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Oh-My-Gawd!

post #1 of 18
2/22/07 at 7:01pm
Thread Starter 
This afternoon I saw an episode of Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee. I think Semi-Homemade is being very generous. She even wnt so far as to suggest that, when using her "reecipes," you toss all the packages in the trash, mess up the kitchen a bit, dust yourself with a little flour or gravey, and when your guests arrive they'll think you've been working away in the kitchen all day. Sheesh! She even used packaged mashed potatoes!

Now I know what everyone's been talking about.

Shel
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post #2 of 18
2/22/07 at 7:35pm
I once ran a nutritional analysis on some of her food- a tomato soup with some type of grilled cheese sandwiches. There was at least 2 days' worth of sodium and four days' of fat in the meal. :eek:
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post #3 of 18
2/23/07 at 10:30am

What, No Cocktail!!??!!

With the Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup???? Come on, there's always a cocktail!!!:beer: Gotta be...gotta get the week's worth of alcohol in there somehow!

Wink-Wink

Micki
--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--o--
Micki, aka Pastry Maven

"Yom-yom-yooom, ze chocolad!"
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post #4 of 18
2/23/07 at 1:43pm
Sometimes I think those TV foods hosts are held in such "blind esteem" by their fans that they could devote a show to peanutbutter sandwiches on white presliced bread and it would be a hit :(
Preparing a fine meal with quality ingredients is the most practical way we show our love. How we plate shows the depth of our caring.
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post #5 of 18
2/23/07 at 4:43pm
Does that somehow remind you of an old Rice Krispies treat commercial??? LOL I haven't seen her- but perhaps, next show she could show how to make Banquet TV dinners......LOL
Bon Vive' !
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post #6 of 18
3/1/07 at 8:58am
Thread Starter 
A few nights ago I saw a show of Emeril Live in which he made a hot and sour soup. Well, I like H&S soup quite a bit, so I watched carefully as he "kicked" it up, and BAM!ed it.

What he did to that soup, to the concept of H&S, was a travesty. He soaked dried mushrooms and used the soaking water as a the soup base, sliced the 'shrooms without even discarding the harder, less desireable stems, diced a block of tofu, sliced a pork loin into circles about 1/4-inch thick, added some Thai chilies, and thickened it with cornstarch. Probably added salt and pepper. What a horror.

Hey, I don't mind getting creative and trying new things, but to make a H&S soup without adding a "sour" component just seems, well, ridiculous.

Shel
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post #7 of 18
3/1/07 at 3:42pm
Lol, those hacks on the FN nowadays make Emeril look like Careme. Using the mushroom "stock" is actually pretty common, and not at all a bad idea. For soup, stems probably wouldn't be that big of a deal, since assumedly, the soup will cook long enough for the stems to soften. Nothing wrong with cornstarch either, in fact, it's a very asian style of thickening soups and sauces. Now, don't know about no sour part, but I don't think for a quick soup he technically did anything wrong.

Can't beleive I'm defending Emeril, but seriously, compared with the other bozos on the FN his show is probably in the top 3 or 4 of actual information.
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post #8 of 18
3/1/07 at 3:56pm
Thread Starter 
I'm not sure that mushroom stock is "quite common" for this type of soup, but as I said, I'm not averse to new ideas. My experience with stems from dried mushrooms is that they'll be harder and chewier than "appropriate" in such a soup, and I'll even accept the unusual way he added the pork. But hot and sour soup requires a sour ingredient, otherwise it's just hot soup.

Shel
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post #9 of 18
3/1/07 at 4:17pm
Maybe not for that type of soup, but a good cook would almost never waste the soaking liquid for dried mushrooms...whether fro risotto, soup, etc.

Agreed that the soup doesn't sound appetizing. But it sounds more appetizing than a lot of the bs I've seen/heard about on Sandra Lee's show.
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post #10 of 18
3/2/07 at 5:31pm
I think that Hot and Sour Soup probably tasted horrible, but I do give Emeril credit as an entertainer and he does make everyday cooking seem simple (although I doubt most of his live creations are tasty).

When I was in college he inspired me to try cooking my own food rather than eating out for every meal and now I'm obsessed with cooking and learning all about food.
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post #11 of 18
3/2/07 at 11:04pm
Thread Starter 
If I want the entertainment he offers, I'd watch re-runs of 1950s variety shows. IMO, the man is turning into a buffoon and the show has lost it's focus. It was on in the backgrpund t'nite while I was doing something else, and he had an eating contest going on. Sheesh! Another Food Network show bites the dust.

Shel
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post #12 of 18
3/3/07 at 5:49am
Feel free to watch The Honeymooners on boomerang, nobody's making you watch Emeril. I enjoy his show.

Tony
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post #13 of 18
3/3/07 at 5:54am
Hooray!
I agree. Its entertainment not culinary school. Of course they
mess up sometimes. It is after all just 30 minutes or an hour.
They are there because they entertain people. My personal
favorite was If Yan can cook, so can you. Probably spelled his
name wrong, but, used to really enjoy watching him. Of course
the two Fat Ladies was pretty darn good also.
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post #14 of 18
3/3/07 at 10:16am
I want to say for the record I do not enjoy Emeril's show, nor can I remember watching more than about 5 mins in the last 3 years, it's just that his show seems one of the few left on the FN that actually at least TRY to teach something to the audience, by a trained professional chef. At least his show is stuff made from scratch, not "semi" homemade.

The only thing I watch with any regularity on FN is Iron Chef America and Good Eats.
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post #15 of 18
3/3/07 at 12:33pm
Sorry, new here and I am guilty of watching FN all the time. It's either FN, DIY or HGTV. The worst for me is Rachel Ray. If they held her hands behind her back I don't think she'd be able to talk - to dramatic. I'm waiting for the camera guy to get knocked out one time. I take certain ideas from the shows, knowing they're productions, not real to me but have gotten some good basic recipes - adding my own touches of course to make them real. :lips:
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post #16 of 18
3/4/07 at 10:58am
The only FN personalities I watch with intent for learning are Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, Mario Batali, and Tyler Florence. I love Martin Yan and Ming Tsai also. I grew up watching cooking shows like Frugal Gourmet w/ Jeff Smith, Graham Kerr, Justin Wilson, John Folse, Julia Child, Paul Prudhomme. Rachel Ray can be a lil too animated at times just as Emeril can be.
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post #17 of 18
3/4/07 at 11:19am
If you have cable, you might take a look at the "Create" channel produced by various PBS stations. They do quite a lot of cooking, including Ming, Jacques, Test Kitchen, (even Yan! whom I would have thought to be about 80 by now)and some others I don't recall from FN or PBS.

They also feature quilting, simple painting, sewing, travel, wood turning, and other stuff I don't dig. One the whole, though, worth keeping an eye on.

Mike
travelling gourmand
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post #18 of 18
3/7/07 at 7:42am

Sandra Lee SHUDDER

I can't even watch her anymore, she thinks everything is G-Reat and Wonderful, and I really want to smack her!
She did make a real good dessert a couple months ago that my sister wanted for her dinner, we made it, but I put my own twist on it. I'll stick to getting inspiration off the FN website rather than the shows.:smiles:
"We may live without poetry, music and art;We may live without conscience and live without heart;We may live without friends, we may live without books;But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
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