What I Done Did In New York

After England I popped over to New York for New Years. The ensuing week involved:

1. Donald Trump
2. Mrs. Gotti
3. A real housewife from New Jersey
4. Pheasants, Hungarian Partridge, Chukar Partridge
5. A new puppy
6. Donald Trump’s hair
7. 2.5 million fake eyelashes

Meet this new munchkin. We got him for my mom for Christmas. We used to have one just like him named Humphrey and he followed my mom around wherever she went. If she went into a room and closed the door he sat in front of the door until she came out and didn’t move an inch. When Humphrey passed my mom had a very hard time with it. We debated for a while whether to introduce a new brown and white Springer Spaniel into her life… and then my brother decided to go visit the pups.

Once you go visit the pups, it’s all over. There’s no way you’re not taking one home.

So this is Charlie. On Christmas morning they covered him with bows and he trotted into the living room and jumped onto my mom’s lap. They named him after my dad’s very first dog when he was a boy.

Other names they considered:

• Rosco
• Tanner
• Hank
• Homer
• Chester
• Sherlock or Matlock (I can’t remember the rest really).

But as soon as they tried Charlie on for size things fell into place. He started responding to Charlie, so he really chose his own name.

What I like about Charlie is that he is not self-conscious at all. Whereas Humphrey was much more sensitive and emotionally fragile, Charlie takes life head on and never hesitates. He also eats poop.

He also sleeps in strange positions at strange moments. This is Charlie. I think it’s going to be fun.

He’s already a good retriever as well. He brings all kinds of animals into the house that the cat has slaughtered for him. So he has that going for him.

I almost took him on a quick little hunt I went on in upstate New York but decided he wasn’t quite trained enough yet. I returned with pheasant, Hungarian partridge and Chukar partridge, which I promptly put into my dad’s vegan hands. And my vegan dad ate it all and loved it.

Then I went and stayed in New York City for a few days to do some book things. My first stop was the Today Show… the green room of the Today Show to be exact. Except it’s beige not green. I was thinking though that if I owned a green room I would paint it bright green to be cheeky. Why doesn’t anyone ever paint the green room bright green to be cheeky?

The most colorful part of the morning was the makeup room where in a single row sat:

1. Victoria Gotti (John Gotti’s former wife)
2. Teresa Giudice from the Real Housewives of New Jersey
3. Donald Trump
4. A boy who climbed every major mountain on all continents
5. Me

Just a typical Wednesday morning.

We did a few teasers upstairs on the set. I tossed some bison around and waved.

I just imagined my blog friends were on the other side of the camera… the alternative was too intimidating.

Then I waited a bit more, chatted with Donald Trump who was wandering around chatting with everyone and inquiring about the food.

And then it was go time and in 4 minutes, I had to tap dance and tap my head and rub my stomach and make two recipes and chat with Matt Lauer.

I have no idea what transpired in that 4 minutes, except I remember that all of the sudden Al Roker and Ann Curry were in the room eating my grandmother’s meatloaf. And then we went to commercial break and I just kept chatting with Al Roker. He was so nice.

My friend was watching from home and sent me this photo. Since I’ll never get to watch myself live on TV, it’s fun to see. I can’t handle seeing more than a picture anyway.

But if you want to watch, here is the clip: Fun and Game in the Kitchen with Girl Hunter

After this, I went over to Leonard Lopate’s Radio show which airs on NPR. He was very nice. This is what their green room looked like… see through.

Here is that if you’d like to listen:

Then I went to Fox studios on Friday morning before the sun rose.

This is what it looks like before the sun comes up.

Their green room was… red. And there was a nice man there with a bunch of plastic crates and I asked him what was inside.

This was inside one of the crates. There were also other reptiles… snakes of various sorts. But I decided not to have him open all of the boxes. One large reptile was enough at 5am. It was cute though.

Then I went into the makeup room and they put on 2.5 million fake eyelashes. I felt very fabulous and Vegas and blinked a lot. But it’s fun how you can’t really tell on TV. I suppose that’s why they call it stage makeup.

So me and Gretchen Carlson chatted for a bit on Fox & Friends. She was so, so nice.

Here is our chat: From Wall Street to Wilderness

Then I talked with Harris Faulkner on FoxNews.com: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat. She was so, so nice.

Then I talked to Eric Bolling on Follow the Money: Investment Banker Turned Chef and Hunter

We talked about squirrels, and who knew squirrels could be so political? But he was so, so nice.

All of the Fox studios are in one building so it’s easy to hop around.

I stayed across from the New York public library which is one of the most beautiful structures in New York City.

It was a stellar location for many reasons.

And so if you’re looking for a cool New York hotel that is hip, and modern and in a stellar location, I highly recommend the Andaz. I hadn’t heard about it until a friend mentioned it… I think it’s sort of a secret and fairly new. But the cafe is wonderful and the downstairs bar area is wonderful and they have a library and an upstairs seating area with these amazing open kitchens. And they just made my life a lot easier with all of the back and forth I had to do. Plus they give you unlimited snacks and beverages in the mini bar! I drank a lot of those mini Martinelli’s apple juices. Mmmm. The mini jar is what gets me every time.

Then I got on a plane to Indiana and then to Dallas for two book signings. At some point I saw my book on a bookstore shelf and realized that this may possibly be the most time I’ve ever spent with football players.

I never, ever imagined that this is where life would take me. It was a very colorful week. And as soon as I figure out how to remove 2.5 million fake eyelashes, life will be completely back to normal.