Alex Guarnaschelli Blogs: Your New Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dish — Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes!

I use the few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving auditioningside dishesto see if they are going to make the cut. I always spend some time fiddling with various squashes and sweet potatoes because everyone loves them so much. I also love a side dish that can be made up to the very last step and then just heated and arranged on a patter. Let’s face it, menu planning for Thanksgiving has to have a bit more strategic than just all the things we love to eat.

Alex Guarnaschelli Didn't Like Good Friend Bobby Flay at First: 'It Was Probably Just Jealousy'

Photo: Madison McGaw/BFA/REX/Shutterstock; Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock Choppedjudge and Food Network starAlex Guarnaschellihas a confession to make. Who did you watch before becoming a Food Network star? I also used to watch Ina Garten. Remember the painter Bob Ross, the “fluffly little clouds” guy with the hypnotic voice? I think Ina is the Bob Ross of food. I wanted her roast chicken, I wanted to go pick those tulips and make the biscuits with vanilla extract in them.

Alex Guarnaschelli Is '100 Percent' Open to Love Again After Ending Her Engagement — Just Not on Dating Apps

Photo: Food NetworkAlex Guarnaschelliequates the way she recently dealt withpersonal traumato eating a burrito.In February 2022, while still grieving the loss of her mother, cookbook editorMaria Guarnaschelli, who died the previous year at age 79, the chef announced she hadsplit from her fiancé, Michael Castellon, after five years together.“I made a burrito out of everything, and I needed to open it up and pick it apart,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

Alex Guarnaschelli Just Got Her First Pet, an Adorable New Puppy — and Her Daughter Named Him!

Alex Guarnaschelliis expanding her family!The Food Network star, 49, introduced her Instagram followers on Tuesday to Leon Duval Le Chiffre Guarnaschelli, a new puppy that she welcomed into her Manhattan abode.“Such a good boy,” Guarnaschelli wrote on Instagram, adding that 14-year-old daughter Ava gave the pooch his name. “We are not worthy.“Along with her words, theAlex Versus Americashared a few photos of her new four-legged-friend, who appears to be an Australian Shepard.

Alex Guarnaschelli Says It's 'Scary' but 'Exciting' to Start Over After Ending Her Engagement

Photo: World Red EyeAlex Guarnaschelliis looking on the bright side of heartache.On Friday morning, theAlex vs Americastar, 53, opened up to her social media followers about her healing process one year after breaking up with her ex-fiancé, Michael Castellon.The celebrity chef regularly asks her followers onInstagramif they have any questions for her. While the majority of inquiries focus on cooking or her shows on Food Network, some veer into more personal questions.