30 Minute Meals - General Discussion

[Popcorn22]

14 minutes ago, CharlizeCat said:

I caught the show with the "Cuz" sandwich. Holy mackerel! That looked disgusting. She did the same "rush the onions" by adding water to the pan. Just what I want, a pan of slimy steamed onions. Ugh and I HATE onions to begin with.

The rushing, noises and stories/tips that she repeats over and over from episode to episode were driving me nuts. Then coup de grace was getting practically food-gasmic over her ridiculous provolone sauce.

I also saw/heard her snap at the camera crew more than once after the commercial break.

ITA that all of her food is heavy and fatty. So far, most everything looks like something somebody would make up after pulling an all-nighter at the local clubs.

I am picking up the feeling that maybe RR is in this due to some type of contractual obligation to FN (or they offered her a boatload of money). Her heart just doesn't seem in it and it's like that she is trying to cram filming as many shows into one day as possible. As a viewer, I don't like to be make to feel like that I am an inconvenience that the host doesn't care about engaging. 

So true !  She is a bad version of her old self ! 

She used to be someone who came off a little over the top , but still seemed like a nice , accessible person and cook.

When I read  a review a few years ago  from someone who went to her show, I didn’t believe it when the person reviewing the show said that she was rude to her crew and obnoxious . Now I believe it ! 

Now she acts and cooks like someone who has pulled an all nighter drinking !

I really am super turned off by her mean snapping at camera and crew people.  

it does remind me of Paula Deen and how she morphed into a tacky , unlikable person! 

I do not think that people change that much at Racheal and Paula’s ages, I think it’s more like they don’t feel a need to hide their real personalities because they are rich and don’t care what people think about them any longer, so their real selves are revealed. 

[orangekit]

I think Rachael is more of a beer drinking, cigarette smoking bar  person  who is crude and mean, then she is the nice person everyone thinks she is.

There was an article about her coming back with 30mm and someone commented on how her brother worked in retail in a town she visited for $40 a day. The opened the store after hours for  RR to get clothing because she needed something to wear . She apparently was rude and ungrateful, and awful to the staff in the store.

I doubt this is a new personality we are seeing as she barks at the crew on 30mm, she’s just showing us her real self ! I just don’t get why FN thinks this is good for her brand or their brand.

She behaves like a rude and crude person , and I think it is her real self .

[orangekit]

And what is with RR throwing salt over her darn shoulder over and over ?  The throwing of salt over the shoulder is a superstitious thing if you spill salt, not every time you put it on a recipe ! She can add stupid to her other annoying personality traits ! 

[Popcorn22]

Ewww her “cuz” sandwich looked like someone vomited on a bun!  

I thought that the portobello show would be better , but she managed to take a healthy food and make it a disgusting, fatty pile of  slop with the gross cheese sauce and greasy store bought steak fries. She also put that same bottled salad on the slop after putting the undercooked onions on the top of the mushrooms she ruined by cooking them in a ton of butter and making them greasy !

She couldn’t just make a nice recipe like a sandwich with portobello   mushrooms ? 

I remember when she used to actually cook a full meal . Now it looks like after boozing and joint smoking food for 3am after bar nights ! Gross ! 

[biakbiak]

The placement of these episodes was odd given that it’s so similar to the sandwich she made yesterday. It could have been one episode as just an alternative. I mean is it that difficult to come up with 30 recipes when they are all so basic? 

[Popcorn22]

8 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

The placement of these episodes was odd given that it’s so similar to the sandwich she made yesterday. It could have been one episode as just an alternative. I mean is it that difficult to come up with 30 recipes when they are all so basic? 

And I wouldn’t call the crap she is cooking now a “meal”! It’s definitely what you would eat if you are drunk or high at 3 am! 

[pdlinda]

On 4/11/2019 at 4:37 PM, Sew Sumi said:

Does she make anything that's not 1000 (or more) cal/serving? Everything I've seen so far is a heart attack on a plate. 

That fact simply boggled my mind!! 

I guess some people eat with absolutely no attention to nutrition and I get that maybe she's offering alternatives to fast food,for people who indulge in that frequently, but simply seeing Rachael's weight gain is enough to sour me on her recipes. 

However, I will watch the show for entertainment and I do pick up some tips on how I can prepare certain foods (veggies mostly) using my own food choices.

[biakbiak]

I love shakshouka and make it often because it is quick and delicious, I just made a green version with tomatillos, I have never seen it with meat before and her version didn’t change my mind. It made it look so heavy. 

Also, they built her this set why did they put the oven so high, not to mention she hasn’t used the lower oven once, because every episode she complains about how she is too short for it. She is so repetitive even with her complaints but that one is particularly stupid when she could use the lower oven.

Edited April 13, 2019 by biakbiak

[Automne]

I have never liked RR and 30MM. My dislike is literally on the record; I was interviewed for an article back in the heyday of the original 30MM run. I like her even less now. She seems so jaded and cynical now and she didn’t even do a stint in prison like Martha Stewart to garner such an attitude. She reminds me of the bitter divorcée I work with whose every word out of her mouth is dripping with sarcasm and strychnine.

I don’t these 30-minute or 16-minute whatever meal hack job shows. Give me somebody like Alex Guarnaschelli who not only loves food, but the whole process of cooking and shows how enjoyable cooking can be, not a chore to rush through as fast as possible to make something barely on the side of edible. And like others said, the nutrition on these meals is atrocious. The whole point of encouraging home cooking is to eat healthier, not to just merely recreate fast food at a slightly cheaper price.

My other lifelong beef with 30MM is that it teaches rush recipes and not how to really be efficient at cooking. She gives a tip here and there that can be easily missed. Not showing how to batch cook, meal plan, shop at the grocery store, and meal prep in advance. With these speedy meal hacks, just prepping your mise would eat up a chunk of time.

Also, she rushes so much that I’m expecting her to seriously injure herself. The last episode I watched had her talking about how a friend of hers who seriously injured herself trying to get the pit out of an avocado, meanwhile RR was removing an avocado pit in a rather dangerous manner. 

[marmalade]

Yuck! This redo is gross and tacky, just like Rachael is on this show !

RR looks like a mess !  Her hair is all over her face, her weird turtle necks and sleeves that look like they are down to in her hands when she is cooking are weird ,  and  the “just got out of bed disheveled look “, is not what I like to see when someone is cooking .

She scratches her head and touches her mouth before handling food. She also got her hands dirty with mixing shrimp in one episode and didn’t wipe her hands when she touched other food ! And don’t get me started on the careless way she doesn’t really wash her hands ! Blech !

i agree that RR seems bitter , cynical and like she didn’t care to do this at all .  She also seems like she is just a real jerk to those whom she feels are below her - like the crew on the show! Her nasty comments and snapping at them is a major turn of for me too! 

Beyond her looks and personality , she looks like she’s not even trying at all. Her “meals” are sloppy one dish monstrosities that are fat laden and filled with too many spices and things like tater tots and frozen fries !

She used to at least make an attempt a making a complete meal, now it’s no way a meal !

And when I saw her use a wine bottle as a rolling pin, it didn’t look cute or clever, it looked like someone who didn’t even bother to tell the crew to make sure she had one to roll out her pizza dough , or didn’t want to bother taking the time to find it in the kitchen !  I am sure the crew had to deal with her snapping at them for that mistake .  But why is she not preparing at all before they tape ?

The grunting , yelling , and stupid names for everything and  to her talking about food with human pronouns like “him, her “. And talking to her food , does make her seem like she took a couple of shots before taping!

Hopefully , FN will let this show go away after the 30 days and if they want to hire cooks , they hire more like Molly on Girl Meets Farm snd let RR stay on her talk show !  

Edited April 14, 2019 by marmalade

[Yeah No]

I am LOL at the comments on this thread....I feel everyone's pain and I'm actually happy there is an outlet here to vent about Rachael.  None of this is anything new or unusual for me as I watch her talk show, I'm embarrassed to admit.  I FF through a lot of it but it's become like a habit for me.  It's not really a total hate-watch because sometimes I come away with something interesting, but it's usually not the recipes.

She has been wearing some of those godawful sweaters on her talk show too this season.  She admits she is not much of a fashion person and spends her private time in T's and sweats.  But she must bind and gag her stylists on the show and force them to put her in the most un-figure flattering monstrosities they can find.  Unfortunately I have her exact body type and am about her height so I know it's hard to dress, but it especially frustrates me because I know she could look soooo much better especially because she has all that help!  If even I could manage to do it, she could do it with all her millions.  She has stylists on her show all the time, like Stacy London, Clinton Kelly, Kyan Douglas, etc., etc. and it's like the elephant in the room with her dressed like Uncle Fester while they talk about fashion mistakes.  Meanwhile SHE is the BIGGEST fashion mistake right there!

As the late great Joan Rivers once said, "If you're poor and you don't look good, it's not your fault.  But if you're rich and you don't look good.....IT'S YOUR FAULT!"  LOL  😉

On top of all that, she has recently launched a fashion website where she has partnered up with some of those stylists to peddle clothes and accessories, presumably at "more affordable" prices than designer clothing.  Meanwhile you go on the website and the average price of anything is in the $600 range.  Affordable to WHO?  She has clearly forgotten her humble roots on top of anything else that can be said about her.

I also recently stumbled on a family tree of hers online posted by a relative and found out that her mother is probably only half Sicilian, which explains why she only talks about her Sicilian grandpa but no grandma (which is unthinkable to Sicilians because grandma is everything).  So if true that would make her 1/4 Sicilian and potentially a big fat liar because she is always claiming her mother is full blooded Sicilian like she is one half Sicilian on her mother's side.  Now it could be that her mother had a different mother than was on the tree, but I somehow kind of doubt that because there was nothing to indicate that was the case.   It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't constantly make such a BIG DEAL out of being Sicilian.  I am half Sicilian myself - my mother was full blooded Sicilian so it especially pisses me off that she might publicly misrepresent her heritage that way. 

She also constantly goes on about her grandpa like she learned everything about cooking at his side, meanwhile he died when she was only 5 years old, something I've known for a long time that I don't think she realized she admitted in one interview somewhere early on.  I honestly think she assumed her mother's identity as her own to push as her public persona because she wanted to look more Italian and closer to that food heritage than she really was.  No doubt she knows how to cook Italian food, but why be dishonest and continue being very outwardly dishonest about your family for your entire career?

Thanks for letting me vent!  😉 

[tinderbox]

Wow!  This show isn’t what it used to be.  I hate it!  

[goldenpuppy]

14 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I am LOL at the comments on this thread....I feel everyone's pain and I'm actually happy there is an outlet here to vent about Rachael.  None of this is anything new or unusual for me as I watch her talk show, I'm embarrassed to admit.  I FF through a lot of it but it's become like a habit for me.  It's not really a total hate-watch because sometimes I come away with something interesting, but it's usually not the recipes.

She has been wearing some of those godawful sweaters on her talk show too this season.  She admits she is not much of a fashion person and spends her private time in T's and sweats.  But she must bind and gag her stylists on the show and force them to put her in the most un-figure flattering monstrosities they can find.  Unfortunately I have her exact body type and am about her height so I know it's hard to dress, but it especially frustrates me because I know she could look soooo much better especially because she has all that help!  If even I could manage to do it, she could do it with all her millions.  She has stylists on her show all the time, like Stacy London, Clinton Kelly, Kyan Douglas, etc., etc. and it's like the elephant in the room with her dressed like Uncle Fester while they talk about fashion mistakes.  Meanwhile SHE is the BIGGEST fashion mistake right there!

As the late great Joan Rivers once said, "If you're poor and you don't look good, it's not your fault.  But if you're rich and you don't look good.....IT'S YOUR FAULT!"  LOL  😉

On top of all that, she has recently launched a fashion website where she has partnered up with some of those stylists to peddle clothes and accessories, presumably at "more affordable" prices than designer clothing.  Meanwhile you go on the website and the average price of anything is in the $600 range.  Affordable to WHO?  She has clearly forgotten her humble roots on top of anything else that can be said about her.

I also recently stumbled on a family tree of hers online posted by a relative and found out that her mother is probably only half Sicilian, which explains why she only talks about her Sicilian grandpa but no grandma (which is unthinkable to Sicilians because grandma is everything).  So if true that would make her 1/4 Sicilian and potentially a big fat liar because she is always claiming her mother is full blooded Sicilian like she is one half Sicilian on her mother's side.  Now it could be that her mother had a different mother than was on the tree, but I somehow kind of doubt that because there was nothing to indicate that was the case.   It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't constantly make such a BIG DEAL out of being Sicilian.  I am half Sicilian myself - my mother was full blooded Sicilian so it especially pisses me off that she might publicly misrepresent her heritage that way. 

She also constantly goes on about her grandpa like she learned everything about cooking at his side, meanwhile he died when she was only 5 years old, something I've known for a long time that I don't think she realized she admitted in one interview somewhere early on.  I honestly think she assumed her mother's identity as her own to push as her public persona because she wanted to look more Italian and closer to that food heritage than she really was.  No doubt she knows how to cook Italian food, but why be dishonest and continue being very outwardly dishonest about your family for your entire career?

Thanks for letting me vent!  😉 

My mom who was from Italy and used to always wonder where Rachael got some of her ideas that she said were “Italian”.

Rachael’s grandfather stories were interesting since he died when she was five .

She also likes the persona of being some lower middle class struggling kid who made it big, but I don’t think that is true either .

On one of her new shows she talked about her mom taking her to Hawaii for a high school graduation gift and meeting Tom Selleck.  The flight along from NY state is very expensive. I doubt they were poor and had that kind of extra money to take that trip !

Didn't her mom own some HoJo’s? I am sure she worked hard, but I don’t think they were poor or struggling.   Also, Rachael seems to have been inspired more by her the greasy spoon HoJo’s than an Italian relative ! 

Edited April 15, 2019 by goldenpuppy

[Bessiesue]

I agree with everyone else on what a huge train wreck of a mess her meals have been this week.  We had four BLD recipes this week.  Three were very similar in nature.  The sandwich is the only meal, I would consider making.

I did make the chicken parm patty pizza and the hamburgers.  Both were good, but nothing to really write home about.  I do not 

[biakbiak]

I make a similar chicken dish and that looked good but a chicken cutlet, a piece of bread and a handful of undressed arugula thrown on a plate doesn’t make a “meal” in my opinion and I say this as someone who frequently makes a simple salad of arugula as a part of a meal!

[fonfereksglen]

On 4/13/2019 at 8:12 PM, marmalade said:

Yuck! This redo is gross and tacky, just like Rachael is on this show !

RR looks like a mess !  Her hair is all over her face, her weird turtle necks and sleeves that look like they are down to in her hands when she is cooking are weird ,  and  the “just got out of bed disheveled look “, is not what I like to see when someone is cooking .

She scratches her head and touches her mouth before handling food. She also got her hands dirty with mixing shrimp in one episode and didn’t wipe her hands when she touched other food ! And don’t get me started on the careless way she doesn’t really wash her hands ! Blech !

i agree that RR seems bitter , cynical and like she didn’t care to do this at all .  She also seems like she is just a real jerk to those whom she feels are below her - like the crew on the show! Her nasty comments and snapping at them is a major turn of for me too! 

Beyond her looks and personality , she looks like she’s not even trying at all. Her “meals” are sloppy one dish monstrosities that are fat laden and filled with too many spices and things like tater tots and frozen fries !

She used to at least make an attempt a making a complete meal, now it’s no way a meal !

And when I saw her use a wine bottle as a rolling pin, it didn’t look cute or clever, it looked like someone who didn’t even bother to tell the crew to make sure she had one to roll out her pizza dough , or didn’t want to bother taking the time to find it in the kitchen !  I am sure the crew had to deal with her snapping at them for that mistake .  But why is she not preparing at all before they tape ?

The grunting , yelling , and stupid names for everything and  to her talking about food with human pronouns like “him, her “. And talking to her food , does make her seem like she took a couple of shots before taping!

Hopefully , FN will let this show go away after the 30 days and if they want to hire cooks , they hire more like Molly on Girl Meets Farm snd let RR stay on her talk show !  

I had never watched her previous show nor her talk show.  RR was new to me.

You mentioned everything that bothered me.  This show is unwatchable!

[biakbiak]

Wow a burger and barely doctored frozen fries, where does she come up with all these original ideas!!! 

[chessiegal]

Her weekday ratings are tanking.

[CharlizeCat]

3 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Her weekday ratings are tanking.

I am not surprised.  Regarding the daily talk show, I have only seen it when I have been "forced" to, such as during a recent wait in the dentist's reception area. Doesn't Oprah produce that show? I would have thought by now that maybe the "boss" would have had a talk with Rachael about her on-camera wardrobe and hair. I have always thought that RR had nice hair -- thick and a nice shade of chocolate brown -- but that overgrown mess of long layers not only is dated and unflattering, it's a health hazard in the kitchen. She still has a pretty face* and would look fine rocking a ponytail. Also ditch the oversized sweaters ... ugh.  Speaking of Stacy and Clinton, one major rule on WNTW was that dressing in shapeless oversized clothes only makes you look bigger. 

If I have to hear the rant one more time about how she chops onions, I am going to throw something at the TV.

*Her attractiveness has waned in my eyes over the years, as I get the impression that inside, she's not a very pleasant person. I have read enough horror stories and I don't care for the way she snaps at the production crew on the new now. 

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Wow a burger and barely doctored frozen fries, where does she come up with all these original ideas!!! 

She admitted on her talk show that she got most of the ideas for this present series from her young millennial staff.  I haven't caught up on later episodes yet but it sounds like she's phoning it in.  FN probably begged her to do this.

7 hours ago, CharlizeCat said:

I am not surprised.  Regarding the daily talk show, I have only seen it when I have been "forced" to, such as during a recent wait in the dentist's reception area. Doesn't Oprah produce that show? I would have thought by now that maybe the "boss" would have had a talk with Rachael about her on-camera wardrobe and hair. I have always thought that RR had nice hair -- thick and a nice shade of chocolate brown -- but that overgrown mess of long layers not only is dated and unflattering, it's a health hazard in the kitchen. She still has a pretty face* and would look fine rocking a ponytail. Also ditch the oversized sweaters ... ugh.  Speaking of Stacy and Clinton, one major rule on WNTW was that dressing in shapeless oversized clothes only makes you look bigger. 

If I have to hear the rant one more time about how she chops onions, I am going to throw something at the TV.

*Her attractiveness has waned in my eyes over the years, as I get the impression that inside, she's not a very pleasant person. I have read enough horror stories and I don't care for the way she snaps at the production crew on the new now. 

I think her talk show ratings are abysmal too and think the only reason that show is still on the air is because of her Oprah connection.  I noticed that when Oprah went off the air Rachael inherited some of her frequent guests.  I am sure that decision came from Ms. O herself.  Gayle King appears at least once or twice a season too.

Regarding her wardrobe I think she is defiant about not wanting to change her ways for anyone and probably has her producers tell everyone to keep their fashion advice to themselves unless she asks for it.  When Stacy and Clinton are on her show they probably have to bite their tongues all the way!  I agree about the shapeless boxy look.  It especially annoys me because I have her body type and I resist dressing like that at all costs.  But she's not the only one that does that.  I've noticed that Valerie Bertinelli has responded to her recent weight gain by wearing oversized boxy blouses and tunics that make her look much heavier than she is.  She might have gained a little weight but she looks as big as a house in those ginormous tops.

I've read the horror stories too.  I actually appeared on Rachael's talk show about 9 years ago as an "audience guest" discussing menopause symptoms and she was not pleasant nor did she acknowledge the audience at all when the cameras were off.  Plus guest stars always go on about how good the green room food is.  I guess because the group of women and I that appeared on that segment weren't stars we didn't rate more than a pitiful plate of pineapple chunks with toothpicks.  Then when our segment was over the producer wanted to quickly shuttle us off the set.  We had to beg her to be able to stay to watch the rest of the taping!

Edited April 17, 2019 by Yeah No

[biakbiak]

1 minute ago, Yeah No said:

She admitted on her talk show that she got most of the ideas for this present series from her young millennial staff.  I

But it’s why I stopped watching her original series long before the talk show it was so many versions of patties/burgers or sandwiches.

[Yeah No]

11 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

But it’s why I stopped watching her original series long before the talk show it was so many versions of patties/burgers or sandwiches.

She keeps regurgitating a lot of the same stuff.  A lot of it is diner type fare.  She ran out of ideas a long time ago.  She probably has more recipes appearing under her name than anyone in history.  She used to come out with a cookbook at least once a year if not more but hasn't issued a new one in 5 years (she is coming out with one later this year though).  I think it's good that she slowed down but the quality of her recent recipes is not as good as the old ones were.  I think her lack of recent cookbooks might also have to do with the fact that several years ago she was accused of using a ghostwriter to do her cookbooks.  She was very upset about that and insisted she wrote her own recipes.  I still make some of her older recipes but rarely do any of her newer ones.  I want to make those Korean sloppy Joes, though!  And I made a recent tostada recipe from her talk show too.

[Sew Sumi]

Her husband looks like a homeless schlub.

[biakbiak]

I can’t believe she was bitching about people who put cream in carbonara and then she adds celery, thyme, crab and old bay? Wtf! 

Who gets scared of gin?

Edited April 18, 2019 by biakbiak

[Sew Sumi]

RUN AWAY!!!! RUN AWAY!!!! 😂

[annzeepark914]

I saw her new 30MM show today and was shocked. As you all have described, she looked a mess. And her husband, who used to be attractive, doesn't look much better.  I do believe her intended audience is the person who's a novice in the kitchen & her old show did a decent job teaching them that basic cooking can be easy & result in tasty food. Not this show! There must be a cook who can do this show who would be more professional and take pride in her/his appearance. Heck, they've got so many cooks they've observed during all those Next Food Network Star shows. Surely one of them could do a basic cooking show.

[Bessiesue]

I believe this Carbonara show is the worst show aired on FN to date.  When she went on and on about how beautiful looking her dish was, and then told John to kiss her.  My husband and I both had the "oh my" moment.  

I am not all that familiar with Italian cooking (Slovak descendant), therefore I have no idea the cream vs egg method, but all of that just did not appeal to me at all.  She also chastised her husband for wanting to help, and then had him cracking her eggs.  

And yes, Rachael, some of us do cook and clean as we go, to help clean up go much faster.  My husband and I work with each other every night tag teaming to get dinner on the table and off. 

[larsonb]

20 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I can’t believe she was bitching about people who put cream in carbonara and then she adds celery, thyme, crab and old bay? Wtf! 

Who gets scared of gin?

Exactly ! She made a mess of carbonara ! None of my Italian relatives would eat that mess !

She always cooked fatty, greasy , unhealthy foods, but she used to appear to try to at least be a bit creative .  Now it’s just disgusting, and it’s like she’s not even trying  !

And she and her husband look unhealthy and like they are aging badly !

Its funny , because Ina and her husband Jeffrey are older than Rachael and John, and Ina is over weight , but they look better and healthier! 

I think Rachael and her husband are heavy drinkers who also smoke and eat the crap she cooks, and it shows ! 

[pdlinda]

On 4/17/2019 at 12:12 PM, Sew Sumi said:

Her husband looks like a homeless schlub.

I was watching her chef salad episode today and she looked so disheveled the "homeless" vibe struck me.  Her "salvation army reject" sweater hem was actually frayed on the bottom (I considered that the fraying was intentional to give her an "edgy" look but upon reflection I don't think so.  

Aside from the 3 "salads" being disgustingly caloric and rich, her hygiene made the episode impossible to watch after a few minutes.  She used her hands to mix the ingredients, then touches her sweater, then goes to the refrigerator...I could go on and on...her crew and production staff must be very intimidated by her (or maybe they need the job) to not insist she clean up her act and act responsibly. 

[Sew Sumi]

The sad thing is her sweaters probably cost $2-300/each. On sale.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Sew Sumi

[biakbiak]

46 minutes ago, pdlinda said:

Aside from the 3 "salads" being disgustingly caloric and rich, her hygiene made the episode impossible to watch after a few minutes.

And she made this big deal of putting different greens under each one but there was like three pieces of each green and a huge blob of rich salad and random pieces of cheese. She kept saying it was a chef’s salad but look like none I have ever seen.

Her sucking/lip smacking that shrimp on Friday’s show was disgusting!

[Sew Sumi]

Not to mention that with the "3 salad" messipe, she didn't even cook the eggs in real time. She has a ton of cheats, especially where clean-up is concerned.

[chessiegal]

Not to defend her, but you can buy eggs already hard boiled. It's what I've taken to doing when I make deviled eggs.

[Sew Sumi]

I'm salty here because she has always been about cooking from scratch other than promoting her own stock (haven't seen that in the store for YEARS....and about 50 lbs. ago.... including Photoshop that shaved about 20 lbs. originally). 

She used to cook eggs in ALL styles. She could have done it during a commercial break here; she had oodles of time to spare with her clean up shortcuts in which she admits to doing pretty much nothing. Certainly not washing the food processor twice.

[biakbiak]

What does she have against a green vegetable! Roast some asparagus along side the steak and you still come in on time! A handful of undressed greens isn’t a side it’s a garbish!

[annzeepark914]

Good grief. This show came on today immediately after Ina so I got to see Rachel act like a goofy preteen, all within just one minute (calling something sexy, making odd noises, & giggling). You all had perfectly described the awful change in RR. I had to switch channels right then & there! What a mess.

[biakbiak]

My mouth is still open from how she just straight boiled that rice, it’s going to be a mushy mess and not delicious, light and fluffy. It’s not difficult to do it right and can be done in 30 minutes 

[Coffeewinewater]

On 4/12/2019 at 4:01 PM, Popcorn22 said:

And I wouldn’t call the crap she is cooking now a “meal”! It’s definitely what you would eat if you are drunk or high at 3 am! 

I'm watching these new episodes and wow, wow.  While yes in her old show it wasn't gourmet but it was real food and I could see how it helped new cooks. This stuff in the new shows is drunk food. Almost everything comes with a side of frozen fries, tots  wtf??

Her husband looks like hell. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by Coffeewinewater

[Coffeewinewater]

On 4/18/2019 at 1:56 PM, larsonb said:

Exactly ! She made a mess of carbonara ! None of my Italian relatives would eat that mess !

She always cooked fatty, greasy , unhealthy foods, but she used to appear to try to at least be a bit creative .  Now it’s just disgusting, and it’s like she’s not even trying  !

And she and her husband look unhealthy and like they are aging badly !

Its funny , because Ina and her husband Jeffrey are older than Rachael and John, and Ina is over weight , but they look better and healthier! 

I think Rachael and her husband are heavy drinkers who also smoke and eat the crap she cooks, and it shows ! 

Thank you for the Ina and Jeffrey reference that really makes a great point.

If Andy Cohen is shocked by how much you can drink, then you might be a heavy drinker. 

Mario Batali( sorry to bring him up) also said that Rachel could hold her own when drinking.  MB was obviously a heavy drinker.

So yeah, Rachel and her husband look like they drink a lot.  

[biakbiak]

I realize she isn’t the only one to do this but I do not understand people who eat fries with pizza. 

I hate garlic fries with a passion! Too messy to eat and they are almost always soggy.

Does she have stock in a company that sells rotisserie chickens because good lord she uses them a lot! 

[CharlizeCat]

I watched carbonara episode yesterday. First of all, I was prepared to HATE Rachael's husband, but he wasn't  that terrible.  I mean as long as I didn't have to stand within smelling distance. LOL! His personality was OK and I was relieved to know that he has a legit job (entertainment lawyer) but still.  I still thought her demeanor was way worse than his.

Other than that, she was really working my last nerve with the cutesy little code talk with him. Ugh. 

Don't get me started on how terrible that "carbonara" looked.  I will say this about the show is that despite all of the other crap to sit through, I usually always pick up one good tip per episode and that was about using the pasta water to temper the eggs in the carbonara, so kudos for that.

Then I saw the portabella cheese fries.  Good lord. That was the second show where she made a riff on a Philly cheese steak and practically passed out over the provolone sauce. 

My question is what is the obsession with that hot pickled vegetable condiment (too lazy to Google the proper name and I don't like it anyway)? She puts that over everything as well. She's getting dangerously close to Pioneer Woman territory with the overload of random ingredients.

Oh, and ITA with everybody's comments about the heavy drinking.  It's already pretty obvious that all of the food is what you'd either order at a bar/all-night chain restaurant or throw together after a night of hitting the bars.

[biakbiak]

I thought it was funny that she mentioned Rick Bayless today when she was making that gloopy mess of “Mexican lasagna” because they are showing his new season here on PBS and he showed how easy (though it takes unactive time) to make both your own crema and queso fresco it was a good antidote to her show! 

[Sew Sumi]

@biakbiak, Bayless has new episodes? Which iteration of PBS station are they airing? IIRC, you're in the Bay Area, so we have the same stations. 

[biakbiak]

@Sew Sumi my TiVo picks them up on KQED on Tuesday’s at 7 pm and repeats at 1 am.

Edited April 24, 2019 by biakbiak

[Sew Sumi]

Thanks! Setting the DVR now. 😊

[Yeah No]

On 4/17/2019 at 3:12 PM, Sew Sumi said:

Her husband looks like a homeless schlub.

Hah, my husband says he looks like a heavier Charles Manson!  He never looked much better, he just looks a little fuller now and has a bit of a stomach.  He fancies himself the consummate mixologist and she featured his cocktail recipes in one of her cookbooks.  They are complicated and full of expensive specialty ingredients.  The kind you might buy once and never use again.

I watched the carbonara episode today.  I've seen her make it a few times over the years, mostly the classic way so I guess as she said she got bored and wanted to change it up, but WTF?  That was more like a crab pasta with egg, not a carbonara.  BTW, "messipes" reminds me of LiveJournal!!

I didn't think she looked so bad in this episode.  I've seen her look a lot worse recently.  She is 50 now and doesn't get enough rest.  She's going to have to cut back because she seems so tired and scattered all the time now, and the recipes are awful.  I still think part of that is perimenopause as I was tired and scattered a lot then too.  But she won't be able to keep up her crazy work schedule as she gets older. She didn't have to put out 30 episodes of this series; we could have done without 10 of them.  She's always talking on her talk show about how she has "9 jobs" and doesn't get much sleep.  She has a magazine, then I suppose she was doing one of the food and wine festivals recently, then she does her daily talk show, then this, etc., etc.  That pace was much easier when she was in her 30s and 40s but now I can tell it's getting to be too much to keep up and it's all catching up with her.

[biakbiak]

I am not opposed to salads with meat, I love a version of Nancy Silverton’s chopped salad that is basically an Italian sub in salad form that I make but this is the second time she has made a “salad” the quotes are hers where the meat, cheese and lettuce were left in huge pieces and not bite sized and she didn’t mix it so it would be difficult to eat. Perhaps she was too busy screaming about making microwave popcorn to notice.

Edited April 25, 2019 by biakbiak

[crazycatlady58]

49 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

I am not opposed to salads with meat, I love a version of Nancy Silverton’s chopped salad that is basically an Italian sub in salad form that I make but this is the second time she has made a “salad” the quotes are hears where the meat, cheese and lettuce were left in huge pieces and not bite sized and she didn’t mix it so it would be difficult to eat. Perhaps she was too busy screaming about making microwave popcorn to notice.

The making of the popcorn was beyond irritating. It seemed like she thought we all had problems with comprehension or something. I want to tell her she is not as cute or funny as she thinks she is. I do not gross out easy but when she ate the shrimp and just rinsed her hands of before she went back to cooking did me in.

[Sew Sumi]

Why did she make a heaping bowl of popcorn when all she did was sprinkle about 10 pieces on the soup? The amount of butter she used (almost half a stick) was staggering. The soup itself didn't seem that bad. I can't say that about most of her messipes (Shout out to RR Sux @ LJ! Some awesome snark was had there.)

[novhappy]

For me it is her weird gestures punctuating every word .... for sentences after sentence that make her appear crazy, rushed and difficult to watch.