jcbrown

That's right, I meant to mention that. Who eats risotto with chopsticks?

I think that is entirely appropriate dinner food for this show. I often find myself with salty snacks in front of me while I watch, and I do not have the terrible stress of losing an animal friend. I'm sorry for your loss!

100% this.

I didn't mind Martha's actual judging but I thought it was a mis-step for the producers to put so many of the explaining lines on her ("the special thing about wagyu beef..." etc). Made her seem like she was condescending to the other two judges, who happen to be actual chefs. I don't think that was on her, though, I think it was the writers and the fact that they wanted to feature her in her first episode.

I used to take Benadryl fairly regularly for sleep (a doctor recommended it!). Did not realize how much it affected me until one of my international flights for work. I got to the airport in Zurich and was going to the train station to transfer. Ran into a colleague and was surprised to see her. She told me we had had an entire conversation in line for the business class bathroom on the plane the previous evening. (I took overnight flights to Zurich from SFO.) That was one of the last times I used Benadryl to sleep.

I agree. Mostly because Valerie does not take herself So Very Seriously. I used to like Giada and I enjoy some of her recipes but fame has not been good to her.

I have honestly never understood how this happens. How do they get so far in arrears and why are there no consequences for that?

I will wish right there with you. Carla did comment in an interview recently (the one where she told fans not to blame GMA) that they might get picked up by another network. I don't know if that was just speculation or hope, though.

I don't really want any of these people to stay on my TV. I'm glad Debbie went home after she was such a dimwit this week. Yaku's shiny shiny beard bothers me. Adam is blah. Jernard is full of himself and annoying. The urban cowgirl I find irritating and not too bright. And Amy is just not all that. Meh. I'm not convinced any of these people can teach me anything. I hope whoever comes back gets sent home quickly, although maybe that's dangerous since I don't yet know how horrid the new contestants are.

Agreed. It really screamed "trying too hard!" to me.

I wish Kahi had painted the brick on the fireplace white. I thought it looked bad in the before and worse in the after. Totally agree that those columns needed to go. Godawful, but taking them out probably would have required sheetrock repair as well as floor work so there was no way they would have done it. I would have taken a sledge hammer to them myself if that were my house.

I totally agree. Close your damn closets!

And quite possibly before any of them had read a book (I know it's giving them the benefit of the doubt to expect that they've all read one now).

Oh holy cow, you remind me that I also had a lightweight denim skirt with eyelet at the hem in the 80s. *shudder*

Okay, I may have been spending too much time here because I had a Duggar dream last night. In it, I was getting kicked out of the family because I was gay (I'm bi IRL so that wasn't that weird to me), With me, they were also kicking out the four other kids who were gay. I wish I could remember all of them, but I know one was Joe and one was Josie. We were all going to live together and be happier. I remember Joe had his first kiss with another man in the dream and he was astonished. So... there's that?

I see that's what she says, but anyone who has ever juiced citrus knows that the juice is actually sticky. I'm just not convinced it would make a positive difference. I can see starting with the ice and lemon and spinach to use the mechanical breakdown of the ice to help break down the spinach but... oh hell, this is Jill. She neither cooks nor thinks and she just copies her content for others.

I really don't understand this latest recipe. Why would I blend lemon juice in a blender by itself? That makes zero sense and what would is accomplish? Why is she thinning it with water when she could thin it with an ingredient that adds flavor and is already in the dish? Why am I spending more time thinking about this than Jill did?

I'm going with "navel-gazing dimwit" as the reason.

Goddammit. Jana should be able to buy her own plants for her own place. Free Jana!

I was going to post that exact article but you beat me to it. Evidently the ad is making people who have never heard of funeral potatoes a bit uncomfortable. As well as those of us who have had to read Jill's recipe. (Cook's Country did a modern remake of this recipe a few years back, involving zero canned sodium soup. It wasn't bad but it was way too bland for my palate.)

What say we stay safe in our homes or haunts of choice and have a cocktail, instead?

Oh no! They will be in San Jose? That's only like 15 miles from me. And nowhere near Southern California.

Mario's perversity: the gift that keeps on giving. So many people had to have known about this for so long before it brought down his empire. It makes me furious and sad that he got away with it for so long. https://ny.eater.com/2018/5/30/17407834/mario-batali-misconduct-fans-photos That Eater piece is very thorough and includes some pictures and some accounts that were contemporaneously corroborated. It's pretty horrifying. It also sounds like Mario may be an alcoholic.

Could not agree more. I think this is completely tacky and inappropriate. Shame on Tarek and Christina for agreeing to it and shame in HGTV for making it happen.

I think having Jason host is a good idea, since he does not have quite the stick up his arse that Scott seems to here and he would thus make it more fun to watch. Rather than having Scott be the judge, though, I would sub in Sherry Yard or someone with more pastry credentials.