Jamie Tells Us When Our Nuts Are Done

Home for Dinner With Jamie Deen

Dinner for Two

Green Bean Salad

Herbed Couscous with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts

Tilapia Foil Packets

Georgia Peach Perfection

I just ran across someone who knows someone who works with Jamie Deen. He (or she…let’s stay anonymous) says Jamie is every bit as nice in person as he appears to be on television. That makes me happy, because he seems like such a stand-up guy and I want him to be like that in real life.

This week, Brooke and the kids are going to see his in-laws, so Jamie invites HIS mama over for dinner. How cute is he? If I ever got a call like that, I think I would have a heart attack. Of course, my kids don’t live down the road (or even on the same coast or state), but still… Jamie tells Paula he’s going to cook her dinner and he’s even going to pick her up. (Oh good, so she can party hearty.)

Jamie gets a few things ready first. He starts with couscous. Bobby apparently loves it and Jamie’s making his own version. I almost never make instant couscous anymore. I like the big pearls of the Israeli couscous. It does take longer to cook, but the texture is so much more toothsome!

As Jamie takes out the tilapia, he shows us a video of little Jack playing the harmonica…with his nose. Funny.

Jamie says it’s fun to be cooking for Mama for once. (Love it.) He chops up shallots, garlic, tomatoes and fresh thyme and spoons that mixture over 2 pieces of tilapia, which he’s placed on big pieces of foil. He drizzles over some oil and seals up the foil really well to make airtight packets. He puts them on a baking sheet and they go into a 450°F. oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Jamie says his mom has proved over and over how she would do anything for her kids. (Love him.)

Jamie roasts some pine nuts in a dry pan to add to the couscous. (I do that in the microwave. Put them on a dinner plate and cook them in 30 second intervals, checking until they’re done.)

Jamie says he didn’t eat couscous for his first 35 years. He mixes up fresh lemon juice, olive oil and fresh parsley to dress it with. He says Bobby NEVER adds nuts to HIS couscous, so Bobby still has stuff he can learn from his older brother.

Then Jamie shares this tip with us: “Y’all will know when your nuts are done, because they’ll be all toasty looking…and you can smell them.” That really says it all.

Jamie says lemon juice adds freshness to anything and now that he has a lemon tree in his backyard, he’ll always have some available. He finishes up the couscous with golden raisins and the toasted nuts. He hopes mama will like it. He says it’s got all good things in it like “pine nuts, which is just like me – it’s the good fat.”

He says he’s gotta run because it’s time for driving Miss Deen.

Paula is waiting for him in her garden, surrounded by herbs. How pretty! I guess it’s something that Food Network doyennes have in common. She picks some basil for him and she’s so happy that it’s just the two of them. Paula says, “I mean not YAY!!! but…” In other words that's EXACTLY what she means - YAY!!! that she gets some face-time with her boy alone.

Paula picks some limes from a little tree to bring with her to Jamie’s.

Next they’re in Jamie’s kitchen and Paula LOVES being there with (just) him. Carefully (and slowly), she tops some of the green beans for a salad, while Jamie does his in seconds. She tells him she was always amazed at his speed in the kitchen of Lady and Sons.

I like the way Paula handles the beans. It reminds me of my mother’s or aunts’ careful work in the kitchen. I like that she cuts as LITTLE off the ends of the beans as is humanly possible, thereby wasting the least amount of each bean.

They blanch the green beans and get an ice bath ready. Jamie shocks them after the beans have cooked for a minute or two.

He makes a dressing of 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and garlic. In a separate bowl, he mixes together cherry tomatoes, almonds and some feta with the green beans. The recipe calls for chopped red onion, but we never see him adding that, even though it does appear to be in the finished salad. A poltergeist must have done it.

See my notes on making this salad at the end of the post.

                                                                                    

He asks us what we say the most when we have our mothers over for dinner. “I need a drink!”

Jamie gets to work on a Georgia Peach Perfection. He and Paula rip the mint into pieces to release its flavor and add it to each glass. A half of lime’s worth of juice goes in next. (Remember the best way to squeeze a lime?) Jamie muddles it all up with the stem end of a wooden spoon. Paula adds crushed ice to each glass and Jamie pours peach nectar over and tops it with seltzer. Where’s the alcohol?!!! Instead of seltzer, why not top it off with prosecco??! Oh look! He sends Paula out to the deck, while he gets a bottle that looked like this from the freezer and pours a big shot into his drink. (I guess that’s the gin that the recipe says is optional.)

They serve up their plates. Then Paula asks Jamie if he wants her to play the harmonica. He say sure and she obliges. THEN Jamie shows her the video of Jack. She’s completely delighted until she learns that the same harmonica she’s just had in her mouth, Jack has played WITH HIS NOSE. “Jamie!!!” He cackles.

They finish dinner and Paula says what a treat – just you and me. She says this is a perfect summer meal. He says this is a meal a dad loves to serve to his kids. He asks her what her favorite part was. She says the man sitting to her left. Awww. That’s so sweet, I have to watch it again. Yup, still sweet.

“Cheers Mama,” Jamie says as they clink glasses. “Cheers, son.” Sniff sniff. Cheers Paula! Cheers Jamie. How is it possible that Jamie managed to completely charm me with instant couscous and boiled beans? But let’s not forget the worthwhile toasted nut discussion.

And don’t y’all even THINK of using the word hokey when talking about Jamie and family. He’s adorable and, gosh, he sure does love his mama, which is never a bad thing.

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NOTES on the Green Bean Salad:

 

I decided to be like Paula and line my string beans up like little soldiers all in a neat row. It didn't help that some of them were wonky, but I persevered. 

I wanted to do it just like Paula did, so I cut the tiniest bit off the ends. 

They did look good. I proceeded that way for at least another 15 or 20...seconds, before I just grabbed the rest of the beans and pushed them into a quick pile and cut them fast. 

Changes to the recipe: I used big tomatoes cut into chunks, instead of cherry tomatoes. I wanted the juice to form part of the dressing. I also added mustard to the dressing and left out the feta. Definitely, chilling the salad for an hour is a good idea to develop the flavors. This is a very nice combination of flavors and textures.

What Pirates Eat, Jamie Deen’s Admirable Objectives - Even If His Grammar Ain’t Too Good - Plus My Favorite Kitchen Tool Of All Time

Home for Dinner With Jamie Deen

Dinner With Ginny

Bow Tie Pasta Salad

Grilled Lemon and Rosemary Chicken

Strawberry and Cream Ice Cream

Jamie IS very appealing. His son, Jack, is cute too, when he’s not being that first-son, little prince kind of bratty. But Jamie has used the work “I” wrong twice in just the first few minutes of the show. “That gives Jack and I enough time to head over to…”

Why can’t people realize how easy it is to figure out when “I” should be used and when it should be “ME”?!! Just take out the word "Jack" and you’d never say, “That would give I enough time to…blah, blah, blah.”

He also said, “One of the sweetest things Jack said to his mom and I is…” To his mom and ME!!! People don’t talk to I…They talk to ME!!!

Jamie is a sweet dad anyway, and I do like that he’s in charge of dinner. He wants to be in control of what he feeds his family and that’s certainly commendable. Today he’s making a pasta salad and throwing in lots of vegetables.

Jamie tells us about a little trick he uses with Jack that’s really ingenious. He throws Jack “curve balls”. That’s when he tells his son little white lies to get him to do stuff. (I certainly had no problem lying to my kids every chance I got, but this particular tale is very clever.)

Jamie tells Jack that pasta salad is PIRATE FOOD. Isn’t that hilarious? And really smart?  I think it’s perfectly acceptable to fudge the truth about a certain dish or what ingredients are in something (to kids OR adults), as long as no actual allergies are involved. But saying something is PIRATE FOOD is really original.

                                                                  

Jamie says you’ve GOT to salt the pasta water. Agreed. But his water does NOT look like it’s boiling when he adds the pasta, but I guess he knows what he’s doing.

Jamie advises us that he NEVER peels his carrots. I think we were supposed to know that about him, but this is the first I’VE heard of it. It’s a simple notion – not peeling carrots - but it makes me think about living a purer, better, more moral life.

This is actually something that I aspire to - to cook and eat unpeeled carrots. I DO buy organic carrots, but when the time comes to peel or not peel, I lose my nerve and I always give in and peel them. But I need to work on this. Remember when I promised recently to wash my lemons and limes as soon as I get home from the store? I’m 50/50 on that so far…I forgot the second time. Baby steps…And this carrot thing is another improvement I should make.

Jamie cuts the carrots in quite large pieces, almost an inch big. He cuts broccoli into florets. He doesn’t use the stem, which is kind of a pity. I usually peel it and cut it into a julienne. For the dressing for the pasta salad, he mixes 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and 1/3 cup of mayo. There’s nothing to argue about there, except maybe nutritionally, but it’s not SO over the top. Jamie says this is one of the first dishes they used to make at his mama’s business, The Bag Lady.

I wonder what his orange rubber bracelet is for. It could be for a number of things.

Jamie adds the carrots to the pasta water. He likes to clean out the fridge when he makes this. He says there are no rules about what to add to this pasta salad, because “PIRATES follow no rules, Matey”.

He readies edamame and grape tomatoes. He told Jack the tomatoes were candy - “Curveball!” He says his wife gets mad because he never uses a timer to cook pasta or anything. He just knows when things are done. (Most husbands do far worse things and if mine is making dinner - not that I know what that feels like - I am NOT going to harrass him for the crime of knowing when something is done without a timer.)

He adds the broccoli to the cooking pasta and carrots and tells us not to overcook it. He also says that you really realize time is speeding by when you have kids. I THINK that has something to do with the broccoli…Is he comparing it to a fast-growing baby?

Jamie drains the pasta and vegetables and rinses it all in cold water to stop the cooking. He adds it to a big bowl with the tomatoes, edamame and dressing. Then he adds a cup of already-grated mozzarella. I don’t think it needs cheese and that’s not the one I would have added if it did. I love cheddar in a pasta salad or a bit of parmesan, but a kid would probably prefer cheddar.

He says the pasta salad gets better on standing, just like chili. Jamie doesn’t say this, but have you noticed that blanched vegetables hold up better than raw ones? So if he hadn’t cooked the broccoli and carrots, they might have looked a little sad the next day, but blanching them helps to keep them LOOKING fresh, at least.

Next Jamie makes a rosemary chicken dish. He says folks ask him what his favorite kitchen tool is and they’re expecting him to say something fancy like a chinoise. Nope, it’s a zip-lock plastic bag that he can use as anything from a glove to a garbage bag to holding a marinade, which is what he’s using it for today. I think that’s probably what a pirate would say. I have a different answer…It's at the end.

Jamie mixes garlic and ¼ cup of oil with Dijon. (Pirates love garlic, although Jack Deen doesn’t.)  

Squeeze bottle alert – don’t be fooled into buying Grey Poupon in that tall squeeze bottle – it’s IMPOSSIBLE to get it all out of that container. It’s a waste, unless you add water or vinegar or wine and shake it up.

Jamie loves rosemary with chicken, so he adds fresh chopped rosemary and fresh lemon juice to the oil. He places the boneless chicken cutlets in the plastic bag and pours the marinade over. With leftovers, he makes chicken salad with chopped hard boiled eggs, dill pickles and mayo. He seals the bag and mashes the chicken around. Jamie says you can marinate it for only 5 minutes OR overnight. He greezes up his grill pan and places the chicken on it and cooks it for 3 minutes on each side.

Jamie says his number one goal is to prepare the same dinner for the kids as the grownups. Right on! He also grills some lemons as a fancy schmancy garnish. Jack comes into the kitchen and Jamie places arugula on a platter with a bit of olive oil. He puts the chicken on top and squeezes over that grilled lemon. That looks nice, but I want to see the kid eat arugula. THAT would be impressive.

Jamie takes a walk with Jack to Leopold’s ice cream shop. (I thought it was dinner time.) They’re borrowing an old time ice cream maker. Wouldn’t mama have one he could borrow? While they’re waiting for the ice cream machine, Jamie gets him some raspberry sorbet. He gets a HUGE cone and they sit down. Jack refuses to share. He makes his dad SWEAR not to take any while he holds the cone for a sec. Stratton, the owner, brings out the machine and describes to Jamie and Jack how to use it. Jack is too interested in not sharing his sorbet to listen.

Back in the kitchen, Jamie says he’s going to make a true homemade ice cream and all of sudden Ginny (pronounced “guinea”) appears. She cuts the strawberries and Jack moves them into the bowl with sugar. Jamie adds lemon juice. He heats whole milk and cream with a vanilla bean and gets 4 yolks ready with more sugar. He tempers his eggs with the hot milk, which he says is going to bring up the base temperature of his eggs. He adds the eggs in and lets it cook for 6 minutes.

It’s too bad he doesn’t discuss all the signs that you look for in a cooked custard. As it nears the end of cooking, the foam disappears. It coats the back of a metal spoon and sometimes, depending on how thick it is (not really in this case), as you stir the bottom, you can make a little temporary highway through the custard with your spatula before it all flows together again.

But the best way to judge when the custard is done is with a candy thermometer. My all-time favorite classic Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Craig Claiborne had a custard base which he cooked to 180°F. Because the custard keeps cooking, I usually go to 170°F (which is what most folks say these days) and THEN I immediately strain the mixture into a glass bowl. That gets rid of any little snotty bits and cools it quickly. Plus if you’ve left it too long, it will get rid of any curdled egg.

Jamie adds 1/4 teaspoon of salt (ick) to his custard and pours it into a bowl and cools it over ice. He doesn’t strain it. That's not good. He pours the sweetened strawberries, which he puréed, into the cooled custard and refrigerates it for 30 minutes. Maybe he thinks because he’s got the chunks of strawberries in there he doesn’t have to strain it, but I still would.

Jamie sets up the ice cream maker and pours in the ice cream mixture. He starts churning. He makes Jack turn it and count to 5000. The kid is smart and starts counting at 1000. Finally it's done and they get to sample it right out of the ice cream machine. Jack gets a bit exuberant when his dad says no more ice cream until after dinner. He practically rips the tasting spoon out of Paula’s hand. (I guess he knows her well.)

The three eat dinner together. Let’s see how Jack does with the arugula. Well, at least he’s eating the chicken and pasta salad. His dad serves him ice cream and Jamie asks for a taste. Jack says NO. Then Paula runs over with a spoon to take a bite. He’s not having it. Are you supposed to teach a kid to share his portion of food? I can’t remember. I don’t think I ever tried to rip food out of my kids’ hands, so I can’t really say.

I do know, though, that when you train a puppy, you DON’T want him (or her) to guard his food and get aggressive. So you’re supposed to bother your young dog while he’s eating. Stroke his feet, move his dish a few inches, things like that. But a kid?  I guess it would be nice if he would share, but frankly, I’m not so sure I would share anything as good as homemade ice cream. (I would just make enough for everybody.) Maybe I can’t blame Jack for guarding his ice cream, but it wouldn’t kill him to give his granny a bite (although it might kill HER).

About my favorite kitchen tool of all time… What’s yours? I don’t even need one second to think about it. Mine isn’t sexy or surprising. It’s basic and it’s a chef’s knife. With a knife I can do anything. I can take onions and carrots and chicken and make 10 different dishes, based on just the way I cut them up. Anything from a dice for a stew to julienning for a stir fry and everything in between. You can’t do THAT with a plastic bag, Jamie! 

Jamie Deen At Home...In His Own Kitchen

Home for Dinner With Jamie Deen

Burgers!

Gazpacho

Deen Burger

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

I really have no idea if this a new show or it’s just on at a different time. We see Jamie with his very cute kid, Jack, baby Matthew and wife, ___??? (I guess wives don’t need names.) Jack seems to be the center of the attention anyway. Daddy asks Jack what he wants for dinner and he says “Cheeseburgers!” Jamie is happy to oblige.

In the kitchen, Jamie takes out an “80/20” mix of ground beef from his butcher. He says using all super lean is no good. He doesn’t take any time to explain what those numbers mean, so I will.

80/20 means that the ground beef is 80% lean and 20% fat. That’s what ground chuck is. Super lean is 93% lean and 7% fat. Obviously, and unfortunately, the more fat, the more flavor. A hamburger that you love will probably be a fattier one.

Having said that, I usually just opt for a veggie burger and put all the good stuff on top, so I don’t even care about the burger itself.

I won’t tell you, oops I just did, about how I had 2, count’em TWO, blue cheese burgers last week and gosh, they were good. In my defense, in neither case did I eat the whole thing. Really! And I don’t even want to think about the lean to fat ratio in those burgers, but they were made with beef from Creekstone farms, so the meat was good! (The funny thing was I thought I was writing about healthy new menu items at Salt Creek Grille and it was the burger that wowed me.)

By the way, the more fat in the burger, the more it shrinks, so you may want to start with a slightly bigger burger if you’re using 80/20 ground beef. Also cheaper meat that’s been “flavor enhanced” shrinks too, because of the solution it’s been injected with.

Oh, maybe “Brooks” is his wife’s name. Not sure.

Jamie adds ¼ cup of chopped (barely) raw onions to his burgers. Good idea. I do that to my meatloaf. OH, then he says (almost as an afterthought) that he uses a Vidalia onion. (Say that with a heavy southern accent). Um, Jamie, you gotta tell us these things in a clearer way. Don’t just mutter Vidalia under your breathe and hope we get it.  There’s all the world of difference between a sweet Georgian Vidalia onion and a pungent, strong Spanish onion. Actually, I think either would be good here, but he’s going for a certain flavor, so he needs to tell us.

Then Jamie gives us his biggest tip. “Don’t overwork your meat.” I’m going to leave that alone.

Wait, he does say he’s not going to “abuse this meat, because it breaks down the fat and that provides the juice and the flavor.” That’s a good rule to live by.

We hear all about little Jack playing baseball. Jamie is the pitcher on the restaurant’s soft ball team and he wears number 21, so Jack wears 21 too. Cute. Although, actually, do they go for that on kids’ baseball teams, where someone requests a special number? Dunno.

Jamie likes to shape the burgers in advance and then refrigerate them, so that when the fire’s ready, he “can go right to work”. He reminds us to press down the center of each burger, since they puff up when they cook. I forgot about that. That is a good tip. He certainly chopped those onions roughly. There are huge bits of onions in the burgers and some have a lot and some have a few.

Jamie says that we “ladies” may be jealous that our men don’t make cakes for us, but he’s going to show us an easy one bowl cake that anyone can make.

I guess it all comes down to what Oprah used to say – “We teach people how to treat us.” My son DOES make me a birthday cake when he’s around. H? Only once in many eons.

Jamie says the kind of cake he's making is called a “dump cake” in the south. That is NOT an attractive name. You just DUMP the ingredients into a bowl and that’s it. He says it takes as long to make it as it takes the oven to preheat, so that’s handy.

This is how Jamie makes the cake. He dumps 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of sugar in the mixer bowl with 1 cup of cocoa powder and baking soda, baking powder and salt.  He says he has a perfect teaspoon measure right here as he pinches together his first three fingers. (I can actually measure a teaspoon pretty accurately in the cupped palm of my hand. That way I can actually SEE how much is there, unlike grabbing a big pinch.)

Jamie melts a stick of butter. I love that he says you might think it’s easier to just buy a box cake, but do you know what’s IN a boxed cake?!! Neither does he, he answers. He says he knows what’s in THIS cake. That’s one of his favorite things about “cooking at the house”.  

(Note to self: In the south, they cook “at” the house, not “in” the house or “at home”.)

Jamie mixes into the dry ingredients 3 eggs with 1 cup of buttermilk, ½ cup warm water, vanilla and the cooled butter. He mixes it super quickly, till there are no dried bits of flour. He Pams his pans and add the batter. I wish he would line his pans with wax paper or parchment. I would never NOT do that. It’s just a bit of insurance.

Oh, his wife is BROOKE, not Brooks. (You never know these days.)

Jamie says a chocolate cake adds a bit of sparkle to their weekdays. He bangs the pans down to remove any air bubbles and bakes them at 350°F for 50 minutes.

His gazpacho recipe comes with a great story, (so he says). Jamie shows us a card from Robert Plante, who LOVED his mother’s gazpacho. After Plante visited their restaurant, Jamie ran to his car to get a CD for him to sign. Robert Plante told Jamie it was the BEST gazpacho he had ever had. When he left, Jamie saw that Plante had left his reading glasses behind. Jamie ran after him and he got four tickets to the next night’s concert as a thank you. At the will-call window…(sorry this story is taking so long, he told it much faster), the person asked, “Who left these tickets for you?” And Jamie said, in an super-loud voice, so EVERYONE could hear, “Robert Plante left me the tickets.”  He took his brother and two babes to the concert and it was great…

Anyhoo, for the gazpacho, he chops up orange peppers, tomatoes and English cucumber. He says to make sure to remove the pepper’s seeds and the cucumber’s skin. He adds one clove of garlic and one small shallot with some salt and pepper. He tastes it for seasoning before he blends it in batches. No vinegar? But I like that he doesn’t add bread or oil.

Oops, in the last blender batch, he adds 1/3 cup olive oil. He also adds sherry vinegar.

Really and truly, you can make great gazpacho without the olive oil. Or just add a tablespoon if you have to OR just float a little bit on the top. But I never add olive oil and then you can feel completely good about having it (along with your fat-laden  blue cheese burgers).

Jamie tastes it and says if you have that with a grilled cheese sandwich, “You will hurt yourself.” I like him.

Two other gazpacho things. I like to finely dice vegetables and serve those as a garnish. And in Spain (and most of the time in my kitchen), gazpacho is strained through a fine sieve. Of course, you’re getting rid of the great-for-you fiber, so it’s fine not to strain it, unless you’re serving Spaniard aristocrats.

For the cake’s icing, Jamie melts a stick of butter and 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate. He takes it off the stove and beats in cocoa powder, vanilla extract and powdered sugar. I like this recipe. He thins out the whole thing with sour cream. That’s a nice recipe. It looks great.

Jamie goes to see his buddy, Randy, at Davis Produce to get some burger toppers in the form of fresh vegetables. He walks out with tomatoes, avocados,  lettuce and Vidalia onions right out of the ground. (Say it with me – “vie-DAY-ee-yuh”.)

Jamie “roasts off” applewood bacon in the oven, so it’s not too “greezy” at 350°F for 12 to 15 minutes. He cooks the burgers on a stove top grill. But then what was that about getting the fire going? He cooks them for 5 or 6 minutes on each side.

Jamie likes that he can control everything his kids eat in his kitchen. That seems to be a recurrent theme. He wants to know what’s in everything he cooks and where the ingredients come from.

That’s the whole point of cooking in your own kitchen “at the house”, isn’t it? That’s why I like the philosophy of basically eating what your grandparents ate (for some of you young’uns, your GREAT grandparents), then you should be okay. Want chocolate cake? Fine, but make it yourself with as many non-processed ingredients as possible. And make it a special treat. Want hamburgers? Okay, but know where the meat comes from and flavor it and handle it yourself. 

Jamie opens the windows while he grills the burgers. He makes a special sauce out of equal parts of mayo, ketchup and yellow mustard. Okay, I know those could be considered processed foods, but you’re eating a tablespoon, not a boatload. I would add some chopped pickles or relish to that. And making your own ketchup is always an option.

As Jamie cooks the burgers, he says he NEVER presses down on any cut or kind of meat that he’s cooking, because he’ll lose the juices and it will dry out and become super-hard. Oh, he’s talking about flattening the burger with the utensil he’s turning it with, NOT touching it for doneness, which he does do. He says a thermometer is the only way to know for sure if it’s done, but he doesn’t bother with that.

He washes all the vegetables and slices them all up. He salts and peppers the tomatoes and wedges up the avocado. He adds cheese to the top of the burgers and then the crisp bacon. He leaves them to sit on the stove-top grill for just a minute to set the juices.

Jamie frosts the cooled cake (which looks a bit concave and doesn't have exactly the most evenly-sized layers I’ve ever seen). But I promise that ANYONE who bakes me a cake will hear only praise…and lipsmacking.

Dinner is served and Brooke has some cake while there’s still a big hamburger on her plate. They have to rush to Jack’s baseball practice, so she’s eating the important thing first. (I approve.)  

                                           

So what about this show? How does it stack up to his mother’s? Well, he’s a lot calmer. He focuses somewhat on good food, but his last name IS Deen, so there had to be a cheeseburger or cheesecake or something.

Did I learn anything? Not really, but I haven’t made a chocolate icing with sour cream in forever and I forgot how good that is. Plus I admire his commitment, stated several times, to cook real food. Not necessarily diet food, but with REAL ingredients (mostly). If you can understand everything on the label, then it’s probably okay, although it’s even better not to HAVE a label.

In general, Jamie is cooking real home-style food that doesn’t break the budget bank of calories with each bite (with a few exceptions). And in those cases, just have SOME, not most of whatever it is.

Jamie cooks in a knowledgeable, rather serene way that is a pleasure to watch. Can’t you always tell the difference between a person whose family cooked and one who is coming to the culinary world without a cooking pedigree? Plus he has years of restaurant experience which shows.

Will I hoot with delight at Jamie's antics? No, but I’ll smile at the fresh, delicious food he produces, with his devotion to his family served up as more than just a side dish. He’s cooking for THEM and that’s what lots of us do every single day (for weeks and months and YEARS)!!! Oy, maybe he’ll take us to Hawaii on the next episode. We could probably both use a break...