Christmas Cookie Challenge - General Discussion

[Irlandesa]

There's Jason!  I am bummed we're not getting Gesine and Jason together in a judging round because they're two of my favorite recent Food Network personalities. 

And look FN, he's perfectly enjoyable when you aren't making him do sayings.  Not that I mind sayings but it's clear they  want him to lay it on thick sometimes. 

[emmawoodhouse]

Jason was so toned down from the cornpone schtick that I almost didn't recognize him! I liked this version better.

[Grizzly]

After angel lady decided to not take Ree's advice about putting a face on her wreath, knew she wasn't winning.

[bilgistic]

I hate sugar cookies, so I rarely eat iced cookies that are found at the grocery store. Some of the cookies these contestants make sound amazing. I'm salivating during the whole show and jealous that the judges get to eat all the different varieties!

[Irlandesa]

16 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

I hate sugar cookies, so I rarely eat iced cookies that are found at the grocery store. Some of the cookies these contestants make sound amazing. I'm salivating during the whole show and jealous that the judges get to eat all the different varieties!

I like sugar cookies.  I hate icing.  So all the flavors sound amazing--except I wouldn't want frosting.

Except I might need it with gingerbread which is why gingerbread is not a cookie I'm a huge fan of .  Ginger snaps on the other hand....

[CheshireCat]

2 hours ago, Grizzly said:

After angel lady decided to not take Ree's advice about putting a face on her wreath, knew she wasn't winning.

That was so weird, that she didn't include a face. Her "needlepoint" looked amazing though and it was such a cute design, too. I loved it and was so sad when they had to break it to taste it. It's the first time I wished they had iced cookies on the side to taste, not that I'd know what they'd do with the decorated cookies.

One thing I always find strange is when the contestants who are experienced bakers, make doughs that are clearly softer and not as structurally sound than a regular sugar cookie or gingerbread and are surprised when their cookie breaks. Shouldn't they know which dough is structurally sound and which dough isn't and that things like brown sugar bring extra moisture, ground nuts/almonds bring extra fat and dried fruit or nut/almond pieces create a bigger risk of breakage because of their size?

I loved the snowman, especially the snowflake cookies, mittens and hat. The ballerina was a cute idea but I thought it wasn't all that well executed. The arms just seemed much too long and he put the cookies with the cut side facing the interior, so the tutu had a clean-cut edge there and I thought that looked weird.

Interesting that they had a dehydrator in this episode. I don't recall having seen it being used before on this show.

[Spunkygal]

@CheshireCat, yes, they’ve shown the dehydrator this season (and perhaps last season).

@Irlandesa, why couldn’t you have mentioned ginger snaps earlier today before I ran errands! I drove by TJ’s and could have gotten those incredible snaps with crystallized ginger! Oh well, I probably don’t need even more calories, but they are yum! 

Loved seeing Jason back as judge! He knows his stuff and is such a refreshing personality after having just seen Erin on Holiday Wars! 

[Guest]

I liked the bit at the beginning when they were introducing the challenge and Ree was holding the cross-stitch example, talking about how it was one of her favorite traditions. Eddie laughed and said "Did you make that?" and she breezily said "It's not important." Probably pre-planned, but they pulled it off well, and I thought it was cute XD

I like how open the judges have been about wanting variety in flavors aside from "What I've made for you today is a basic vanilla sugar cookie." The finalists in particular, despite whatever decorating issues they had, all did some cool things flavor-wise in both rounds (one was apparently so good it made Eddie throw his napkin at the baker).

[Rammchick]

18 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

One thing I always find strange is when the contestants who are experienced bakers, make doughs that are clearly softer and not as structurally sound than a regular sugar cookie or gingerbread and are surprised when their cookie breaks. Shouldn't they know which dough is structurally sound and which dough isn't and that things like brown sugar bring extra moisture, ground nuts/almonds bring extra fat and dried fruit or nut/almond pieces create a bigger risk of breakage because of their size?

It appears that a lot of the bakers on this show try to pander to Ree's tastes when it comes to cookies.  She has mentioned she likes a soft cookie, so that's what many of them make, regardless of how structurally sound it is.  It's important to "play the game", but it's also important to play the game 😉

[dleighg]

So I guess cross-stitch cookies are "a thing" since they had those silicone mats to do the grid. Those seem like a serious pain in the rear to decorate. 

Nit, but the photo of the house the woman said was a "Tudor" did not look like a Tudor to me at all. My impression (as well as Google Image's) is that the wood beams on the facade is very characteristic, and her house didn't have that. The shape of the house is arguably "Tudor" though.

[mojoween]

My paper had a story that a local baker will be on the 12/14 show and now I can’t wait.  Also I need to get to her pop-up shop because her sweets sound divine (her signature item is the Crave Cup, an edible cup with two cupcakes, icing and decorations.  Also she does stuffed apples which I can’t wait to try).

[MerBearHou]

20 hours ago, dleighg said:

So I guess cross-stitch cookies are "a thing" since they had those silicone mats to do the grid. Those seem like a serious pain in the rear to decorate. 

Nit, but the photo of the house the woman said was a "Tudor" did not look like a Tudor to me at all. My impression (as well as Google Image's) is that the wood beams on the facade is very characteristic, and her house didn't have that. The shape of the house is arguably "Tudor" though.

I live in Houston so was curious about the “Tudor House” cookie winner.  Her cookies are so expensive!!  When Eddie raved about her flavors (and threw a towel at her which I loved), I thought I’d seek her out.  $42/dozen with a 2 dozen minimum — um, nope!

[crazycatlady58]

2 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I live in Houston so was curious about the “Tudor House” cookie winner.  Her cookies are so expensive!!  When Eddie raved about her flavors (and threw a towel at her which I loved), I thought I’d seek her out.  $42/dozen with a 2 dozen minimum — um, nope!

Good heavens. I cannot imagine any cookie being that good.

[dleighg]

23 minutes ago, crazycatlady58 said:

Good heavens. I cannot imagine any cookie being that good

I wonder if they are like those fancy melons in Japan that are only for gifting, and cost a fortune....

[TexasTiffany]

5 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I live in Houston so was curious about the “Tudor House” cookie winner.  Her cookies are so expensive!!  When Eddie raved about her flavors (and threw a towel at her which I loved), I thought I’d seek her out.  $42/dozen with a 2 dozen minimum — um, nope!

Her prices are ridiculous. The decorated cookies are all so beautiful and inspiring, but I don't like to eat that icing. 

I bake really good cookies myself, but I don't sneer at Keebler's cookies. 

 

[Rammchick]

21 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I live in Houston so was curious about the “Tudor House” cookie winner.  Her cookies are so expensive!!  When Eddie raved about her flavors (and threw a towel at her which I loved), I thought I’d seek her out.  $42/dozen with a 2 dozen minimum — um, nope!

That's the sort of cookie you might get for a special party -- baby shower or engagement party or something, where it's decorated beautifully and that's the point.  Otherwise, no thanks.

[CheshireCat]

7 hours ago, Rammchick said:

That's the sort of cookie you might get for a special party -- baby shower or engagement party or something, where it's decorated beautifully and that's the point.  Otherwise, no thanks.

I still find more than $3 per cookie a bit steep and the cookies she displays on her website aren't even that neatly done. I noticed uneven outlines and dips in the flooding in many. (Then again, I also find wedding cakes completely overprized especially since many are fairly simple and you pay for the term wedding cake rather than the effort).

[dleighg]

32 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

I still find more than $3 per cookie a bit steep and the cookies she displays on her website aren't even that neatly done. I noticed uneven outlines and dips in the flooding in many.

since I'm lazy and don't want to look up her last name-- could someone link her website? Thanks in advance!

[dleighg]

16 hours ago, dleighg said:

since I'm lazy and don't want to look up her last name-- could someone link her website? Thanks in advance!

well I did my homework, and LOL her "tudor house cookies" were a big fat ad for her cookie business, which is called TUDOR HOUSE COOKIES! https://tudorhousecookies.com/pricing/

[mojoween]

I watched an older season one today that I had not seen before, and one baker made a rocking horse cookie with a purple mane and Ree said it looked like a baby shower cookie.  In her talking head the baker said something like “it didn’t even occur to me to make them Christmas colors!”

Um.  What?  I was speechless.

[CheshireCat]

The first elimination was weird; I understand that they eliminated Justin but I would have eliminated Brittany (I believe that was her name, the baker who lived in Germany) instead of the baker with the mustache. She had two cookies with small elements of tie-dye and one of them had not worked out at all. That sounds like one cookie was "challenge not met". Why did they keep her and eliminated someone who'd met the challenge on both cookies?

It drives me nuts when people call Bavarian/Southern German foods and traditions "German". This was not a traditional German appetizer plate, it was a traditional Bavarian/Southern German appetizer plate. Like any country, Germany has different states and regions and they all have different foods and traditions.

I think she could have formed true pretzels out of the pretzel cookies. They looked flat like a cookie and I think she should have rolled the cookie dough and then formed it.

Did anyone catch if she was a baker or a home baker? Just asking because she fought with the carrot cookie dough and remade it when she could have just wet or floured her hands.

Thumbs up for making a true German gingerbread, though! (And for the judges, too. I expected that at least one of them would comment on not tasting ginger).

I loved the tie-dye cookies of the eventual winner and I loved her winning appetizer plate as well. I thought it looked the most realistic by far. And I was really happy for her that the Pigs in a Blanket were baked all the way through!

[mlp]

20 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

The first elimination was weird; I understand that they eliminated Justin but I would have eliminated Brittany (I believe that was her name, the baker who lived in Germany) instead of the baker with the mustache.

I thought the same thing.  The guy with the mustache met the challenge and his cookies were cute.  I didn't have any problem with some areas being unfrosted.  I did think the right person won.  I liked her and her cookie platter looked really good.  

I'd love to know what the timing on this show really is.  The woman who made the dark chocolate cookies and broke them made a second batch and put it in the oven at what she said was the last minute.  We saw her take them out and then, what looked like seconds later, she was decorating what should have been piping hot cookies and nothing melted.  I notice stuff like that almost every show.

Eddie and Ree are cute together.

 

[MerBearHou]

I really, really liked Taishi, the winner.  She was so meticulous and creative.  Plus she had a delightful, not-over-the-top personality and clearly is crazy about her cute husband in the Christmas pjs.  Those Christmas pj pants were so great.

Agreed about the first heat — Mr. Moustache should’ve been the one to get to the main heat.  

Impressed with the German that the actress baker spoke and I wonder if she got through to the main heat so they could hear Gesine and Actress/Baker speak German and taste German bakes together.

Agreed with mlp — Ree and Eddie are so fun together.  When he scared her and she called him a lunatic — just seemed very sibling good-natured.  

[CheshireCat]

34 minutes ago, mlp said:

I'd love to know what the timing on this show really is.  The woman who made the dark chocolate cookies and broke them made a second batch

She used the leftover dough but I think there's some crazy editing going on.

[TexasTiffany]

The producers play shenanigans with the challenge times on all of the cooking/baking shows. We're told "1 minute and 30 seconds" while one baker is taking cookies out of the oven, another baker is still working on their royal icing in the mixer. It's clearly not 1 minute left. They want to amp up the drama. 

ITA that the German baker should have known when she turned the dough out on her work surface that it was still too tacky. All she needed to do was add some flour into the dough and knead it on her work station. No need to put it all back in the mixer, which didn't make sense. How does she not know this? 

White elephant/secret santa guy didn't seem to get the "tie-dye" idea. His white and gray elephant looked more like a camouflage design. It didn't say Christmas. Didn't say tie-dye. And it wasn't executed very well. The only tie-dye was santa's hat, which was done rather poorly. Eddie talked to him about his white monochromatic idea before he went too far to change his direction, but the guy didn't take Eddie's hint. I knew he was going home in the first round before Eddie walked away. 

I am okay with mustache baker going home after the first bake. He used bacon flavoring which the judges said they couldn't taste, and his cookies were too thin. If he had used real bacon I think the judges would have kept him. He said he didn't have time, but he had 90 minutes. He would have had time if he had put a pan of bacon in the preheated oven first, while he was mixing the rest of the dough. IIRC, the judges said his designs were too simple and his airbrushing was sloppy. 

So many of these bakers put their cookies in the oven, then do nothing while they bake. What do they do with their time?

Taishi's tie-dye Christmas trees were amazing. Her technique came out beautiful. 

[Popples]

16 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Did anyone catch if she was a baker or a home baker? Just asking because she fought with the carrot cookie dough and remade it when she could have just wet or floured her hands

The chyron said she's a "Home Bakery Owner."

[mojoween]

If Tashi hadn’t won I would have never have watched this show again.

Until next week when the next new episode is on.

But both of her bakes were so good, even if I also wished she had cut the bare cookie out of her jammie pants.

[mlp]

5 hours ago, mojoween said:

But both of her bakes were so good, even if I also wished she had cut the bare cookie out of her jammie pants.

I was so delighted by the jammie pants and bunny slippers that I barely noticed the bare cookie until the judges mentioned it.  The picture of her husband tickled me too.  I was very happy for her when she won.

[Darian]

I was so happy Taishi won. Her cookies made me smile so hard. I'd love to see her other shows, competition or otherwise. Some new faces would be appreciated and she is a ray of sunshine. 

I feel like this was not the episode for Minh to shine. Her creations they showed before the competition made me want to see more from her, but she struggled. 

Ree and Eddie bring out the best and funniest in each other, and they're both pretty delightful people. Put them together more, Food Network! 

What a fun episode!

[CheshireCat]

It's such a pity that Tinnell's cookie display didn't work out the way she wanted to. I thought she had the best cookie design in the challenge and also the best design for the display. The characters were so adorable and the piping was so clean! But again, shouldn't she have known how soft her cookie recipe is and that it's not sturdy enough to stand up?

Not sure how I feel about the winner. Her display was kind of blah and her challenge was, too. Making squares and piping characters on it which then also had more or less the same shape was taking the easy way out.

Why were characters that weren't distinct enough from one another enough for the student baker to go home but not for the baker who went on to win? I wasn't impressed with the piping of the baker who did the Nutcracker characters in the first round but at least, all of her characters had very different shapes.

Wasn't it only last week that they criticized a sugar cookie dough as too simply for the Christmas Cookie Challenge? Even though this is a new round of bakers, shouldn't they always apply the same standards?

[mlp]

My favorite part of this episode was Eddie in Victorian dress.  🙂  But a singer he is not.  

The college girl seemed unclear on the concept.  I liked Tinnell best but the composition of her final display doomed her.  I felt bad for her.  I was not impressed with the winner.  

[Grizzly]

I wouldn't buy Eddie's album, but I wouldn't change the radio channel if he came on either. He and Ree made cute carolers. I thought Thomas was robbed. He made actual 3d objects. And they tasted his twist ingredient. Christina's tree looked awful and no taste of fig.

[CheshireCat]

2 hours ago, Grizzly said:

I wouldn't buy Eddie's album, but I wouldn't change the radio channel if he came on either. He and Ree made cute carolers. I thought Thomas was robbed. He made actual 3d objects. And they tasted his twist ingredient. Christina's tree looked awful and no taste of fig.

Agreed. It's a display challenge, not a technique challenge and they saw his excellent piping skills in the preheat. In terms of display, his was great. Christina's also broke and normally, that works to bakers' disadvantages.

Speaking of breaking, I was annoyed how Eddie took the ear muff cookie. Of course, the cookie is going to break if you pick up such a delicate cookie on both ear muff ends because you're applying uneven pressure to the cookie. It's physics. He should have taken it by the top, in the middle. I don't know if the cookie was cracked and/or the dough was too soft and if he did it on purpose or if it was his inexperience with that kind of baking but the way he picked it up, he more or less forced it to break.

[mojoween]

Eddie looked so stinkin’ handsome in his Victorian clothes.

Christina looked so much like Veronica from “The Challenge” that I couldn’t help but root for anyone but her so that outcome was a serious WTF?!?!?!? for me.  Seriously.  WTF?  Her tree was BROKEN.  Also “does anyone have their cookies in the oven? I do!” was super obnoxious.

“Normally animals have feet, do you think that’s going to be a problem?”  “NOPE!”

Tinnell is beautiful and her kids are adorable and her piping was beyond anything I could ever try.  It sucked that she had to cobble together that display because of a soft cookie.

[dleighg]

28 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Eddie looked so stinkin’ handsome in his Victorian clothes.

he looked nice in his regular clothes as well. Nice bod 🙂 

[Spunkygal]

3 minutes ago, dleighg said:

he looked nice in his regular clothes as well. Nice bod 🙂 

I need more Eddie to erase the memory of this season’s failed FN holiday shows. I’m looking at you, Holiday Wars. Do yourself a favor and look on his IG for a pic of him in a pajama onesie. Yes, please! Ok, I’m bordering on creepy.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Spunkygal

[mojoween]

I’m still befuddled by the decision in the last ep.  She didn’t even pick a song!  The other two at least tried to literally fit theme.

Her cookies, that didn’t even taste like fig, must have tasted amazing.

[Guest]

I was surprised Christina won, but it didn't bother me. This show is just such lowkey, warm fuzzy good times, it's hard for me to get worked up negatively about anything XD

Eddie and Ree is a pairing that doesn't necessarily come to mind, but it's working like a charm.

RE: Eddie picking up the headphones by the ends and causing it to break -- if he had picked it up by the middle, the larger ends not being supported could easily have caused it to break that way as well. Since the cookie had already broken, I think it was doomed to fall apart again no matter how he picked it up.

[theatremouse]

I'm not going to rewatch but I'm 90% sure I remember the baker breaking the headphone cookie before decorating and possibly gluing it back together with icing? The way Eddie picked it up was certainly awkward, but that cookie was already broken.

[CheshireCat]

This was the second week in a row that I thought the winner should've been eliminated after the preheat. Her cookies from the preheat were adorable, however, they wanted Christmas and hers were winter cookies. Aside from the tiny little holly leave in the corner of the heart, there was nothing Christmas about those cookies. I thought Andrea's ornament cookies were boring but her cookies were more Christmas specific than Aubrey's. I think the male baker should have stayed. His cookies screamed Christmas.

I did like Aubrey's tree and thought it was the prettiest, except for the blue cord. What was that supposed to be? It looked out of place and ruined the entire design for me.

The baker who made the round cactus seemed rather uncreative. I liked the cactus, it was beautiful, but she came across a little listless. I also would have piped some blossoms on the cactus and maybe added a few ornaments. Something to make it more Christmas tree like and add a little something.

That was some weird editing. From the way they showed it, the longhorn should have stayed on and the succulents Aubrey made out of royal icing should not have been dry yet.

I also thought that prunes were a weird extra ingredient. I love prune butter and prune "pie" is a very common German late summer cake but I think I maybe have one or two recipes in the 15-20 Christmas cookie recipe books and magazines that I have and they're both American and German ones, and one is a really old one.

Also, a couple of episodes ago, a baker added flour to her dough after the dough had already been kneaded. Coincidentially, I had heard shortly before that you're not supposed to do that because the kneaded flour has already activated its gluten and the flour that you add, wouldn't have and it would have been kneaded shorter, so it would have a different structure. I think it only matters for professional bakers but my point is that none of the judges commented on that but at the same time, they taste when a pinch of salt is missing? 

 

On 12/12/2020 at 3:35 PM, theatremouse said:

I'm not going to rewatch but I'm 90% sure I remember the baker breaking the headphone cookie before decorating and possibly gluing it back together with icing? The way Eddie picked it up was certainly awkward, but that cookie was already broken.

There are still ways to pick it up so that it doesn't have to break. I think I mostly noticed it because it's not the first time that he did it this season; a few episodes ago he held a cookie that also was bound to break, in the air for like forever and seemed to downright wait for it to break.

Now, maybe the production wants him to do that but he's definitely been forcing the issue each time a cookie looks fragile/has the potential to break.

[Irlandesa]

2 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

This was the second week in a row that I thought the winner should've been eliminated after the preheat. Her cookies from the preheat were adorable, however, they wanted Christmas and hers were winter cookies. Aside from the tiny little holly leave in the corner of the heart, there was nothing Christmas about those cookies. I thought Andrea's ornament cookies were boring but her cookies were more Christmas specific than Aubrey's. I think the male baker should have stayed. His cookies screamed Christmas.

Those three were fighting it out for that last spot.  The Jason look alike (I even thought it was Jason when we first saw him behind Eddie for the intro) who had to remake his dough underbaked his cookies and didn't polish them off.  Execution is almost always going to best adherence to the brief so I knew he was a goner.

The other two both didn't meet the brief.  The one who advanced wasn't Christmas-y enough but the one who was eliminated didn't have enough wedding in her cookies.  So on the brief, they were even for the judges.  I guess they went with the cookie they liked the best.

[CheshireCat]

48 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

who had to remake his dough

That reminds me - I know it has happened before but it really bothers me that they're throwing away cookie dough. It contains flour and butter, ingredients that would help those who are starving in this world, to survive. Why can't they save the dough in the fridge, bake it once they're done filming for the day and then distribute the cookies among the crew or maybe even donate them to a food bank or whatever? I don't think throwing that much dough away is okay. (And I've long wondered what happens to all the food that they make on the channel. Do they throw that away? Do they eat it? Do they donate it?)

[dleighg]

There was a weird comment from Ree to the woman who got into cookie baking after her mother died; she said she wanted to follow her dream and "not have any regrets." Ree said "you're lucky you learned this lesson at a young age."

Meaning you're lucky you lost your mother when you were young???????? It just seemed incredibly tone-deaf to the *reason* she decided to follow her dream.

[Rammchick]

3 hours ago, dleighg said:

There was a weird comment from Ree to the woman who got into cookie baking after her mother died; she said she wanted to follow her dream and "not have any regrets." Ree said "you're lucky you learned this lesson at a young age."

Meaning you're lucky you lost your mother when you were young???????? It just seemed incredibly tone-deaf to the *reason* she decided to follow her dream.

She said that she'd learned to make the most of every day, or words to that effect, so that's what Ree meant she'd learned.  But yes, it did seem like an awkward comeback.

 

8 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

 (And I've long wondered what happens to all the food that they make on the channel. Do they throw that away? Do they eat it? Do they donate it?)

I think I read somewhere that they donate to City Harvest when they film in NYC.

 

[mojoween]

Man, second week in a row the winner was a bummer.  I mean, Aubrey wasn’t objectionable, but I was obvs rooting for my Syracuse girl Tykemia.  Her first cookies were so cute.

Also those yeti cookies were dumb.  And not Christmas.

[ShelleySue]

On 12/15/2020 at 2:09 AM, Irlandesa said:

The Jason look alike (I even thought it was Jason when we first saw him behind Eddie for the intro) who had to remake his dough underbaked his cookies and didn't polish them off. 

They showed him just dumping butter into the mixer and saying that he never measured ingredients.  Then he had to throw away the dough because he had used too much butter. Sometimes the editing is the best part of the show.

[mlp]

My morning newspaper had an article in the Food section about Christmas cookies that featured Daniel, the guy who thought he was invincible in the puzzle cookies episode and then got sent home after the first round.  I'm not including a link because you can't get to it unless you subscribe to the paper.  

He has a lengthy history as a pastry chef and worked at Disney World for years.  He said that he had to go through several long video interviews followed by a "live-call audition" (whatever that is) and then had to create and explain a fantasy themed display out of gingerbread.  After that, he waited for months before he got the call that he'd been chosen for the show.  His show filmed in July and he had to have a Corona virus test before going to New Orleans for a week.  He said the studio was in a warehouse the size of a football field and felt more Hollywood than kitchen.  He didn't mention Eddy but he said Ree was "really lovely."

I had no idea that the show filmed in New Orleans.

[LoreliLee]

On 12/15/2020 at 5:24 AM, dleighg said:

There was a weird comment from Ree to the woman who got into cookie baking after her mother died; she said she wanted to follow her dream and "not have any regrets." Ree said "you're lucky you learned this lesson at a young age."

Meaning you're lucky you lost your mother when you were young???????? It just seemed incredibly tone-deaf to the *reason* she decided to follow her dream.

I believe Ree said it was unfortunate she had to learn that at such a young age. PS I think that baker should have won. 

[dleighg]

2 hours ago, LoreliLee said:

I believe Ree said it was unfortunate she had to learn that at such a young age.

Nah, the interchange was "fortunately you learned that lesson when you're still pretty young"  

I certainly don't think it was badly meant at all, just a bit thoughtless. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by dleighg

[40Love]

On 12/15/2020 at 8:24 AM, dleighg said:

There was a weird comment from Ree to the woman who got into cookie baking after her mother died; she said she wanted to follow her dream and "not have any regrets." Ree said "you're lucky you learned this lesson at a young age."

Meaning you're lucky you lost your mother when you were young???????? It just seemed incredibly tone-deaf to the *reason* she decided to follow her dream.

Okay, I'm not the only one who thought that was a little strange. It was very awkward. Was expecting Ree to at the very least offer her condolences. Very weird indeed!  

6 hours ago, dleighg said:

Nah, the interchange was "fortunately you learned that lesson when you're still pretty young"  

I certainly don't think it was badly meant at all, just a bit thoughtless. 

I heard "fortunately" too.