Can someone tell me the point of "Semi-Homemade?"

[eyesroll]

That Sandra Lee show on the Food Network.

I'm not going to knock mixes and shortcuts -- I'm a scratch baker myself (with few exceptions -- frozen puff pastry, for instance), an an unrepentant food snob, but to each their own. Mix cakes come out better than my scratch cakes 99% of the time (still trying to figure that one out), and I've never been able to make biscuits to save my life. If I needed biscuits, they'd come from a mix or a can or a drive-thru.

Anyhow.

The point of using mixes and shortcuts is to save time, sometimes save money, and/or make up for a cooking or baking skill you lack. Doctoring them up can be a lot of fun, and can enhance taste and presentation. But "Semi-Homemade" does none of that.

Case in point: Pumpkin-Cheesecake Petits Fours.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_32123,00.html

Never mind that these aren't actual petit fours -- they're tartlets. But look at what Lee wants you to do for these:

1. Take a sugar cookie mix, add a bunch of crap to it, and bake make shells.
2. Buy a ready-made pumpkin pie AND a ready-made cheesecake...scoop out the innards, discard the shells...put them in separate bowls, add some cream to each and beat until fluffy.
3. Fill THREE pastry bags (or Ziplocks with tips) -- one with pumpkin, one with cheesecake, one half and half. Pipe into the shells.
4. Drizzle with chocolate frosting.

So...she wants you to buy a perfectly good pumpkin pie and a perfectly good cheesecake, which aren't cheap, and futz around with sugar-cookie dough and icing-in-a-bag. It's like she's going out of her way to use store-made ingredients without regard to their expense and waste or the fact it would actually be quicker, cheaper and taste better to get a can of pumpkin and a block of cream cheese and make the fillings quickly that way. Packaged tartlet shells would save a lot of time and aggravation, as well, which is the whole point.

Am I missing something?

[NMDemDist2]

1. not that I can see. I think she's a hack too n/t

[The empressof all]

2. Two reasons for her popularity

It's a gimmick which many people love...and for the main reason.
When it comes to food....people are weird.

For folks like us who love, love, love food it's hard to comprehend that everyone doesn't share our passion and cravings for more and better products. For example, I have a friend who at age 40 had her very first Ritz cracker at my house a few months ago. She never thought to buy them because her mother never bought them. Now certainly Ritz Crackers are not the bailiwick of gourmet food items but it led to a discussion of other things that she had never tried like crab, green olives, lobster, duck, and fluffernutters. This is a college educated woman who is well spoken and well traveled. She just has no curiosity about food what so ever. She understands Stouffer's, Lean Cuisine, Ramen noodles and Wishbone Salad Dressings. She has raised her family on broiled chicken, hamburgers, Ragu Sauce, Green Giant Vegetables and Lipton Soup. She's happy and doesn't think she has a problem. I think she is insane.

She would be far more comfortable mushing up a prepared product than create her own. :shrug:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. This is one of the signs of the coming Apocalypse

It started with Asshat stealing the election in 2000, and the rest of the signs - tsunami, hurricanes, Britney Spears giving birth - have been relentlessly closing in on us.

I think people are either born with the food gene or they're not. I come from a background where people socialized over food and there was always something on the stove when you walked into anybody's house (you served yourself), but the quantity of the food was more important than the quality.

It wasn't until I was into my first marriage - in my early twenties - that food became interesting to me. And, after that, I explored everything.

Different people have different priorities, but I honest to god cannot imagine a human being of that age not having ever tasted a Ritz cracker, crab, olives, etc. That's living in such a narrow, tiny world, I'm just appalled.

Ultimately, of course, her health will suffer, as will the health of her children and husband, because that's hardly a balanced diet. All that sodium and preservatives.

It's the end of the world. That's what I think.

[mike_c]

11. lol!

:rofl:

OLL, I've really come to love your posts!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

13. And I yours, my dear.......

But if people didn't realize that the Antichrist sped right out of Britney's :::::::::::gah::::::::: womb, they missed the biggest news story of all time.

Who never tasted an olive? Who, I axe you?

A COMMIE, that's who!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Mike..................

[tishaLA]

4. Two reasons for her popularity...

are her breasts. Trust me...on the Television Without Pity boards, where they hammer her mercilessly, that's the only "positive" thing ever mentioned about her. She is universally reviled for her culinary skills, but men like to watch a blond with boobs pretending to cook. I'll never understand....

But I think she also provides an excuse to people who think cooking like Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and Martha Stewart is "hard work" and want as many shortcuts as possible. She lets them pretend they are doing something productive--listen to the way she talks to her audience sometime!--and they get to be debased versions of Sandra Lee (SLop), who is herself a thoroughly debased version of Ms. Stewart. I sometimes look at SLop's "tablescapes" and think thing, "Ms. Stewart must be gouging her eyes out over this!"

[flamingyouth]

5. I work with a woman like that.

She's "afraid" to try hummus, for example. This great Mediterranean market opened across the street from us, and I've been like a kid in a candy store since. When I told her that hummus was mainly garbanzo beans, she asked, "What are garbanzo beans?" :eyes:

She eats the same prepared lunch every day and eats out just about every night of the week, or else they order in. I think she's afraid to try anything that doesn't come out of a box or a plastic bag.

I'm sure she'd appreciate this show, although I don't think she cares enough to even turn on the Food Network, to be honest.

[The empressof all]

6. Oooooooooh Hummus

She'd probably faint if confronted by Baba Ganoush. Hey PM me where the new place is. I don't get over your way that often but I'm always on the look out for new Middle Eastern places. I go to "that mall" maybe twice a year and will be making a trip over there in the next week or so. Does this place make Baklava?

[Warpy]

7. I don't get it, either

I've been known to use the "blitz biscuit" recipe from Crust and Crumb to make sorta/kinda puff pastry when I haven't made it to the market and I've been craving an apple tart or oreilles de cochons. I think that premade piecrust is nasty and can taste the cheap trans fat they use in it. The frozen puff pastry doesn't give me that nasty taste in the back of my throat, though, so it's one of the few prefab things I'll use.

Any recipe that calls for packaged foods generally causes me to put that cookbook back on the store shelf FAST.

[calico1]

8. I honestly don't get the show either.

It makes me especially angry that she and other people like her promote the idea that cooking is drudgery, cannot be an enjoyable or rewarding experience and that you need to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen so that you can do things that really are fun. Sometimes I watch a little of her show just to see what stupid idea she comes up with next. One time she suggested as a decorating idea to take whole coffee beans and use them to decorate with by putting them in candle holders. I would not waste good coffee beans that way. I think the whole concept of this "cooking" show is ridiculous. Open a can of this, a bag of that and a container of this, mix it all togetether and then get some leaves from your garden to put on your table. Viola! Semi-homemade! Stoooopid!

[SoCalDem]

9. "...and now a message from our SPONSORS..."

Most food shows these days are little more than infomercfials for the people who sponsor them..

If you want good easy to make food, look at used bookstores and get some 1940's cook books.. One of my favorite cookbooks is one from the agricultural extension office, circa 1935..

Scratch baking is not as hard as people make it out to be..and you can make your own mixes out of the basics..

When my 3 boys were growing up, I used the "Make-a-Mix" series of cookbooks, and made my own..It was much cheaper and was a shortcut for making tons of things from the basic mixes :)


check them out :)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555610730/104-8084552-8141518?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

10. I hate recipes like that.

I have to admit I'm pretty anal when it comes to cooking. I also like good food. Packaged stuff always tastes of chemicals & junk.

I've never seen her show & it doesn't sound like I've missed much. :rofl:

BTW, I've got a very easy recipe for puff pastry & would be happy to share if you want it. It uses butter, not margarine like the packaged kind. You need a standing mixer, though.

best

[calico1]

12. I would love the recipe for puff pastry!

I have never attempted to make it myself. I do make all my pie crusts though and its easy. Not really a big deal. I don't like buying all this chemically laden junk when its just as easy and much better tasting and better for you to just make your own.

I agree about the pre 1950's cookbooks. I have 3 of them myself. More recent books I have are by people who enjoy real cooking like the genuine Martha Stewart, Ina Garten and of course Julia Child. I work a full time job. Even so cooking really does not take that much time as long as you get yourself organized. I have a friend who likes all the prepared junk. She and her daughter live on it. She won't even buy raw bacon. Has to be the microwavable kind that is pre cooked. How much time does it take to cook real bacon in the microwave? I asked her this and reminded her a lb of bacon is much cheaper than the smigen you pay more for so that you can save 30 seconds. But she says she just doesn't have time! :crazy:

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

14. here you go.

Housewolf made this & she also has made the classic. She thinks the classic puffed up just a little more, but they were very close. This, like all puff pastry, freezes perfectly. I always have some in the freezer. It makes even simple stuff like pot pies so much better. And I can make fancy hors doevres without any trouble. I used to buy pepperridge farms. I never thought it was that good. Well, duh, there's no butter in it! If there's no butter, what's the point? LOL.

I can't even remember where I got this recipe from. I've had it so long.

QUICK PUFF PASTRY

1 lb. unsalted butter, chilled
2 cups all-purpose flour (spoon & sweep)
2/3 cup bread flour
1 cup ice-cold water
1 teasp fresh lemon juice
1 teasp fine sea salt

Cut the butter into 1/2 inch cubes spread on baking sheet & freeze about 15 minutes

combine the flours in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle blade. Add frozen butter & toss to coat. With the machine on low, mix until cubes are two-thirds their original size

In a glass-measuring cup, stir water, lemon juice & salt to dissolve salt. With machine running, add to flour & mix just until dough holds together.

Place dough on a floured surface & pat into a thick rectangle. Dust top with flour. Roll into a 16x5 inch rectangle, with long edge running vertically. Using a pastry brush, brush off the flour on surface. Fold the dough in thirds, bringing top third down then bottom third up. Rotate dough so the open sides are on the right & the fold is on the left. Repeat rolling & folding 3 more times, being sure to brush off flour from the surface before folding & keeping the open side to the right. (A total of 4 turns.-make a shallow mark for each turn.) Wrap in plastic & refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll & fold the dough 2 more times. Wrap & refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (Dough can be prepared up to 2 days ahead, wrapped & refrigerated. It can be frozen, wrapped in foil for 2 months. Defrost overnight in refrig. If it is very hard, let stand at room temp for about 10 minutes. Then pound horizontally & vertically with a rolling pin until pliable but still cold.)

If you divide the dough into portions use a large knife & cut straight down in one push; never saw through the dough.

[calico1]

16. Thank you! n/t

[housewolf]

17. I can vouch for this recipe...

It makes terriffic puff pastry, I'm most thankful to Wakemeupwhenitsover for sharing it. It's a real winner!

[ernstbass]

15. It's all about the tablescapes

I didn't know there was such a word before watching this show. I'm personally a little suspicious of anyone that skinny being a good cook.