I actually got to meet some of you face to face this past weekend. And it was more joyful than I thought possible.

See, there’s something so abstract about this experience. I shot this show months ago, but had to keep quiet about it until it started airing. It’s broadcasting to all of “America”, which is too huge for me to comprehend. And don’t even get me started on my family being able to watch in India. Little puffs of smoke are coming out of my ears!

Thank goodness for all your kind comments and messages! I really love hearing from you. Especially since I’ve read some nasty things out there, so it’s good to balance it all out, as you know my tendency is to believe the negative. No strike that. My tendency USED to be to believe the negative. I’m over that part of my life now! Right? RIGHT?!

But it wasn’t until I got to meet some of you, face to face, that this all became real. The top 6 finalists (Aria, Brad, Herb, Serena, Tom and myself) were invited to Food Network’s festival in Atlantic City this past weekend. I thought we’d hang out with each other, perhaps get recognized a few times, but mostly just watch the pros at work.

WRONG.

At the first event, the kickoff party, none of us made it more than 5 feet from the door for about an hour! Tons of you came up to us, showered us with hugs, took tons of photos, asked for autographs, and did nothing short than make us feel like rock stars. All that hard work was suddenly worth it. It’s exhilarating. This now feels real, visceral, and for the first time for me, like it’s really happening. Tom and I chatted on the phone yesterday, and we both said that meeting you guys made us both feel like this is what we were meant to be doing. We all went to bed at 7am every day, but bounced up at 10am because we were so excited to make the next event and meet you all!

Here we are at the launch party. Don’t we look fab? I was wearing a dress generously donated by Eliza Parker, a line dedicated to curvy women! Check it out ladies — only sizes 10 and up. And you feel gorgeous. These are the kind of dresses that will ONLY look good on women like you and me. For a change!

Family aka the Final Four!! Well minus me, because I’m taking the photo.

This woman and her daughters found me outside Guy Fieri’s first ever Philly Cheesesteak contest (oh boy, was it good!). She told me that they hadn’t had any idea this was happening, and had just walked into it. She was ecstatic because she said she was such a big fan of mine (*blush*), and so I said, with your luck, you should play the slots! 5 minutes later, she walked up to me and said that she had played $5 at the slots, and won $45! I had to take a picture to commemorate it!

After the cheesesteak battle, we went to the cigar and whiskey-tasting event. In addition to tasting some amazing Makers Mark 46, we also got to roll our own cigars! I don’t care for them myself, so I gave mine to Bren, who puffed on it on the porch on Sunday as the sun set, whilst sipping a little whiskey. He said I rolled a good’un!

Tom’s brothers came down for a visit. I have such a soft spot for brothers who really love each other, like these ones. It’s precious! I was so thankful to be invited to meet the family.

The next day, Saturday, we went to Sunny Anderson’s Sunset, Sliders and Spirits event on the rooftop of Caesars. Great food, great cocktails, and Sunny herself! And believe it or not, she had a bag that exactly matched that dress. Ha! Right before we snapped this photo she said, I bought you some cute flower clips that you’re gonna love! I mean, who does that?

There’s nothing like a VIP after-party to make you feel extra special. I don’t normally do shots, but we had so much to celebrate, I had to have one! Thanks to the ladies in PR and marketing for doing one with me!!

I found some sisters from another mister that night. These girls are the BOMB. They all share my love for flowers in their hair, wine, and MiracleSuits!

I can’t believe I stayed up late enough for the after-after party. Mike, the owner to Tony Baloney, the winner of Guy Fieri’s Cheesesteak Battle opened up his shop for us at 4 in the morning! Isn’t he grand? He let us make pizzas and showed us the secret behind his cheesesteaks: curry powder! Who knew?!

All in all, the most amazing weekend yet! Thank you all so much for making it such a blast!

-x-
aarti

A little while ago, in New York, I took the train to the uber hip Williamsburg, in search of a church where one of my all-time favourite artists, Sufjan Stevens, has been known to perform (if you’re in New York, it’s Resurrection Church).

Sadly, he wasn’t there, but I did love the church. It was beautiful seeing such a young, hip generation singing some of the oldest hymns I know.

Once I got back to my hotel, I was checking my email, and one of those young hippers emailed me! Seems he and his wife had recognized me during the meet and greet, but hadn’t wanted to say anything. We got chitchatting, and hey presto! I sent him my Ezekiel’s Wheel Salad video, for his website, Bible Confrontatie, which as I understand is an artist’s response to the Bible.

Aaaaaaaaaaand… he wrote a song about me!

Well, it’s not so much ABOUT me, but is made entirely of the sounds he made whilst making my salad!

ISN’T THAT JUST THE COOLEST?

I am so excited about it! Check it out. Jonathan is such a talent!

-x-
aarti

Unless you won the camera challenge (the first challenge of every episode), you had no idea what the committee thought of your dish. Turns out Bobby liked my party bite!

Check out the recipe for my Smoked Salmon Canape with Green Olive Grapefruit Tapenade!

-x-
aarti

I’ll admit it.

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself on Monday. Episode 6 of NFNS, where I fell to the bottom after serving up a flavourless curry at Frank Sinatra’s estate, hit me harder than I thought it would. I didn’t go home, thank Goodness. But being confronted with failure, my own failure, at my own hands, no one else’s… well that’s a bitter pill to swallow.

I tried to maintain perspective, imagine what sweet Brianna was going through that week, imagine what all the eliminated contestants had gone through before their last episodes had aired… and that sobered me for sure. But then, with the morbid curiosity that only someone who subconsciously enjoys self-flagellation has, I went trawling through the blogs, reading people’s reactions. Why, oh why do I do that? You guys send me the most warm, supportive, wonderful comments ever, but isn’t it just like us to be come undone after ONE negative comment? No? Is it just me?

I’ve also been struggling with the pains of being honest on a reality show.

I just stopped for a second to re-read that sentence.

I mean, while it is reality after all, it’s still a game, right? The only way I knew how to play was to be full-on honest at every turn. During evaluation that night, I remember feeling spent. And I told them that. I told them that I was knackered, physically, emotionally, creatively… I knew that I would get over it, but just for that day, for that challenge, I had done the best I could to survive, not necessarily to win. Each one of us had hit that same wall at one point that week, where we weren’t sure if we could go on — you saw herb’s the week before. Funnily enough, Herb and I were bearing through some of the same issues: should I be here? Can I do this? Do I even want to win?

Why enter if you don’t want to win, you ask? Well, perhaps because you know you should do this, that it’s the logical next step to getting to your dream job. Or because your friends and family believed in you so much that it overcame your own insecurities in applying — that once the ball got rolling, you knew you couldn’t stop, or else you’d disappoint so many people, including yourself. Because you knew you needed to challenge yourself, or else you’d stay stagnant for the rest of your life. And you’d already stayed stagnant for the past 5 years. It sucked.

But once you get into the competition, and you’re all by yourself, confronting your demons without the army of friends and family to fight for you, you start to weary. You doubt the process, start to doubt whether the win is really what you want, or is really worth all the anxiety and fatigue. “How badly do you want to win?” the producers would ask over and over again in the interview room, and I’d trot out some answer to satisfy, but deep down I wasn’t sure. The reality of winning, of having my cooking show on Food Network, was such a pipe dream, that I couldn’t wrap my fingers around it to figure out if it was really something I wanted, at this price at least. I mean, why is this such a hard question to answer? Holy carp, there are literally millions of people in America who would leap at the chance to have their own cooking show! Why am I asking myself this question??! What’s wrong with me? And the cycle would continue.

So when Bobby pounced on my feeble (but honest!) answer that day, and said that he wasn’t sure he’d want me on his team if I didn’t want to win… I totally understood. And when I found myself at the bottom, I wasn’t entirely surprised. Heck, somewhere deep down, I heard that nasty voice say, well this is where you belong sweetheart. But what I WAS surprised about was how I felt during the deliberation. There’s nothing like facing the threat of a dream being taken away from you, to make you realise how much you want it. Being on the bottom that week was actually a gift. I sat there, clutching my cross, knowing that the committee was losing their patience with me, that I could go home because Brianna’s food was amazing, and Herb’s charisma was electric… but I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to stay.

That night, I lay on the couch in the living room, wrapped in a blanket as the guys played poker. I must have had a forlorn look on my face because as Brad walked into the living room, he said, “You. Outside. Now.” He proceeded to give me a pep talk worthy of any good 80′s movie. I’m not undercutting it. It was great. “You’re the only one here who has it all going on: personality, cooking chops and strong POV. You have a powerful smile. And if you don’t get your s*** together now, I’m nipping at your heels, and I’m going to take you out,” he said with that cocky, but sweet smile that only Brad could give you. I will never forget that pep talk. Brad really is as adorable as he seems.

On an aside, Brad and I started talking about God, whether He existed, and if so, what the heck He wanted out of us, and just as Brad said something about seeing God’s hand in nature, a gorgeous coyote padded silently by us. We went silent too, hoping the coyote wouldn’t notice us. Just then, he turned his head, and looked directly at Brad for a second. Then he turned back to his path, and padded on. We both let out our breath, not realising we’d been holding it that whole time. Coincidence? You decide.

Anyway, back to the future, ie this week. Having watched the show, read the blogs and generally put myself in a state of malaise, I needed a pick-me-up, a perspective-shifter. As golden hour struck, pouring her flaxen rays through my window, I spotted a letter on my counter from a 7-year old girl named Danielle. It had come in the mail a couple of days prior, but I’d wanted to take photos of it before I opened it, so I’d left it there for another day.

There’s nothing like a child to pull you right out of your self-flagellating trance, and remind you that it’s really not all that important. Check these out:

She drew me a picture. Spitting image I’d say!

And then she wrote me a letter:

I love this part:

And just like that, I was whisked out of my dark place, and into a place where if this was all I ever got out of this whole experience, it would be worth it. Thank you so much Danielle! The light of your letter pulled me out of my dark spell!

-x-
aarti

p.s. I wrote a bit more about last week’s episode for the blog, LAist, and tried to dispel some myths about curry. Check it out!

One of the best things about messing things up in the kitchen, is the feeling you get when you’ve managed to rescue it. It’s even better than when you make something perfectly. You feel ingenious, nifty, like a culinary MacGyver.

And so, it is with much pride that I present to you my Salvaged Salmon Cakes!

(Sorry about the picture quality; I keep eating late, after the sun goes down, so the light in the kitchen is awful. On yet another side note, isn’t that plate cute? I got it at ikea today. Just darling! Had to get ‘em!)

You may have read my post about ruining an expensive piece of salmon filet the other night. Well tonight, not only did she rise from the ashes like some kind of orange-fleshed phoenix, BUT listen up gluten-free peeps! I figured out a cute trick to get your seafood cakes to stick!

This was definitely a recipe using things left over in the kitchen, so I’m not sure how easy this will be to throw together for you, but if you just so happen to have a little cooked salmon and some leftover boiled potato, you’re in luck.

And here’s my trick for you GF folks!

Whenever you make salmon cakes, or any kind of cake, you need a two-step binder, right? Usually, egg and breadcrumbs. Sadly, we can’t use regular breadcrumbs.

A-HA, but… have you discovered this product yet?

They’re gluten-free pretzels, made by a company called Glutino. I got my bag at Whole Foods, but you can also buy them on Amazon.

Let me tell you people: they’re awesome. I don’t taste any difference between the regular kind and this kind. They’re salty, crunchy, with no weird aftertaste. Brilliant. AND, if you grind up a handful in your food processor, they make an excellent binding agent.

Not bad, huh? I can see myself using those pretzel crumbs as a breading agent too, for the fried green tomatoes I’m planning on making this weekend using the fine toms I got at the farmers market this past week. (BTW, anyone got a good recipe, that doesn’t involve deep-frying?!)

I must say, I’m quite chuffed with myself. Not only did I salvage a particularly overcooked piece of salmon, but I also figured out a neat little GF trick! Who says that failure is bad?

Since I just threw this together tonight as an experiment, my measurements aren’t up to my usual par. But I bet you get the idea.

I shot a series of videos for Good Bite a little while ago, and they’re starting to go up! Here’s the one I did about Salisbury Steak, using Marc Matsumoto’s recipe.

UPDATE: I un-embedded the video because it starts automatically, and the ad keeps scaring the bejeezum out of me every time I check my site! So here’s the link to the video. Hope you check out the others too!

-x-
aarti

…you spend nearly $13 on a gorgeous piece of salmon from the farmers market, excitedly create a tastebud-tingling glaze of pomegranate molasses and kecap manis (which a new friend gave you and you’re so excited about) which you baste the filet with, steam a side of chinese broccoli to go with it… but then manage to overcook the fish so it’s dry and flavourless, AND overcook the broccoli so it’s limp…

AGH!

Just so you know that even contestants on Food Network Star mess things up too. At least this one does. SO annoyed! I think I’m going to make salmon cakes with the remaining salmon.

UGH!

-x-
aarti

My sister, Kavita, has been so excited ever since she found out that I was on the show. I believe her exact reaction was at a pitch that only her dogs could hear. Isn’t that cute?!

Kuv is a couple of years younger than me, and lives in Phoenix. When the show premiered, she organized an elaborate viewing party, and she sent me this picture:

I have never, ever, seen my face this big before. Nor would I ever choose to have anyone see my skin this up close and personal!

At first, I went “eeks!”.

Then I calmed down, realised I was kicking sand in His eyes, and squealed. This is so frickin’ cool!

-x-
aarti

Hey guys! A lot of you have been asking for my winning Lamb Kebab recipe, so here it is on the Food Network site.

But, why not watch the Aarti Paarti video I made a few months ago, showing you HOW to make ‘em? Cool, huh? You can find it here. It features a great variety act: my excellent drummer friend, Andy. You may notice a few ingredient differences (I forgot what I had used in my original recipe!) but the technique is the same.

Enjoy! More soon! Thank you for all your kind comments!

Oh also, one note. A commenter on the Food Network recipe seemed to take issue with using baking soda in the kebabs, because she’s watching her sodium intake. I don’t have sodium issues, so I’m not sensitive to this, but if you are, then please feel free to take it out. However, you’re only using a very small amount, and its purpose is to make the meat stick together — for some reason, it keeps the meat from falling off the skewer. Try to make it without it, and you’ll have problems. I explained this when I presented to the judges, but of course, there’s not enough time in the show to include all my noisy chatter! So if you’re wondering why I used baking soda, now you know.

-x-
aarti

So, I know that we’re past beet season now, but they’re still popping up at farmers markets here and there. You know how much I love them — search for my Mo-Beet-o salad on this blog. Bonkers. So good.

But, I recently discovered a different way to roast them. Rather than bundling them up whole in foil, then roasting them in the oven, try peeling them first, then cutting them into wedges (cut in half, then each half into 3 or 4 depending on how big they are), toss ‘em with olive oil, salt and pepper… then throw ‘em into a 400 degree f oven just like that. Don’t wrap them up. They should actually caramelize on the outside, giving you an intensely sweet beet experience. I did that a few months ago, and even threw an apple into the mix.

You could say the combination was… un-beet-able.

Hhahhahaaha! SORRY! I couldn’t help it!

-x-
aarti