FN Dish – Food Network Blog: Go behind-the-scenes at Food Network featuring your favorite chefs, shows, recipes, events and more.

Butter Busts: At the Minnesota State Fair this week, one lucky gal will be crowned the Midwest Dairy Association’s “Princess Kay of the Milky Way.” Along with that honor comes a new kind of solid, golden trophy: The winner will have her likeness carved in a 90 lb. block of butter and get to take it home. Someone page Paula. [Wall Street Journal via @grubstreet]

Texas-Fried Beer: Speaking of state fairs, Texas’ is catching some buzz for their from-the-fryer beer and frozen margaritas, which sound perfect for washing down the competition: Deep-Fried S’mores Pop Tarts, Fried Frito Pie, and the classed-up Fried Caviar. [Slashfood]

Get Hip to Carrot Sticks: Just in time for the back-to-school snack season, baby carrots are getting their fun-factor upped in a big way. Carrot growers have teamed to announce the industry’s first marketing campaign, one that positions them against snack-food giants. Among the plans are billboards calling the veggie sticks “the original orange doodles” and kooky seasonal tie-ins, like Halloween-time “scarrots” packaging. [USA Today via Eatocracy]

A Stab of Bacon: A Wendy’s employee in West Hartford, CT has been charged with second-degree assault after pulling a knife on a coworker. The gripe? Sub-par cured pork. “According to [the perp], his purposes were altruistic,” a police official said. “He wanted the public to get good bacon.” [Consumerist]

Diving for Dinner: Diners in Brooklyn, NY are taking to dumpsters to find fresh ingredients. The food-scavenging collective, called Grub, meet bi-monthly to prepare a communal meal made from goods waiting to be tossed. “It’s a way to feed a lot of people for free,” one dumpster diver told the Times. “And it’s a way to raise awareness of the way food is wasted.” [New York Times]

Here’s our round-up of food news, trends and happenings across the web. Check back for more, and tell us what else you’re loving in the comments.

Watch now as Aarti shares the top five adjectives she’d choose to describe herself (I guarantee a couple will surprise you) and lists the music she’d include in the “soundtrack of her life.” Plus, discover her one can’t-live-without-it ingredient….

And speaking of signature ingredients — what’s yours?

Tune in for Aarti Party Sunday at Noon/11c

Facing down an Iron Chef is not for the faint of heart (or knife skills).  When she got the call to kitchen stadium, Chef Amanda Cohen’s first reaction was “I don’t think so.”

Having just opened restaurant Dirt Candy in New York City’s East Village, Chef Cohen explains on her blog that she thought “they were looking for chumps to throw into the shark tank with their big time Iron Chefs and I didn’t want to be savaged and mauled on national TV.” However, as the first vegetarian chef asked to be on Iron Chef, she realized it gave her a platform to show that “Dirt Candy is just about food, and it’s about vegetarian food as nothing more than cooking vegetables – no politics, no health claims or virtuous living, just giving vegetables a chance to be treated as seriously as chefs treat pork.”

Pitted against Iron Chef Morimoto, Chef Cohen details her entire experience taping the show (which she calls an “epic tale”) on her blog, which we encourage you to read, as well as learn more about Cohen who also did stints at New York’s famous Angelica Kitchen and Teany.

Can the first vegetarian Chef in Iron Chef America history take down the near mythical Masaharu Morimoto? Tune in this Sunday, August 29 at 10pm/9c to Iron Chef America on Food Network and find out.

– Brandy Shearer

Tyler's Heirloom Tomato Chow-Chow

We’re teaming up with other food and garden bloggers to host Summer Fest 2010, a season-long garden party. Each week we’ll feature favorite garden-to-table recipes and tips to help you enjoy the bounty, whether you’re harvesting your own goodies or buying them fresh from the market. To join in, check out awaytogarden.com.

Tyler Florence has a knack for creating the “ultimate” stand-by dishes. With tomatoes at their peak, I decided to tap his culinary know-how for farm-stand inspiration.

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Paula Deen's Perfect Peach Cobbler

We’re teaming up with other food and garden bloggers to host Summer Fest 2010, a season-long garden party. Each week we’ll feature favorite garden-to-table recipes and tips to help you enjoy the bounty, whether you’re harvesting your own goodies or buying them fresh from the market. To join in, check out awaytogarden.com.

With just five ingredients (granted, one is a whole stick of butter!), Georgia-native Paula Deen makes a perfect Peach Cobbler, one of the top recipes on FoodNetwork.com.

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Irresistible Swiss Chard Lasagna from Food Network Magazine

We’re teaming up with other food and garden bloggers to host Summer Fest 2010, a season-long garden party. Each week we’ll feature favorite garden-to-table recipes and tips to help you enjoy the bounty, whether you’re harvesting your own goodies or buying them fresh from the market. To join in, check out awaytogarden.com.

I sometimes forget about summer greens until I run into a beautiful, compelling pile of chard or mustard greens at the farmers’ market. For my next impromptu purchase, I’ve tapped into the expertise of Alton, Giada and the Food Network Kitchens. I might even head out to buy greens on purpose now, with these three winning recipes (plus Alton’s cool washing method!) at my fingertips.

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On Saturday night of the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival, I was lucky to attend a truly special event.  A private wine tasting dinner with chef Marcus Samuelsson with wine selections by Michael Green at the Foundation Room in the House of Blues.

I’m not one to gush, but this dinner was one for the books. It was a very small event, with a few casino guests, executives and myself.

I arrived a bit early and snuck back into the kitchen to see what Chef Samuelsson was whipping up for us.

Marcus Samuelsson saucing lobster rolls

Chef was very busy preparing the meal. It was a treat to watch a master in action.

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Bacon is the secret ingredient in Claire's creamless creamed corn

Forget those green cans! It’s summertime, and that means creamed corn made from fresh, sweet ears. Though all four of these easy from-scratch creamed corn recipes come from Food Network chefs with Southern roots, they offer very different takes on this classic side dish. Whose is your pick for summer corn season?

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On my second day at the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival, I wanted to do my best to sample a little bit of everything and get reports from my fellow festival goers.

Food expert Ted Allen hosted a morning dim sum brunch at the atmospheric Buddakan (you may remember the NYC outpost from Sex and the City), which is known for huge family style portions. Chef and food writer Jessica Hulett spent most of her brunch gabbing with Ted and felt “the ribs and pork dumplings were real standouts, as was the sparkling sake.”

Grand Market Chef

I stopped by the Grand Market at Bally’s, which featured over 200 vendors sampling wine, beer and food, as well as giving cooking demonstrations. It was mobbed with my favorite kind of people – food people! I sampled some delicious peanut brittle and one of the strangest things I’ve ever eaten – a corned beef Reuben spring roll.

The Market Place, Photo by Tom Briglia

The Market Place, Photo by Tom Briglia

On my way to Caesar’s Palace to see Guy Fieri’s live cooking demonstration, I ran into the infamous Cooking Channel ice cream truck parked on the boardwalk. Free ice cream on a beautiful summer afternoon? Yes, please.

The Cooking Channel Ice Cream Truck

Guy Fieri's Cheesesteak Battle at the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival. Photo by Tom Briglia

Good morning and hello from the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival! I’ll be sharing some of the scene here on the Dish over the next few days, provided I don’t pass out from all the deliciousness around me.

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