Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Food Network Fiend

I pick up our CSA box of vegetables on Tuesday afternoons. Back in my working days this was somewhat of a problem because I didn't know what the box would contain until it's contents got posted on the CSA's website the day before - Monday. This means I couldn't really grocery shop intelligently on the weekend. Obviously, one needn't rely on perfect meat-vegetable pairings to have a satisfying meal, but it is nice to be able to do just a little bit of planning... Anyway, I'm over all that now. Since I'm basically home all the time, I can nip down to the store on a whim. What I usually do, is check out the vegetable box contents on-line on Tuesday morning and then spend, oh.. a few hours, perusing recipes on-line. My usual haunts are The Food Network and Epicurious. Once I have a meal in mind, I pick up my box of fruit & veggies, and then finally head to Trader Joe's. I was going through this very routine this morning, when I typed "food network" into Google and was temporarily sidetracked by a listing for a blog called Armchair Cook: A Food Network Addict. I felt an instant connection! You see, I too am a bit obsessed with the food network. I don't have cable television, so I can't watch the shows, but I certainly use the website to its fullest extent. Did you know they have video clips you can watch? All the famous faces: Rachael Ray, Giada, Paula Deen...right there on your computer. And a lot of unfamous people I've never seen before. Well, one day I watched these videos for 3 and 1/2 hours straight. I was in the throws of my morning-sickness-that-lasts-all-day and it really seemed to help. I think it would have the opposite effect for a lot of pregnant women, but for me it was so soothing. I hope the Armchair Cook blog is not defunct; she hasn't posted since the beginning of the year. If you watch any of the celebrity chefs, you would appreciate the blog as it makes fun of them all.