Strap in, Food Network fans. Here goes with all the news I can scrape together:

* FoodNetwork.com has recently launched a version of its site exclusively for iPhone and iTouch users, making its library of 30,000 recipes, tips and instructional videos portable, searchable, and available at the touch of a button at http://iphone.foodnetwork.com. Users can search by difficulty of the dish for fast-prep meals, by seasonal and holiday meals and by ingredients.

This does not make me professionally envious.

* Miami-based Ingrid Hoffmann (at right) launches new episodes of her Latin-flavored “Simply Delicioso” series in February. Episodes include: “Choco Loco” on Feb. 9 for Valentine’s Day, and “TV Dinner” on Feb. 16, during which Tony Plana of “Ugly Betty” joins her in the studio to make a variety of TV-themed dishes. The show airs at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays. Hoffmann was in Tampa in November to do a demonstration at Arte 2007.

* FoodNetwork.com also is home to Super Bowl recipes. Just reading the next five words - Paula Deen‘s Cheesy Fried Empanadas - forced me to reach for the Lipitor.

* For Valentine’s dinner ideas, check out FoodNetwork.com’s Romantic Valentine’s Dinner for Two, which features such recipes ranging from desserts to champagne cocktails to rack of lamb with caramelized shallots and thyme crust.  The Succulent Lobster Parfaits got our attention.

* Aiming squarely at the Lenten cooks who are looking for non-meat dishes each Friday during the runup to Easter, SeaPak Shrimp Company has launched a site full of seafood recipes at FoodNetwork.com. They’re also giving away a culinary trip to Las Vegas. We’re assuming that takes place after Lent.

* Alton Brown fans who shuddered a little as programs by hardcore chef stalwarts like Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali were marginalized recently can rest easy. Senor Brown was signed to a three year deal earlier this month. He’ll still host “Iron Chef: America” and produce and host “Good Eats.” He’s also getting a new show called “Feasting on Waves.” It’s a sequel to his popular and critically aclaimed summer series “Feasting on Asphalt.” Perhaps he ran out of cross-country roads. Or perhaps his new contract forbid him riding thousands of miles on a motorcycle, thereby putting the future profits of Food Network and it’s parent company Scripps Howard in jeopardy. Then again, maybe he likes being on the water. 

* Clearwater resident Lorraine Stevenski (pictured below) will compete on one episode of the new six-week limited series “Ultimate Recipe Showdown.”

The show, which is modeled on “Iron Chef,” features regular home cooks battling with their favorite recipes in front of a live audience. Stevenski was was chosen for her “Fresh Marinara Sauce” recipe in the Pasta category.  Her recipe was chosen from thousands of entries and she competed against eight other challengers in the category.

The series, which starts on Feb. 17., features Food Network stars Marc Summers ("Unwrapped" and “Trivia Unwrapped") and Guy Fieri ("Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives,” “Guy’s Big Bite"). I had a chance to chat with both of them for Table Conversations podcasts. You can hear Marc’s by clicking here. Guy’s podcast interview can be heard by clicking here.

Marc is best known among a certain segment of the population as the former host of Nickelodeon’s “Double Dare.” He talks in the podcast about how his fans have migrated from watching him on the kiddie game show to watching him on “Unwrapped,” but that he’ll always get shout-outs on the street for “Double Dare.”

Fieri and I chatted about the power of recipes to evoke emotional responses. He also discusses how difficult it is for amateurs too cook for an audience and for a panel of judges. Oh, and I dropped an anvil on him; I mentioned Ted Peters’ Smoked Fish, a restaurant in South Pasadena that he visited as part of his “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” show. Apparently, the hamburgers and smoked fish spread knocked him out.