This Guy

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Native son to the American Deep South - now living in Portland, OR. Lover of people, sustainability, justice, culture, writing, history, cuisine and coffee.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

in defense of sandra lee (I know, I know)

Now, most folks probably don’t know who Sandra Lee is or the battle that rages within my conscious about why she deserves her own show on Food Network.

First off, her show is called, “Semi-Homemade Cooking”. She gets 70% of her ingredients from the store and 30% from home. (Which I’m assuming are things like..sugar…flour…and maybe aluminum foil?)

As a proponent of making things from scratch, I am automatically conflicted. I’ve used canned biscuits my entire life, but now that I know how to make them from scratch, it just doesn’t compare. For one, we don’t know what goes in canned biscuits. We know they taste good but what exactly are those words that use letters like z, x and q?
Who actually cares these things are in canned biscuits?

I do.



But I also understand that cooking from scratch takes time. Let’s be honest, we don’t always want to come home every day and put together a pot of chicken stock. Most of the time, I buy it from the store and sleep peacefully at night. In fact, a lot of times it’s good to support the people who just do it better than you. Of course, check the back of the box for what’s in it. If it’s a good source, you can go home knowing you’ve helped someone pay their bills.

So, in defense of Sandra Lee, we have to be realistic of what we can and cannot do. I do not think we should buy boxed ingredients full of MSG, preservatives, trans fats and loads of salt. I believe she’s popular because she’s somewhat realistic of the time most Americans have when they’re the main cook for their family.

I would hope that you don’t trade in your organic [or not organic] veggies for canned or pre-processed foods, but I do encourage that we learn to cook with good ingredients. Personally, I don’t mind taking the time to make these things work. I love doing it and have the spare time. If I had a few kids and a steady 9-5 job, I’m sure it would be different. Even so, I would hope that I would watch the things that go in our bellies.

So no, Sandra Lee, I don’t believe you are an evil spawn from the land of preservatives (generally speaking), but I do hope you realize that a lot of manufactured foods aren’t good for us. I would hope you don’t encourage people trade in their ‘made from scratch’ ingenuity for semi-homemade cuisine.

And please, don’t ever make Kwanzaa cake again. Ever…ever…ever!

(For the unfortunate invention of Kwanzaa cake, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we2iWTJqo98 )