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      Chopped All-Stars: must-see TV

      February 16, 2011 /

      In July of 2009, I posted something on Premium Hollywood, berating the producers and judges of “Chopped” on Food Network for the latter being too harsh. That was then, only a few months after the show premiered on the network, and this is now, 205 comments to the post later from passionate fans of the show, one of the most popular on the network. Quite honestly, the judges have become much more lenient and complimentary, even as the contestants have had to work with even crazier ingredients.

      Often, as you can see in those comments of my original post, viewers have suggested that the judges try and compete and see how well they could fare. And now those people and all of us who watch “Chopped” have something to look forward to–“Chopped All-Stars,” which premieres Sunday, March 6. The four rounds will draw contestants from Food Network personalities, former contestants of other shows such as “Next Food Network Star, renowned celebrity chefs, and of course, some of the “Chopped” judges. The winners of each round will then go head to head in the finale, with the winner taking home $50K for the charity of their choice.

      Are you kidding me? This is sheer genius, and the one round I can’t wait to see is the one that includes three regular “Chopped” judges–Aaron Sanchez, Amanda Freitag and Geoffrey Zakarian. Here is the schedule we received from Food Network:

      Part 1 (premieres Sunday, March 6th at 9pm) – Brad Sorenson, Debbie Lee, Lisa Garza, Michael Proietti

      Part 2 (premieres Sunday, March 13th at 9pm) – Anne Burrell, Claire Robinson, Duff Goldman, Robert Irvine

      Part 3 (premieres Sunday, March 20th at 9pm) – Anita Lo, Beau MacMillan, Jacques Torres, Nate Appleman

      Part 4 (premieres Sunday, March 27th at 9pm) – Aaron Sanchez, Amanda Freitag, Geoffrey Zakarian, Maneet Chauhan

      Part 5 (premieres Sunday, April 3rd at 9pm) – Final showdown featuring one winner from each round

      They also sent me a screener of Part 1 featuring former contestants of “The Next Food Network Star” and it was positively awesome, despite some nasty ingredients. So be sure to check out the show and most of all, let’s see if the judges make those same scowling looks to Geoffrey Zakarian that he gives to contestants regularly.

      Chefs and Restaurants, Food TV

      Valentine’s Day dinner–staying home is classy, not cheap

      February 14, 2011 /

      Seriously…..everyone goes out to dinner on Valentine’s Day, potentially making for a miserable experience. But if you stay at home, and cook a super-romantic meal like the one I posted on Grub for Guys a couple years back, you just have to have earned some brownie points. And brownie points on V-Day are worth a bit more. If you can only try one, make the pasta….hopefully then, you can make the quiche in the morning. So give it a shot, and let me know what you think…..and good luck!

      So this one is for you guys who have a female companion sleep over for one (or two) nights, or for you guys who are married and want to do something special for Mother’s Day or your anniversary. Let’s face it – women love men who cook, and these two recipes will impress her. Trust me, I tested them both recently to rave reviews in my house. But first , if you’re like me, the thought of making quiche makes you feel like less of a man. But if you stay away from things like shallots and rosemary, and focus on bacon and cheese, I say your manhood is intact. Here we go….

      Real Man Quiche

      Ingredients
      1 frozen 9-inch pie crust
      4 large eggs, beaten
      ¼ cup chopped Canadian bacon (you can substitute cooked and crumbled bacon or sausage)
      1 Tbsp. Olive oil or vegetable oil
      1 medium onion, sliced thin
      1 garlic clove, minced
      ½ tsp. Italian seasoning
      1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
      1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
      ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
      salt and pepper

      Directions:
      Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and take the pie crust out of the freezer. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and then sautee the onion and garlic for about 4 minutes; stir in the Italian seasoning and remove from heat. Let cool for a few minutes, then combine the onion mixture, eggs, the cheeses, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour this into the crust and bake for about 35-45 minutes, or until browned on top. Serves 4, or two extremely hungry people.

      Bistro Pasta With Tomato and Basil

      Ingredients
      8 oz. cooked linguine (preferably the fresh kind like Buitoni)
      1/3 cup olive oil
      1 large tomato, chopped
      3-4 garlic cloves, minced
      ¼ cup minced basil leaves
      1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (if you’ve come this far, you’re not really going to serve her that stuff in the green jar, are you?)
      salt and pepper to taste

      Directions:
      After cooking the pasta, set it aside to drain. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and add the garlic and tomato, and fry for 3-4 minutes. (Yes, it’s a lot of oil, but it will be absorbed by the pasta and cheese, and olive oil is supposedly good for your arteries.) Add the basil leaves, then the pasta, then the cheese. Heat for a minute or two or until warmed through, add the salt and pepper to taste, and serve. A good idea would be to have a decent bottle of red wine on hand and a Sinatra CD. Serves 2.

      Food on a Budget, Healthy, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      Quesadilla recipes

      February 11, 2011 /

      Hey guys….it’s another freezing cold weekend in most parts of the country, so you’re probably indoors and looking for something satisfying to eat. Well, here are some quesadilla recipes I posted on Grub For Guys a few months ago. These are all super easy and really good…I mean, I don’t mean to toot my own horn but you’ll see what I mean if you try any of them. Thanks for reading!

      Quesadillas are versatile, easy to make and can be filling man-food too. Here, we give you a breakfast version, a spicy chicken quesadilla and a cheeseburger version that will remind you of those trips to McDonald’s as a kid (or now, if you’re like many guys). Each recipe makes one quesadilla (one tortilla with filling, so two wedges), so multiply out as you see fit, if you’re hungry as hell, or if you are feeding a bunch of your buddies. Oh, and use a good quality tortilla, preferably one of those Mexican brands.

      Basic Breakfast Quesadilla
      After a night of drinking, or even if you’re craving some good protein in the morning and don’t want it with a side of grease, this egg based quesadilla is just what you need. Serve it with salsa for dipping or just pour some salsa all over the top.

      Ingredients
      1 large flour tortilla
      Cooking spray
      1 large egg
      A few slices bell pepper—can be green but preferably red or yellow
      2-3 Tbsp. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
      Salt and pepper
      Salsa

      Directions
      Heat a medium, non-stick skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray, and crack the egg in a small dish, and beat with a fork. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then pour into skillet. Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until set and firm, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Remove to bowl and keep warm. Spray skillet again and add pepper slices. Stir fry until crisp-tender, about 2-3 minutes. Then wipe out skillet (carefully, you bonehead!), and then return to heat. Quickly assemble by placing egg, pepper slices and cheese in tortilla. Fold over and place in sprayed skillet. Spray top of quesadilla with cooking spray. Cook for about 2 minutes or until tortilla is brown, then flip over and continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes or until tortilla is brown and cheese has melted. Serve with salsa or hot sauce.

      Spicy Chicken, Corn & Jalapeno Quesadilla
      This is a good summer quesadilla with the abundance of corn, or even into September or October. Most guys like spice, too, so you can’t go wrong with this one.

      Ingredients
      1 large flour tortilla
      Cooking spray
      ½ chicken breast half, lightly pounded into ¼ inch thickness
      Salt and pepper
      ½ ear corn, cooked and cut from cob
      1 jalapeno pepper
      2-3 Tbsp. shredded Mexican blend cheese
      Salsa
      Sour cream

      Directions
      Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Sprinkle chicken breast with salt and pepper and cook, turning once, until browned and cooked through (no longer pink in middle). Cut into pieces and set aside. Slice jalapeno pepper, spray skillet with cooking spray again and cook pepper slices for 3-4 minutes. Wipe out skillet, and assemble quesadillas by placing chicken pieces, jalapeno, corn and cheese in tortilla. Fold over and place in sprayed skillet. Spray top of quesadilla with cooking spray. Cook for about 2 minutes or until tortilla is brown, then flip over and continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes or until tortilla is brown and cheese has melted. Serve with salsa or salsa and sour cream.

      Cheeseburger Quesadilla
      Seriously, this one was a home run when we tried it. It tastes like a fast food cheeseburger, but much healthier because, well, you made it yourself.

      Ingredients
      1 large flour tortilla
      Cooking spray
      ¼ lb. Ground beef
      Salt and pepper
      2 Tbsp. chopped onion
      4 dill pickle slices
      2-3 Tbsp. shredded American cheese
      1-2 squirts of ketchup

      Directions
      Heat medium nonstick skillet over medium heat and place beef and onion in skillet. Brown beef and onion, sprinkling with salt and pepper, about 5 minutes or until no longer pink, and then remove to a bowl to keep warm. Wipe out skillet, and assemble quesadillas by placing beef and onion mixture in the tortilla. Add pickle slices, cheese and the ketchup. Fold over and place in sprayed skillet. Spray top of quesadilla with cooking spray. Cook for about 2 minutes or until tortilla is brown, then flip over and continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes or until tortilla is brown and cheese has melted. Serve with extra ketchup for dipping.

      On the Grille, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      A can a week: Campbell’s Chunky Grilled Steak Chili with Beans

      February 10, 2011 /

      Chef JimToday as I was scouring the grocery store shelves, I wanted to try a chili that was a bit different. So Campbell’s Chunky Grilled Steak Chili with Beans caught my eye. Sure, Campbell’s isn’t exactly Hormel, but they do soup right, so how much could they mess up chili, right? Plus, the prospect of big chunks of steak sounded intriguing to me.

      So I fired this stuff up for lunch and, well, it’s okay. The first thing I noticed was an utter lack of spice. Not only does the tomato flavor dominate the taste of chili powder, but I had to douse it with hot sauce because on a scale of 1 to 10, this chili registered a heat index of about 0.5. No, it didn’t claim to be spicy, but still…it’s freaking chili, not tomato soup with beef. Speaking of beef, the chunks of meat were definitely nice. They were small chunks but nice and meaty and tender. I also liked that there was corn in the chili, giving it a nice Southwest flair.

      Assuming you have hot sauce on hand, you might give this a try, but if you’re looking for traditional chili flavor, stick with the guys like Hormel that just do chili.

      Food on a Budget, Healthy, Product Reviews

      Mikey’s Desert Island Foods

      February 8, 2011 /

      I know you’ve been waiting all day for this, haven’t you? Here are my five desert island foods, and please put yours in the comments section below so we can keep this going…oh, and please spread the word to your friends and on your Facebook pages….

      1. Pizza–there is no single food item that satisfies like pizza, and it has or could have all of the four food groups.

      2. Buffalo wings–I can’t survive without the occasional taste of Buffalo wing sauce, so why not have it in the format it was meant to be on–chicken wings

      3. Pineapple–hear me out. You’re on a desert island like Gilligan anyway, but also, you need fiber and you need some good vitamins. And have you ever had a bad-tasting pineapple. I know I haven’t, ever. So bring it on.

      4. Meatballs or meatball sandwiches–Aside from the chicken wings, we need protein, and meatballs are the perfect protein. If we can have them in sauce, all the better. If we can have them in sauce and on bread, better still. Man, I’m getting hungry.

      5. Chocolate chip cookies–really, is there a better dessert or sweet snack food than good chocolate chip cookies? I don’t think so.

      So let’s go…I want to hear your choices…….

      Ingredients, Uncategorized, Your Kitchen

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