Pages

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Surprise Blues Buster: Cooking Shows


Why do I love watching cooking shows so much?

At the moment, P. Allen Smith (Garden to Table) is mixing a Blackberry Jam Cake with walnuts. He’s cute! He can come make cake in my kitchen any time. Love that touch of Southern accent.

Cooking shows relax me. I inherited this trait from my father: I love to watch other people work, especially when they are cooking with skill and efficiency. Makes me feel good, seeing people getting ‘er done, even while I’m in the recliner.

Some of my favorite cooking shows are: Primal Grill, America’s Test Kitchen, Cooks Country, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Sandra Lee Semi-Home Made (I’m not a total cooking snob),Down Home With the Neelys, Mexico: One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless, Lidia’s Italy in America, Throwdown with Bobby Flay… and on and on. Undoubtedly, I left out some of my favorites and yours.

It’s hard for me to feel blue when I’m watching a cooking show. Always on the lookout for depression-busters, watching a few cooking shows on the weekends has become a ritual for me. And as Martha Stewart says, “It’s a good thing.”

How about you? What are your favorite cooking programs? Does any other genre of shows work as a blues-buster for you?

OMG, P. Allen Smith is putting Caramel Icing on his cake! Gotta Go!

8 comments:

  1. Giada De Laurentiis and Rachel Ray are fun, but I love listening to Paul Dean talk, epecially when she said "oil". I can't do it, I CANNOT copy it...no matter how many times I try. But I really love watching Diners, Drive-In's & Dives...seeing what people eat, even in the smallest of towns.

    But my favorite escape is travel shows. I can sit for hours watching No Reservations or Bizarre Foods or my new favorite, Off Limits. House Hunters International is another 'escape'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, that Paul Dean. She says y'all more than any human being on earth! And her "earl" instead of oil.
    I forgot about House Hunters International. I love that show and pretending that I'm buying a home in France or Japan. I've been surprised how many people (even men!) like that show or are closet watchers. Fun to dream.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good Eats taught me to cook, over the course of many seasons. My 5-thru-9 year old son LOVED watching the show. He's outgrown the interest, but I still tune in sometimes.

    I have a photograph of Alton Brown posing with our family at a book signing. We bought a special acrylic frame, with magnets on the back, so we can display it on our fridge :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's so great that you got to meet Alton Brown at a book signing. He has taught me so much about the chemistry side of cooking that I never would have known otherwise. Your son picked up a lot about cooking and chemistry through that show, I bet!
    Thanks for commenting!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alton Brown! Oh, we has so great. I have a huge, HUGE cookbook of his that my mother-in-law gave me a couple of years ago for Christmas. He really had one of the greatest shows. And, it's PaulA Dean...I forgot the "A"...oops.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Me, too. We changed Paula's gender. Woops.
    You know, even reading cookbooks calms me down. If I would read more cookbooks and eat a tad less, that would be a great diet.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, I love watching cooking shows! It's like a Saturday afternoon tradition for me and my kids. And a Saturday night tradition for me and my husband (hahaha!). We watch Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, for sure. The kids like Pitchin' In because the chef has so many adventures. When they were 1 and 3, their favourte show of all was Iron Chef America. Hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sounds fun to me. Just something about those shows that soothes my soul!

    ReplyDelete