Semi-Homemade Cooking

[Comfort Me]

My wife now torments me with this show. She turns it on when company is around just to show them how verstimmeled it makes me -- as if popping an embolism is some hot new party trick.

Sandra Lee is possibly the whitest woman on television -- in a way there have been very few white women. She makes Mamie Eisenhower look groovin'.

I watched one episode recently where she "made" a cake with storebought angelfood cake, canned icing flavored with cocoa, canned apple pie filling, and then sprinkled the top with pumpkin seeds and called it her Kwanzaa Cake. That revelation caught me mid-bite, and I ended up shooting homemade chorizo out my nose. It looked like a cow pat with seven candles stuck in it. Wouldn't you love to be a a fly on the wall at her Kwanzaa party?

Now I'm a realist -- I know that every meal every day of every week can't possibly be made without once or twice succombing to the ease and salt of processed foods. I happen to love Kraft Macaroni & Cheese on cold Sunday afternoons. But Sandra Lee is out there telling people that canned icing is the kind of crap one should serve to friends and family -- even on special occasions!

And, according to her website, her last cookbook (can we really call it that?) was on the New York Times bestseller list. Isn't this a sign of the End of Days? I need a valium really badly.

This woman it my "Anti-Me". She's tall and thin, I am not. She's blond and beautiful. I am not. She's perky. I bit the last person who called me perky. But beyond the obvious, she apparently doesn't give a flying f***about her family or her guests. Because when I care about someone, I try to think of things I can do to show them how much I care -- not try to think of ways to do less by way of them.

[Monica Bhide]

I have watched her many times to try to "understand" or get her show. I dont. Dont get me wrong -- I do have some short cuts I use, I like you too like eating mac and cheese out of the blue box -- but there is something really sad when you think the best way to feed your family is out of six boxes. It DOES not save TIME. Not in my opinion and offers you heart attack on a plate -- she seems to give little or no consideration to any sort of nutritional aspects of anything.

Edited January 5, 2004 by Monica Bhide (log)

[fresco]

Would it help if you watched this on a black and white only tv and pretended that it was 1959?

[Monica Bhide]

Would it help if you watched this on a black and white only tv and pretended that it was 1959?

Art -- she is really annoying. What can I tell you. I dont normally offer such strong opinions but to me she sounds insincere. Perhaps I am not "in" enough to understand her recipes

[fresco]

I have to see this woman in action. Anyone this bad has got to be great television... for at least five minutes.

[Betts]

That cake show was the only one I have seen and I could not believe how crappy the final results looked and the thought of eating it was ****(unprintable). AND THIS WAS FOR GUESTS!!

There used to be a cookbook "White Trash Cooking" or something to that effect. Isn't that what comes to mind with this show?

You have my sympathies for the home situation. How about a special treat for your wife, kind words and flowers so she doen't need to needle you.?

[fresco]

That cake show was the only one I have seen and I could not believe how crappy the final results looked and the thought of eating it was ****(unprintable). AND THIS WAS FOR GUESTS!!

There used to be a cookbook "White Trash Cooking" or something to that effect. Isn't that what comes to mind with this show?

You have my sympathies for the home situation. How about a special treat for your wife, kind words and flowers so she doen't need to needle you.?

"White Trash Cookin'" is one of the funniest books about food I've ever read. Great photographs and the tone is just exactly right, which is a tougher thing to pull off than one might think.

[SethG]

Anyone interested in slamming or defending Sandra Lee should also check out this thread:

Amanda Slaps Sandra Lee

[TrishCT]

In the book The Cake Mix Doctor, which is devoted to "doctoring up" cake mixes, author Ann Byrn thoughtfully writes about how even she can't find a way to doctor up canned icing to make it taste good, so she gives several ultra easy recipes for homemade icings.

What is so wrong with totally homemade when it is easy? This semi-homemade thing is a bit insulting, even to novice cooks.

Sandra Lee is the AntiJuliaChild, possibly making her the AntiChrist of cuisine.

Edited January 5, 2004 by TrishCT (log)

[fresco]

Am I alone in thinking there is something hilariously funny about this, without ever having seen the show? I'm having an awfully hard time working up a good lather of indignation about...television.

[SobaAddict70]

All you have to realize is that even Sandra Lee serves a purpose, and that is, to epitomize the absolute nadir of cooking so that people who "learn" under her tutelage can unlearn all that they've absorbed once they become truly enlightened.

Soba

[fresco]

You know, I'm perfectly fine with people who ice their cakes with stuff from a tin. But I'm perfectly fine because I don't know anyone like that, so the prospect of being served something so daunting is very remote indeed.

[Raynickben]

The way I see it is if all my friends and family cooked from a can or box and then they come to my house and eat real homemade food...they're going to think I am a SUPERSTAR in the kitchen! I like that!

[lala]

I used to watch Emeril and throw things at the tv because he's such an idiot. Now I do this with Sandra Lee. Not only is her food scary as hell, her 'decorating' ideas look like what we did in my college dorm!

Edited January 5, 2004 by lala (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

Something is telling me that this woman is copying Miss Lucy.

[Comfort Me]

Something is telling me that this woman is copying Miss Lucy.

Sandra Lee is much more malignant. Ms. Lucy means well -- I think she's convinced she's sharing great cooking tips. She's an entertaining anachronism.

Sandra Lee is in it for the money, baby. All the way! Check out her web site and you'll be amazed at how successful she is at marketing mediocrity. The saddest part is, she doesn't know how to DO it, but she knows how to SELL it. And people BUY it! Oi!

She's a Martha Stewart Wannabe -- only Martha had some substance and encouraged us to be better than we were. Sandra Lee wants to make us less than we are.

It's funny -- I was watching a tape which included one of her shows, and she was talking about cutting corners while I was stuffing meat into casings for homemade sausage! How do you spell irony?

I may not be rich, but MY cooking is all the way homemade and it tastes like it. And it is worth all the effort knowing that every night we sit down as a family and eat a home cooked meal together sans tv, gameboy, phone, etc.. And I am thrilled that someday he'll be recalling his youth and remembering all of the wonderful, happy times we spent around a dinner table eating food flavored with love.

Edited January 5, 2004 by Comfort Me (log)

[beans]

Evidence FTV is becoming an entire waste of time.

I am not permitted to express fully the words I have about that show without getting into some sort of trouble....

Sandra Lee is vile.

Fini!

[Comfort Me]

Evidence FTV is becoming an entire waste of time. 

I am not permitted to express fully the words I have about that  show without getting into some sort of trouble....

Sandra Lee is vile.

Fini!

Oh, please, beans? That is so not fair! Now we all want to know what you really think! Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease? (Aren't you glad you aren't my mother?)

[Moopheus]

Sandra Lee is in it for the money, baby. All the way! Check out her web site and you'll be amazed at how successful she is at marketing mediocrity. The saddest part is, she doesn't know how to DO it, but she knows how to SELL it. And people BUY it! Oi!

Perversely, it is money she doesn't really need--she's the "trophy wife" of the wealthy CEO of a $5 billion home construction company. She does this out of the pure, rotten, evilness of her heart.

For all of the general lameness of many of the shows on Food Network, I think this is the only one where the motto of the show would be "Eat Sh*t and Die!" It's true that one doesn't really expect a whole lot in the way of quality from commercial television, but Sandra Lee is actively harmful and deceitful, just another way to convince people they need to be dependent on the producers of industrial food products.

[Comfort Me]

Sandra Lee is in it for the money, baby.  All the way!  Check out her web site and you'll be amazed at how successful she is at marketing mediocrity.  The saddest part is, she doesn't know how to DO it, but she knows how to SELL it.  And people BUY it!  Oi! 

Perversely, it is money she doesn't really need--she's the "trophy wife" of the wealthy CEO of a $5 billion home construction company. She does this out of the pure, rotten, evilness of her heart.

For all of the general lameness of many of the shows on Food Network, I think this is the only one where the motto of the show would be "Eat Sh*t and Die!" It's true that one doesn't really expect a whole lot in the way of quality from commercial television, but Sandra Lee is actively harmful and deceitful, just another way to convince people they need to be dependent on the producers of industrial food products.

Great. I really didn't need to hear that. So let me recap: she's talentless, yet she is tall, thin, pretty, has two successful cookbooks, her own magazine, a television show and a really, really rich husband who is bound to die before her. Oh, if only her prenup was on Smoking Gun! Alas, is is not. Woe is me. Or I. Who gives a shit about grammar. I'll still be fat, plain, and working class. Note to self: make appointment with therapist to work on self esteem issues.

Edited to add a really.

Edited January 5, 2004 by Comfort Me (log)

[Comfort Me]

Sandra Lee is in it for the money, baby.  All the way!  Check out her web site and you'll be amazed at how successful she is at marketing mediocrity.  The saddest part is, she doesn't know how to DO it, but she knows how to SELL it.  And people BUY it!  Oi! 

Perversely, it is money she doesn't really need--she's the "trophy wife" of the wealthy CEO of a $5 billion home construction company. She does this out of the pure, rotten, evilness of her heart.

For all of the general lameness of many of the shows on Food Network, I think this is the only one where the motto of the show would be "Eat Sh*t and Die!" It's true that one doesn't really expect a whole lot in the way of quality from commercial television, but Sandra Lee is actively harmful and deceitful, just another way to convince people they need to be dependent on the producers of industrial food products.

Think what she could do if she used her powers for good!

[fresco]

Sandra Lee is in it for the money, baby.  All the way!  Check out her web site and you'll be amazed at how successful she is at marketing mediocrity.  The saddest part is, she doesn't know how to DO it, but she knows how to SELL it.  And people BUY it!  Oi! 

Perversely, it is money she doesn't really need--she's the "trophy wife" of the wealthy CEO of a $5 billion home construction company. She does this out of the pure, rotten, evilness of her heart.

For all of the general lameness of many of the shows on Food Network, I think this is the only one where the motto of the show would be "Eat Sh*t and Die!" It's true that one doesn't really expect a whole lot in the way of quality from commercial television, but Sandra Lee is actively harmful and deceitful, just another way to convince people they need to be dependent on the producers of industrial food products.

Think what she could do if she used her powers for good!

She is doing a good job of making a lot of people feel superior.

[PopsicleToze]

I believe the woman would get along rather well with Martha Stewart. Cut from the same cloth. Just imagine the fingernails scratching each other's faces

[wesza]

Shouldn't this topic be added to the "Wackiest Thing you've ever eaten" forum as this crap really grosses me out more then the majority of items mentioned there.

This has qot to be the scariest stuff ever. I'm not religious, but this lady seems to be the ANTI-SOMETHING she spooks me and makes me glad that I don't have Cable so I can't accidentaly turn her on.

WHeeew !

Irwin

[Jinmyo]

Sandra Lee is much more malignant.

Yes.