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Giada De Laurentiis: Cooking with Cleavage

There are some really great chefs hosting some amazing cooking shows on TV right now. They make great food and some of them aren’t too hard on the eyes. My fiancée won’t admit it, but I know she has a crush on Tyler Florence, who used to do a show called Food 911 on the Food Network and now hosts Tyler’s Ultimate. Whenever she watches his show, she starts to drool. And I have a feeling she’s not drooling over the recipes.

My personal favorite is Giada De Laurentiis. She makes wonderful dishes, primarily Italian cuisine, but she’s also really hot. One thing you’ll notice when you see her show is that she’s always wearing something featuring a plunging neckline. I’ve also noticed that they shoot her from above. Her producers aren’t stupid – they know that sex sells. That’s why you’ll never see Giada cooking in a turtleneck. Cleavage with a cleaver – it’s a winning combination.

I don’t understand why De Laurentiis isn’t as popular as Rachel Ray. Giada makes better dishes; her recipes are much more sophisticated, and she’s ten times better looking. Ray makes me ill with her corny lines and perky smile. Her 30-minute meals may appeal to housewives who don’t have time to cook, but any legitimate foodie won’t even eat that stuff, let alone cook it.

De Laurentiis has become a household name, and it's really not surprising. With an impressive background of culinary training combined with a unique personable charm, she has become a globally revered celebrity chef who continues to prove her skill and accessibility not only with her show on the Food Network but also with the great success of her cookbooks, "Everyday Italian" and "Giada's Family Dinners."

A multi-faceted personality, De Laurentiis has been a spokesperson for Barilla pasta for the past two years and recently forged an unprecedented alliance with the Pyrex Glassware brand, broadening the appeal of the brand to a younger generation. With much anticipation, De Laurentiis debuted her third cookbook, "Everyday Pasta" on April 3rd. This edition features family-favorite pasta recipes as well as inventive dishes using a variety of pastas.

De Laurentiis' first book, "Everyday Italian," showcases many of the delicious recipes from her cooking show of the same title on Food Network. As a follow-up to "Everyday Italian," Giada's second book entitled, "Giada's Family Dinners," quickly became a #1 New York Times best-seller. All three books are published by Random House/Clarkson Potter. Born in Rome, Giada grew up in a large Italian family where the culture of food was a staple in and of itself. As the granddaughter of film producer Dino De Laurentiis, Giada learned how to prepare many of the family's recipes, which were often made for festive gatherings.

After graduating from the University of California in Los Angeles with a degree in anthropology, Giada's passion for cooking remained. She eventually made the decision to commence a culinary career and began her professional training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, specializing in both cuisine and pastry. Following, she returned to Los Angeles, where her training included positions at the prestigious Ritz Carlton Fine Dining Room and Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Beverly Hills. She also founded GDL Foods, a catering company in Los Angeles. Giada is one of Food Network's most recognizable faces.

Her half-hour daytime cooking show, "Everyday Italian," features quick, healthy and satisfying dishes using traditional Italian ingredients and techniques. "Everyday Italian" airs on Food Network twelve times a week at both 11:00 AM and 4:30 PM. This January, De Laurentiis successfully launched her new primetime television series, "Giada's Weekend Getaways." For thirteen episodes, De Laurentiis explores the various cultures within popular cities in and around the United States, such as Charleston, Santa Fe, Cabo San Lucas and Austin.

In June 2007, De Laurentiis will take her viewers on a journey abroad to dream locations, Santorini and Capri in a two-part special entitled "Giada in Paradise." De Laurentiis will explore the culture, food, and mesmerizing sights to these popular tourist spots. De Laurentiis also contributes as a judge on the wildly popular, "Next Food Network Star" and has the distinction of participating in a special 90-minute "Iron Chef America," competing with fellow chef Bobby Flay (marking the highest ratings the Food Network has ever received in the 18-35 demographic).

Giada's overall success and notoriety yielded her a role as spokesperson for Barilla, the world's largest producer and manufacturer of pasta. The relationship is an obvious one, combining Giada's love of traditional Italian cooking with the best products and ingredients available. Additionally, in a two-year product endorsement contract, De Laurentiis will partner with Pyrex Glassware, which shares a common appreciation for gourmet food and entertaining. This will mark the first time in Pyrex's 100-year history that it has contracted with a high profile celebrity to represent their brand. Following a guest stint as the "Today Show" correspondent during the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Giada secured a role as a contributing correspondent for the "Today Show."

Giada currently makes regular appearances on the nation's #1 morning show to highlight current trends in travel, cuisine and lifestyle. Giada currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband.

More Parrots

The parrots keep showing up 3-5 times a day across the street. It's become a neighborhood event. As soon as we spot them, we drop whatever we're doing and go out to see them. We've met a bunch of our neighbors who do the same thing. It's going to be sad when they stop coming by, probably within the next couple of weeks.

San Francisco is Going Bonkers for Bonds

The balls are being marked, City Hall is emblazoned in orange (see photo) and every move Barry Bonds makes is being chronicled throughout the world. Baseball fans, souvenir hunters and those who just want to be around baseball history will flock to San Francisco next week hoping to see Barry Bonds hit the big one.

The Giants slugger is only two more homers away from tying Hank Aaron's career mark of 755, perhaps the most well-known record in the world of sports. There’s a very good chance that he could break the record during a seven-game homestand starting Monday against the Atlanta Braves, Aaron's former team, and the jockeying for position to catch the home run ball at AT&T Park has already started.

The games next week against the Braves and the Florida Marlins are within a few hundred seats of being sold out, leaving fans with a hankering for history little choice but to wade into the online resale market or deal with scalpers on the street.

I hope Bonds breaks the record in San Francisco. Not because I’m, enamored with the guy, but because I believe it will be better for baseball. If he hits it in another city, it could be a very embarrassing situation. The fans will likely boo and it could get ugly. Bonds is a god in SF, but he’s not particularly liked by fans anywhere else in the country.

People are clamoring for these tickets for some simple reason – to see Bonds make baseball history. That has to be the one and only reason. After all, the Giants are in last place in the NL West.

"This is the hottest ticket sales have been since the All-Star Game," said Jennifer Swanson, spokeswoman for TicketsNow, which resells tickets to the public from licensed brokers. "It's reaching a fever pitch."

Seats in the arcade section behind the right field wall -- a common location for Bonds homers to land -- usually go for between $29 and $33, but they were being peddled online Friday for as much as $500.

The Giants still have standing-room-only seats available for some games for $10, team spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said, but those too are expected to turn into gold as soon as the Giants head home from their series this weekend in Milwaukee.

Tickets for games next week are selling for an average of about $80 at the various online sites, including the Giants' own Double Play Ticket Window, which allows season ticket holders to squeeze the ticketless masses for all they are worth.

Home run fever officially started Thursday when Bonds whacked two dingers into the ferocious winds at Wrigley Field during the Giants' 9-8 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
The blasts were his first in 16 days, and they awakened the slumbering national media.

"We definitely noticed an uptick in ticket sales after he hit the home runs," Slaughter said. "Everything kind of calmed down after the All-Star Game, and then he hit the two home runs, and my phone has been ringing off the hook."

Sean Pate, spokesman for StubHub, which charges a 10 percent fee to buy and a 15 percent fee to sell tickets on its Web site, said prime seats for next week's games are selling for upward of $300. He figures that's just the beginning.

"It's going to be very crazy," he said. "People are going to want to be there for the tying or record-breaking home run. When he's on 754, each game is going to be a premium game."
The Giants, San Francisco police and the Coast Guard are preparing for the craziness by beefing up security in and around AT&T Park.

The Giants normally sell several hundred standing-room-only tickets for big games, and many of those ticket-holders congregate in the arcade section. That's going to be harder to do this homestand, Slaughter said.

"We will be checking tickets for people with seats in that area and allowing in a limited number of standing-room tickets," Slaughter said.

All the baseballs pitched to Bonds now are stamped with a special logo for authentication. The fan who emerges from the inevitable scramble for the record-setting ball will be hustled away by security guards, Slaughter said.

"We want to make sure they are in a safe spot," she said. "If they want to watch the rest of the game, we will put the ball in a safe for them. It's really up to the person who catches the ball to determine what he wants to do with it. We usually meet with them and try to figure out if there is anything they would be interested in to trade for the ball, but this is going to be a pretty valuable ball."

Outside the park, people will be able to watch the game through the right field knothole fence for three innings at a time, the usual limit at big games.

The Coast Guard will keep an eye on the regatta of rafts, canoes, kayaks and other watercraft expected to congregate in McCovey Cove in case the record-breaking tater is a "Splash Hit." Bonds has hit 34 of those in his career.

There is no plan to have boaters preregister or to limit their numbers, as was done during the All-Star Game, said Lt. Anya Hunter, the spokeswoman for Coast Guard San Francisco.

Hunter said the Coast Guard's primary concern is the barge outside AT&T Park loaded with fireworks for the moment when Bonds hits No. 756. She said boats will be kept 1,000 feet from the barge.

"The problem with this event is we don't know when it is going to happen," Hunter said. "All of our crews out there are on alert, and everyone knows that this is pending, but they can't sit out and wait for days at a time. As soon we know that the fireworks show is going off or if there is a safety concern because of a large number of boats, then we will respond."

The record-setting home run will be a spectacular conundrum for a nation in which many people view Bonds as a cheater whose home run power is tainted by the use of performance-enhancing drugs, something the Giants slugger has denied doing knowingly.

Aaron isn't planning to show up for any of the games or, it seems, even acknowledge the record. But it still amounts to big business in the city by the bay.

"Just like the stock market, these games are hot, so people are going to start asking higher prices," Pate said. "It is going to be pretty busy around here for the next week or 10 days."

(Thanks to http://www.sfgate.com/ for some of the quotes in this article.)

A New Hoodia Diet Patch Will Suppress Your Hunger

I’ve tried all the diets. I was on the Isagenix program for a while, and it was actually very good. The one thing Isagenix could not do, however, was help suppress my hunger. I’m hungry all the time. I wake up hungry and I go to bed hungry. I’m hungry five minutes after eating. And it doesn't help that my fiancee Angelina is training to be a chef and makes all these great dishes all the time! So, I’ve decided to try something that has really worked well for many of my friends. It’s called a Hoodia diet patch and from what I’ve heard – it really works! It takes away your appetite so that you aren’t always thinking about food all the time. I’m going to give it a try and I’ll let you know how it works. Wish me luck. I know if I’m not hungry that I can lose what I need to drop (around 70 lbs.)

Yang Wins the Whole Ying

Jerry Yang, a 39-year-old psychologist who uses his professional training in his card-playing arsenal, won the $8.25 million top prize Wednesday at the World Series of Poker.

Hats off to Jerry Yang, the 2007 World Series of Poker champion. He beat the odds as one of the low-money participants entering the final table and took home a mess o’ cash. Anyone who has ever played poker knows how hard it is to win a tournament like this, and Yang did it in spectacular fashion.

The fact that he got into the WSOP by winning a $225 satellite tournament shows that anyone can gain the top spot in a sport where the common man is on the same footing with the established pros. Eat your heart out -- Hellmuth, Brunson, Chan and the rest of the clan!

Here’s how the Associated Press reported it:

Yang vaulted quickly from eighth to the chip lead soon after play began Tuesday afternoon.He knocked out seven of the eight other players at the final table, reminiscent of last year when Jamie Gold ran over his opponents. The main difference, Yang did it from the back of the pack."The only way I would win this tournament is to be aggressive from the very beginning and that's exactly what I did," he said.An ethnic Hmong who grew up poor in Laos, Yang said before the final table began that he would donate 10 percent of his winnings to charity, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Feed the Children, the Ronald McDonald House and his alma mater, Loma Linda University.He won his way into the main event from a $225 satellite tournament at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula and only began playing poker two years ago.Despite his 5-foot-3 stature - often standing up from his seat to move chips or stare down opponents - Yang was an intimidating force at the table from the beginning.He aggressively raised pots and became the first player at the table to go all-in. On the ninth hand, he forced Lee Childs, a 35-year-old software engineer from Reston, Va., to fold pocket queens, face up, on a board with a seven, four and deuce.Yang began heads up play with a giant chip lead against Tuan Lam, a 40-year-old professional online poker player from Mississauga, Ontario. Yang had 104.5 million in chips to Lam's 23.0 million.On the last hand, with a huge mound of cash deposited on the felt, Lam moved all-in with an ace and queen of diamonds and Yang called with pocket eights.When a queen, five and nine came on the flop, it looked like Lam, waving a Canadian flag, would be on the verge of a miracle comeback, making a pair of queens for the lead.But a seven on the turn and a six on the river gave Yang a straight, sealing a win in which he dominated the final table from the moment the nine finalists sat down."I've seen the miracles of God with my own eyes," Yang said. "I did a lot of bluffing, also."Lam, who earned $4,840,981 for his second place finish, was also a refugee who found his way to Canada from Vietnam. He said he'd be returning to his village, Bao Trinh, to help those who need it."I was patient and waited for the big hand, but the cards came out different," Lam said. "I have been through a hard life. And I will be going back to Vietnam and giving back."Play at the final table began at noon in Las Vegas and didn't finish till nearly 4 a.m.The finalists ranged in age from 22 to 62, and hailed from five nations: the U.S., Canada, Russia, England and South Africa. By birthplace, players also were from Laos, Vietnam and Denmark.Each had their section of fans in the audience, and the arena took on the air of the Olympics as supporters broke out into national songs every time their player won a big hand."The final table says a lot about the globality of poker and the globality of our fans," said Jeffrey Pollack, World Series of Poker commissioner for event owner Harrah's Entertainment Inc.Yang burst out of the blocks shortly after play began. But 31-year-old Dane Philip Hilm made a stand with a flush draw and a pair of fives on the flop, pushing all-in against Yang. Yang made the call holding an ace and king for a pair of kings and Hilm never improved, finishing ninth for $525,934.Lee Watkinson, a 40-year-old poker pro from Cheney, Wash., pushed all-in before the flop with an ace and seven, but Yang read through the show of strength by calling with an ace and nine and Watkinson fell in eighth for a $585,699 payday."I was playing for the bracelet," Watkinson said. "I wasn't going for third, fourth or even second. I wanted to make a play and be a contender."Childs, who quit his job a month ago to play poker for a living, finished seventh with $705,229 when he went all-in with a king and jack against Yang, with a jack and eight. Childs lost when an eight came on the turn.

San Jose Sharks Have a New Logo

The new San Jose Sharks logo wasn't supposed to be revelaed yet, but my inside connections got me a copy of it. What do you think? I think it looks cool. It's a little tougher looking that the other shark. Does that mean the team will be tougher next season? I hope so? It would be nice to get a shot at the Stanley Cup one of these years!

Thursday is the New Friday

I understand how it happened, but I think it’s time for a change. Why is it that Friday gets all the kudos when people in this country talk about the days of the American work week?

I realize that at one point, Friday was the big day. It was the end of the week, the start of the weekend, and working folks all over the country couldn’t help but to start waxing poetic about it. Thus, Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF) became a huge part of the American vernacular. They even named a chain of restaurants after it.

Well, I would like to make an argument for my favorite day of the work week – Thursday. It’s the new Friday, and I’ll tell you why.

I read somewhere that many Americans don’t even work on Fridays anymore. The 10-hour day, 4-day work week is more popular now than ever, especially when it comes to production jobs. People like the new working schedule, because it means that they can enjoy three-day weekends, spending more quality time with their families and cutting one entire day out of their commute. So, in a way, it’s good for the environment as well.

Plus, even people who do work on Fridays aren’t working all that hard. American workers take longer lunches (usually in a group), dress casually, eat donuts, have parties and take more breaks on Fridays, as a rule. In addition, they come up with every excuse to get out of work early and hit the road home before commute traffic clogs the roadways. Friday isn’t really a legitimate a work day anymore – for many, it’s the first day of the weekend.

Thursdays are all about anticipation. The work week is more than half way over and the weekend is on the way. But, it’s not quite there yet. Remember your childhood, when you anticipated things like Christmas and your birthday? Back then you were convinced that the big day would never come. But, it always did.

As you get older, you realize that the anticipation of something is almost as good as the thing itself. Thursday is that way.

So with this in mind, I am currently working with some top advertising and public relations executives throughout the country to start a campaign touting Thursday. We’ve even come up with a great new slogan, “So Happy It’s Thursday.” We’re also working on new calendars, t-shirts and watches, all of which we hope will change America’s feelings about Thursday.

I truly believe that the time is right for Thursday to get its due. To have its day in the sun, so to speak. Move over Friday, because here comes Thursday!

Grand Jury Throws Michael Vick to the Dogs

Well, it finally happened Tuesday. INDICTED in big bold letters. Michael Vick will now have to turn himself into authorities and face the music. I guess the grand jury didn’t buy his lame excuse that he didn’t live in the house where all of the alleged dog fighting took place.

I caught a lot of heat from Vick fans for my BrooWaha article, “Message to Michael Vick: Dog Fighting is Dog----!” I also got a lot of views. It’s a very hot topic right now, and with Vick’s indictment, it’s going to get even hotter.

On July 7th, ESPN.com reported that is was very unlikely that Vick would get indicted on this case. Well, guess what? Even the big boys get it wrong sometimes.

I will never convict a person until the evidence is presented and until that individual is tried in a court of law. But, a grand jury isn’t going to go to all the trouble of indicting someone -- especially someone as high profile as Michael Vick – without some sort of hard evidence. All I can say to Mike is good luck!

This appeared Tuesday on http://www.msn.com/:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to illegal dog fighting.
Vick and three others were charged with violating federal laws against competitive dog fighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.
The indictment alleges that Vick and his co-defendants began sponsoring dog fighting in early 2001, the former Virginia Tech star's rookie year with the Falcons.
It accuses Vick, Purnell A. Peace, Quanis L. Phillips and Tony Taylor of "knowingly sponsoring and exhibiting an animal fighting venture," of conducting a business enterprise involving gambling, as well as buying, transporting and receiving dogs for the purposes of an animal fighting venture.
Telephone messages left at the offices and home of Vick's attorney, Larry Woodward, were not immediately returned.
A woman who answered the phone at the home of Vick's mother said the family knew nothing about the charges.
On July 7, federal authorities conducted a second search of the Surry, Va., property owned by Vick that is the center of the dog fighting investigation.
According to court documents filed by federal authorities earlier this month, dogfights have been sponsored by "Bad Newz Kennels" at the property since at least 2002. For the events, participants and dogs traveled from South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, New York, Texas and other states.
Fifty-four pit bulls were recovered from the property during searches in April, along with a "rape stand," used to hold dogs in place for mating; an electric treadmill modified for dogs; and a bloodied piece of carpeting, the documents said.
During a June search of the property, investigators uncovered the graves of seven pit bulls that were killed by members of "Bad Newz Kennels" following sessions to test whether the dogs would be good fighters, the documents alleged.
Members of "Bad Newz Kennels" also sponsored and exhibited fights in other parts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey and other states, according to the filings.
On Vick's website, he lists his birthplace as Newport News, "a.k.a. BadNews."
The documents said the fights usually occurred late at night or in the early morning and would last several hours.
Before fights, participating dogs of the same sex would be weighed and bathed, according to the filings. Opposing dogs would be washed to remove any poison or narcotic placed on the dog's coat that could affect the other dog's performance.
Sometimes, dogs weren't fed to "make it more hungry for the other dog."
Fights would end when one dog died or with the surrender of the losing dog, which was sometimes put to death by drowning, strangulation, hanging, gun shot, electrocution or some other method, according to the documents.
Vick initially said he had no idea the property might have been used in a criminal enterprise and blamed family members for taking advantage of his generosity.
Vick has since declined to talk about the investigation.

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