Baked Potatoes

We’ve finally had some cooler weather, which for me, translates into baking. Last night I made a pork loin roast (in a Romertopf clay pot), and Guy Fieri’s (he won the Next Food Network Star and his show is called "Guy's Big Bite") "The Bomb Bakers" baked potatoes. His recipe calls for brining the potatoes for 2-8 hours in a 1:8 solution of salt water. It’s supposed to make the potatoes crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I’ve never been able to get baked potatoes to turn out like they do in a restaurant, so I wanted to give this a try. The recipe says not to puncture the potatoes but I read online that people had problems with their potatoes "bombing" (popping) in the oven. I pierced mine with a fork, which may be why they were a little dry inside. The skin did get crispy, but I think I’ll go back to my method of greasing the outside with a little butter, and add Guy’s touch of seasoning the outside as well.

For the pork roast, I followed the basics in "Joy of Cooking" and added the Rachael touch of a little Montreal grill seasoning, fresh sage and garlic. I normally have the world’s worst memory when it comes to remembering to put fresh herbs on things. Rachael repeats tips a lot, like using fresh herbs, microwaving a lemon for 10 seconds, and seasoning pasta water, and I think that’s what helped me to remember this time.

The other recipes I’ve tried lately include Rachael’s "Super Sloppy Joe’s" and Ellie Krieger’s ginger hot chocolate. Instead of tomato sauce for the sloppy joe’s, I used chili sauce (which was in the recipe on the package of ground turkey). It kind of turned out a little on the sweet side, maybe Rachael’s tomato sauce would have been better. It was still a lot better than Manwiches. I remember eating those when I was a kid and liking them, and awhile back we tried some but I guess over the years the taste memories change, and they were not as good as I remembered.

The ginger hot chocolate sounded good but I didn’t care for it. Some people probably love it, and even though I like ginger, I didn’t like the combination with chocolate. My own version that I make, which is not a healthy recipe, is to heat up some milk, stir in a spoonful of peanut butter and a packet of Nestle’s hot chocolate, then put some mini marshmallows on top. (I found that recipe on the packet of hot chocolate.)

I've been watching some of the new Food Network shows. I like "Nigella Feasts" a lot, especially the English words she uses that sound so charming compared to American English. My favorite part so far has been when she licks the spoon from chocolate pudding, and says, "Don't tell me you wouldn't." As for "Paula's Party," I like the girl-talk chat and the cooking, but find myself cringing when she overdoes the saucy part. Last week when she was licking the spoon with the audience member, well, I thought that was one of the most disgusting, low class things I've seen on the Food Network. My favorite new show is Bobby Flay's "Throwdown" - somewhere I read it was like "Three's Company" with the two test kitchen chefs, and that's a good description. Those two girls aren't afraid to say anything to keep him in line, it's cute!