New Good Eats Episodes in the Works

According to Alton Brown's website there are several new Good Eats shows going into production this summer.  One that warrants particular attention is news of a 10th anniversary Good Eats special!  Other highlights include another Man Food show and a new Christmas Special (should be more enjoyable than the Food Network shows).

Episodes in production, August:
Pound Cake
Japanese Ingredients
Man Food- Breakfast
Christmas Special
Salty Sweets
Cooking with Alcohol
Tacos
10th Anniversary Special

New Good Eats Episode: Tuna, Surprise!

What's Alton Brown up to this week?  Well, looks like he'll be getting a visit from an old commercial icon to see what Good Eats he is able to create with a can of tuna.  A little Sandra Lee influence after her weekend marathon?  We'll have to wait and see :-)

Tuna, Surprise! airs Monday, July 7th at 8:00pm with a follow up at 3:00am.

Good Eats Dutch baby

OK, so I've become addicted to the Dutch baby! In fact, I have one in the oven as I'm writing this. I blame Alton Brown and his hilarious, yet tasty, antics for my addiction. Here are a couple of shots I took of the process.

Ingredients coming to room temperature

Batter goes into the preheated pan

30 minutes later it's all nice and fluffy

Time for some coffee and breakfast!

New Good Eats Episode: If It Ain't Broccoli, Don't Fix It

Alton Brown cooks up some broccoli dishes Monday night at 8pm EST in the latest Good Eats episode: "If It Ain't Broccoli, Don't Fix It." Fresh, steamed, and roasted will be the preparation themes. Sadly, the Steel Lotus does not seem to be utilized in the steaming process.

In case you missed it, Apple of My Pie airs again Monday night at 11PM and the broccoli episode will run again at 3AM Tuesday morning. I need to watch the Apple Pie show again since I was busy doing things around the house while watching. From what i saw it looked like a good episode and a sound recipe/baking method; except I was a bit bewildered by his complaining about the traditional spices and then watching him pull out the grains of paradise. What?!

Alton Brown Coming to Chicago in March

Alton Brown will be giving a one hour lecture on the science behind your favorite meal at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry March 15th. There will also be a book signing afterwards; too bad this is before the FOA2 book is published. Tickets are $40.

From the MSI website:
"Television personality and self-proclaimed "food explorer" Alton Brown will present a special lecture at the Museum of Science and Industry that addresses the basic connection between the foods we eat and the scientific principles that govern them. An audience Q & A and book signing will follow...

The one-hour lecture will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 15 in the Museum’s auditorium, and a 30-minute Q & A will follow. Alton Brown will also meet and sign books (one per guest) for audience members until 2:30 p.m. Light snacks and beverages will be served during the book signing."

Museum of Science and Industry Website Link

New Good Eats Episode Tonight: Apple Pie

Apple of My Pie premieres Monday, February 4th at 8PM EST on Food Network. Check your local listings; they've been known to change things on me before!

While it's definitely not apple season out here in Michigan orchard country, a hot apple pie always sounds good; especially with ice cream! As always, Alton's take on a traditional recipe should be interesting since he's always trying to improve on techniques, cooking methods, etc. Click here to go to the crust and filling recipe from the show.

Good Eats -- Apple of My Pie is available on iTunes

Alton Brown in People Magazine this week

There is an article about Alton in this week's (or maybe it was last week already) People magazine and a recipe on their website. A little talk about surviving air travel from the ever-traveling Alton Brown!

Check out People's Website here!

The Future of Good Eats and Alton Brown

A good question from a reader: how long is the Good Eats contract? I can only partly answer this one. According to Alton's website he is in the process of filming more episodes in November and December. I'm not sure how TV contracts work; if they sign up per season or for a certain number of seasons. If anything it seems that Alton Brown has gained more clout at Food Network this past year or so. Maybe somebody else who wanders by here can provide a bit more insight into the contract issue or stop by the Good Eats Fanpage chat room. There are a lot of people over there who know the ins and outs of the industry better than I do.

Something interesting that this brings up is how long is Alton commited to producing Good Eats? I had started to wonder about this last season after a few lame episodes, but I have reversed my opinion after the quality has picked back up. I believe Good Eats has been impacted by all of Alton's other projects and the quality of the episodes is probably a reflection of how much time he has to spend between filing specials, Feasting on Asphalt, Iron Chef, doing talks, etc. Good Eats still has a lot of life to it because of the effort Alton and his crew put into not only the cooking, but the scince, scripting, casting, and filming. It's not the same week to week and it holds the viewer's interest. I hope the series keeps on going for quite some time.

From Alton's site:
"Time to fire up the lights, camera and cooking action for new Good Eats episodes - this time AB and the resident culinarians tackle Rack of Lamb, Dutch oven cooking, Fats, Cupcakes, Broccoli, Cranberries and that perennial fav taken to new heights... Apple Pie."

Alton Brown's Granola Bars: Good Eats Power Trip

I ran across a blog article that somebody by the name of Jenny wrote about Alton's granola bars. I always love to hear feedback on the recipes from Good Eats or Alton's books; whether it be about the taste, recipe, or difficulty level. I have to admit that I didn't pay much attention to this show since it seemed like a lot of trouble for something all too easy to grab off the shelf at the grocery store, but this article may inspire me to think twice. Jenny has a couple of tips and a good description of what they taste like. The bars don't sound as bad as they looked on TV.

Click here to read the blog post

New Good Eats Episode: Peanut Gallery

Peanut Gallery coming Monday, October 15th!!!!!!!!!!


Time to buy a DVR. I'm rotating over to midnights at work starting this Sunday. Thus, I have to leave for work just as Good Eats starts at 8pm! I'll have to explore whether the Tivo or DVR route is best. I'm leaning towards DVR; no subscription to pay every month.

Good Eats: Whithering Bites

Well, I missed the new episode this week. I had been looking forward to it since i love dried fruit, but I had more pressing matters to take care of. I put up 17 jar of dill pickles instead. Thinking ahead, I stopped in at Best Buy over the weekend to buy a DVD recorder, but was confused and somewhat let down with what I foudn there. I'll need to do some research first.

I'm also a bit put off at the long gap between re-airings of new episodes. If you miss one you're basically screwed. Whithering Bites doesn't air again until August 18th at 2PM; as if I'm going to be watching TV in the middle of a Saturday.

I will, however, be planted in front of the TV for the second episode of Feasting on Asphalt Saturday night!

Good Eats: Sub Standards

New Good Eats with Alton Brown airs Monday July 16th at 8:00pm EST.

Sub Standards
Whether filling in for your French teacher or your favorite spice, substitutes can be every bit as successful as the original. Join host Alton Brown and a handful of substitute chefs as they take on a few good recipes with one ingredient tied behind their backs.

Good Eats Coconut Cake

So, with all his time on the road between FoodNetwork events, presentations, and filming Feasting on Asphalt II has Alton had to cut down on production time? More specifically has his availability for filming episodes been cut short? What lodged this thought in my mind was Alton's noticable lack of composure in the Coconut Cake episode tonight. I believe it was the espresso show where this behavior first popped up. I don't mind it at all, seems a bit more natural for him to show a fun-loving side, but it does contrast to what we have been used to for several years.

Of course I could be way off track. The less serious Alton may be part of a conscious effort or a change in film style; that is his background after all. Enough analyzing the host on with the show! I enjoyed this one. It was creative and the entire show was devoted not only to a single ingredient but more pointedly to the cake recipe itself. And although we had a cake historian instead of a food anthropologist, it is clear that certain recipes and foods run deep in the veins of our culture; especially local variations and traditions. While living in Charleston I never had a chance to sample a homemade coconut cake but I did become addicted to she-crab soup and sweet tea and eventually I even warmed up to boiled peanuts. Back here in Michigan I miss the grand scheme of a single unifying culture but can enjoy several different ethnic cuisines within a few miles of home.

The coconut cake. Now I can't see myself going through the effort of making my own coconut milk and cream, but I'm sure it would taste darn good! I leave the baking side of the kitchen to my wife and mabe I can convince her of the need for a coconut sometime soon! Fo myself, pickling and grilling take up enough of my freetime. Speaking of pickling, I can't wait for that episode to roll around!

P.S. Looked like a new Viking stand mixer; needs some flames!

Good Eats Goes Prime Time

Whether it's just for the summer or if Alton's new 8:00pm slot will stick, it says something about the ever so slightly rising popularity of Good Eats. After years of having to stay up late to catch new episodes now the Food Network fringe can finally see their favorite host at a reasonable hour! Tonight kicks off the new time slot, sorry Emeril, with Coconut Cake Revivial and follows up Tuesday night with the recently aired Pretzel Logic.
So, sit back, enjoy, and don't worry about falling asleep during commercials!

Good Eats: Pretzel Logic

In case you missed it, Pretzel Logic will air again this Friday night at 11pm EST. I only caught a few minutes of it while working on a house project, so I've been waiting for it to re-air. Alton Brown will cover both soft and hard pretzels along with preparing your own mustard. All you need is a good, dark beer and you have yourself a meal!

Good Eats: Milk Made and Blueberry Preserves

Oh man! I missed a flippin' new episode! Looks like the kickoff for season 11 was Milk Made. I'll have to try to catch it on Friday evening if I'm home. I really need to invest in a DVD recorder one of these days.

On a positive note: my blueberry preserves turned out really well thanks to Alton Brown. I decided that, living in the country, I should learn the age old art of canning. I bought the basics to get me started and made two batches of jam to get some practice before the harvest comes in. My first two were Alton's blueberry preserves and the stock recipe from Ball's canning book for strawberry rhubarb.
I managed to get a couple stalks of rhubarb from a farmer's stash of the first crop and had a quart-bag of blueberries in the freezer from last year to get me started.

The strawberry rhubarb was decent, but too sugary for my taste. The rhubarb kick helped out though. On the other hand, Alton's blueberry recipe was awesome. I'm going to make a huge batch when the blueberries are in season this year.

Today I made a batch of starberry jam from Michigan's first crop of strawberry's. I love being able to go half a mile down the road and pick up, or pick for myself, fresh fruits and vegtables. We'll see how this batch turns out.

Alton Brown Midland Performance Review

Well, I'm still a bit bumbed that I couldn't go to see Alton up in Midland the other week. I would have been able to just make it in time, but would have been dead tired after being at work all day and then driving a couple of hours. It's bad enough that I spend two or three hours per day driving to and from work. One of these days I'll see him in person, but for now I'll just have to watch Good Eats!

Here's an article for those of you who, like me, could go or just want to read about one of his shows.

So Close, Yet So Far (from Alton Brown)

Well, I'm not going to be able to get out of work early enough to see Alton Brown up in Midland Friday. I left early today to oversee an installation project at home. At least I can try to comfort myself with the notion that I would have been too tired to really enjoy the even anyhow. One of these days I'll see him!

Jam Session

I finally broke down and bought my canning starter kit. Since strawberry season in Michigan is coming in only a few weeks I thought I had better do a practice run to make sure I know what I'm doing once the fresh fruit is in the fields! I naturally turned to Alton Brown for some guidance.
My trial run consisted of Alton's blueberry preserves and a strawberry-rhubarb recipe that was in the little booklet that came with the canning kit. Despite being a practice run I still managed to pack some local-ness into my preserves! I had one remaining bag of blueberries in the freezer from last summer and a local farmer gave me three stalks of her first crop of rhubarb! Gotta love livin' in the country!

All went well with both recipes, but I have to say Alton's blueberry was the winner. The Ball recipe had noticably more sugar which probably covered up some of the bite from the rhubarb, while the blueberry goodness came right through in the other batch. After a week of eating nothing but PBJs I'm ready for fruit picking season to open up!

Alton Brown in Midland, Michigan June 1st

Fellow Michiganders!!! Alton Brown will be coming to the Midland Festival this year! It's $34, but it's Alton Brown in Michigan!

MATRIX:MIDLAND FESTIVAL 2007 EVENTS
An Evening with Alton Brown “Crystals in the Kitchen:
The Effects of Extreme Temperature”

Friday, June 1, 2007 - 7:30 p.m.
You've seen him on cable television's Food Network as the creator, writer and host of the offbeat hit show Good Eats, and as commentator for Iron Chef America. Part jester, part scientist, and entirely entertaining, Brown improvises and ad libs his way through the evening using fun summer recipes plus a bit of liquid nitrogen! One hour cooking demo followed by Q & A and book signing.
Admission: Section A $34, Section B $30 - MCFTA Auditorium

Here's a link to the festival site