Fave Foods of the famous: Soledad O’Brien

If you’ve tuned in to CNN’s “Special Investigations Unit” on the weekends, you have seen why People Magazine voted co-anchor Soledad O’Brien one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 2001. But behind those good looks is a superb broadcast journalist who is not afraid to challenge anyone she interviews.

She also won a local Emmy for her work as a co-host on Discovery Channel’s “The Know Zone.” She is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in English and American literature, and is a married mother of four. For more information: www.cnn.com

“Do you typically find time to have a nice dinner when on location, or are you too busy?

I’m almost always too busy to have a nice dinner out, and we also spent a lot of 2005 covering disasters where not only do we not have the time, but there’s no such service available when we are there. While covering Hurricane Katrina, in Baton Rouge, our first warm meal in five days was at McDonald’s, and we were so happy to get those warm fries.

“Who has the better morning spread, “The Today Show” or CNN?

‘Today’ has the warm food — bacon, eggs, French toast and sausage, but there’s a huge upside to having less (not packing on the pounds!), so CNN wins even though the food’s not as good!

“What weird food habit does your co-anchor Miles O’Brien (no relation) have?

He stuffs himself with scones in the commercial breaks, so he is often caught trying to swallow a dry scone when we come back on the air, and he should know better! This morning we all laughed at him and said stop eating scones on TV. He won’t stop though! He loves scones.”

Cuban Churros served with Hot Chocolate

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

1 cup all purpose flour

4 large eggs

3 cups canola oil (for frying)

Bring first 4 ingredients to boil in heavy, medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves and butter melts. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add flour; stir vigorously. Transfer to large bowl; cool 5 minutes. Using electric mixer, beat in eggs, one at a time. Heat oil in heavy, large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, spoon batter into pastry bag fitted with large star tip.

Pipe batter into hot oil in 3 1/2 - to 4-inch-long ribbons (use knife if necessary to cut batter at end of star tip) and allow batter to slide into oil. Fry churros until brown and cooked through in center, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels. Cool 5 minutes, then sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar. Serve warm with cup of hot chocolate.