mousie

I think Reese Witherspoon found some better projects to work on in the interim, like films that would get her Oscar nominations and not just be shown on the Lifetime channel.

Me too, Catholic school for elementary and we spent 3 hours kneeling and praying in church on Good Friday. It's the most solemn day of the year for christians. That's the day that their lord died on the cross. Ree needs to get back to bible study.

That is the overall impression I get from Ree. She is just desperate to be the center of attention at all times.

She has done several episodes where she goes to Tulsa for her "big" shopping. Also, on the episode where she cooked "Chinese" food she said that she was taking the girls to Tulsa every week for something associated with their homeschooling. They lunch at Panda Express every time and that's how she got the idea to cook their favorite dishes. I think that people who live out in the country are used to doing those long drives, I doubt that there's all that much traffic to worry about. Whereas in more crowded urban areas, like where I live, an hour drive might mean I am going about 20 miles.

Yeah I read the book after Gris Gris was talking about it. Her parents did not get divorced until the time frame of the book, when PW was in her mid twenties.

Hi Chessiegal, I agree and I do watch PBS and we are fortunate in the SF Bay Area to have at least five different stations that my cable carrier offers. So there is cooking content on everyday. We also are lucky to get Create (offshoot of PBS) which carries cooking shows throughout the day mixed in with the craft and home improvement type shows. Apparently Create is not shown in every market. I find I am watching more PBS then FN or CC lately. The was an article in the SF paper recently about Jacques Pepin filming his last cooking series here at KQED. Sad that the era is coming to an end but he deserves a nice retirement after all. Looks like his granddaughter will be on some of the shows. HyeChaps, maybe the channel that does Duck Dynasty could give Ladd a show. Then he, his brother and cowboy Josh could make condescending comments about the womenfolk. Hi Gris Gris, the whole nutrition thing bugs me because we have such problems in the US with childhood obesity and diet related diseases in adults, EVERYONE on these networks could give a little mention about making better choices and creating healthy menu plans. Imagine a young person or a young parent learning to cook from PW, they wouldn't be doing themselves any favors healthwise and would probably break the budget.

Since Sandra Lee is no longer in the cooking show biz, PW is her successor for snarking. I think you will find that most of the folks who post here (many of whom moved over from Television Without Pity) actually care about good cooking and would like the Food Network and Cooking Channel to produce worthwhile shows that are interesting and educational. While there is a place for shows for beginning cooks (Ray Ray and Kelsey do that), those of us who have a little more experience in the kitchen would like to see more advanced shows. PW barely cooks and her recipes for however many seasons are just things from the back of the product box or stuff we would throw together when facing a fridge filled with odds and ends. And she just keeps repeating the same tired things. If she wants a laudable TV show, she needs to get some new ideas. Once you put yourself out on national media then you are fair game for anyone's reaction.

I was in the store last night (Safeway) and also saw the Barefoot Contessa dinners right alongside the Contessa Chef Inspired. They were both on sale for $5.99. It looked like the recipes were different than Ina's but the similarity in the packaging is striking.

I will be watching for the "Contessa Chef Inspired" products at Grocery Outlet.

According to her book, the first one was in a hospital. She doesn't discuss the others in the book. She shares lots of disturbing details about the whole experience too.

I know and how many times did she repeat that in this episode.

I received an (unsolicited) catalog in the mail the other day. I think we may have discovered one of Ree's wardrobe sources: http://www.shopfloriana.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=detail&item=KB0987

I didn't get to watch this yesterday, so I will see it when it repeats Monday. This is at least the third show that features grocery shopping. The last one even showed her putting gas in the truck. It's ridiculous how much time they waste on the filler shots vs. the actual cooking. hey call I watched a lot of PBS cooking shows yesterday and they all manage to cook for the entire show, explain what they are doing and why they are doing it. As for her "shirtains" (that's what they call them on that PW snark site, because they look like they were made from her grandmother's old curtains) I can't imagine a store that would have something like that. She must have them made for her.

I missed this episode again today on the rerun, but that amount of butter and cream in mashed potatoes is just excessive to me now. A long time ago I was was cooking for a family member who was recovering from heart bypass surgery and every thing needed to be lowfat, low salt. So I started making mashed potatoes with Yukon Golds (they have a rich flavor of their own) and olive oil and chicken stock. I got so used to this that I don't really enjoy the heavy dairy versions anymore.

I think Ms. Lee might just be keeping a low profile because whether Andrew is planning on going for the big job, a lesser position or even just remaining governor, he is likely to be doing a lot of campaigning for his party this year and next. She was in the Cuomo holiday card with his daughters (which I posted a link to upthread). I think she is trying to distance herself from the past or perhaps the FN contracts just finally expired. I do agree that it is the end of an era. I have a LOT of episodes saved on DVR (all those early episodes from GAC channel), but it is just the crap DVR that comes from the cable company. I really need to find someone who knows how to hack that because eventually it's going to die and I will lose them. Happy New Year, fellow shrikes!

Just saw this on another site: http://www.lohud.com/story/opinion/columnists/phil-reisman/2014/12/20/spano-cuomo-christmas-cards/20672081/ The Cuomo holiday card

FN really ripped us off on Xmas episodes this year. All we got was the aforementioned White Xmas and the Snowman Kake. No Xmas episodes at all this week.

IIRC, that was the result of a settlement of a law suit with Contessa Seafood over the brand name. Since that company already produced their own line of these kind of dinners, her participation was probably minimal.

I agree, she went to college in Los Angeles and lived there for a few years before returning back to the frontier. So yes, I agree it's a put on.

It seems like if you read the reviews for the various TV chefs who have come out with their own lines of enameled cast iron, they get pretty poor reviews. The coating chips and they don't seem to hold up very well, even to normal home use. And that's including Martha, Batali and others. So I will stay with my small collection of Le Creuset. They have been acquired over 20+ years and nothing was bought at full retail. If you keep an eye out, the major retailers often have sales and closeouts, there are the LC outlet stores, occasionally you can find the odd piece at someplace like HomeGoods or TJ Maxx, plus eBay, thrift stores, yard sales. They are a pleasure to cook with. Don't fall for the cheap knockoffs with a celebrity name.

I believe that she has said that they will use the upstairs for offices and the downstairs will be for a deli and retail store.

That sounds horrible Tahitigirl, please just recline on the sofa and let one of us get you a virtual-Tini.

OK, I saw the side dishes episode this morning (came on right after SO left to take the dog out) and it was awful. The sweet potato dish had a FULL cup of white sugar added to the sweet potatoes and then another FULL cup of brown sugar added to the topping. GrisGris, the idea of the wild rice and broccoli casserole is good, the execution was horrible. When she added the cream into the rapidly boiling chicken stock it looked like it curdled. I would probably try that with a more conventional roux based sauce.

I haven't watched either of these episodes yet. I will have to wait until they are re-run during the week. Over the years, I have taught my SO to watch SLop for the snark value, but he can't stand PW and will leave the room (and maybe even the house, time to walk the dog) if that show is on Saturday morning. :) When I cook for Thanksgiving I don't really use recipes anymore, just keep it simple. It's never a large group. A number of years ago, I found a recipe for sweet potatoes that is basically just bake your sweet potatoes whole (can do ahead), then scoop out and mash the flesh, season, maybe add a little brown sugar (to taste) and 2 - 3 beaten eggs. Then into a casserole dish and bake. The eggs lighten the texture and cause it to puff up a bit, but not enough to call it a souffle. If you are so inclined you can add a shot of Amaretto, very good match with sweet potatoes, or bourbon. I tried an Emeril recipe once, where he made this type of casserole with a streusel topping with toasted coconut and macadamia nuts. It was good, but it was more like dessert than a side dish.

Which one? The Corn bread one or the one with brussels sprouts, butternut squash and about 18 other ingredients?