Did you know that "Rarebit" also means "rabbit?" When I was a kid I used to joke around and call the meal "Welsh Rabbit." I had no idea I was actually right.

I also had no idea there were so many variations on the Welsh Rarebit recipe I see my roommate make all the time (and by "make" I mean "cook the frozen dinner version he bought at the supermarket"). A Buck Rarebit has a poached egg on top. The Irish Rarebit is topped with onions, vinegar, and pickles. And English Rarebit has red wine added before you melt the cheese.

Here's the recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats show. And here's one from Cuisine du Monde. I don't think I've seen two Welsh Rarebit recipes that are the same.

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!

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.

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.