Ode to the Food Network

Those who know us, know our addiction to the Food Network. And yes, I admit. It is an addiction... but I like to think it is a healthy one! Imagine my surprise when TWC moved the channel on me. I did make panicked phone calls to TWC and several friends until I found it!! :) shew. bad TWC. bad.

Oh how I enjoyed those precious moments of waking up, sipping our morning coffee, and sitting together on the couch watching our favorite shows. I certainly didn't want to lose those special moments once we grew weary of the Saturday morning HGTV shows and the Sunday morning political talk shows. Thankfully, somehow (and I don't even remember how) we found the FOOD NETWORK! How great is this! An entire channel dedicated to FOOD and with great chefs to show you how!

I believe it was in late summer/early fall 2005 when we discovered the Food Network. It also happened to be our first year of staying home for Thanksgiving. We thought it would be really cool to cook our own Thanksgiving dinner! We planned for weeks - watching the shows, talking about what recipes looked good, printing them from the Food Network website. How fun!

When it actually came around to Thanksgiving, we had even more fun cooking. Our menu consisted of lots of recipes from the show Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis. Giada is great and we love her recipes.

Here was our Menu for Thanksgiving 2005:
Turkey Cutlets (ok - so we were a little intimidated by cooking an entire turkey)
Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Polenta with Gorgonzola Cheese
Raffy's Turkey Sausage and Chestnut Stuffing

We really had a great Thanksgiving. We played in the kitchen. We laughed. We talked. We cooked. We dreamed. We drank a special bottle of Chateauneuf de Pape.

Then, we ate a fantastic meal - just the two of us, our first. For dessert, we shared a pie and an after dinner drink with our friends Debra and Skully, who had their first Thanksgiving, too.

We missed sharing that time with family, but we did really enjoy creating our own traditions. And some of those traditions have found their way into our family traditions in years since. We now have created the Stuffing and the Brussels Sprouts at Thanksgiving gatherings and Christmas gatherings. The Brussels Sprouts (pictured above) were so good and easy, they found their way onto the table at everyday meals, not just holidays.

The Food Network is responsible for our newfound love of cooking and of food. We have more confidence in the kitchen and a larger arsenal of ideas for meals. You know the feeling... we all get it... about 3:30 in the afternoon... the dreaded question. "What is for dinner?" Now, all I have to do is go to the Food Network, browse around there and come up with plenty of ideas. Today, I created a weekly menu with the fresh veggies we got this weekend and meats that we had frozen. how cool! no Whole Foods trip this week!!

Now that we are eating Gluten-Free, we have the confidence and know-how to be able to come up with more than apples and salads. We can eat wonderful foods and not feel deprived. With fresh veggies now in season at the Farmers Market, I'm even more excited about the possibilities of great cuisine coming out of our kitchen.

Thanks Food Network, and thanks Giada, Alton, Rachael, Tyler, Bobby, Ina, Michael, Paula. You are household names - first name only - and you have changed our lives. Keep up the good recipes. We'll keep watching.