Watching Rachael Ray

We start off in the kitchen today for a snack for itty-bitties home from school that they can make themselves - Banana Sushi! Of course, Rachael says “big kids like them too - I ate like 7 of them earlier.” Ha!

Then she switches Tempo a little bit, because Dancing with the Stars season two champ, Drew Lachey, is in the house. First question, of course, is where does he keep his Sparkly DwtS trophy - he keeps it on the Bar, because it’s a little loud, and you have to be drinking to truly appreciate it. He still keeps track of Dancing with the Stars, and is enjoying the hosting gig for Carrie-Ann vs. Bruno Dance Wars. He’s also still touring with DwtS too - he loves the relationships he’s built through the show. He jokes that keeping up with his current 7 day a week schedule is made possible by a lot of booze.

He laughs when she asks if he dances at home and says if he doesn’t at the clubs, people are like PSHAW he cant dance. He has a standard to live up to, of course, and people ask him if he knows things that he doesn’t really. All the dances were made specifically for him and the piece of music, so most he remembers is that the Cha-Cha starts on two.

Drew gives us the inside scoop on Carrie-Ann and Bruno - that they really are like that, and it’s a challenge to referee them and get them to hold back a little - and he has to translate for Bruno half the time too! But he’s having a blast and loves it. He’s also a medic, being trained in the Army. He met his wife, who’s a dancer, and then he got 98 Degrees and everything has snowballed from there. His wife does the cooking, but he boils water - grills and does omelets. That’s the extent of his cooking. Lea, his wife, has gone on tour with him in order to to steal some time together. And Drew gets AWWWs all around as he busts out the pictures from his wallet. And she dances better then Daddy - he says she has soul!

Lea Lachey provided the snack of the day, from her new company The Sugar Cup. Drew is pleased to say he gets to nibble all the fruits of their labor before they send them out - not the ACTUAL cookies sent out, of course, but the test batches.

Next up - Chris Jordan - how cool is he? He takes pictures and makes statements about the environment. Every picture involves taking hundreds or thousands of items that represent what we use on a daily (or by minute) basis. For instance - 426,000 cell phones a day are thrown away, so he gets a few phones, photographs them over and over and puts them together digitally to make a large image. A former Lawyer, he left it all to chase his passion. His art is now traveling museums in an exhibit called Running The Numbers.

Next up - Chase Crawford from The Gossip Girl steps in to join Rachael on stage. He talks about moving from LA to New York and getting lost on the subway, but he loves it. He also loves the newfound fame, though he’s not used to it and trying to keep his head on straight and treat people with respect. Sometimes he does mess with folks who ask if he’s Nate from Gossip Girl - and replies “that’s so weird, I get that all the time, what’s Gossip Girl?” and gets told that the show is great and he should watch it. Other times he just smiles, and talks to the girls who want to send him emails and be pen pals and the like.

His family aims to keep him down to earth, and sent Rachael some photos that Rachael joked that he should sue - because who would do that to someone they love? He looked like the Cracker Jack kid. Personally, I loved the striped jumpsuit that made him look like he broke out of Toddler Prison. Awesome.

Last, but CERTAINLY not least - what’s for dinner tonight? Dinner Size Texas Chili Cheese Fries!