Where have you gone Food TV?

Imagine Disciplined Foodie's dismay when she turned on her TV New Year's day to wallow in an orgy of food shows, only to find an annoying message screen replacing the food channel:

Cablevision's contract to carry HGTV and Food Network expired on December 31, 2009. Unfortunately, Scripps chose to remove the channels from Cablevision's system after we did not accept their demands.

I'm forced to feed my hunger for beautiful food ideas with alternative services. Of course Anthony Bourdain is my literary muse, so I turn to him first. However, the Travel Channel doesn't feel it fit to run Bourdain during the kiddie hours (probably has something to do with his frequent references to drugs, sex and/or debauched bouts of alcohol consumption.

America's Test Kitchen is good fun. Not only because Chris Kimball is such a lovabel geek, but because Bridget and Julia really come up with creative quick fix solutions. Sauteed ground chicken for Chicken Soup, sure! But it's only a half hour show. And my thirst for beautiful new food ideas is unquenchable...So I watch Man vs. Food pitting Adam Richman against ginormous portions of food being consumed by a sheepishly fun guy. I wonder why Adam needs to eat a 5 pound burrito all by himself. Surely there are hungry lad in town who could benefit from hand chopped beef, 5 tortillas, rice, beans and guacamole? Instead Richman stuffs his gizzard with enough food to feed a schoolhouse in Tequila.

Not sure how much more I can take of this deprivation. I might take to watching food shows on my laptop instead of my 46 inch HD plasma. I'm getting frightfully tired of Lidia's Italy and MSNBC's Cup of Joe doesn't have the same flavor as Tyler's Ultimate. Such a misleading title.