Comments on Look At Me, I'm Sandra Lee...

you could try not watching.

low-rent cooking porn is not at the top of the list of america's problems.

thank you for bringing this scourge to the public eye. i saw her show once and was shaken up for days. i couldn't stop talking about it.

the most memorable recipe (the others were so horrible i've blocked them) was the "warm olive salad". to make this one just dumps two JARS of two different kinds of olives, into a pan with a cup or two of olive oil and fries them for awhile before serving.

Her "tablescapes" are hypnotize and terrify me.

She is awful, but my lord does she have nice jugs.

I bet she really gets filthy in bed. At least I hope.

I know Bobby Flay is kind of a dick, but he's actually a real chef. He knows food and he knows restaurants.

This is poor journalism...You need to investigate the woman a little bit more. I'm neither for or against Sandra Lee, but I do know that there's a reason she calls that "cooking." Sandra Lee is from a very poor family, and was abandoned as a young girl to raise her brothers and sisters. In order to afford to put meals on the table as a teenager she had to make the best of cheap, store-bought items. Lady, she's just trying to the the job done easy and cheap. The point of the show is not to make angel food cake seem gourmet, rather, let women know that they can it all done in a day.

and p.s. she can't help it if she's hot. Don't be a hater just to hate. But I do agree with the Rachael Ray statement.

I was not aware of this, but now I am completely enthralled. I checked out her website.

Even more amazing than her half-assed recipes? Her half-assed crafts projects!

Ever wonder how the other trophy-wives have time to make home preserves after a busy day of getting their hair and nails done?

http://www.semihomemade.com/crafts/jamit.htm

"step one: Fill a small glass canning jar with your favorite store-bought jam..."

She is an anarchist deconstructionist genius. She believes in nothing.

I haven't met this lady before. Does she smoke week and play cribbage?

Yes, that woman is the true source of evil on the Food Network, as far as I can see. I mentioned the ceviche earlier, and I just found this monstrosity too. Jarred spaghetti sauce with pumpkin pie spice? And chocolate?! Agh! What a terrible sign of disrespect to a cow that gave its life for your pleasure.

And @4 - if forced to crassly speculate on the sexual proclivities of Food Network personalities, I'd suspect that Rachael Ray is much filthier in bed, as she seems genuinely out of her mind. Sandra Lee seems too Stepford Wife-ish.

*weed* and *topless cribbage*, that is.

I'm with #6. There's nothing wrong with this woman. She's making meals at home, which is more than I can say for most people or even myself. Also, I found this on her website bio:

"The oldest of five children, Sandra was responsible for helping her mother manage the household finances as well as the care taking of her four siblings. With her family living on welfare and food stamps, Sandra quickly learned how to turn budget-friendly packaged foods into delicious and specials meals for the family."

Okay, so her name probably isn't real and she looks like a Barbie, but who cares? She's teaching people how to make meals at home. She could do worse. There's no shortage of fancy chefs and Tuscan cookbooks out there. If someone wants to learn how to make a decent souffle, they can elsewhere.

@2,

Oh please tell me she drained off the brine first.

I have no problem with any of this stuff. I'd rather see people make something, even something tawdry, than just sit around. Sandra Lee, Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, hell, even Richard Simmons - anyone who encourages other people to get up and do something is okay with me.

@12 - yes, she did -- otherwise she'd fucked up the face that got her the damn show.

@6 - i don't care that she once had a difficult life, you don't get awarded a television show that represents you as a knowledgable cook just because you had it hard once.

p.s. @12 - i think i love you

Flay may be an arrogant cokehead New Yorker, but in his defense, his food redeems him.

Try the Mesa Grill if you get the chance.

@11 - there are genuinely skilled cooks out there who can teach people how to cook healthy meals for their families in a cheap and easy way. Sandra Lee, by contrast, takes preservative- and sodium-laden pre-packaged foods to make second-rate entrees. There's no reason she should have a show when so many could do it better.

@6 your argument is ridiculous.

Using prepared foods makes recipes more expensive and far less nutritious. Raw materials are always less expensive than pre-packaged preserved crap.

Her "recipes" may be easy but they are most definitely not cheap.

Lets face it, if you can afford to pay for cable these days, you don't need to watch her show.

Unless cable is so expensive you do need to watch her show because you can't afford food.

#6 Angel food cake is very easy to make from scratch and pretty cheap as well. A store bought cake might be pricier and nasty.

I like Sandra Lee better as a person after hearing her personal story. She's living the American Dream - right on for her. Worse people are making money doing worse things than pushing crappy recipes on TV, IMO. But, man, are her recipes CRAPPY! My favorite is when she douses decent pieces of meat and fish with a packet of taco seasoning.

Is she really named Sandra Lee? So close to Sandra Dee.

Bobby Flay is a hot dog, but he can cook and I think is virtually all who remains of the real chefs on the Food Network. Alton Brown is the only good host, especially the road food show. But the true heart of darkness is Paula Dean, who, in my mother's words, cooks all -white meals.

It's best to watch KCTS if you need to watch cooking shows. the FN is all about product placement and entertaining bored homebodies, not cooking.

I couldn't shake the Halloween episode

I celebrated the 4th with a friend who recently ate at a restaurant in Portland that Rachel Ray was also eating. My friend said Rachel downed several drinks while ordering the staff about. Underneath that bubbly personality is a mean little bitch.

Mike in Mo: If you want to see a nice kitchen rack, check out Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentis.

Food Network is So lame and contrived.
The show "Next Food Network Star" has a scene where the "judge" asks a contestant "are you scared?", the contestant says "yes" and the judge says "you should be!"

I want to enter that competition just so I could laugh in that guys lame face.

Gee, Sandra Lee: the new anti-Christ. Perhaps Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee can take over the universe?

If you want real cooking watch Top Chief on Bravo. Or I do kinda like Good Eats and Elton Brown. I like to actually learn about how cooking works.

elswinger: Giada is way hot too. Whoever directs her show must have been a porn director at some point. Lots of close ups when she is stiring something.

And when she tastes something, well, I'm just not going to finish that thought...

i was watching her make something on her show, and she started singing 'do the puyallup', reminiscing about her times going to her local county fair. she may have learned her "skills" in the demonstration tent next to the veg-o-matic and ginsu knives. she's representin' us northwest folks, egads.

#17- using processed foods with a longer shelf life most certainly are cheaper than organic produce..And I'm not vouching for the nutrition facts of her meals. It is expensive to be "healthy." Maybe not for you, but for a lot of people it is.

#7's comment killed me dead. Kudos!

Giada is the hottest, and she knows it. The camera zooms right down the front of her blouse a dozen times a show. Sandra Lee? Maybe, but be careful around water, as she might get a short circuit and electrocute your ding dong.

Thecandyqueen, you're just wrong. Processed foods cost ten times as much as the ingredients that go into them (and no one is talking about organic; just real fresh foods are not that expensive -- in fact, America has the cheapest food in the world.

Max @1: Cooking porn is precisely what's leading this country straight to hell. They don't call it comfort food for nothing.

I have watched exactly 10 minutes of Rachael Ray, and it was all I needed to see after hearing all the good and bad crap about her. She was preparing one of her 8-minute meals (or whatever she called them), and she proceeded to pick up several raw chicken breasts with a pair of tongs to put in the skillet, and then used pre-bagged spinach without washing it to make a salad and toss it with those same tongs without washing them. Mr. E. Coli, meet Mr. Salmonella. Ick.

How can she cook cheap without dried beans? About the only thing that comes cheaper boxed than scratch is loss-leader macaroni & cheese, and yes, I mean the flourescent orange stuff.

Don't tell me I'm the only one who knows how to make dried red beans, onion, garlic, rice, and whatever frozen veg you have on hand into a crockpot stew for a week's worth of dinners....