Relaxing TV

  Robert Plant and Alison Kraus on  Crossroads.

Chefs going head-to-head on Iron Chef America

 Lately, all I want to watch on TV are cooking shows and music shows.  I guess it's partly because none of the dramas I watch have new shows out right now.  But it's also because I don't like to get tense during my two hours of mind-numbing de-stressing every night.  

My favorite cooking shows are all on Food Network - The Next Food Network Star, Ace of Cakes and Iron Chef America.  The Next Food Network Star is kind of silly.  They are asking the contestants to cook meals for lots of people in almost no time, and it's just a cheap way to get drama into the show.  I would rather see them have more time, so I can learn something.  But I'm hooked anyway.  

Ace of Cakes is about Chef Duff, a totally cool, rock and roll loving skilled welder and master cake designer, and his Charm City Cakes business in Baltimore, Maryland.  Each show is a week's worth of cake orders, how Duff and his staff go about designing and putting the cakes together, and the stress of delivering these fragile masterpieces.  It seems like it might be boring, but the personalities of Duff and his staff are hilarious and are really what make the show.  

Iron Chef America puts two well-known chefs head to head.  They supposedly find out the secret ingredient and then have one hour (along with two sous chefs each) to come up with 5 gourmet dishes that showcase the secret ingredient.  This show started out in Japan (I think), but I never watched it because the secret ingredients always grossed me out (stuff like octopus or fish eyes or something).  But the American version doesn't always use such exotic ingredients.  It's always dramatic, wonderfully campy, fascinating to watch, and makes me hungry at the end.  

Our music shows are Crossroads on CMT, Soundstage and Austin City Limits, both on PBS.  

Crossroads has been on awhile, but we've just recently caught onto it's greatness.  It puts two artists together, one from the country world and one from some other genre, and they sing each other's hits.  This is truly an amazing show no matter who is on it (the only one I haven't liked that much was Kid Rock and Hank Williams, Jr., neither of I can stand).  The best ones we've watched were Lyle Lovett and Bonnie Raitt, LeAnn Rimes and Joss Stone, and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant.    

Austin City Limits has been on forever, and sometimes the guests can't hold my interest, but it's always good to at least check part of it out.  The recent ones that stick out in my mind are Coldplay and Juanes (a Columbian hottie whose music is even hotter).  I have R.E.M. taped but haven't been in the right mind to watch them yet.

We kept catching Soundstage while channel surfing and have decided to add it to our DVR regulars.  This is really weird to me, because both shows we watched were people I would have never thought I'd get into.  The first was Dan Fogelberg, which they replayed just after he passed away.   I couldn't believe how many songs I knew!  The same thing happened last night when we caught REO Speedwagon.  I groaned when we first turned it on, but I ended up really enjoying it.  Of course, the bad part is that I've had "Keep On Lovin' You", one of the silliest rock anthems ever written, in my head ALL DAY LONG.  But I'm kind of excited to see who turns up next.  I'm learning that as I get older, I'm a little surprised at what I'm liking musically.