"good eats" news and stories

The 18th (I think) round of Sugar High Friday is being hosted by Chandra of Lick The Spoon. The theme is one not unfamiliar to us here at Slashfood: cooking with booze. The official title is "Candy is Dandy...But Liquor is Quicker." My contribution is a sweet potato pie with bourbon, topped with pecans and maple syrup. The recipe comes from Alton Brown and his episode of Good Eats dedicated to sweet potatoes. A transcript of the episode, including the pie recipe, is available through the Good Eats Fan Page. That recipe doesn't include bourbon, but I happened to have a bottle of Baker's on the shelf, and, well, you know, it seemed like a good idea. Since this was the first time I made this recipe (or sweet potato pie, for that matter), I didn't want to tinker with it too much, so I only used two tablespoons of bourbon, around half a shot. It could probably have used a little more, as the bourbon flavor is rather faint. Still, it's one of the best sweet potato pies I've tasted. I'm not ashamed to say that the crust was store-bought. I'm still an amateur in the baking department, and, since I always manage to make a huge mess anyway, I figured I'd make it easier on myself. Truth be told, I still managed to scorch a pot and dirty an extra pie pan. But that's all in the past now. What I'm left with is my favorite type of pie, and a killer version at that.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]

William Conway, the blogger at Never Trust a Skinny Chef, was able to realize one of his foodie dreams this week: he met Alton Brown. Actually, he got to be an extra on an episode of Good Eats. Unlike a high-budget Hollywood-style production, Good Eats is low key and relatively low budget, William described it as a "school play affair." That didn't make it any less fun, though. Alton is a down-to-earth, smart and very likable guy. He was coming up with stories and lines for the script at the spur of the moment - even giving William himself a line to say in the show: "'There ain't no barracuda round here!"

To see William on TV and hear his line, look for the episode, which is about scallops, to air throughout the week on the Food Network!

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I don't love the Food Network's choices in programming. However, the network recently announced a line-up of new daytime and prime-time shows that have some promise.

Alton Brown will have a new show, Feasting on Asphalt, with a travel bent, and we already know that Paula Deen's sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, will also have a travel-type food show called Two for the Road. Paula Deen herself will venture into live tv with Paula's Cooking Party in which she will be in front of an audience in a studio.

The biggest news is that Nigella Lawson will joining Food Network celebrity-dom. Her show, Nigella Feasts, will be a show about food, family and holidays.

A couple of shows about which I am skeptical are Throwdown With Bobby Flay, and of course whatever spin-off show that the winner of the currently running The Next Food Network Star will host.

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I recently got a sausage-making attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. I had recipes, but I knew that I'd seen an episode of Good Eats about making sausages. What did I do? I found the transcript on the Good Eats Fan Page. Transcripts are just the tip of the iceberg, however. Aside from the main fan page, which hosts everything from crew bios and interviews to season-by-season quizzes, there's a fan page just for Alton Brown, a GE message board, and (shrug) a GE Humor Page with haiku and plenty of other fanaticism. Truly, this is an overwhelming resource.

Alton Brown is hitting the highway in 2006 to bring the food network a new show, Feasting on Asphalt. The show will chronicle Alton’s road trip across the US on Route 66. According to the Food Network, he will be riding his motorcycle and stopping by “secret hamburger hideaways” and “delicious truck stop diners.” By adding Alton as the headlining food celebrity on yet another non-cooking travel show, perhaps the Food Network is trying to convert some of his Good Eats fans to the new network format. Personally, while the food at some of these places might be good, I don’t think that the “culinary heritage of America” will be found there. With a good dictionary, the network might discover that “heritage” means an inheritance or tradition passed down through the generations. It seems unlikely that the country, having been around far longer than biker bars, would have gotten the bulk of its “good eats” from them.