Click here to watch me on the Midlife Road Trip Show!

Recently, the Midlife Road Trip Show came into town. Watch the stars Rick Griffin and Sher Bailey in this fun night we had at the Dolce Debbie Test Kitchen!

Dolce Debbie as Sophia Loren

Who doesn’t love a good party? For me, that’s what I live for, and whereas I love to have themed, festive get-togethers, I decided this year it would be fun to add a little of old Hollywood glamour into the Halloween theme. So, needing to keep it a little macabre, I decided to do a theme on the Hitchcock classic “The Birds”. Easy enough, just find some black crows or any type of black bird, a bird cage, get some white pumpkins and spray paint a couple black...get where I’m headed…black and white. This is truly a case of less is more and nothing screams glamour more than black and white!

Pork Stuffed Shrimp with Creamy Polenta and Wrapped Haricots Verts

When I read this week’s ingredients for round 2 of the Virtual Kitchen II contest, I was so excited. I had been anxiously waiting for their arrival all week. When I read ground pork and camembert I was in heaven, the third ingredient (haricots verts) created a little hesitation, but I decided to move forward with what I knew I wanted to do with the pork and cheese and let the beans just kind of happen.

Being from the south and married to an Italian, I have fun marrying the two traditional cuisines to create my own interpretation of “Southern Italian”, so imagine how excited I am to take that and add my own third dimension of French undertones. And this week I’ve used a VERY local ingredient, a marinade which is also available on-line, but created and made by a friend who is also a Tampa resident, Intensity Academy Chai Thai Teriyaki. For my other local flavor I chose Key West Pink shrimp, always fresh and scrumptious here on the west coast of Florida.

While taking the day off from the kitchen Sunday night, I hear someone jump out of their chair and in a very excited voice tell me I need to enter this. This what? Well, that response ended my day off in the kitchen….not such a bad thing for Deb I must admit.

Well, to back up a little, you all are pretty familiar with the fact that I have now rented space as a test kitchen for putting together my first cookbook. Well, I have finally moved all my equipment to the test kitchen, which as it turns out is not so good. When presented with the challenge of creating a dish in 24 hours or less, with 3 ingredients chosen by Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard and RedEye Chicago (Virtual Kitchen Stadium 2), my challenge was what the heck was I going to use to create what I was tasting in my mouth!