What do you do when you suddenly find yourself with a free hour or so? An hour without your toddler because your neighbor has graciously said he could play at her house. An hour with just your sleeping infant . . . Read the rest of this entry…

He said it would never happen. Ever.

He said that I should just accept that his tastes are what they are and they aren’t changing.

He. Was. Wrong.

You know. It was hard enough to believe in January when Shawn asked — yes, asked — to try some sweet potato fries that I’d whipped up. Sweet potatoes. One of the many, many vegetables that he turns his nose up to. It was even more of a surprise when he liked those sweet potato fries. Yes, and the moral of that story is that if you treat a picky man like a two-year-old and don’t offer him any, he’ll want to try whatever it is. I jest. I jest. That’s really not the moral.

The moral is that when it comes to food, never say never. Anyway, back to the story, it was absolutely unbelievable when he started whipping up batches himself.

See, unlike his old standby corn, sweet potatoes for these fries don’t come in a can. And unlike his occasional concession of a salad, these sweet potatoes don’t come double washed, sliced and ready to go. No sir, he actually has to peel them and slice them into fry shapes by hand . . . and he does. Willingly.

Hallelujah, there is some hope. Now, to get him to try more.

In the meantime, we’ve been having these babies weekly. So delicious. The savory aspects of rosemary and Parmesan offset the natural sweetness of the potato. They also crisp up nicely if you don’t overload the baking sheet and leave no room for flipping (sorry, Yoko! Learned that the hard way!). Read the rest of this entry…

When I decided to blog about Top Chef this season, it was because I have been enthralled with past seasons. But little did I know that Bravo was going to turn my favorite food competition into a catty free-for-all. I am having a very hard time connecting with the Top Chef stars this season. There seems to be a lot of crass behavior and a lack of vibrancy (in the food and the people!). It’s really disappointing to be this far into the season and not give a hoot about any of the people on the show.

Is it a different production team this season or something? The show was fine this time, albeit not as good as in the past, but the hey-let’s-find-all-the-curses-on-the-tape-we-can-and-show-them-all-at-once reel at the end of the show was a head scratcher. Why was that necessary?

Anyway, onto the actual episode:

David Boulud, a top French chef, was this week’s guest judge.

The quick fire? A vegetable plate. Three techniques. Pretty simple. They couldn’t possibly mess this one up . . . or could they?

“I’m not that into the classic techniques,” Lisa said. And all I could think was, you aren’t that into them, or you just don’t have a clue as to what they are. No wonder she was one of the bottom three of the quick fire. At least Zoi admits that she isn’t trained in the techniques . . . and she managed do get a top spot – perfect poached egg? Go girl.

I almost wasn’t going to talk about Andrew at all this week . . . then he made some insinuation that he was among the “strong” cooks while Dale was “the weak.” Pfft. This guy might be dropping fewer f-bombs, but he’s still pretty bizarre.

Moving on. Is it just me, or does Ryan totally remind you of the high school quarterback who has been sacked one too many times? A-duh? Seriously.

I’m not even going to comment on the movie-themed dishes themselves . . . it’s a weird one. Frankly, I have yet to see anything I would want to recreate at home. Where’s the innovation? Where’s the delicious results?

Advice for New Bloggers is a new regular feature here at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Inspired by Dine and Dish’s Adopt-A-Blogger event, and written with my adoptee in mind (Hi, Rachel! Click here to check out Fairy Cake Heaven), it appears every Tuesday.

Blogging is a community, so I opened up Advice for New Bloggers to all of my readers. See below for details and the cool prize you could win by submitting a tip.

Our first tip comes from Vikoria of Cool Swede:

Nothing is too stupid to write about.

Sometimes it is the little things that people want to hear about, the things people can connect to. You don’t have to think about a topic for a week before you blog about it. The randomness can make it more fun. Think about the sitcom “Seinfeld.” It’s supposed to be a show about “nothing,” and it turned into one of the most popular shows around in the 1990s.

With this comes another advice: Don’t be scared to make fun of yourself. It shows that you don’t take life too seriously. Pick some of your silly mistakes and put a happy spin on them. (It is easiest if they happened some time ago).

It’s YOUR Turn!

What’s your best tip for new bloggers?

Submit your best tip between now and April 5, 2008 to sarahDOTcaronATgmailDOTcom and it will appear here on Sarah’s Cucina Bella with a link back to your site.

The entrant with the best tip will receive a copy of Sweet Melissa Baking Book.