Filed under: Television , Stores & Shopping , New Products Now you can super-size your viewing pleasure - not with an 82" plasma flat-screen, but with a tiny 10" LCD tv shaped like uber super-sized French fries  from HannSpree.

Filed under: Television I obviously misunderstood the commercials that Bravo was running to promote the "two hour Las Vegas finale" for the show,  Top Chef . You see, I assumed that the two hours would be run consecutively. I was wrong. This week only featured the first half of the finale and was based around one very long challenge.

Filed under: Television , Food Oddities , On the Blogs I heard that fans of American Idol host voting parties after the show airs each week. All their friends and other people from their neighborhoods come over and everyone swamps the phone lines. I have certainly heard of multiple parties in the LA area to support Katherine McPhee, and I have no doubt that similar parties happen for Taylor and Elliot, as well. What better thing to serve at a voting party than American Idol cupcakes ? Each of these chocolate-mint cupcakes is adorned with a detailed likeness of an Idol contestant or judge, though Paula, with X's for eyes, is not looking too happy on hers. My favorite is the Simon cupcake, but I would certainly eat any of them, if offered!

Filed under: Television Last night, instead of airing the Top Chef finale, Bravo decided to air their Top Chef reunion show. This meant that all 12 of the contestants were called into the studio where they answered questions about their experiences of the show. By taking questions from the message boards on their site, this format is a lot more interesting than simply revisiting favorite moments from the season.

Filed under: Books , Television , Comfort Food , Cookbook of the Day Sundays mean that I'll be spending my evening (an hour of it, at least) glued to the TV because the Sopranos is on. I also need sustenance during that hour and that is where the relatively new Entertaining with the Sopranos Cookbook comes in. Bearing the words "as compiled by Carmela Soprano" on the cover, the book is actually written by Allen Rucker with recipes by Michele Scicolone, the same pair who put together The Sopranos Family Cookbook (which is excellent, by the way). Entertaining is, unsurprisingly, a guide to entertaining, packed with recipes, tips and interesting party hosting ideas. Alas, there isn't a suggestion specifically for hosting a Soprano's viewing party, but there are plenty for weddings, funerals, birthdays and barbecues, so you'll definitely be able to find something to suit your needs for every other event. The book is fully illustrated with great color photos and also has many stories and bits of advice "contributed" by Sopranos family members and friends. It's a great book for any Sopranos fan. Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: West Coast , Television , America We've been following Top Chef pretty closely here at Slashfood, and tonight, it was the second to last episode, with the Vegas finale in the next few weeks. The show has been successful, and is planning Season 2.

Filed under: Television , Food Oddities , America Tuesday night on The Late Show with David Letterman , Dave had Tom Cruise and Jamie Oliver as guests. All three set about to cooking Thai Laksa (recipe after the jump) and Tom did a very respectable job tossing the scallops while Dave stood about complaining that he wasn't getting to cook. He must have been pretty bored because the next thing you knew, he had taken up a bottle of olive oil and chugged some! He then passed the bottle off to Tom Cruise and Jamie, who also drank. Jamie even drizzled the oil into his mouth to show the audience he was actually downing the oil (At this point I took a moment to remember the time that Paula Deen drank butter ). Then, the cooking continued for another few seconds.

Filed under: Parties , Television This was the first challenge in Bravo's Top Chef  competition where everyone truly had to work together. The task was certainly the largest to date, though last week's restaurant design  challenge was not at all easy. The quickfire and main challenges were combined, for this episode , though the chefs did not know that when they started out. If they had, things would have gone a little differently.

Filed under: Books , Trends , Newspapers , America The Guardian recently featured several excerpts from Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser's new book Chew On This, a kid-oriented exploration of the fast food industry. Schlosser uses plain English and, of course, plenty of alarming statistics to show young readers the basics of fast food marketing and food processing. The Guardian samples focus on television marketing (American kids watch an average of 25 hours of TV each week, Schlosser says) and how McDonald's has changed the soft drink industry. According to Schlosser, 20 percent of one- and two-year-olds in America drink soft drinks daily and the average American adult drinks 500 cans of soda each year. Permalink     Email this     Linking Blogs     Comments

Filed under: West Coast , Television , America Last night was the final episode of Season Two of the Next Food Network Star in which viewers votes that were called in, emailed in, or text -messaged in were tabulated to determine the winner.