Food Network’s Most Saved 50 Recipes Of All Time

Plus MY Favorite Recipe In The Entire Universe

PLUS A Shoutout To Paula 

You can thank me later. The Food Network website does NOT make it easy to take a quick look at their list of top Fifty Most-Saved Recipes. In fact, they make it IMPOSSIBLE to see it all at the same time. Soooo, I went through the tortuous process of clicking through a FIFTY PAGE slideshow to make this list of recipes with links for you to peruse.

I’m a sucker for stuff like this. I like to compare other people’s favorites to my own. That’s also the fun thing about thumbing through recipes - the next great one is just around the corner. (AND with the online equivalent, hardly any thumbs are necessary.)  Go to the end of this post for MY favorite recipes of all time.

Without further ado, here are the Food Network’s top recipes. (AND I won’t be annoying like they are. I’ll list the top one first!)

No. 1 Ina Garten's Lemon Chicken Breasts

No. 2 Giada De Laurentiis's Chicken Piccata

No. 3 Ina's Linguine With Shrimp Scampi

No. 4 Food Network's Lemon-Garlic Shrimp And Grits

No. 5 Giada's Roman Style Chicken

No. 6 Ellie Krieger’s Zucchini Parmesan Crisps

No. 7 Tyler Florence's Chicken Enchiladas

No. 8 Ina's Garlic Roasted Potatoes

No. 9 Ree Drummond's Twice-Baked Potatoes

No. 10 Ree's Best Tomato Soup Ever

No. 11 Giada's Salmon Baked In Foil

No. 12 Ina's Baked Shrimp Scampi

No. 13. Ree's Baked Ziti

No. 14 Ree's Chicken-Fried Steak with Gravy

No. 15 Alton Brown's Guacamole

No. 16 Food Network Magazine's Skillet Rosemary Chicken

No. 17 Ree's Perfect Pot Roast

No. 18 Tyler's Smothered Pork Chops

No. 19 Ina's Lemon Yogurt Cake

No. 20 Food Network Kitchen's Low-Cal Fettuccine Alfredo

No. 21 Ree's Simple Perfect Enchiladas

No. 22 Ree's Chicken Spaghetti

No. 23 Giada's Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables

No. 24 Ree's Twice Baked Potato Casserole

No. 25 Trisha Yearwood's Chicken Tortilla Casserole

No. 26 Giada's Lasagna Rolls

No. 27 Giada's Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

No. 28. Ina's Roasted Brussels Sprouts

No. 29. Ree’s Knock-You-Naked Brownies

No. 30 Trisha's Charleston Cheese Dip

No. 31 Giada's Chicken Parmesan

No. 32 Beatty's Chocolate Cake (from Ina)

No. 33 Giada's Chicken Tetrazzini

No. 34 Ree's Broccoli Cheese Soup

No. 35 Giada's Parmesan-Crusted Pork Chops

No. 36 Tyler's Shrimp Scampi With Linguini

No. 37 Ree's Restaurant Style Salsa

No. 38 Trisha's Slow Cooker Macaroni And Cheese

No. 39 Alton's Stovetop Mac-N-Cheese

No. 40 Ina's Perfect Roast Chicken

No. 41 Ree's Blackberry Cobbler

No. 42 Trisha's No-Bake Chocolate-Pretzel-Peanut Butter Squares

No. 43 Ree's Salisbury Steak

No. 44 The Best Cauliflower Ever from Daphne Brogdon

No. 45 Giada's Chicken Cacciatore (858 Reviews)

No. 46 Ina's Chicken Pot Pie

No. 47 Ree's Macaroni And Cheese

No. 48 Ina's Mac and Cheese2

No. 49 Tyler's Chicken Parmesan

No. 50 Ina’s Asian Grilled Salmon

YAY! An Ina recipe is NUMBER ONE, although she doesn’t have the most recipes on this list. Pioneer Woman is in first place with 14 recipes.

Number Of Recipes By Chef (or host)

Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond – 14

Ina - 11

Giada - 10

Trisha and Tyler - 4 each

Alton - 2

Ellie Krieger - 1

(I know that doesn’t add up to 50. There were a few random ones thrown in for fun.)

Here’s the breakdown by type of recipe:

14 Chicken recipes

12 Pasta recipes (with 4 Mac and Cheese recipes)

6 Seafood recipes – 4 Shrimp, 2 Fish

6 Dessert recipes

5 Meat recipes

I guess this tells us that, most often, people are searching the Food Network website for what to make for dinner and chicken is at the top of their list.

Notice anything else? Obviously this is a list of CURRENT Food Network chefs and hosts, but it does seem a little strange that there isn’t ONE Paula Deen recipe here. In the past, she had always dominated lists like these. In 2007, she had the top recipe, Creamy Macaroni and Cheese, plus 46 others out of the top 100. In 2009, her Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup was the second most popular recipe. And she had the second and seventh most popular “Main Course” recipe in 2011. (Just saying, she was a pretty glorious part of the Food Network’s past.)

If I had to choose my favorite Food Network recipe, it wouldn’t even be close. I don’t follow it exactly or even closely anymore, but it gave me the inspiration to make such a delicious, always popular and never routine dish that I love it AND its creator. Ina’s Roasted Vegetables with Orzo takes top billing for me.

If I were to pick my all-time favorite recipe from anywhere or anyone, I could do that easily too. And I know there are thousands (millions?) of people who would agree with me. The Silver Palate’s Chicken Marbella wins hands down for best recipe. It has everything – It’s salty and sweet, easy to prepare, can be done ahead of time, great for every day and excellent for company. What else could anyone need?

What’s on the top of your list of best recipes – from the Food Network or otherwise?

Should The Food Network Have Fired Paula Deen?

Oy! What a huge, unpleasant, horrible mess this whole thing is.

For those who already detested Paula’s over the top, sugary, fatty cooking and the bombastic personality that went with it, the response is easy. Throw her under the bus, say her career is over and move on to the next thing.

For those who adore her and don’t want to think about the distressing, underlying issues that this raises, that’s easy too. Pillory the Food Network for firing her and sign an “I love Paula” petition.

But for those of us who have loved Paula’s shtick (whether we actually made her food or not) and enjoyed her warm and, yes, welcoming personality, this is such a disturbing story. We don’t want to believe that that this cuddly grandma could be such a bigot. And I had come around to the notion that the Food Network HAD to fire her UNTIL I READ ALL ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE PAGES of the deposition of this court case. Now I’m not so sure.

A handful of lines are being quoted to discredit and actually ruin Paula, while the story may be more complex. Of course, there is NO excuse for using racist language. AND Paula is guilty of that. But what is unclear is exactly WHAT Paula said and WHEN she said it. If she used the N word 20 years ago in retelling a racist joke (which I admit is terrible behavior), isn’t that different than if she hurled it at someone in a fit of anger in a restaurant kitchen 12 months ago? After spending all afternoon with this deposition, I definitely feel as if the situation is different than what is being reported on and reacted to all over the media and social media.

The worst thing in all the pages is what you’ve heard over and over. Paula is asked if she ever used the N word. In a super-strangely worded answer, she says, “Of course.” That’s bad, but the actual facts of her testimony are that it was many years ago. And there were occasions here and there when she repeated something someone else said, either in a joke or in an offhand situation. It seemed as if her dirty mouth was as much at issue as specific racist comments, of which there were few. Listen, there is NO defense for ever uttering hate words, but what was testified to was not a pattern of negative racial stereotyping by Paula of the employees of this restaurant. In fact, she testifies that she was only IN the restaurant during the first 6 weeks it was in existence. After that she felt really guilty but she had to move on to other things and leave her brother in charge.

What I think is the smoking gun of this whole case is that the majority of the questions were about her brother, Bubba, and HIS actions and HIS words. Paula’s biggest offense seems to be taking the heat for her brother and, in some cases, perhaps covering up for HIS transgressions. She refused to admit he was an alcoholic, saying he went to rehab to support his wife. When asked if she knew he was taking cocaine, she said no. When asked if she knew he was making his employees look at pornography, she said she couldn’t imagine he would force anyone to do that. And that if he got that kind of thing on his computer (that is, if SOMEONE ELSE had sent it to him), it wasn’t his fault if he opened it up and looked at it. She is definitely guilty of defending her brother, all the way to her own complete downfall.

Maybe it’s the prejudiced Northerner in me that is so ready to condemn a Southerner named Bubba, but I really believe she’s paying for HIS sins. AND that she will NEVER denounce him.

Plus there’s this:

Remember that PR person, Nancy Assuncao Sanchez, with whom Paula worked for 6 years and parted ways with after the diabetes drug deal debacle?  She’s given several interviews to CNN in the last few days saying how saddened she is by all this. She had no reason to come forward, because she hasn’t talked to Paula in the year since she left and there’s no benefit to her in coming to Paula’s defense. So what did she say?

She said Paula hired all ethnicities in her organizations and that people didn’t quit, they stayed on and were promoted. Of course, Assuncao Sanchez didn’t condone any racist remarks or language, but she wanted to make the point that she herself, who had worked very closely with Paula and traveled extensively with her AND had stayed in her home and vice versa, had never heard Paula utter a racist epithet. She said Paula was surrounded by a very diverse group of people of different ages and ethnicities. Individuals of every kind of background were on her team. Finally she said, she never saw that Paula was judgmental. So what do we do with that bit of knowledge?

Of course, Paula should be censured for horrible language, whether it was in the present or past, but shouldn’t we give her an opportunity to rationally explain herself? Those poorly thought out videos did not make a good case for her. Perhaps her Wednesday interview on the Today Show will make a dent in the criticism against her. And her two boys being interviewed on CNN tomorrow will make a difference. Maybe a suspension from the Food Network would have worked just as well as an outright firing.   

 

My point in all this is that it seems as if this terrible fallout emerged from a deposition that probably few have read in its entirety. The heinous things going on in her organization are mainly linked to her brother. That’s what the initial lawsuit is about. Of course, Paula should acknowledge wrongdoing no matter who’s doing it, but doesn’t it make you feel just a tiny bit different about everything, thinking that she’s a big sister defending her brother and not wanting to accept all the negative things that were being said about him? Doesn't that make her blind or foolish, but not necessarily a hardcore racist?

She’s more than a big sister, I know, and as the face of her brand, she has a responsibility to her employees and fans to conduct herself better. It’s clear that she’s loose with her language, but I don’t believe she’s a hating type of person. And if there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s how badly she and her people have handled this entire situation. I heard one media type say THAT was a major factor in the Food Network decision – that they couldn’t trust her to make good choices in the future. I just hope she has a future. Hopefully, after she’s apologized some more, explained more completely and actually appears to have learned something from all this, she can once again fry some chicken and ice some cakes and the only flak she receives is when she adds yet another stick of butter to the pan.

Tweet To Win Pastry Lesson And Lavish Hotel Stay

In honor of Executive Pastry Chef Richard Ruskell’s eleventh appearance on this Sunday’s Food Network Challenge, the gorgeous Montage Beverly Hills hotel is offering his fans (or anyone reading this) a chance to win a two night stay AND a private pastry lesson from the chef himself.

Chef Richard Ruskell

Guestroom at the Montage Beverly Hills

How? Just go to Twitter, follow the Montage Beverly Hills and tweet this:

I want to taste #ChefRuskell’s creations @MontageBH! http://bit.ly/9liWxc.

Full details and rules here. Contest runs until August 3rd.

Seems easy enough to me. Maybe he’ll teach something like this:

Ultimate Showdown On The Food Network Tonight With Sugarplum's Emily

What will happen tonight when Emily (famed for her Sugar Plum blog) competes for the big $25,000 prize on the season opener of Ultimate Recipe Showdown? Tonight's category is Comfort Food - the same one she competed in last year (and came oh, so close to winning).

This is what we know right now:

The 4 contestants have to make their “Signature Dish” plus another Speed-Round recipe. Emily will be making Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese, and her Speed-Round dish will be Creamy Pumpkin Soup, which she told us on her blog will feature Toasted Hazelnut Fricco. Fantastico! (One OR two c’s in Fricco is okay).

Good luck to Sugar Plum. Gosh, I hope all her dreams come true.

URS is on at 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time. I hope you’ve all changed your clocks by now.

Cablevision Restores Food Network

Well, Cablevision and Scripps reached a settlement on Thursday and now beleaguered Cablevision customers in the Tri-State area have the Food Network and HGTV back. That’s great news, since they’ve been without those two channels since January 1st. We don’t know what agreement was reached, but it was good enough to allow Scripps to restore access to its programming.

Frankly, I would still be mighty po’ed if I were a Cablevision customer. I wonder if they’re issuing refunds for the loss of those two stations for almost a month. Hamilton Township, NJ Mayor John Bencivengo thought they should do something of the kind.

I won’t hold my breathe that a refund (or an apology) from Cablevision is on its way, but I’m glad that my fellow Food Network fans have their network back…and how they lived without House Hunters all this time, I’ll never know.