Rye Cooks

Impressed? why yes!

We are so on-target now!  The fourth show is about to air this Friday, the one about fresh spring foods and getting into shape.  And it is still spring!!  

It features lots of local talent so if you live in Rye and want to see it on the big screen, tune in to channel 76 (or 33) on Fridays and Saturdays at 9am, 12am, 3pm and 6pm.  

On top of that, we are already two segments into our next show.  The theme here is "thrifty"; we visited the Rye Presbyterian Church Thrift shop today, which donates thousands of dollars to charities in lower Westchester.   

We are featuring a local favorite, homemade doughnuts from Jerry's Post Road Market, baked into individual ramekins of Banana Foster.  These goodies were topped with a mixture of Goya mango nectar and dulce de leche in an unbelievable flavor combination, all orchestrated by Stephanie Hammer, caterer and personal chef of Rye.  It was a really fun shoot and we are so excited to be stepping up to this faster pace.  

There is serious thought to a fishing segment.  What could be thriftier than catching your own dinner?  Stay tuned, friends!

 

Waffling

With renewed energy, we have been working hard to bring you the third episode of Rye Cooks, on Rye's public access channel (that's either 76 on cable or 33 if you have Verizon). You'll also be able to watch on your computer, I'll provide the link and hopefully you will be able to just click on that tv icon on the right hand corner.

When we first realized that we have been at this for a year, we were a bit disconcerted.  Did we think we would have had 12 shows in 12 months? We had so very many ideas and tons of forward momentum.  It would seem that (almost) 3 shows does not really meet our goals.  But there was so much more to this than we could have imagined.

Our skill set has grown exponentially in the past year.  Suzy learned all kinds of technical applications, and I have learned that being engaging is more important than getting all your ingredients right the first time.

Luckily, being human and imperfect is what is I am good at. There are so many other blogs and tv shows that will tell you how to get everything just right. On professional television, they do lots of takes, they have staff to clean up spills, and they have big teleprompters that the hosts read from.  I know, because I went to see both Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart during the past year.  

They also have people who run out with little brushes to fix skin imperfections that have cropped up during the breaks(Martha), and when something doesn't work, they do it again, keeping the studio audience clapping just like we never saw the bit just a minute ago (that's more Rachael). Being part of those studio audiences would have been fun for me anyway, but checking out how they get it done it made it much more interesting.

We have interviewed lots of people around Rye, even if we haven't used any of that information on the show, it has been valuable.  We've talked with the man in charge of the food service in all the Rye City Schools. We spent time with the woman in charge of education at the Rye Historical society and had a fascinating conversation about cooking over an open hearth. For a crowd. We've met fabulous people at RyeTV and the Rye Middle school, took part in an awards ceremony and earned our very own Margie, and yes, there were other entries.

The title of this post does not refer to any lack of dedication to giving you an entertaining look at food and people of Rye, it refers to the fact that we made waffles a while back for a cooking segment to be used in our upcoming show, the audio was poor, so we did it all over again. This time it worked out really well and hopefully you will see it soon on Episode 3!

 

 

The Baking Throw Down

Another snow day.  Well, the tease of merely a "delay" for the elementary school so that a broken pipe could be fixed, and then an early dismissal for the rest of the school district.

After the pick up, a few kids assembled at our house, which happens kind of rarely.  We don't have a finished basement, attic space or any sort of "playroom" that affords privacy. When the kids were young, I equated heading down into one of those basement rooms to watch the kids play as a form of parent purgatory.  Now, the thought of that degree of privacy just seems wrong. "Heyyy, I just thought I'd throw in some whites, anything I can get you guys?"

What we do have is ingredients.  And a double oven.  So, the kids split up into teams, one made a Sour Cream Coffee Cake, from Bon Appetit, the opposing team made Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies.  I voted for the coffee cake, even though they were both delicious.  

I love this coffee cake.  It makes a big enough recipe (baked in a 13 X 9 pan) to feed a crowd.  It is perfect when we are invited to someone's house for brunch or for a ski weekend.  

I just checked my recipe so I could quote you the right magazine, and I can't believe it is from 1987.  I tore out a page from a magazine more than 23 years ago.  Was I really thinking about coffee cake way back in my senior year of college?  

Generally, I feel about 28 years old so stuff like this comes as a bit of a shock.  Well, it is nice to have a teenage daughter whose friends come over to bake.  They even did a stand up job of cleaning up today.

True Believer

Today was an extraordinary day, the kind that made me rethink previously held beliefs on commercialism, retailing and whether or not things happen by accident. 

I have been collecting gently used backpacks for an organization called the Aspire.Inspire Foundation. This began when I went to hack my way through my basement for a little pre-season cleaning.  

We had many backpacks collecting dust down there.  Sure, some had sentimental value, there was the bright blue one that I took with us to Disney, big enough to fit my Unofficial Guide to Disney, my clipboard with each day's itinerary on it, my notations on the best places to eat in Epcot and maps highlighted with the restrooms in each "land".  My daughter's bright orange one personalized with her travel soccer number made me smile.  But really, they had to go.  

A few minutes of google-time revealed many organizations and I chose Aspire.Inspire after a couple of emails back and forth.  I put a plastic bin in the lobby of the local elementary school and sent a request through the school's newsletter.  There, that's done.

Today, I was in Nordstoms, exchanging a pair of Uggs when I checked out the sale table in the tween section. Three pink and purple Roxy backpacks sat regally, marked down from $32.00 to $19.99.  I asked the salesgirl if they could be marked down again and I would buy all three.

She price checked one first and her eyes widened. What?? They were not supposed to sell them now, they were meant for The Rack (discounted Nordstroms) but apparently they didn't get out in time.  They were a penny apiece.   

Looking this gift horse directly in the mouth, I went back over to the table and grabbed 10 adorable satchel type bags and asked her to price check. Same!!  I had tears in my eyes, I was so happy for this luck.  Those were not backpacks, but surely needy kids could use them similarly.  I felt that Suzy was going to jump out any minute with her video camera.

I spent 13 cents and did not even get mad when the evil machine used to pay for parking rejected my $5 bill three times and the third time I pulled it out in ripped in two.  

 

Just So Thrilled to Be Here!

Last night was the highlight of our adventure into broadcasting: Suzy and I won a Margie Award at the RyeTV's annual awards ceremony!   Our category was "Best New Show".

It was a terrific night, the ceremony was held in the Rye Free Reading Room (never free to me, as I always owe gigantic fees). A red carpet was rented, gold stars lined the floor, food was donated as well as made by participants, gold and black balloons decorated the tables.

Suzy and I went black tie and extra heavy on the hair and make up, just to glam it up. I had my make up done professionally at Benefit, a make up emporium in town.  Free, that one was free for the asking!  Since it was for a community event, and I promised to scatter their business cards around. Unfortunately I later found the cards still in my handbag...but thank you, thank you!! 

We had our new favorite intern shooting the event for us. Of course RyeTV was also filming, but we wanted material for our show.  

See the link below for an article about the awards. 

http://rye.patch.com/articles/margie-awards-honor-best-in-local-television

Off Label Use

 Today my job is to take Suzy's mind off our technical problems. 

 Yes, we spent four months planning, organizing, producing, and filming for a show that anticlimactically aired on RTV's channel 76 last night without proper sound. 

On the other hand, we spent the last four months talking, learning, meeting people and laughing hysterically at our own humor. I can wait a day or two to find out whether any one else is entertained by the show.  I know it's going to work out.

Over the weekend, my teenaged daughter had a toothache.  The kind that keeps one up at night believing there is a tiny man once spurned by the Tooth Fairy getting revenge with a jackhammer. It was too late to get to anything over the counter so we worked the web (I love how no one really calls it the web..) and found some interesting home remedies.

The top 3 were:  cloves or clove oil (had none), a salted garlic wedge (just eww), and a cotton ball soaked with vanilla pressed up against the offending tooth.  You may know that vanilla extract does not taste good until it is mixed with sugar, eggs, flour, etc.  So, it was with some trepidation that the soaked cotton ball went into her mouth. 

After a minute of grimacing, the facial muscles relaxed and she reported that it was actually working.  The absence of pain lasted about 30 minutes, but it was enough to grab some sleep, gathering strength for the next day's emergency root canal. 

See how things work out?