quote:I have walked over hot coals on five occasions. For four of the walks I was fearful enough that my feet were sweaty. However, on the fifth walk I took my safety so much for granted that my feet were dry. The burns I suffered then were extensive and terribly painful. My feet did not heal for weeks. My failure may have been due to a lack of film boiling on the feet, but I had also neglected an additional safety factor. On the other days I had taken the precaution of clutching an early edition of Fundamentals of Physics to my chest during the walks so as to bolster my belief in physics. Alas, I forgot the book on the day when I was so badly burned. I have long argued that degree-granting programs should employ ‘‘fire-walking’’ as a last exam. The chairperson of the program should wait on the far side of a bed of red-hot coals while a degree candidate is forced to walk over the coals. If the candidate’s belief in physics is strong enough that the feet are left undamaged, the chairperson hands the candidate a graduation certificate. The test would be more revealing than traditional final exams.
posted
Yeah, well, most places that do group firewalking (like the Tony Robbins people) do it in the early morning or early evening, adjacent to a patch of grass. At that time of day, the grass is almost guaranteed to be moist.
[Addit, cuz I haven't decided if I'm landmarking or not . . .]
I think the shovel DOES melt a bit around the edges. Which is probably why one of the many blogs that linked to it mentions using a shovel "that you don't plan to use again."
posted
OK, rather than start a separate thread for another Food Channel show, I'll hijack this one.
I made Rachel Ray's Sunday Gravy and Macaroni for Christmas dinner. It's excellent. Absolutely great. Very flavorful, with tons of leftovers I'm looking forward to. I've got to get one of her books.
Of course, I substituted 4 0z of Yellowtail Shiraz for the half the beef broth, which I think helped a lot.
posted
Sorry - I thought that said Sara Lee and you were picking on me. I've never heard of that show, but will now check it out. It was the wink that threw me.
*Hands Sara a plate of Christmas Pasghettis with parmegian, assiago, and romano cheese.*
Sandra Lee is ... amazing. A wanna-be Martha Stewart. I thought your reference to "what shortcuts would lead to something your dog wouldn't eat" was a veiled reference.
My favorite recipe is the Kwanzaa cake (store-bought angel food cake, canned frosting, cold apple pie filling from a can dumped in the center hole -- garnished with corn nuts, popcorn, and pumpkin seeds). Check out the close-up.
A close second is the Hanukkah cake, which uses blue canned frosting and -- wait for it -- the center hole is filled with extra-large marshmallows.
My favorite of her tips? For Valentine's Day, you should spice up your love life by powdering yourself and your bedlinens with a mixture of sugar and Pixie-stick powder. Yes, I'm serious.
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
But . . . powdered sugar and pixie stick powder? Wouldn't you get all sticky and stick to the sheets and stuff? Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Mmmmm, well, yeah. It's all taking prefabbed high-sugar high-cholesterol high-trans-fat (i.e., highly highly processed) food and recombining it in ways that really aren't helpful, for the most part.
Weird tacky decorating tips: boudoir-style "tablescapes" with ostrich feathers and beta fish trapped in wine glasses under a layer of floating plastic pearls. She used to sell Kountry Kraft curtains on QVC. They are the plastic frames you loop fabric through to give your windows that bouffant look.
Nothing says classy like fake autumn leaves clothes-pinned to the stems of your wine glasses. Lots of odd alcoholic drinks (beer with limeade mix, marichino cherry "juice" and canned pineapple Champagne punch, etc).
It's supposed to be 70% premade (store-bought) combined with 30% of your own inspiration and know-how to taste 100% homemade. RRay does the concept so much better.
Television Without Pity has a 695 page rant about Sandra Lee. Caution: they are pretty rough on her, and there is some nasty language in the snarking. I found it after I caught the Kwanzaa cake episode, was pretty horrified, and googled "Sandra Lee" + "creepy."
[ December 26, 2004, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Amanda Hessner of Gourmet magazine eviscerated her in a NYT review last year.
ContraCosta Times has a free log-in to view the entire article. You can use "claudiatherese@chickmail.com" with password "hatrack1" to view the entire piece. I've excerpted below.
quote:Cutting corners can also cut taste By Amanda Hesser
NEW YORK TIMES
In the world of Sandra Lee, cookbook author and self-proclaimed "lifestylist," life is hectic and people are busy. Cooking food from scratch takes too much time and is too difficult and too expensive. While Lee believes that cooking food for someone is the greatest gift, it really isn't worth too much of your time.
... Lee explained her philosophy: "The Semi-Homemade cooking approach is easily done by combining several prepackaged foods, a few fresh ingredients, and a 'pinch of this with a hint of that' to make new, easy, gourmet-tasting, inexpensive meals in minutes."
... Any good cook knows that a roasted chicken and a salad take about two tries to perfect and about 15 minutes of actual work time, but such classic food does not leave much room for the kind of product references Lee likes to have in her recipes.
... Gnocchi Dippers, whose problems don't end with their name, are sauced with olive oil, onion, jarred garlic, milk, Tabasco sauce, sour cream and thyme -- all good, so far -- but then she adds Velveeta. With hundreds of delicious and interesting cheeses available in this country, many of them in supermarkets, it is difficult to understand how a responsible author could choose a tasteless, industrial cheese like Velveeta to prepare what she calls "gourmet-tasting" food.
... Lee's reliance on brand-name products feels forced. There is a chapter in "Semi-Homemade Desserts" devoted to celebrity recipes. It is hard to believe that when she rounded up recipes from people like Katie Couric and Nathan Lane (not to mention Edwards), they all happened to call for brand-name products.
In a recipe for Anjelica Huston's Having-It-All Caramel Shortbread, Lee calls for 20 Brach's Milk Maid soft caramel candies, unwrapped. I timed myself to see how long it took to unwrap them. Three minutes. It's not a long time, but it is an incredibly annoying task. The caramels must then be melted in a microwave oven, which takes another few minutes. It took me only 15 minutes to make the same amount of caramel from scratch. The difference in time was negligible, while the difference in taste was significant. Homemade caramel has the texture of taffy and tastes of butter. Brach's have a waxy texture and taste of sugar.
[ December 26, 2004, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Mmmmm, well, yeah. It's all taking prefabbed high-sugar high-cholesterol high-trans-fat (i.e., highly highly processed) food and recombining it in ways that really aren't helpful, for the most part.
This is what I like about RR - I can avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup or trans fats and have very, very good food without spending hours in the kitchen.
Sometimes I like to spend hours in the kitchen, but until recently my two cooking modes were half-day cooking affairs or tossing a Tombstone in the oven. Alton Brown provides a lot of the same capability to make medium-prep meals with wholesome ingredients. And both provide recipes that make it pretty easy to adjust fat or sugar quantities, at least in some meals.
With what I've learned recently about canned tomatoes, I don't even have to feel bad about using them.
RR and AB are great for anyone at any level of culinary skill (IMHO), but they are perfect for neophyte cooks. Their DVDs would make great high school graduation gifts for those moving out of the house. But even for people who've been cooking for years, they both still have some great lessons to teach. I learn something every time I catch either show.
Kwea turned me on to Rachel Ray.
I think Paula Dean is fun, too, but man -- comfort food all the way. No cutting back on calories there. However, I'm going to be making her Savannah Bow Tie cookies for a friend. I'll dip 1/2 in Dagoba dark chocolate and let it set instead of making a fudge dipping sauce, as these are going through the mail.
[ December 26, 2004, 01:21 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:We've got some beans and some good cornbread Now listen to what the preacher said He said to the Lord let praised be It's time for dinner now let's go eat
Ooooh, on this year's Thanksgiving special, Emeril was wickedly naughty with his iron skillet cornbread. Rubbed butter all over it.
AB does some awfully yummy things with corn, too.
*happy just remembering
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sara, I clicked on those links to Sandra Lee stuff.
I mean,
And I know this is by far not her worst, but why on earth, when using pudding in a recipe, would you buy individual pudding cups and dump them together instead of just mixing instant pudding? Timesavers should actually save time, no?
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I know. Homemade pudding isn't that hard, but sure, sometimes you just want quick & easy. It doesn't get much easier than "empty packet into bowl of milk and stir with whisk." I don't mind instant pudding, certainly not for a quick at-home meal. Paula Dean does something sinful-looking with instant pudding, bananas, whipped cream, and Pepperidge Farm Chessmen butter cookies.
But why the expense, waste, and hassle of instant pudding cups? I don't think SL likes to handle food any more than she absolutely has to. But that doesn't explain all of it -- in her recipe for Lemon Chiffon Pie, she uses both Cool Whip and Dream Whip (powdered topping you beat with milk to make something like Cool Whip).
WTF? If you are going to use the mixer, why not use real cream? Or just use the Cool Whip, if that is your thing. Food Network won't let her specify brand names, but that's all she does in her cookbooks and magazines. The only thing I can think of is that she wanted to get both sponsors in.
[It's like the recipe cited in the NYT review above: rather than make caramel, which takes about 10-15 minutes, instead unwrap 20 Brach's individually-wrapped caramels and microwave. ]
I've been perusing the TWoP thread for fun, and I can't believe some of what she comes up with.
[ December 26, 2004, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I know that JenniK uses a book, I think it is called The Cake Doctor, and uses boxed cake mixes to make wedding cakes that are wonderful. It tells you how to make a amazing tasting cake from boxed cake mixes by substituting certain ingrediants.
That can be a real time saver, and it actually improves on the tastes. If you are doing something to a mix or a pre-preped fod shouldn't it make it better? Or waht is the point of doing it?
RR is very cool, JenniK likes her a lot, but AB is the best I have seen so far. He makes me want to watch his cooking show, something I don't usually want to bother with.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Re: Sandra Lee. I have never watched her (or even heard of heard before today), but the ridiculous things you're pointing out all reek of paid product placement. Neh?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
After spending Christmas with my family and watching my dad load on butter and her cook with shortening all weekend, explaining all the while that they were practicing moderation, I got to thinking about my love for the food network and the net for good low-fat recipes.
However, I don't think its likely that they will use the internet and they do not have cable, so I was wondering if y'all have any suggestions on good low-fat/fat substitution cookbooks. I haven't tried any of the food network cookbooks, just watched the shows.
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got a Rachael Ray cookbook for Christmas (I *begged* my mom for it), and she uses Extra Virgin Olive Oil in just about everything, and that's one of the 'good oils', from what I understand.
I got the 30-minute meals cookbook, and it is easy to read and doesn't use a lot of fancy stuff. That's why I like Rachael Ray (and Alton Brown), I can find the stuff I need (or reasonable substitutions) in my supermarket.
I love Rachael Ray for her enthusiasm and down-to-earth attitude (she calls herself 'beer from the bottle' hehe). Alton Brown is nerdsexxy with the science and obsession with the way things work.
I highly recommend Rachael Ray's cookbooks. Word of warning, though, she doesn't bake, so no cake recipes. Not to say that she doesn't have dessert recipes in there, she makes a mean dessert sauce (to pour on top of store-bought ice cream, of course!).
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Good lord. I hadn't made it into this thread until now, but I am just in awe of the Kwanzaa cake. And the use of clothespins and fake leaves. The mind boggles.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Is it popular in a "it's so horrible I can't look away" type fashion, or in a "wow, these handy cooking tips will make me the hit of the neighborhood!" type way?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Jury's still out. Apparently, people are buying the books like hotcakes, and at TWoP, people have posted about having friends or family members rave about her.
When you first watch, it seems so normal. A little overblown, but you know, live and let live. Then she makes Hamburger Dogs (see close-up for full effect) and suggests serving them at a barbeque attended by adolescents.
posted
*giggle* Hey, this is the same woman who gave me an "oldie but goodie" pregnancy book that recommended that you have half a stick of butter every day while pregnant. *shudder*
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I was thinking about Sandra Lee’s concoctions while making lunch today, and I realized something – while I can’t imagine writing a recipe "from scratch" using the ingredients she uses, it is the kind of thing I might do to use up stuff I had around the house.
For example, I would never buy a Hickory Farms Almond and Swiss Cheese Log to use in pasta sauce, but if someone in the house got one for Christmas and there was still a good three-quarters of it left after serving it at our New Year’s Eve party I might chop it up and toss it with whole-wheat pasta, steamed green beans, leftover smoked turkey, and a big glob of Harry and David’s Red and Ancho Chille Pepper Relish. Not bad, and very festive looking too.
posted
So I was watching "Good Eats" yesterday, and he was making omelets. He put the eggs into hot water for a few minutes before he broke them open so they'd cook faster. "That's a good idea," I thought, as I often do when I watch "Good Eats".
Then he said you'd never find that step in a fancy French recipe because "the French don't refrigerate their eggs."
Um . . . what? The French don't refrigerate their eggs? Why the deuce not? I refrigerate all my persihables, because if you don't, they tend to . . . well, to perish.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
At the grocery store here, eggs are on shelves, same as bread, crackers, laundry soap. Not refrigerated. They're not sold in styrofoam containers or cardboard containers, but in flimsy clear plastic, 10 eggs per. No size differences, either.
Fahim says they bought their first fridge around 1977-1978. Before that, produce was stored in baskets or something. Eggs were probably something similar, but he doesn't remember.
Here, only about 62% of the country had electricity before the tsunami hit. I don't know the stats now. But that would mean that a maximum of 62% of people in this country store their eggs in the fridge. Is it common practice here? Don't know.
I know it's not France, but it is another perspective. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Am watching Alton Brown right now, and he's got a "good Alton" and "bad Alton" (sweet and sour) thing. Am I wicked to be attracted to the fictional "evil brother Alton"?
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
)![[Party]](graemlins/party.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
]![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
