Wednesday, September 29, 2010

My New Addiction

Well maybe it isn't something new. Maybe more of a new way to lose myself in it.

Besides reading, decorating, shoes and clothing, along with music, my other passion is cooking.

Yeah, I know how can the skinny girl like food so much and still look like I do.

One word. Leftovers!

Don't eat it all in one sitting.

Now I don't watch a whole lot of television. I have a small handful of shows I do watch but for the most part I just don't sit down and do it.

I have however found a new way to feed my cooking addiction and waste time in front of the TV.

Not good.

The last thing I want to do is become a couch potato and end up putting all that hard fought weight loss back on.

Diligence will be key here.

So will the treadmill and a lot of walking. :D

But what has me excited?

The Food Network which has some of my favorite shows, Good Eats (Alton Brown is the absolute best!!), Grill it with Bobby Flay (Great show he actually grills with real people and focuses on a style or recipe that they are famous for.), Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee. (She has some awesome shortcuts.) Everyday Italian with Giada Delaurentiis. (ok so I love Italian food. I do make my own homemade sauce.)

Not to mention Iron Chef is always a fun watch, though I seem to prefer the older Japanese version. Still they are both good.

However they seem to have dropped a lot of the good primetime cooking shows in favor or the reality ones. Chopped, Chef vs City, Cupcake wars, The next food network star, etc.

These are just not my cup of tea. I want to see people teaching me how to cook. Dedicated to adding ideas and new techniques to what I already know.

The network did something great however. They started the Cooking Channel.

And I love it!!!!!

It has the shows I want to see, Tyler Florence is easy to find again. Rachel Allen: Bake! (OMG one of my new favorite shows!!!) Chucks Day Off (I really like what he cooks). Jamie Oliver's Jamie at home. And a cool concept with Ask Aida with Aidia Mollenkamp. Where they take view mail and answer questions while cooking.

There was a girl who was doing an interesting Mexican show but I didn't catch the name and I haven't been able to find it again.

It has gotten bad though, I have it on almost daily. It was about all I watched in the background this last Sunday as I roasted a chicken for the week along with made a strawberry rhubarb cobbler with homemade whipped cream.

Yeah that last one isn't diet friendly so I don't make it very often and I share.

That and it will be salads all week for lunch. :D

One thing I learned is I will have to invest in an immersion blender one of these days.

Still I hope this channel can get enough ratings to stay a float as I absolutely love it.

For those that don't have a TV system that broadcast this channel, I also highly recommend the quarterly publication Cooks Illustrated. Excellent source of recipes and information. The fantastic part is they cover not only the details of a recipe but how they arrived at it. Meaning if they were unsure of how to make it, they discuss the process they went through to achieve what they wanted to make. Even talking about the missteps.

This gives you a lot of insight of what to do and not to do. The other great part is they often have several alternate versions of the same recipe in case you cannot find certain ingredients in your area or maybe don't have all the equipment on hand.

It is well worth the investment for those that love to cook.

Did I mention yet that I do?

3 comments:

Viv said...

I'm right with you, Kelli! It kills me to see the Food Network devolve into a bunch of idiotic reality shows, especially the cake decorating ones, which aren't even cooking. I don't mind a few shows dedicated to discovering new restaurants or foodstuffs, but mostly I want "how-to" shows like you. Of course, I "grew up" cooking in my late teens/early twenties watching Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, etc on PBS, so maybe that's part of what I expect from a cooking network. So far, the food to garbage ratio on the Cooking Channel is pretty good though.

Kelli Bennett said...

@Viv, I don't mind shows that explore local flavors or discusses unusual restaurants (Love Dinners, Dives and Drive-ins!). I even saw one that showcase unique food trucks that serve gourmet food of some type. Those are a nice change of pace.

The reality shows (other then Iron Chef) just don't appeal to me.

LOL and I just got the two volume hardbound set of 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child. I have been slowly working through it.

Melissa said...

Whatever you do, don't cook like Paula Deen!

Melissa XX