SobeWFF 2011- Kidz Kitchen

Day 2 of my trip to the South Beach Wine & Festival was to the Kellogg's Kidz Kitchen. Yes, you are supposed to have a kid with you, but I went with Sam & his mom, so doesn't that count? I was celebrating my 8 3/4 birthday after all! ;)

Now, let me tell you about going to an event like this...you HAVE to go with others, and you have to divide and conquer to be able to see/do it all! While one is on line for one show, the other can be in line for a book signing, and that's exactly how we did it! It's a long, exhausting day, but sooo worth it! Just take a look:

First up, Rachael Ray Demo:

Then I ran into Tony the Tiger:

Then on to the Cat Cora Book Signing:

such a sweetie!

Rocco DiSpirito Demo:

Rocco Book Signing:

Lastly, Giada De Laurentis Demo:

so sweet, such a good show, very gracious.

She even stayed to sign books even though it wasn't scheduled!

That's her signing my book!

An exhausting but super-fun day. I have the blisters to prove it! :)

SobeWFF 2011- Shine & Swine

Sorry for the delay in posting about my whirlwind weekend at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.  I hope you will forgive me! :) I have finally recuperated, but now I just hope to remember all the important details. Let's see how I do...starting with the first event SHINE & SWINE.  (That means moonshine and pig, for those not in the know!) Held at the W Hotel in South Beach and hosted by Adam Perry Lang, how can you go wrong? Well, let me tell you! First, I should tell you that the tickets were won by my friend Sam, by writing a poem about Lee Schrager, genius behind the festival. We find out he won at the last minute and immediately head down to Sobe to live it up. All was good until I get a call 5 minutes from Sobe that Sam, bless his heart, was swatting a spider (A spider!) in his car driving down to Sobe using the FedEx with the tickets in it, and the tickets. flew. out. the. window. NO.JOKE. So then, we went to plan B. Show up and somehow get in. Well, the foodie gods were looking after us that night, cause we walked right up to the women in charge of tickets, told her our story, and got right in (Thanks Ashley!). The event itself was kind of a dud-totally wouldn't pay $100 for the tickets, and the star, Adam didn't show his face once, but we stumbled upon the best spot to stand in the whole party...the entrance/exit to the VIP section. Here is where we had the time of our lives! Check out who stumbled upon us....

That's Jamie Oliver!

Lee Schrager, Genius behind the festival

Rachael Ray!

Also met Art Smith, but his photo is on Sam's camera, since I was taken off camera duty after my flash didn't go off when I took a picture of him and Rachael...

Sorry Sam!

All in all, a pretty exhilarating evening. I must say, I didn't sleep at all that night I was so excited!

Chef Hitlist!

Finally got my copy of the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival Cookbook, and I am ready to hit that sand and do some MAJOR Chef-stalking!

Very well written cookbook by the festival guru himself, Lee Schrager. Filled with photos, recipes and insider stories from the past ten years of the Sobe Festtival, but I will be using it to see how many chefs I can track down in one weekend!

On my Chef Hitlist (In no particular order):

Rachael Ray

Bobby Flay

Jamie Oliver

Emeril Lagasse

Rick Bayless

Spike Mendelsohn

Michael Symon

Ted Allen

Cat Cora

Guy Fieri

Claire Robinson

Rocco Dispirito

Tyler Florence

Masaharu Morimoto

Paula Deen

Anthony Bourdain

Anne Burrell

Giada DeLaurentis

Duff Goldman

Todd English

Scott Conant

Phew! I know it's hefty goal and some of them I actually met last year, but I want them all to sign the cookbook. I am getting excited! Time to put on my comfy shoes and get hunting....wish me luck!

Comfort Food King!

So you may know by now that I am a cookbook collector. I enjoy getting new cookbooks and immediately sitting down and picking all the recipes I plan on making. Usually I end up making one or two of those before I move on to my next new cookbook....well, not so this time! Six months in and I am still head over heals in love with Now Eat This! Packed full of all of your favorite comfort foods, but with the fat and calorie counts slashed! This week I was craving Chicken & Dumplings, and again Rocco DiSpirito came through for me! Not only was it it easy, fast and delicious, but it cut right threw my craving! Just check out this bowl of comfort:

The only drawback is, when it says it serves 4, it's more like 3, since you will definitely go back for seconds!

Shrimp & Grits, Y'all!

Totally craving Shrimp & Grits all week, but couldn't fathom making Paula Deen's version full of butter and fat y'all, so I turned to my gal in charge of calorie slashing....Hungry Girl. She hooked me up with her Shrimp & Grits for Hungry Chicks.  Now before you go and judge, thinking HG took out all of the flavor along with the fat, you are totally wrong! This was so rich and creamy and full of flavor, and it took only 10 minutes to make, I didn't miss any fat at all!

To make me even more happy, the potion size was fit for a, well, Hungry Girl!
Sorry Paula...

5 Minute Flavor

I've mentioned before, but my favorite go-to dip is a healthy artichoke dip by Rocco Dispirito, that's always a hit! I got it from a magazine article that adapted it from Rocco's 5 Minute Flavor. I have photocopied the recipe so many times, for so many friends, I'm surprised I can still read it...not that it's hard! It literally takes 5 minutes and has 5 ingredients:

Drain 14oz can of artichokes, chop and put in microwave dish, stir in 3/4c low fat plain yogurt and 1c fresh parmigiana-reggiano, 2 gloves garlic and 2T fresh basil. Microwave 3 minutes on high. stir. microwave 2 min more. serve with pita chips.

Puhlease, anybody can do that, right?! And you end up with the most delicious, addictive dip....ever!

At only 17 calories per tablespoon, is it wrong to want to eat the whole thing????

Super Sunday

Finally coming out of the food coma that was Superbowl Sunday, just in time to relive it all again here with all of you! The overall spread was enormous, but here is a peek at my contributions:

Starting with dessert:

A football cake!

So stoked I finally got a football-shaped pan, and even more stoked that is is SO easy to make such a cute dessert! The cake was so moist, no frosting needed!

Instead of a regular guacamole, I decided to step it up and do a recipe inspired by a dish I saw Iron Chef Michael Symon raving about on The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Guacamole with Bacon and Blue Cheese!

Sweet, salty, crunchy, creamy, spicy...the perfect combo! Michael, you were dead right about this one!
Throw in some other classics like

Loaded potato bites (baked, not fried)

  and Mexican Potato Bites.

Makes for one SUPER, awesome Gameday spread!
I am totally craving more of that guacamole right now! Can't believe football season is over already!
 sad face.