Thursday, May 19, 2011

5/20 Jason Cameron, Florence Henderson, TLC's Fabulous Cakes, Oakville Ranch Vineyards

What's Cookin' Today Hour ONE:

DIY Host & Dog Lover Jason Cameron Talks With Us About Dog Parks!

The local dog park is the perfect place for dogs and their owners to share daily adventures together. While most dog parks have open areas for running and playing fetch, many of them could use a makeover including some exciting new features that really get dogs’ tails wagging.

For the second year in a row, the Beneful® Dream Dog Park Contest is inviting dog owners across the U.S. to DREAM BIG to help create the ultimate dog park that they and their best buddy and the entire community can enjoy. One lucky dog owner’s ideas – which can be far-fetched, practical or just plain fun – will inspire a $500,000 renovation of a dog park in his or her area.

TV personality, dog lover and design expert Jason Cameron will talk to us about how to enter the contest and share tips for coming up with dream dog park ideas. As the head judge for the contest and the designer who will manage the dog park transformation, Cameron knows what a winning idea looks like and how to bring it to life. He can also discuss his latest endeavor: remodeling Newtown Dog Park in Johns Creek, GA into America’s first Dream Dog Park. Johns Creek resident and dog owner Pat McNeely was the Grand Prize winner of the 2010 Dream Dog Park Contest and his dream ideas will be unveiled at the Newtown Dog Park at a special event in June.


Jason Cameron is a licensed home improvement contractor, finish carpenter, personal trainer, writer, actor and television personality. A native of Toledo, Ohio, Jason currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and dog CJ. He has worked in all facets of home construction and has a Home Improvement Contractors License. In addition to magazine covers and TV show appearances, Jason is currently enjoying his role as host of two popular cable television design and contracting shows, following his three years on TLC’s “While You Were Out.” In his spare time, Jason enjoys playing with his dog CJ, reading, working out at the gym, mountain biking, hiking, playing volleyball and softball, and of course, doing carpentry projects for his new condo.

Florence Henderson, Prolific Star of Film, Television and Stage, Has Defined What it Means to Be An Active Senior. She Tells Us How She Thrives!

For generations of moms, Florence Henderson defined what it meant to be understanding and hip as Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch. Henderson is redefining roles again, now, at age 77, showing everyone what it really means to be an active senior.

After capturing our hearts on last season's Dancing with the Stars, with an entertainment career spanning five decades, Henderson is coming out with a new book and is talking about her full life and everything she’s doing now that keeps her feeling young.

Florence Henderson started her career on the stage, performing in musicals, such as the touring production of Oklahoma! and South Pacific at Lincoln Center. She was the first woman to guest host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She also joined the ranks of what was then called "The Today Girl" on NBC's long running morning show, doing weather and light news, a position also once held by Barbara Walters. Her most widely seen role was as Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch which aired on ABC from 1969 until 1974. Primarily owing to her role in The Brady Bunch, Henderson was ranked by TV Land and Entertainment Weekly as one of the 100 Greatest TV Icons. Henderson was a frequent panelist on the original version of the television game show Hollywood Squares and made occasional appearances on The $25,000 Pyramid. Henderson co-hosted the talk show Later Today on NBC (1999–2000) Henderson has also appeared with her TV children, as with Christopher Knight on the reality television series My Fair Brady. She is also in the sixth season of VH1's Surreal Life. Since 2008, Henderson has been the host of her own television series, The Florence Henderson Show, which airs on RLTV (Retirement Living TV). Henderson was one of twelve celebrities competing on the eleventh season of Dancing with the Stars which premiered on September 20, 2010. Her new book, Life Is Not a Stage: From Broadway Baby to a Lovely Lady and Beyond, will be released this fall and chronicles her life from her Bro
adway debut to the present.

What's Cookin' Today Hour TWO:

Megan Meredith of A Sweet Design Tells Us About His Experience on TLC's Fabulous Cakes!

Fabulous Cakes gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the country's top bakeries in Fabulous Cakes on TLC. Some of the best pastry chefs in the world share their tips and techniques as they conceive, construct and deliver cakes that take the art of pastry above and beyond your everyday dessert.

A Sweet Design was developed from the heart and soul of Joeleen, a Baker classically trained at the California School of Culinary Arts, Le Cordon Bleu in Pasaden
a. Following graduation, she developed her love for the creation of cakes and pastry during her externship in New York City over 8 years ago.

The Sweet Team consists of sculptors, designers, artists, bakers and cake lovers. So challenge us, invite us into your imagination and allow us to make that design into a cake for you.Our goal isn't to make a hundred cakes each weekend. It is to make fewer cakes, cakes that impress us as well as you. Cakes that require hand made details, intricate piping designs and a certain charm that make your guests gasp when the cake arrives.


General Manager Paula Kornell of Oakville Ranch Vineyards Gives Us The Grand Tour!

Growing up on her family’s Napa Valley vineyard, Paula was the girl who sold prunes, walnuts and peacock feathers in front of the tasting room at Hanns Kornell Champagne during summer months. When she wanted to spend time with her father, winemaker Hanns Kornell, she jumped on a horse and joined him for a ride or worked alongside him in the winery. In those days she was certain she would become either a veterinarian or a champagne maker by day and a ballerina by night.

After college and a stint in Manhattan, Paula returned to Napa Valley to work with her father until the closing of the family winery in 1992. She joined Robert Mondavi as General Manager of Vichon Winery and stayed with the organization for eight years. She ventured to Sonoma to become General Manager of Carmenet, then was wooed back to Napa by Oakville Ranch. The draw here is working with what she calls “a magical piece of property.” Her first visit to the mountain top vineyard was enchanting. She knew she wanted to help tell its story—a story very similar to her own, about belonging to this blessed place and fostering its authentic bounty. About being original and true. People often ask her how she can drive up the winding mountain road every day. To Paula, that is a big part of the joy she takes in Oakville Ranch.

Deeply committed to her community, she chaired the 1992 Napa Valley Wine Auction, now known as Auction Napa Valley, and served as a co-chair in 2005. She is the immediate past President of the Board of Directors for the Napa Valley Vintners and Auction Napa Valley—a position her father held 45 years earlier. She also sits on the board of the Oakville Wine growers and Wine Institute. She is a founding member of the “Lust for Life” group of women vintners who raise money for charity through treks to places like Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro and, most recently, the Himalayas.

She is devoted to her bull mastiff Romeo and the organization Guide Dogs for the Blind. Given the choice between dessert or a cheese course, she’ll go with cheese every time. Epoisses is her current favorite.

Movie Guy Steve Evans Gives us the Movie Hits and Misses!
Steve Evans, the Movie Guy, is going to tell us what we need to run out and see and what we can avoid in the movie theaters, this week!

So, grab your popcorn, folks! Get your movie news and reviews right here on the What's Cookin' Today show! Steve “The Movie Guy” will take a look at what’s hot at the box office and the new films being released this weekend:

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow, who crosses paths withthe fierce pirate Blackbeard and a woman from his past.

Midnight in Paris - Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams are a couple who travel to Paris for business and have their lives transformed.

Bloodworth - After twenty years of roaming, a man returns home to Tennessee to find the wife and sons he walked out on. .

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