Next Food Network Star

I follow several reality shows now that I have such easy access to cable television for the time being.  One of theshows is "The Next Food Network Star."  Sunday night's episode was interesting, with the main challenge being to create a savory dish inspired by carnival sweets and junk food.  There were the obvious "lollipop" (salmon roulade with creamy cheese to help make the spiral effect) rolled up on a stick or the "candy apple" meatball on a skewer with a sticky chili sauce coating the outside.  There were also the less obvious "banana split" (three meatballs with sauces with crouton "bananas") and "funnel cake" (some sort of fritter with tandoori chicken on top).  There were also some real failures, some of which were exacerbated by complete obliviousness to the flaws in one's cooking, some of which were just general cluelessness.

Aside from the competitive aspects of the show, the creativity of the challenges and the contestants' responses are what interest me most.  I can't imagine responding to these challenges so creatively, certainly not with the time constraints and pressure that they are facing.  And yet they often come up with utterly fascinating dishes which are well worth revisiting--at least for inspiration if not actual replication.  I'm really thinking about that lollipop as something My Prince will like.  Indeed, I think we he would like all of the dishes that I mentioned here.  (Of course, he would.  They're all meat dishes.  And that makes me wonder how to redo these as vegetable dishes.)

Yes, a challenge to myself.  I can't begin to think of how I might respond to the challenge of using all four of these carnival inspirations in a savory dish, but I will try to meet the challenge for one of them.  Which one, I can't say.  I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Thanksgiving hors d'ouevres

For our shared Thanksgiving this year, we have all sorts of appetites coming to the table. A couple of these appetites are in danger of being too small, as in they don't eat enough unless we put something in front of them and get a little pushy about eating. A couple of these appetites are on their own timer, not necessarily related to "meal time," and, when they gotta eat, they gotta eat.

Not knowing exactly when we will be able to get it all on the table, Big Kid Cousin and I have decided that a small plate of appetizers would not be amiss. Indeed, since we've decided that we aren't going to have a salad, some raw and pickled vegetables might even take its place. At least we'll have something that our various "appetites" can nibble on if we take too long getting everything set out.

I'm thinking right now of three items that we "premiered" at the last birthday party. They are tasty and low carb and really made a hit.

Marinated mushrooms was the most popular of this trio. Monterey brand mushrooms has been available at Sam's Club for several years, and I've been buying them for years in Austin. They make a nice appetizer for My Prince. I notice that they are more expensive at my home club than here in Houston, so I might just buy here to take with me. Four of these mushrooms have 1 gram of carbs/1 gram of fiber. As far as I can tell, it's a free food. They were also a big hit at the birthday party; several people asked where to get them.

That's exactly what I'm doing with the marinated asparagus that I found here in Houston but couldn't (didn't) find in my Austin club. This the same asparagus that I used for my version of Frog Eyes the other day. They have a slightly sweet taste, which is not surprising once you discover that there is some sugar in the marinade. Still, 8 stalks has only 2 grams of carbs, so you will be sated by the taste (I am) before you hit your 2 carbs.

The relish plate will also include Mt. Olive Kosher Dill Petites. I will just use one of the PicklePaks, since that quantity will suffice for our purposes. I first picked these little packs out just prior to Hurrican Ike because they made for a convenient low-carb snack. During the hurricane aftermath, they were useful since they didn't need to be refrigerated. (You might be able to find out more about them at www.mtolivepickles.com, but I'm not gonna provide a link to the site. I went there to confirm the nutritional information, since I don't feel like climbing the step ladder to get to the pickles on the shelf right now, but the web site just annoys me--music, broken links, excessive decorative (as opposed to useful) graphics.) My recollection is that the pickles have 0 carbs per serving. In this case, one serving is the whole picklepak.

So, one relish tray/plate will have:

• marinated asparagus
• marinated mushrooms
• kosher dill petites

One serving would be 8 asparagus spears, 4 mushrooms, and all of the pickles on the plate for 3 total carbs minus 1 gram of fiber (if you count that way). Since I'm not climbing a ladder to find out if pickles have fiber (and Mt. Olive messed up on filling in the blank there), we'll have to leave it at 1 gram of fiber. Not too bad for an appetizer, especially when it sneaks in some more veggies for our picky eaters.

World Diabetes Day

Friday, November 14, was World Diabetes Day. Who knew? No one at our house anyway. It's my bad, I guess, for not paying more attention to the news stories on the home page for this account, but we might wonder how much coverage the day actually got in other news outlets (snark intended).

In the meantime, the good news was that we had a party on that day. With two diabetics in the group, menu planning was something of a challenge. Fortunately, Big Kid Cousin had a big (kid?) hand in making sure that most everyone involved had a clear understanding of the need to pay attention to the dietary issues that the diabetics (and others) faced.

And it was a success!

There were two birthday cakes (birthdays being the occasion for the party). One was an animated "cake" that had what looked like a Cabbage Patch granny popping in and out, singing "Happy Birthday." The other was a sugar free concoction, made with a Sweet-and-Low cake mix. Everyone got to enjoy some cake one way or another.

The rest of the table was delicious and (mostly) low carb. I made frog eyes (yes, they turned out fine). BKC assembled some impressive hors d'ouevres of cocktail sausages, cherry tomatoes, and cubed Colby Jack on a toothpick. Little Sister brought not only the cake, but some fried chicken sticks (they looked like french fries) with a beef and cheese dipping sauce for them. Family friends brought queso and chips. An aunt brought her special "pie" with hash browns for crust and assorted veggies for pie filling. We set out some cashews and a plate of pickled items (the pickled mushrooms were a big hit).

While there were some carbs on the table, it was possible to avoid them and still fill your plate. The funnest part was Mama, who opined that this was the "best ever" table of refreshments. If Mama's happy, we can all relax.

Let's hope that we are more aware of World Diabetes Day next year. It's a good opportunity to educate others about the issues. We did have a little discussion about some diabetes issues (especially hypoglycemia) at the party, but that was mostly because one of the diabetics started having problems because she didn't get to eat soon enough. We need to do better, and that starts with education.

Frog Eyes

Rhonda Schaefer of Victoria (Texas, where else????) didn't win last year's contest for holiday recipes, but she got a picture of her appetizer in HEB's holiday food thingie (My HEB Goodness, Holiday 2007) and her recipe on their web site. Sadly, I saved the picture but never went to get the recipe from the web. Sorry, Rhonda!!!!

Still, the frog eyes look yummy. As I look at the picture, what I think that I am seeing is something like thin sliced ham, spread with cream cheese, rolled around asparagus, and then sliced for spiral wraps. If that is not what Rhonda Schaefer intended, oopsie and so-sorry and I'm-sticking-with-my-interpretation.

Indeed, I'm planning a practice run to see how this will work for an upcoming par-tay.