Rainy Day Tailgating

I had the perfect plan for my re-emergence onto the cooking scene: Polo tailgating.

Forget the big hats and sleek dresses a la Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. My polo experiences are pretty much defined by snacks, wine and friends enjoyed under the Florida sunshine.

This year's excursion promised to be the best yet. One of my friends has a grill attached to the back of his truck. Another a little tent. And of course one can not forget my contribution: the picnic table and cooler in the back of my CRV.

The menu planning began at least a week in advance, and with plans to grill who else would I look to than Bobby Flay, my favorite grill master. I found an interesting recipe for a Grilled Jerk Chicken with Mango and Cilantro Salsa. To top that off, I thought I'd whip up a munchie I saw Giada make on her show a few weeks ago, Tilapia Fish Tacos with Arugula.

Both came out pretty well. For the chicken, I used drum sticks and wings. Bobby Flay recommends marinating the meat for 24 to 48 hours, depending on how strong you want the flavor. I went some where in between, and I have to say I felt like it could have been stronger. The flavor was good, but I would have liked a little more spice. I did cheat and use jalapeno peppers instead of the one called for in the recipe.

For Giada's, I was too lazy and busy to go to the Asian market for the wontons and decided to put my own little twist on the bite size fish tacos. I rolled corn tortillas into little cones, pressed the edges tight to hold the shape, placed them in a cupckae tin and popped them in the oven until crisp.

But just as we pulled everything together, Mother Nature threatened our party with afternoon thunder storms.

Good thing we gals don't let anyone rain on our parade. We moved our party indoors : )

In case you were wondering ...

... I've already done too much writing this week. And thinking for that matter. Taxes. FBI investigations. Four front page stories in a row. Takes a lot out of you. So I'm recovering this weekend, with the help of a little dinner party at a friend's and some vino. Rest assured, I've got lots of ideas floating around in my head yet to come once I restore my energy.

Giada's Whole Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta and Lemon

Despite a particularly draining week and a promise that my Saturday would be devoted to relaxation, I could not resist the lure of the kitchen.

Maybe it was the stress of a long week, but I was craving pasta. So I turned to my new Giada De Laurentiis cookbook, Giada's Kitchen for some inspiration.

I opened the book up to this recipe for Whole Wheat Linguine with Green Beans, Ricotta and Lemon and since today is about minimal effort figured why bother flipping pages. I'll just roll with it. The end result is pretty good. Very light, and the lemon zest gives the pasta a certain freshness. The pasta really showcases the veggies. And it was simple to make. The biggest time commitment was slicing the green beans.

A perfect light, sunny dish for a light sunny weekend dinner! Lovely with an Italian Pinot Grigio.

What kind of wine am I?

At some point during the Chilean food and wine demo, the wine ambassador made an interesting observation about Pinot.

"I always tell women, it's just like us," she said. "It's complex, sensitive, tender and hard to grow."

Sound familiar? It's like in the movie Sideways, where the main character's personality bears a striking resemblance to the profile of his favorite vino. I have to say, I've never been a huge fan of Pinot Noir. So it got me thinking. What does that say about me?

Over time, my appreciation of different wines has evolved, and more recently I've become a big fan of heavier, richer reds. My favorite, the Chilean signature grape Carmenere. Some Wikipedia research showed that Carmenere favors a long growing season in moderate to warm climates (Kind of like me). The vines do poorly if introduced to rain (As do I). It blends well with some other grapes, but stands just as well on its own (Sounds familiar). Carmenere is known for its rich, intense colors and flavors that range from full fruity to spicy and smoky. Despite its boldness, Carmenere is still softer and gentler than some other reds.

Hmmm... Maybe there's something to this. What's your wine type?

CATW: Reflections on Chile

Check out my other blog for reflections and a recipe from my Friday evening Chilean food and wine demo!

CATW: Tajikistan, Plov

Just updated my Cooking Around the World blog with a recipe for Plov from Tajikistan. Check it out! A yummy lamb and rice dish.

Keeping it Real

She doesn't have her own cookbook yet, and features about her in Food Network Magazine are pretty limited.

Yet Sunny Anderson stuck around more than 30 minutes after her Sarasota appearance happily chatting and signing paper towel ads with her photo for the dozen or so fans who stuck around after her demo.

As far as food celebrities go, she gave keeping it real new meaning.

Sure, Sunny Anderson is one of Food Network's newer stars. Her cooking show Cooking for Real is in its third year. She does not appear on many of the prime time reality shows that command the bulk of Food Network's audience.

I was on the fence for a few weeks about whether to spring the $50 to go see her in person. I enjoy watching her show, and her food always looks good (maybe not stand out and memorable ... but tasty and easy). I mostly liked the idea of a fairly small and intimate session with any Food Network celebrity. After our new friend we met at SoBe told me how nice she was in person, I decided it was probably worth it.

As soon as I got there I was glad I sprung for the ticket.

For some reason I was surprised that she was already there examining the collection of knives at Publix Apron's Cooking School when I arrived 20 minutes early. I think squeal with delight would probably sum up my reaction when I walked through the door and she was standing right in front of me, dressed town in jeans and a purple t-shirt.

She's one of those people who just radiates warmth. She's pretty and personable. She flashed a huge smile and gave me an extremely warm welcome, making me feel like I had just walked in the kitchen of one of my best girlfriends. My first instinct was to hug her, but I stopped myself ... for a second.

"Can I give you a hug?" I asked.

(It's important to note at this point I had already spent my afternoon wine tasting for three hours and made friends with one of the pourers. Enough said.)

"Of course!" she gushed, as if it wasn't totally weird that I accosted her, and she threw her arms around me.

That was the beginning of my BFF-dom with Sunny Anderson.

Turns out I knew some people at the demo and took a seat at a table in the back by them. Sunny spent the next 20 minutes making the rounds, stopping to chat with everyone in the room, taking pictures, answering questions about her show and dishing Food Network gossip.

And she proceeded to do so for the next two hours as she cooked up some orzo, mustard greens, bacon-wrapped flank steak and a pear tart with cheddar. I have to say everything was really delicious. Simply made right before our eyes and packed with flavor. I guess bacon does that.

She talked about growing up in a military family, her time spent in the service and how she got into the business. She told stories about how she tried for years to get into the Food Network, putting herself out there to do any small job they would offer until she finally got her own cooking show.

You definitely got the distinct and genuine impression that she really pushed and worked her way to her spot. She wasn't one of these people who was just magically discovered and walked into the limelight. It seemed that she worked hard to get where she is, and truly appreciates it.

And she did not hold back any behind the scenes details about the other Food Network stars, from how "fabulous" Ina Garten is to Alton Brown's dry sense of humor and Robert Irvine's padded resume.

"I'm a foodie too," she said. "Just like you guys."

When someone asked about the cookbook she was writing, she promptly went to the cabinet pulled out her giant purse and whipped out a marble notebook where she was sketching out her ideas and passed it around to everyone in the audience.

After the demo wrapped up she enthusiastically, yet modestly, offered to stick around to sign autographs and take photos.

I brought her two copies of Food Network magazine, one for me and one for my sister, for her to sign. In mine she wrote "Keep real."

I lingered for a bit just totally enthralled watching her chat with the other women. I thought about inviting her out for a drink, then became mindful I might be coming off a little creepy. In hindsight, I kind of wish I did. She was there all by herself. No entourage of publicists and security.

But instead I just thanked her and got ready to leave.

As I started to walk away, she stopped to look up from her signing and say what I thought was a very genuine and appreciative goodbye to me. The look in her eyes made me think she really meant it.

"No, thank you," she said. "Thank you so much for coming. You have no idea how much it means to me."

A well-ordered blogosphere, at least my tiny piece of it

Well this blogging thing turned out to be more fun than I expected. So much fun that I've taken to blogging about everything remotely food related, not just the international culinary adventure I originally intended.

But I'm one for order. I like things to make sense. And sometimes it just didn't make sense to have stories about food festivals and wine tastings on a blog created to honor global recipes.

It seemed like the best solution was to start a new blog that will serve as the main clearinghouse for all my food musings so I can devote Cooking Around the World in 80-Some Days to what it was intended for. No fear! I'm certainly not abandoning my slow-paced global quest. Just trying to streamline my thoughts so they're more "reader friendly" as we say in the biz.

So this is where you'll be able to find all my random stories about cooking, wine tasting, dining out and commentary on foodie and Food Network culture.

And stay tuned. I'm kicking around the idea of yet another blog to write about my interest in locally grown produce...

Chicken, spinach and goat cheese pasta

Maybe it was watching all those cooking demos in SoBe, but early on this week I started to get an itch to get in the kitchen. Besides, I was gone all weekend. I had nothing around for dinner. So I resorted to an old favorite, something I came up with once upon a time to get rid of some rotisserie chicken and spinach. Basically just a quick, flavorful pasta dish you can whip up easily any weeknight.

What you need:

1 carton chicken broth

1 box whole wheat pasta spirals

1 bag spinach

1 jar of sun dried tomatoes, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

About half a rotisserie chicken cut into bite-sized pieces

8 oz. goat cheese

What to do:

Pour the chicken broth into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook about 10 minutes until al dente. Most of the liquid should cook out so you won't have to drain it. Add the bag of spinach and let wilt into the pasta. Pour into a bowl and reserve.

In the pot, pour the oil from the sun dried tomatoes. Saute the chopped tomatoes and garlic in the oil for a few minutes. Add the chicken pieces.

Add the pasta and spinach mixture back into the pot and then stir in the goat cheese.

I will dream of Miami ...

Words hardly do justice to the incredible, awesome time I had this weekend.

Well, one word does come to mind: Overstimulating.

My first trip to the Food Network's South Beach Food and Wine Festival far exceeded my expectations. Turns out, all of the things I worried would cut into the fun - crowds, lines, getting shut out of demos - were not an issue.

In their place were all these wonderful things I never anticipated. A well-stocked goodie bag. A waterford wine glass. A lanyard with a clip attached so you could wear the wine glass around your neck. A rum tent.

Someone really put a lot of thought into this.

We started as soon as the festival opened at 11 a.m., walking past Peter and Paul to cross under the golden gates into our own personal heaven - at least for the next seven hours.

We passed tent after tent, all with signs beckoning us in with promises of meeting some of the country's greatest food personalities - not just those on the Food Network.

To be honest, a lot of the details of the day are a little bit of a fog. That's where this whole overstimulation comes in. And I was feeling that way well before we hit the rum tent.

What kind of Food Network groupie wouldn't feel that way? We saw Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Emeril, Michael Symon, Paula Deen, Guy Fieri. There were stars everywhere, many of them happily working the crowd and chatting it up with their friends. We got our picture with Robert Irvine.

All this sandwiched between the beautiful greenish blue waters of the Gulfstream in the Atlantic and Ocean Drive.

I LOVE MIAMI!!!!

Forget the all you could eat food and wine. Just being there was euphoric.

Of course there was a highlight of the day: The Rachael Ray signing.

She was the last in my tri-fecta of first wave Food Network favorites. She was really my first, the one I watched in college who made me really think I could be successful in the kitchen. I packed my little Yum-O shirt just for the fest and started staking out her demo tent for seats practically as soon as we got there. Forget that Bobby Flay was on stage. He was the farthest thing from my mind this time around. I wanted to see Rachael.

The wait wasn't long before she came on stage for her demo, much the same as on t.v. Maybe a little bit more reserved. Maybe a little distracted by the live audience. Maybe a little tired. This was already day four of the festival. But she was every bit as warm and welcoming as you would imagine.

After the demo I bolted over pretty quickly to the tent where she would do the book signing. The book people were pretty strict, saying she might only sign one book and only one bought at the festival.

But I had something else I wanted to try and sneak under the radar. I had the very first copy of her magazine, Everyday with Rachael Ray, and I wanted her to sign it.

As I walked up to the table and put my two items down I heard the woman in front of my gushing.

"Ohhhhhh, you have the first copy of the magazine," she said.

I looked up and realized it was the editor. That might not seem that awesome to anyone else, but I'm a journalist. I can appreciate it.

I asked her if she would sign it too. At first she insisted that I didn't really want her to.

"No I really do," I told her. "I really want you to sign it."

She got a big smile on her face and started flipping through the pages.

"Where should I sign it?" she asked.

"Anywhere you want," I told her.

"I'll sign my column," she said.

She held it up and showed Rachael, who slapped her signature on the cover.

And that was it. It didn't occur to me until I walked away that I could have told her I'm a reporter. Oh well. It was still a great moment.

Then I followed the sound of the steel drum band down the yellow sand road. The rum was waiting ...

A little postscript: The rest of the festival was a blast. After a few trips to the rum tent, Paula Deen even started to grow on me. At the very least she's a great entertainer. Guy Fieri was a great way to end the festivities. And then of course we had the perfect end to a perfect weekend. We capped off the trip with brunch at Emeril's : )