I've been one of the ones moaning loudest about the "MTV-ing" of Food Network. In the evenings, with the as-ever excellent exception of Alton Brown's "Good Eats," it's darned hard to find anyone actually cooking something. It's all traveling to various places or eating with various B-list celebrities or, gods forbid, yet another version of "Unwrapped."

Get thee to a weekend, my friends! While you enjoy your Saturday brunch, FN opens the kitchen and lets the chefs come out to play.

There are a lot of new faces in the FN lineup, and the brightest by far has been Ingrid Hoffmann, host of "Simply Delicioso" airing at 1:30 p.m. ET on Saturdays. Her personality crackles with energy, the cooking is well-shot and easy to understand and the recipes run the gamut from authentic South American classics to great American dishes with Ingrid's own twist.

Ingrid calls herself a "mutt," having lived many places in the Americas. Her mother is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, but didn't raise Ingrid with a food snob's view of the pantry. Instead, she is constantly exploring, innovating and having a tremendous amount of fun with her food. Some purists sniff at some of her shortcuts with Latin and South American dishes, but she is never anything but honest about when and why she uses them.

The new cookbook, also titled "Simply Delicioso," is fantastic not only as a cookbook but as a reference for anyone wanting to get into Latin and South American cooking. Early on, there is an excellent pictorial and text guide to some of the more exotic ingredients that pop up frequently in her recipes, as well as how common ingredients are commonly used. Reading this guide, you'll come to understand a lot about where your Latin favorites get their flavors.

Don't think that you'll have to locate your nearest ethnic grocery store and open up a line of credit, though. A large portion of even the most exotic-sounding ingredients can actually be found at any large grocery store. Here in my little town in North Carolina, the nearest chain grocer sells exotic produce like chayote, and the Mexican food aisle has far more than the envelopes of taco mix and jars of salsa you're accustomed to from the past. She doesn't dabble much in tremendously expensive ingredients, either. Some celebrity chefs seem to delight in making sure your ingredient cost is at least $40 per recipe, whereas most of Ingrid's will come in at between $10 and $20 or even less.

Take, for example, one of my favorite Ingrid creations, Chipotle Tamale Pie, which she's allowed me to sneak out of the book for you.

Chipotle Tamale Pie

1 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp. olive oil
¾ pound ground turkey (preferably white meat) or lean ground beef
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded, cored, ribbed and diced
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 15-ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 8-ounce can diced tomatoes
1-3 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, plus 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce (depending on your heat preference)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 8.5-ounce package cornbread mix (plus whatever's necessary to make the cornbread)

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Grease an 8-inch baking dish with the butter and set it aside.

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the ground turkey, the onions, green peppers and garlic, season with the salt and pepper and cook until the turkey is cooked through, about 8 minutes. Drain off any excess fat and sprinkle the meat mixture with the cumin.

Add the beans, tomatoes, chiles and adobo sauce and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until heated through and slightly thickened, 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in the cheese and cilantro.

Transfer the turkey mixture to the prepared baking dish. Spread into an even layer and press down on it with the back of a spoon to make the mixture compact.

Prepare the cornbread (one word) mix according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Spread the cornbread batter evenly over the turkey mixture and bake it until the cornbread is golden-brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven and let it stand for five minutes before serving.

As far as the chipotle chiles go, one will give you a hint of chipotle goodness, whereas three will start you getting in touch with your inner chilehead. I've used as many as four, and two teaspoons of adobo sauce, to really get the party going, but my heat tolerance is pretty high.

Make the recipe this weekend. When (not if) it becomes one of your favorite dishes, go out and buy the book!