Watching Rachael Ray

Desperate to remember that quick and easy pasta recipe on a 30 minute meal from days gone by? Search no more - if you NetFlix, anyway!

Newly released: Rachael Ray’s Fasta Pasta 1.

Bubbly Rachael Ray shares her secrets for making quick, delicious pasta and other Italian fare in this four-episode collection from her show, “30 Minute Meals.” From vodka cream pasta and grilled vegetables to broiled lamb chops and bruschetta, these dishes are ideal for entertaining friends, family or that special someone. Other recipes include gemelli with roasted red pepper sauce, mixed greens with Romano cheese crisps, and tortoni sundaes.

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Happy June, everyone! Where on earth has this year gone? The kids are home from school, I’ve already heard “I’m bored!” 8.2 billion times, and all is well with the world. Unless, of course, you’re Goldilocks over at Knitting Bag Therapy.

It seems her son, the SuperHero, is addicted to Macaroni and Cheese, and will accept no homemade substitutes, having been Brand Faithful for a couple years, even at the tender age of four. It’s Annie’s or nothing for this little guy, and his mom is at her wits end.

She even tried Rachael Ray’s recipe, and it was close but not quite. Thus! She’s having a contest! Was your mom’s homemade mac’n'cheese to die for? You think you can improve Rachael Ray’s version to appeal to a picky palette? Well, then, head over to The Knitting Bag and enter the contest. Here’s more:

The SuperHero Macaroni and Cheese (and Peas) Contest
I am looking for a tasty, healthy, wholesome, thin-sauced, no nutmeg macaroni and cheese recipe that The SuperHero will consume happily. A modification of Rachael Ray’s recipe could work. I think it was close. The contest will run from May 18, 2007 to July 20. 2007. The winner will be announced and notified on July 27, 2007. I will try recipes throughout the summer and post updates on the blog. Yes, for him and him alone will I turn on the stove all summer to find the right macaroni and cheese. He’s lucky he’s mine. Or maybe he’s just lucky I’m crazy (about him, that’s for sure, and maybe in general).

The winner will receive Rachael Ray’s Classic 30-Minute Meals: The All Occasion Cookbook, retail value of $13.57 on Amazon.com. So worth it to me. If only you knew how much money I’ve wasted on pasta, cheese, milk, and butter in recent weeks. Not to mention my nerves. MY NERVES. They are frayed, I tell you. Help me.

Good luck, and be sure to let me know how it goes!

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First - a disclaimer. I’m not much of a wine drinker. In fact, when drinking at all, on the rare occasion, I prefer tequila - usually in the form of margaritas the size of my head.

That said, I’ve always been fascinated by the paring of wine with certain foods. When people speak of this being a perfect match for that, and use white for this and red for that - I find it kinda sexy that they know such things. Then they ask what I think, and I develop a tick behind my eye, and start to drool a little, and develop a blank stare that is impossible to break through. Because I haven’t a clue…

So - being the type of gal who rarely drinks, and who knows nothing about paring food and wine without whining myself, I found Rachael Ray’s guide to be especially helpful and easy to understand. Not only that, but all of their wine choices are under $20. I’m pretty sure that if you ask your local liquor store clerk to help when you can’t find a specific wine, they’d be happy to find one that is similar.

Now, I just have to decide to not be a hermit, invite someone over to cook and get drunk with. Who’s with me? Summer’s a time of adventure, right? Besides - it’d be all in the name of research….

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No, no, no - I haven’t decided to stalk the Foodie Tycoon, at least not yet. I have found, however, a young family that’s almost halfway through a one-year project; One meal a day, every day, from Rachael Ray’s 365: No Repeats A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners. They’ve started at the beginning of the book, and have not missed a day. (If something comes up and they cannot cook that night, they have a special guest cook who fills in.) Despite food preferences, an allergy, a toddler who may decide not to eat at all, and a new pregnancy with all the morning sickness and cravings that entails - they’ve made, photographed and reviewed every single meal for 147 days now.

The nice thing about H, L and Baby A, is that they are honest about their opinions. If it was hard to make, if it was bland, if it was another in a line of catastrophes - they admit it with humor and honesty. If it looked awful but tasted fantastic, they admit that too. If it looked just as good as it tasted - it’s 5 stars all the way.

Of course, the big question is… why?

Why this Blog, “One Year Project”? Well, we are extremely fascinated by the cult of the Food Network and the notion of the celebrity chef. Rachael Ray is particularly fascinating as she seems to inspire incredible feelings of love or loathing. The idea that people can watch elaborate meals being prepared on TV all day, then stick a frozen pizza in the oven is somehow peculiar.

Sounds like a plan to me! Be sure to check out H, L and Baby A’s adventures in culinary experimentation at the One Year Project!

And I’ve just ordered a couple RR cookbooks myself. Stay tuned for more of my family’s adventures in RR Cuisine as well!

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Tonight we decided to talked another 30 minute meal. Seen on the May 10th Rachael Ray Show with Craig Ferguson, the girls and I felt like burgers, and chose the ‘manly’ Meat & Potato Burger. We’re meat and potato kinda people, and so this clearly looked like the one! The boy was at a friend’s house, the girl at Softball practice, so that meant the Pup and I would throw together this meal on a bun.

Here are the listed ingredients - and what we added/changed.

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup of heavy cream or half and half
Salt and pepper
2 pounds lean ground sirloin
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 small onion, grated
4 poppy seed Kaiser rolls
A couple of tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 bunches watercress, cleaned and trimmed of thick stems

Our changes - We added garlic. Because you cannot have too much garlic. And we grated the onion, a little, then gave up and chopped it. Dried parsley, as we have few fresh choices up here, and there were no poppy seed rolls, so we used cheese/onion Kaiser rolls instead.

It took 45 minutes to make, as again - I had an 8 year old helper. Who clearly LOVED helping…

Everything was easy to do, and it came together pretty quickly. However, apparently, I have spoiled my kids, as the burgers just “Weren’t as good as your meatloaf burgers, mom. These are ok? But done with YOUR recipe for burgers would have been better.”

[Remind me to double their allowances. Heh.]

So, our general review is that the recipe is alright, but could have been better. Definitely add something to the potatoes to give it more flavor - cheese, perhaps, a little more salt/pepper, something. Rating 1-5, it received a solid 3 across the board and a request not to bother with watercress again, and to use my own burger stuff.

It was, however, very filling. Hours later I’m still full.

It’s the beginning of the show’s biggest month ever which must not be too difficult, really, as they’ve only been on a season and it’s May Sweeps time - but hey! Who am I to complain! Big guests and loads of food and fun! This week we have:

Monday: The Prom at Enterprise High
After a tornado in Enterprise Alabama, RR goes on location to share the story and create a prom night the students will never forget.

Tuesday: Judge Judy
A glimpse of the real Judge Judy, who’s a softy with her 11 grandkids, and get the two pieces of advice she swears by. Also, two friends wear the same outfit - who wears it better?

Wednesday: “It’s not your Fault your Fat”
Oh the haters will be jumping all over this one! Dr. Manny is back with some surprising reasons you may gain weight even if you are doing everything right. And it’s another Wild Wednesday, with more animals and squeals from Rachael who doesn’t do well with creepy crawlies!

Thursday: Grey’s Anatomy’s Justin Chambers
A behind the scenes peek at TV’s Sexiest Hospital. A father of five, he tells of his perfect date night and how he handles the sexy scenes. And a 4 year old who won’t leave the house without makeup - huh?!

Friday: A Dame of a Mystery Taster
A living legend stops by as Mystery Taster and moves the audience to tears. Also, identical twins who try to put years of friction behind them.

All this and daily What’s for Dinner Recipes! Check out The Rachael Ray Show website for your grocery list, and let’s eat!

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I got in trouble the other day, for making my first RR recipe without my older daughter there to help. She loves to cook, and she loves Rachael Ray, and naturally she was mad that her younger sister got to help instead. So I remedied that situation tonight, but trying out yet another meal.

After gathering info on what the kids felt like having for dinner, we decided to try the French Dip with Italian Attitude as the whole family adores them, although the general attitude was “We’ll try it, but nothing beats our Auntie’s French Dips!” They knew it would be different, but Rachael Ray had huge shoes to fill if this was going to go over well with MY kids.

A quick trip to the store (I had to go anyway, I was out of my elixir of life - namely, Diet Coke) and the ingredients were gathered. We did, again, make a few substitutions because of where we live and the availability of certain ingredients. And we had to double the recipe, as it was written for 2, and there’s 4 of us.

So! The ingredients and our adjustments:
1 wide baguette
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus some for drizzling
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano - [I] again, too expensive. We used grated Italian Cheese Blend - the kind in the can you shake over spaghetti? Yeah, that stuff.[/I]
1 small onion, chopped
2 large clove garlic, divided, 1 chopped, 1 crushed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups beef stock
1 sprig of rosemary leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 pound sliced roast beef
6 slices provolone cheese
[I]Additions: 2 slices pepper jack cheese for The Girl, and mushrooms. because we like them, darnit.[/I]

We overtoasted the bread a little bit, but it was salvageable. We also added the onions/mushrooms from the sauce to the sandwiches, and also in a cup for dipping.

The biggest problem we had? The sandwiches were too big! We all cut them into smaller pieces so that we could soak them in the sauce, but oh… such a small price to pay! It was FANTASTIC and a BIG hit with the kids. While they ALL agreed that they loved Auntie’s Au Jus sauce better, they agreed that this Italian version was pretty darn tasty and would certainly eat it again. In fact, here’s their rating on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the worst, five being the best:

The Boy: 6.5! Not that it’s BETTER then Aunties, it’s DIFFERENT and are you gonna eat that piece? Yeah? bummer…
The Girl: 7! It was good! And easy! and did I mention GOOD?
The Pup: 82!!!! (No, dear, seriously.) Oh, ok. Yeah, definitely a 9 then.

Clearly, I’m going to have to rethink my rating scale. As for me, I give it a 4.5. It was good, and we’ll definitely make them again. I think it needed more garlic. Everything’s better with more Garlic!

–

Today on the Rachael Ray Show, President Bill Clinton spent the majority of the hour at the Kitchen Table, and along with Rachael Ray’s Yum-o! Organization announcement, they talked extensively about what President Clinton and his Alliance for a Healthier Generation is doing as well to help battle obesity in American kids.

Bill Clinton is still a dynamic speaker, and it’s clear he really cares about this Alliance, and helping families that work so much, and lack the time to come together in the kitchen, at the table, and rely on fast food and other things to keep them fed. It’s not a quick fix, as it’s not been a quickly growing problem. He’s working with schools to give better choices on their school menus.

President Clinton spoke a bit about his own struggles with weight, (Hello! we remember his Presidential runs to McDonalds, right? Hee!) and like Rachael, he preaches all things in moderation. It’s ok to splurge once in a while, as long as you’re basic diet is healthy!

It was a really good show, and if you missed it, try and catch a replay.

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So, tonight, after watching yesterday’s Rachael Ray show and getting all nostalgic for stuffed peppers, I decided to tackle my first RR Recipe; Stuffed Pepper Stoup. I printed the recipe, checked what I had on hand, and headed off to the store, with the ingredient list in hand:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
Salt and black pepper
1/2 teaspoon allspice (eyeball it)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large onion, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 green bell peppers, seeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 bay leaf
1 quart chicken stock
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 cup orzo pasta
12-15 basil leaves, shredded or torn
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano, to pass at table

As I live in Alaska, I knew I may have to make some adjustments, and sure enough, that’s what happened. Nothing too major, and one addition because of taste, and we were good to go. The adjustments to the original recipe were the following:

Added mushrooms. Because I like them.
There were no fresh basil leaves at the store, so I bought dried basil instead.
A little slice of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese cost over $10. I’m a single mom on a budget, so we got shredded Italian Blend instead - which contains Parmigian, Ramano and Asiago.

And that was all she wrote! It’s a 30-minute meal, but I had a little 8 year old helper, and thus it took closer to 45. The end result, however, looked just like the picture, and tasted divine! And the smell! Oh my goodness, my house STILL smells good.

It is said to serve four, but even with sending samples down to Nana and Papa for their opinion, we only ate half of it, which means there’s at least four more servings to be had. The biggest surprise was my son, who hates all things soups and stews, wouldn’t stop eating it to tell me how much he liked it. Stuffed Pepper Stoup is a HIT.

The ratings.
I asked each person who tasted it to give it a rating between 1-5, 1 being “never again” and 5 being “Yum-o!” These are the results:

The Pup (8):5! Can we have it again TOMORROW?
The Boy (15): 5! But not an everyday 5, more like a once a month 5.
The Girl (13):4.75. I don’t like mushrooms, mom!
Nana (1 week older then Papa): 4.5! Papa, don’t you eat that last bit…
Papa (1 week younger then Nana): 4.5! It’s horrible. Don’t ever make it again. Really. Though I may have to have several more spoonfuls to be certain. HEY! Nana stole my last bite!
And Me (old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway): 4.5

It was very easy, it came together really in no time at all, and it is definitely something we will have again, soon. So what are ya waiting for? Go try it!

Rachael, Ray, Rachael Ray, 30 minute meals, RR, TV, a day, Food Network, Everyday

On Monday’s Rachael Ray it was all makeovers, all the time. An Audience member was chosen randomly and made over. There was a house for sale staging, and a closet full of bridesmaid dresses were updated for everyday (or Date Night) function.

Gretta’s got some tips before heading off to the tailor.
* Hit up someone who knows how to sew. “It can be a friend or relative that’s willing to help you out,” says Gretta. “But if you don’t know someone, many cities and towns have local seamstresses or tailors or even dry cleaners that can do what you’re looking for.” Before they pin and cut, make sure your get an estimate or quote to find out if it’s worth it for you to reconstruct the dress.
* Look at the fabric before tossing it out. “Even if you think the overall look of a dress can’t be saved through sewing or if the dress is damaged, see if you like the fabric, you may be able to make something else out of it,” Gretta advises.
* Leave some extra fabric. With most of these dresses you will take several inches of the length, but always remember to leave some in the hem so that you can add length back if you need it.
* Customize in the details. Use that extra fabric to create a matching purse, belt or scarf that can help dress the piece up or down.

And of course, there was a hearty Stuffed Pepper Stoup (a soup so think it’s almost a stew) for dinner. The Stoup brought back memories for me, as my mom made stuffed peppers for us many, many times! It’s a total comfort food that I have not had in some time, so this Stoup is definitely on the list of things to try. (The list! It GROWS!)

Coming up this week:

Tuesday: Aaron Eckhart, Nanny Nightmare, Too Attached Mom

Wednesday: The New York vs. Chicago Pizza Throwdown! and more Mom Troubles.

Thursday: This is the biggy. Today, President Clinton sits down for an hour long Kitchen Table Talk. Childhood Obesity issues, and a new partnership to change the way kids eat, Cooking on the campaign trail and President Clinton’s healthy drink he swears by. Don’t miss it!

Friday: Michael J. Fox comes by and surprises a woman who’s raised over $60k for his foundation by flipping pancakes. He’ll talk about family life, as well as his battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

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Monday’s Rachael Ray show featured the website SeenOn right off the bat. SeenOn.com is the place to find what we see our favorite stars on TV wearing, carrying and making use of during our favorite shows. From Addison’s necklace on Grey’s Anatomy, to the briefcase Jack carried the weapons into the Hatch, to the cute little apron worn by Desperate Housewife, Bree - it’s all to be found with a few clicks! Awesome!

Unfortunately, the woman that’s helping her with the segment drove me absolutely NUTS. Danielle Ravano and her ultra perky chipper little voice… You know, people bag on Rachael for being too chipper and loud? But clearly there are worse folks out there. Danielle’s chipper little high-pitched love fest moment about Jack made me throw up a little in my mouth. Rachael’s moment about McDreamy wasn’t bad at all - but Danielle… oh man. As they say on Grey’s Anatomy… Seriously? Seriously.

Also on today: Eva LaRue, scary things in our bathroom, Mini Meatball Soup. Check it out at the Rachael Ray Show Website!

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So, are you - like me - a fan of Rachael Ray precisely because she brings every thing cooking down to a basic and easy level? That’s part of her appeal for me. She seems very much like a basic down home meat and potatoes (or pasta!) cook. She doesn’t try to be a fancy fru-fru chef, she just makes food that tastes good!

Of course, she always has the right ingredients on hand due to a fantastic staff that keeps her well supplied! Does anyone really keep couscous in their cupboard? It’s just me? Oh. I didn’t even know what couscous was until I became a fan of the food network!

That’s alright though - for everyone out there like me, who hasn’t the faintest idea how to start a basic pantry and what should be included, Rachael includes a shopping list on the Rachael Ray Magazine site:

CUPBOARD
garlic
onions
potatoes
extra-virgin olive oil
vegetable oil
cooking spray
vinegar
hot pepper sauce
Worcestershire sauce
dried pasta
couscous
rice
chicken broth
canned tomatoes
canned beans
canned tuna
flour
granulated sugar
brown sugar
baking soda
baking powder
unsweetened cocoa powder
pure vanilla extract
honey
jam
pure maple syrup
peanut butter
chocolate chips
nuts
raisins

SPICE RACK
salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper
crushed red pepper
chili powder
paprika
ground cumin
bay leaves
ground cinnamon
ground nutmeg

FRIDGE
milk
butter
eggs
parmesan cheese
ketchup
mayonnaise
mustard
soy sauce
bacon
bread crumbs
lemons

FREEZER
frozen fruit
frozen vegetables

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go shopping!

Rachael, Ray, Rachael Ray, 30 minute meals, RR, TV, a day, Food Network, Everyday