Florida

No joke, this Chicken Stew is one of the single best recipes I’ve made in a long time. Resist the urge to use rotisserie chicken by adding it at the end. Resist the urge to use boneless, skinless breasts, too. The recipe calls for bone-in, skin-on breasts. Both impart a lot of flavor to the broth. The skin and bones are discarded and the meat is shredded and returned to the pot. No lie; this is one great recipe. It’s from the lovely and talented and big-headed Giada on the Food Network but I tinkered with it some, guided by the 350-plus reviews on foodnetwork.com. Nearly everyone gives it four or five stars, though there is an occasional review that pans the recipe. I figure that person must have tinkered too much. (Read the full post about ‘Make this tonight!’…)

Jim Webster packs his bag–he’s got fresh dry-cleaning bags, maybe undies and a pair of flame-orange Crocs–and leaves tomorrow at dawn to meet his destiny, plus Mario Batali and Rachael Ray. We live vicariously through him this weekend as he embarks on this new culinary challenge. Tampa’s own Top Chef, Iron Chef or Blubbering Awe-Inspired Chef, he goes where no Floridian has gone before him…to cook Pig-Wrapped Pig-Stuffed Pig while entertaining NASCAR fans and Food Network hangers-on. 

Webster will blog for us this weekend while not doing shots with Batali or fending off the paparazzi. We wait breathlessly for his first epistle.

The Tampa Bay Business Journal comes out with its list of the most expensive restaurants in the area. See if you agree and I’ll tell you my thoughts below.

(Read the full post about ‘Most expensive bay area restaurants’…)

Gayot’s annual list of restaurant greats came out yesterday. Again, Florida gets the shaft. A couple questions: At how many of these have you dined?

(Read the full post about ‘Top 40 restaurants in the country?’…)

At last, the eeeeaaagggerrrly awaited title track from the eeeaaaggerrrly awaited Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy. On second thought, does anyone reeeeaaaaalllllyyyy give a crap anymore? I guess we’ll see when the Axl finally (maybe) dumps his opus on Nov. 23. As far as this song goes, I appreciate the dizzy feel of the intro, and the guitar ’splosion at :57 seconds is rather Jungle-y. But Axl’s vocal is dull. What do YOU think?

Changes in Platitudes, Changes in Attitudes? One Particular Senator? Vote Drinks? This Sunday, Jimmy Buffett will headline a rally for Barack Obama at Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. And rest assured, the singer will shoehorn the politician’s name and message into as many hits as possible. (OK, just one more: The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Democrat. Too much?)The event, which begins at 3 p.m., is free and open to all Florida residents and students. Tickets, two per person, will be available starting 10 a.m. (Read the full post about ‘Buffett to play Obama rally in Tampa’…)

Eight years have passed since AC/DC’s last crack of heavy-metal thunder, but this much remains true: The schoolboy uniform still fits, and Angus Young can still lay down a reinforced riff like no other. Sure, for every fist-pounder on new album Black Ice, the band’s first ever debut-week No. 1 in the U.S., there are two more that sound just like it.

(Read the full post about ‘AC/DC debuts at No. 1…in 29 countries’…)

This week’s edition of "In Sean’s Mailbox" is really just a cheap excuse to run carouselacious cover art of Pink’s new album. Funhouse, aka Alecia Moore’s "divorce" disc, comes out tomorrow. It’s head-snapping bipolar, from arena-size slaps (LISTEN) to big sobby ballads (LISTEN). She dissects her breakup with motorcross star Carey Hart with all the subtlety of Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Pink is the very definition of hot mess. (Read the full post about ‘In Sean’s Mailbox: Pink is a hot mess’…)

I’m going as the Hulk for Halloween this year. I had a dress rehearsal a few weeks ago and — with the exception of the green paint burning my eyes and lips until I had to flee screaming into a chem-lab shower — I’d have to say it was a raging success. It’s a helluva mess being the Jade Giant, and I’m still finding bits of paint in places I didn’t even know I had places. And yet, there was a kinky cool to pulling on ripped jean shorts (admittedly more Daisy Duke than Ferrigno) and splattering myself emerald. The FF even got into it, smoothly coating the back of my hairless gams and hard-to-reach places. Mm, Hulk likey… In case you’re wondering (or trembling, or nauseous), I cheated a bit with a Hulk "muscle" T-shirt. (Read the full post about ‘Best Halloween Songs: 2008 Edition?’…)

The long-awaited silver screen debut of the Jonas Brothers has been announced, but not quite in the vehicle you might be imagining. First of all, they’re going to 20th Century Fox and not a Disney production. Second, it’s a movie called Walter the Farting Dog. Wait, is it April 1 already? Variety says the project is based on the book series by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray about a fat dog with a flatulence problem, as if you couldn’t discern that from the title. The movie version is being adapted by Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen for Nick, Joe and Kevin, and their younger brother Frankie. The kicker? It’s a potential project for Peter and Bobby Farrelly. (Read the full post about ‘Jonas Bros. starring in ‘Walter the Farting Dog’’…)