CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING INTERNET EXPLORER PROBLEMS: VIEW IN OTHER BROWSER IE. FIREFOX

I left off last week telling you I would be further writing up my findings both good and bad as I peruse The Food Mag.com. Back to Page 28.  Chef Coppedge of the CIA discusses how to bake gluten free and gives further insight into Celiac Disease with regards to baking.  The article is interesting although I am not much of a Baker and this topic of conversation has, luckily, no relevance to me or anyone I know.  The truth is I know very little about this topic.  He wrote a book called Gluten Free Baking With The Culinary Institute

I do wonder why, though, in his recipe for Pate a Choux he uses guar gum.  Guar gum is a thickener and sometimes replaces cornstarch as a thickener.  All the recipes I have read on Pate a Choux never incorporate a thickening agent.  I assume he uses it as an additional replacement of certain flours which might not have a natural thickener, that people suffering with either of these problems must be careful consuming.  I am just guessing; I don’t know - but it seems logical.

This article happens to be one of the more interesting reads and could be, in itself, a good reason to purchase this magazine.

Onto page 35 there is a multi-page layout (I must say all their pictures are gorgeous full lay-out glossy pages) about Madonna’s father Silvio Ciccone and his wine.  That was a good article on how he and Madonna, his daughter, have been able to parlay his passion of wine into prize-winning bottles.

It is nice to see that there is one Ciccone that still has down-to-earth roots and not just from the vines.  That Michigan can play a role as wine country in and of itself is a tidbit of information quite compelling.  From this it is clear the elder Ciccone is not really making a living at wine-making but instead fulfilling a passion.

I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on a ‘Madonna’ bottle from that wine collection.  What a sacrilege that he has to discount the bottles and label them himself.  For those interested, Silvio sounds like his first true love is wine-making and people and if I lived nearby I certainly would entertain thoughts of joining the annual harvest in September when visitors can join in days learning how to pick the grapes properly, and actively work in the process of vinification.

They also came up with a few very basic and easy Italian recipes; one of which I plan to make.  The Eggplant Parmigiana.  Very basic.  Very simple.

Page 42… ah… page 42.  Katie Lee, as she now goes by, having dropped The Joel (figuratively and literally).  There has always been something about Katie Lee that bugs my ass.  Is it  her side-ways smile that connotes this sarcastic look as if she’s smiling at you, but at the same time demeaning you?   Like she’s better; like she’s hiding something that she thinks you don’t know; like she’s trying to belong but really doesn’t.  Like she is looking through you and not really interested in anything but herself.  A person who didn’t get the joke and draws a blank stare.

You guessed it: I can’t stand her.  At least her persona and her tremendous lack of personality.  Who made Katie Lee, who thinks Katie Lee is a worthwhile cook?  All I know is she couldn’t cut it on Top Chef Season 1 and I know why.  One word that comes to mind is Boring.  Another is lack of personality.  Her looks grate on my nerves.  The Next Food Network Star would have a field day pulling her apart if she were a contestant because she certainly doesn’t come across as endearing; to me anyway.  She actually, as if you haven’t figured out, turns me off.  So I bypass all the 6 pages they donate to her.

That puts me back into the lap of Wolfgang , who for the life of me, I truly regale. This is a man who comes across like he could sit at my kitchen table and have a fun evening. I have eaten at Spago in LA and at another of his restaurants in Vegas.  Enjoyed both meals.

In the interim I forgot to mention the full page ad  Ancient Harvest Ranch ran telling us their meat is heirloom and produced without Antibiotics or Hormones, along with their telephone number and the important fact that 20lbs of meat is their minimum order.

Is that ad meant for me?  Cause I think 20lbs is a little too much for me to order and place in my freezer.  Is this an industry magazine – OH GOD I HOPE NOT.

Are we so bad that farms are now advertising their beef.  Or are they so wealthy they can afford the ad.  Either way this is a first for me.  I have never seen a cattle ranch advertise in a food magazine, their product and telephone number.  But they are in the Rockies -  how wonderful if they were a working Cattle Ranch vacation spot.  What was that movie again, oh yeah, City Slickers. (Actually Ancient Harvest Ranch, as of this post, has no actual website, yet.)

Page 58 and I am finally finding out about DJ Paul and Juicy J.  Only problem is the title of the article.  “Cooking Ain’t Easy“.  Then under is a picture of DJ Paul grilling a rib steak on a top grill/griddle at the Georgian Hotel kitchen in Santa Monica.

“Honey if grilling a steak ain’t easy for you on a top grill then whaddya doin’ hostin’ a new cooking show, eh?”

This is now beginning to insult my intelligence and completely turning me off to both Three 6 Mafia and cooking.  Thank goodness there is only a two-page spread and one recipe that I totally ignore.

Page 63 and Rocco. That sexy Rocco. Doesn’t matter what you do…your looks will get you by no matter what.  Todd English move over because Rocco is The Man.  To think such a face could cook too, well, that is just too much for the female mind to take.  Jeffrey Chodorow, without Rocco you didn’t stand a chance.  Did you actually think we tuned in to see you getting into your limo always pissed at “Rocco DiSpirito”?  Sorry Jeff, we turned in to see HIM and well…just for HIM.  Just for HIM.

But Rocco, as a woman who is always watching her weight, do you think I want you to give me a 53 calorie recipe for Brownies.  Rocco, from you I expect a  luscious, visceral, sumptuous sweet – NOT A LOW-CAL BROWNIE.  You are supposed to be synonymous with the sumptuous silky and sensual taste that a full-on chocolate high brings.  I mean, that’s like strolling down Times Square and seeing the Naked Cowboy wearing overalls.

Yes, I want to be told Now Eat This. Oh Baby, slap me! I want your: finger lickin’ fried chicken.

You got it my friends: Rocco has a new book out and guess the title.

Wow!  After that the rest of the mag gets pretty boring.

Wayne Gretzky, I know you come from my part of the world; but baby Ice Wine is CRAP.  I don’t care how expensive your bottles are, I don’t care how hard it is to harvest; ICE WINE IS LIKE MANISCHEWITZ WINE WITHOUT THE KOSHER SYMBOL.  You couldn’t give me a case and have me accept the delivery at the door.

I don’t know how to get rid of the half bottle of Inniskillin I still have in the fridge.  One certainly can’t cook with it.  Can’t really drink it either.  What and who decided that Ice Wine should be considered as a wine to be drunk, even as a dessert, is conning us.  Maybe they thought Canada could come up with another winter sport, like we have Hockey and Skiing; we could have Grape Picking. Imagine a whole new industry of clothing that one needs to go Grape Picking.

The Big Wine Con – page 81.  It is just wrong.

The rest of The Food Mag.Com is downhill…until I get to page 86 and the article dedicated to the South Beach Food and Wine Festival that highlighted Sushisamba and the chefs checking it out.  Chef Seth and Tara Silber – you have reminded me that indeed the young are beginning to rule the world and dictate its future.  You seem to be doing a bang-up job for the Food and Wine Festival and when I go to Florida this winter so my ‘old bones’ can thaw out and I don’t have to pick grapes: I am definitely putting Sushisamba on my list of ‘must-dos’.

Anyone who looks so young and is so talented deserves praise.  On that note The Food Mag.com got it right.

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