Domestic Exchange part IX
June 7, 2009 - 7:51 pm
Irradiated by LabRat
Irradiated by LabRat
“God, I hate that woman.”
“Huh? Who?”
“Sandra Lee.”
“The Semi-Homemade Lady?”
“Yeah. Her.”
“Mmm. Any cooking show that teaches you how to cut corners so you can have more time to decorate your table isn’t worth it.”
“You know what I decorate my table with? FEAST.”
June 7th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Cooking fancy things yourself is a journey, not a destination. If I’m out of energy or rushed for time I’ll just do Non-Homemade; when I do homemade I do it for the meditative, sociable ritual of shopping and slicing and stirring and tasting. I do it for the satisfaction of having it exactly the way I like it and the memories of home cooking as a child. If I’m making an activity out of this, if I’m not just “making food” but cooking, I’m going to do it right.
Also, you guys are awesome, have I mentioned that?
June 7th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Witness our stack of takeout boxes, frozen foods, and cookbooks with the word quick or easy somewhere in it. Real purists we ain’t.
What bugs us about Sandra Lee isn’t that it’s not all homemade, it’s that the whole point of the show is cooking to entertain and impress without, well, doing all that work. It’s full of lines like “and your guests will never know!”. That… grates. Even Martha Stewart, much as she irritates me, put the priority on the food first- bitchy as the woman is, her recipes and procedures are excellent.
You’re awesome too.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:59 am
Nice, been wondering what was bothering me about her…
It’s all about the ‘putting on airs’, not the love and care into cooking, feeding, et al.
Thanks.
June 8th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Yup. I want:
My guests to feel at home;
An enjoyable spread;
An inviting and potentially festive atmosphere.
Not necessarily in that order. *How* those things happen is less important.
John
June 8th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I agree, I’m not the best decorator and I can’t make flower arraignments out of lemon peels, but all my guest have enjoyed good food that was made by me, not by “just open a jar of sauce…”
Same thing ticks me off about Rachel Ray. She calls it cooking when all it’s about is ‘open a jar of this and pour it in”
June 8th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I may use cloth napkins or light a few candles occasionally, but “tablescapes”?
Please give me a break.
Also? The woman decorated a cake with corn nuts.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Decorated a cake with corn nuts. On TV. And got paid for it. I’ll be damned.
That is something your four-year-old would want to do, and like a good parent you would let her, take a picture to show her grandma, and to embarrass her with when she grew up: “Here’s the picture of when you decorated the cake with corn nuts. Do you remember it? It was so cute. And crunchy.”
June 12th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Re corn nuts on cake: Marge, to Homer: “I never said you couldn’t, I said you probably shouldn’t!”
Jim