you know I like my cooking shows. Sure I do get irritated beyond belief when any given chef fiddles with food preparation but that’s my bad since I am not very patient by nature and I like to keep my food simple (plus some stuff just refuses to cooperate no matter how hard I try – gelatin always without fail goes all horribly wrong on me so I just might be bitter).

Anyhow I found these clips on YouTube and at first I thought it must be a joke of some sort. I am all about being thrifty, on the budget and also about things being simple but this takes the biscuit altogether. Sandra Lee is a cook book author AND as you can see below has a show on Food Network. It boggles the mind. I’ll be the first to admit my cooking can go well… not according to plan especially if I am making something for the first time. And I have been known to try and patch things up the best as I can – for example if cakes goes all un-photogenic I will just use whipped cream as a frosting but at least I will make whipped cream myself (a trick an aunt of friend taught me You know – from scratch, with cream and all. This just seems horribly unhealthy.

But obviously there is a market for such a thing as Sandra Lee would not be writing cook books otherwise.
I do think it is a) hilarious and b) Raymond Blanc would have a coronary on the spot if he saw this.

Image: Stock.xchng

Dear faithful readers,

my apologies for the lack of posts but my comp is the shop again (AGAIN!). Which means I’m hotdesking all over the place. Hopefully (and I’m keeping my fingers crossed very, very hard for that one) the lovely albeit socially inept gentlemen at the IT shop will clean up the vent pretty soon so I can have my comp back. Gaaaaaaaah!

Anyhow my comp troubles aside an email popped into my inbox today from The Book Depository. I talked about the Book Depository before and I am their loyal customer so I simply had to share this.

Currently they are having the Book Depository Wodehouse competition where you can win all 70 (70!!!) of the hardback Everyman editions of Wodehouse books.

Now Wodehouse is one of my favorite authors and I especially like to have one of his books with me when I travel (don’t ask me why, I don’t understand it either) and the chance to be a proud owner of every single one of his books… well I would love, love, love to have them all on my book shelf. In fact I would have to get a new book shelf to begin with.

The competition is open until March 31. You have to answer 3 questions:

* a) Where does Lord Emsworth live?
* b) Who played Bertie Wooster in Granada Television’s 1990s series of Jeeves and Wooster?
* c) Which bank did Wodehouse work for between 1900 and 1902?

Send the answers to Editor@bookdepository.co.uk with the title “Ooh, a Wodehouse Competition” with your full name and address.

For all details of terms and conditions of the competition visit the Book Depository website and go on… send that email. I’m typing mine up as we speak

With lack of TV stuff to watch we experienced over last couple of weeks, it was refreshing to see this week’s schedule. Even though I was looking forward to the return of the good all favorites, Parenthood was the show I was silently excited about.

And let’s be honest, with pilot written by Jason Katims of “Boston Public”, directed by Thomas Schlamme of “The West Wing” and stars like Lauren Grahm, Peter Crause and Craig T. Nelson, I was holding on for some fast paced hard hitting dialogues I still miss since the days of “The West Wing” and “Boston Legal”. Well maybe that was my problem with this show. Even though we know all those people can deliver that blood boiling excitement of a perfect sentence that is both unbelievably intelligent and surprisingly funny; the characters in this drama are not the ones to speak that mumbo-jumbo that makes my heart skip. This story of parenthood presented by a typical TV family, whose members not only look nothing alike, but are as characters with their dysfunctions so diverse that they represent all socially acceptable classes with intention to makes them appear uber relatable to average viewers, are not a medium for that kind of writing. Can you imagine your mother and father speaking like Danny and Alan of Boston Legal or just about every dialogue between Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler in The West Wing?

Realizing my expectations were not going to be fulfilled, I quite enjoyed the show. It wasn’t one of those “No Bathroom Breaks” experiences where there is no Stomach Flu that can get you up from your couch, however it was a pleasant way to spend 50 minutes. Even Dax Shepard’s overacting was manageable to watch. I would also like to mention Monica Potter. In the scene with Peter Crause where they discuss their son’s illness, she was exhilarating and a true pleasure to watch.

So, will I watch Parenthood in the future? Well let’s just say that two of the people who made me so excited about this show, Jason Katims and Thomas Schlamme came together for pilot episode only. According to IMDB Jason Katims is going to write only one more episode and there is no other mention of Thomas Schalamme. In my opinion the future of this show is questionable if they do not bring on constant top-notch team that will make this show constant.  With Heroes becoming a humongous turd with superpowers and Chuck and 30 Rock only barely watchable shows remaining, NBC needs a hit series.

I cannot honestly say what cracks me up more – the denim cut offs or the pink leg warmers.

You can find out more about Sports Relief at their website and tune into BBC on March 19 to see the rest of the James Corden sketch (from what I have gathered it includes him giving David Beckham a massage teehee)

I have just realized I do miss our lovely Mr. Fry. I even had to resort to calling him uncle Steve (which I’m pretty sure would make his hair stand on end but whatchayagonnado so there )

Mr. Fry paid a visit to his pal Craig Ferguson (who for the record I truly enjoy watching) and in this episode there is no live audience. Even if it was sucky to the extreme I would still enjoy it. But it’s not, it’s two interesting people having a conversation.

(On the sidenote – Alice in Wonderland premieres today and I’m terribly excited about that (as you probably know Mr. Fry did the voice over for the Cheshire cat. Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Helen Bonham Carter AND Stephen Fry all in one place – I think my brain just imploded teehee). You can watch the premiere live on Facebook.

And then there is the sequel to the memoirs. Which I’m trying not to think about. And it is definitely going on pre-order because well… I do have to read it as soon as possible

Anyhow my dear readers, enjoy the Craig Ferguson segment down below.

Image via BBC

Dear readers,

have you checked out Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets? You know I love a good cooking show and even though I wasn’t too thrilled with Mr. Blanc after the disaster that was the latest edition of his reality show The Restaurant I wanted to see what he would come up with in this latest TV escapade (I didn’t even know it was starting until I saw a post on TV Scoop).

The premise of the show is that in each episode Blanc uses one ingredient (so far we have covered chocolate and fish) and shows us different ways they can be prepared. The recipes that he uses go from rather simple to extremely difficult (at least in my opinion – honestly thermometer to check if chocolate has been heated at just the right temperature, hmmm yes I’ll do just that

The first episode that covered chocolate went from very simple chocolate mousse (that looked delicious) to fancy cup (and saucer) made from chocolate and filled with some sort of coffee cream with truffles on the side. The thing is Raymond Blanc makes it look so easy and so effortless for a second there I thought I would be able to reproduce a chocolate coffee cup (saucer included) at home. And then I remembered what happened when I tried to make a simple chestnut puree from scratch (the mincing machine flew off of the table where I adjusted it and in the process I broke a glass bowl and cut my finger). So I would advise to stick to the simple recipes (at least in the beginning) and leave the more complicated stuff for later (and after you have purchased the blasted thermometer). Check out the chocolate recipes at BBC website.

In this latest episode fish was covered and I have to say I was quite amazed. Because it made me quite hungry for fish. I enjoy fish and chips as much as the next person and I love it grilled but I would never in a million years think I would look at fish stew and think – ha! that looks tasty! You can check out the recipes for fish dishes yourself. (down at the bottom of the page).

So all in all this series is quite a big hit with me. It also helps that Blanc (unlike Ramsay) doesn’t shout at all (AT! ALL!) and is quite goofy in the kitchen (drops things and somesuch which made me feel million times better since that happens to me too). But all goofiness and thick French accent aside it is a pleasure to watch a master at work.

Source: TV Scoop

Image: Outnow.ch

Dear faithful readers,

I am totally into movies lately. For some reason I cannot get enough of them (for example I thought The Blind Side was brilliant while Legion was hilariously bad). And I’m always on the lookout for a new contender. Shutter Island looks like it might satisfy a) my snobbish movie tendencies and b) it just might be good.

Shutter Island is the latest movie by Martin Scorsese starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo.
It is based on a book of the same name written by Dennis Lehane. The story is set in 1954 Massachusetts where US Marshalls are investing a patient who escaped from the hospital for the criminally insane. The trouble strikes when hurricane hits the area and patients manage to escape.

Shutter Island is described as thriller which I think makes a change for Scorsese who is all about big epic stories (or at least in my mind he is). I have to say I’m quite excited about this one, although to be fair I’m not the world biggest Leonardo di Caprio fan. But I think this one is definitely worth checking out.

See trailer below.

Image: Jack Rowand/The CW

Dear faithful readers,

you all know how much I love me some Supernatural. This show has gone above and beyond anything I would have expected when I started watching whatwasit 4 years ago?

Series showrunner Eric Kripke mentioned he would like to end it all with the current season however CW has picked up Supernatural for another season. And Kripke is stepping down as the showrunner with Sera Gamble (show’s executive producer) stepping in his place.

On one hand I am all yay! As in YAY! because Supernatural has been quite superb this season.

On the other hand remember X Files the later years? The years we will not mention? Precisely my point.

The all encompassing story line is literally Biblical – you do not get much bigger then the Apocalypse. And I love how they have introduced angels as Old Testament badass figures (yes I have just used angel and badass in a same sentence but if you have seen even one episode you’ll have to agree that is as good way as any to describe them). So now we have the Apocalypse, angels, archangels and devil while before there was only the yellow eyed demon. And if this particular story line is finished this season – where do we go from there?!

But if this season is anything to go on I have every faith the writers will deliver well… whatever they will deliver.

Also if you are interested what is the faith of your other favorite shows Ausiello has come up with a handy Renewal scorecard.

since there is nothing (NOTHING!) on telly due to the Olympics I have been catching up on my reading (on a side note The Gunslinger is doing my head in and I can totally understand why many people gave up on Dark Tower after reading it). And not that I mind the Olympics, I can watch curling like a regular person but there is nothing on. NOTHING!

I did start watching White Collar – have you seen it yet dear readers? It started airing back in October but at the time I thought I will not have enough time to watch anything new so I just passed it in wide berth. (Ha! Little did I know.)

White Collar is a crime dramedy (yes dramedy I’ve seen it used before. Although it is more of a medy then dra if you know what I mean) and it airs on USA Network. Peter Burke (played by Tim DeKay) is an FBI agent who specializes in white collar crimes. When he learns that Neil Caffrey (played by Matt Bomer) escapes prison with 3 months left on his sentence he knows something is up. See Caffrey is a conman, forger and expert in fine arts who Burke managed to put behind bars. Twice.

So when Bruke catches up with Caffrey for the third time, Caffrey offers to work on a case with him in order not to return to jail. And unlikely partnership begins.

The supporting cast includes Tifanni Thiessen (who I really disliked on Beverly Hills 90210 but quite like now), Willie Garson (of Sex and the City fame) and Diahann Carroll to name a few.

White Collar can be somewhat weak at times but the story lines are passable and it has just the right amount of light and frothy (like majority of USA Network shows) to keep you coming for more. Not to mention New York porn is quite spectacular.

Down below you can check out the White Collar trailer. And since there is no Supernatural for the next 5 weeks you have plenty of time to catch up.