Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee (2003–2011) User Reviews

Can Opener Cookery

[sweinhold · 1/10 · 6 July 2008]

Are you kidding me?! A show highlighting someone who opens cans and envelopes for a meal? How talented do you have to be to do this? She MAY be able to cook but it is NOT portrayed in this half-hour stomach churning painful production. I know she has a Martha-Stewart-esquire empire. So does Warren Buffett but I don't see him with fake knockers opening cans of cream corn and Alpo.

She has a nephew named...Brycer. Brycer? Stop talking about anyone a name that stupid.

More time is spent on "table-scapes" than actual cooking. Who has that kind of time?! Silicon should be on your spatula, not on my TV. This show should be on Cartoon Network, NOT Food Network.

Excellent Ideas to Get-R-Done

[jelane_johnson · 8/10 · 30 January 2008]

I love this show because the recipes work for someone who barely has time between work and everything else to prepare meals from scratch. On the weekends, I'll try "from scratch" recipes from other cooking shows and I have a great time with them. But during the week, I've incorporated Sandra Lee's techniques and they have worked out great.

She's had some really fun ideas for party food and favors. Marshmellow popsicles covered in fondant may not be the height of healthy, but for a party the kids loved them.

While I'm not much into decor, I do love most of the cocktail ideas. You may be cooking for kids, but the grown-ups need some love too!

If you are obsessed with gourmet cooking, or if you want everything to be from scratch, watch a different show.

A review of a cooking show...

[rmrphotos · 10/10 · 24 January 2008]

Did I say cooking show? Oh,I meant a lifestyle show,because it seems to me that to Ms.Lee making her food to match her table-scapes or kitchen-scapes is more important than making said food TASTE good.

The 'Semi-Homemade' food-making credo is that you take 70% store-bought items from your kitchen,add 30% fresh items,and you have 100% fast and easy meals.This concept in and of itself is not a bad idea,if properly implemented.And the main problem with this show is just how Ms.Lee attempts to do just that.She tends to prepare meals at a very novice level of expertise,kind of like a 10-year-old pretending to be a world-class chef with all the ignorance of the job that comes with trying to pretend.She uses words like "cut into nice pieces" instead of "dice" or when she's brushing any liquid to any solid at any temperature,it is called "basting".She also consistently mangles foodie words like 'EXpresso' for 'ESpresso' or 'MARScapone' for 'MAScarpone',giving other words too much of a lazy Mid-western dialect* like 'melk' for milk or 'frush' for fresh.But it's the way she phrases her sentences that drives me nuts and makes Yoda sound like he's freaking Shakespeare (ex:"...a cup of sugar into the pot it goes" WTF???).

I can forgive her show not being the apex of culinary terminology if the food she makes looked or tasted good,but she tends to make unusual flavor combinations and to over-flavor the bulk of her concoctions with seasoning packets and pre-made sauces out of the bottle.

And speaking of bottles,Ms.Lee has the infamous 'Cocktail Time' which is where,near the end of the show,she puts together her versions of alcoholic delights her to enjoy.These cocktails are usually made up of tons of booze(almost never properly measured into the drink *wink-wink*)and these drinks always has some big piece of garnish floating in it that serves as a choking hazard after knocking back a few of her 'tinis'.

After all of this I still will give the show a 10 out of 10 because no matter how terribly bad her show is,I will continue to religiously watch it for the "it's so bad,it's good' factor...kind of like watching a roadside crash of a clown car,if you know what I mean.

*Note: By this,I don't mean to put down the dialect of the fine folks of the Mid-west...heck,we here in the South talk about as good as y'all do up yonder,I reckin'!