Carla Hall -

by hungry monster

Cooking with Love: Carla Hall's Rustic Mushroom Tart

Hey, guess what? I got an opportunity to review Carla Hall”s brand new cookbook, Cooking with Love: Comfort Food that Hugs You. I was obviously very excited. Thanks, ES!

I have been a fan of Carla Hall since her first season on Top Chef, Season 5. When she came back for All-Stars, I also enjoyed rooting her on. She has a southern style of cooking that focuses on comfort food and fine dining spins on classics. Plus, she has a super perky and positive personality, but not in an annoying sort of way. Like in a contagiously sunny kind of way.

This book has so many great recipes that I”ve bookmarked to try, like goat cheese grits and buffalo wing burgers (yum!) It also has some little anecdotes and tips from Carla. Carla was a caterer before she made it big and has some great tips about serving large groups, if you are into that kind of thing. If I had to give a constructive criticism about the book, it would be that I would like a picture for every recipe. That”s probably not doable to have so many photographs, but that”s what I like. Although the pictures that are already in the book are quite stunning.

All in all, I”d say everyone should definitely have this cookbook on their shelves. It”s pretty rockin”.

So, I decided to make the mushroom nbso tart recipe and it was pretty boss. Super easy and oh so tasty. I didn”t use a paddle attachment on a food processor , so my dough was a little more crumbly than hers appears. It was still really good, though.

You should make this and pop over to Amazon to preorder her book, which comes out November 6th.

Rustic Mushroom Tart from Cooking with Love

The Chew Better Be Worth Killing All My Children

My mom is PISTED. Like super crazy mad, sad, frustrated, disappointed, pisted. My mom is a soap opera fan. She’s been watching All My Children for almost 40 years now. Yea, I said 40.

Every day she tapes the soap, which airs at 1pm EST, to watch later that night. Growing up I would watch with her. We would paint sea shells at the kitchen table and engage with our “friends” as they married, divorced, cheated, gave birth, died, mysteriously found the way back to Pine Valley with amnesia, and died again.

But no more. ABC yanked both All My Children and One Life to Live off the air…for a food (and lifestyle) show. My mom is someone fairly unconcerned with food. She eats to survive, not for pleasure, so you can imagine her fury knowing a food show (that has plenty of its own channels) will replace her soap. Luckily, AMC will transition online and continue to dazzle audiences with outrageous plots.

Starting September 26th, the one o’clock hour will feature The Chew staring Mario Batali, Michael Symon, Top Chef Carla Hall, “entertaining expert” Clinton Kelly and “health and wellness enthusiast” Daphne Oz (says press release.) ABC is furthermore calling its new food show “innovative and groundbreaking.”

Yesterday ABC released a “behind the scenes” (aka totally staged with fake moments of enormous laughter) teaser. Everyone’s giggling and super buddy buddy. I’m sure the show will be lighthearted, filled with quick tips for busy parents and party ideas for yuppie couples. But I hope it’s more.