the inside. It had changed my pizza making experience. There was only one problem, transferring the perfectly topped raw pizza onto the stone that had to be preheated in the oven...
And this is where the tears came in...
I'm convinced that the reason Broccoli Cheddar soup is so popular is because parents like that they can sneak a vegetable into a kids' bowl and disguise it as Cheese soup.
And let's face it! There are times when all of us would rather cozy up to a hot and cheesy bowl of soup rather than a bowl of steamy veggies.
And so we pat ourselves on the back for choosing such a healthy option while still feeding that inner child who is craving comfort food in a bowl.
The squirrels in NYC can get a little close... too close for my liking.
Through years of experiencing that getting close to humans results in the receiving of french fries, pretzels and maybe if they're lucky a classic NYC hot dog (probably better that they eat it than us), these little guys have no fear.