Happy Endings

Thanks to Erasmo Cortez

My husband’s and my favorite new show is Happy Endings. It’s such a funny show, and the camaraderie between the characters is awesome. It’s basically like Friends but a lot more modern and risqué. I guess risqué is actually a synonym for modern, now that I think about it. But I digress. In any event, the show cracks us up every single week and we look forward to watching it. The best thing about having a favorite show that you share with your spouse is that you get to have a standing date every single week. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day grind of work that you kind of forget to spend time with your significant other. I’m obviously not saying that sitting on the couch watching television is necessarily quality time, but I think that any time spent together is better than nothing. As busy as we all are, even having that one hour carved out each week is a great way to recharge together. Check out the DIRECTV listings to find out when you can catch Happy Endings in your city.

Addicted to Homeland

Posted by Hyman Weeks

I decided that I have a really addictive personality. I know that sounds ridiculous but ever since I got DirecTV at home I can't find a show that I like on TV without making sure I'm DVRing every single episode of it, and when I get home and have more than one episode to watch I will watch them all no matter how late I have to stay up. That's what happened to me the other day when I discovered Homeland which is a new show on Showtime this year. There have only been 12 episodes but it took me exactly 12 hours to get through all of them… I stayed up until four in the morning! It's not like I have a lot of vices and I'm not addicted when it comes to terrible things like alcohol or cigarettes so I guess this really isn't the worst thing in the world but it is kind of embarrassing to tell someone I can't control myself when I find a TV show that I really, really like.

Burn Notice - Farewell Miami?

Written by my friend Marquis Finley

I have been extremely impressed with the quality of shows on the USA Network recently. One of my favorite shows is Burn Notice and the Season Finale left you with a lot to think about over the break. For those that don't follow the show, Burn Notice is one of the most entertaining television shows on cannonsatellite.com. It follows the character of Michael Weston who is a former "burned", CIA spy, who finds himself "stuck" in Miami. When you burn someone, you freeze their assets and cut off their connections. Michael finds himself "stuck" in Miami with his ex-girlfriend, Fiona, and former Navy buddy, Sam. I can think of worse places to be stuck in, but Michael's spent the last four seasons trying to track down the people who burned him, and free himself from their clutches.

In the finale, it appears that Michael has finally gotten his wish and has been reinstated as an agent. However, the dynamic between the three main characters is what has kept this show interesting over the years and it makes me wonder how this new wrinkle will affect that. If Michael has been reinstated as a full agent, how can he socialize with an ex-NRA member? He finally achieved his goal of clearing his name...so what's next?

Cooking Channel

I went and visited my aunt over Easter weekend, and she has the Cooking Channel on her cable, so it was my first opportunity to check it out. (My cable company sucks and hasn't added it yet.) After watching it for a couple days, I've basically concluded that Food Network took all of their good shows and put them on Cooking Channel, leaving nothing behind on FN except old tired "personalities" like Paula Deen, who ran out of original recipe ideas about four years ago, and new "original" programming like a show about a team of ice sculptors.

Cooking Channel has so much more variety and a lot more new shows. While on Food Network we're stuck watching Ina Garten make the same French recipes over and over again, Cooking Channel has shows about Italian, Indian, Chinese, and French cooking. While Food Network is showing us reruns of 30 Minute Meals and Barefoot Contessa from five years ago, Cooking channel has reruns of classic shows that people might actually want to watch, like Two Fat Ladies. Cooking Channel has Nigella. (Enough said.) While Food Network is still trying to make Melissa D'Arabian happen with the boring $10 Dinners (never mind that none of the meals could actually be made for $10), Cooking Channel gave Next Food Network Star runner up and should-have-been-winner Jeffrey Saad his own show, United Tastes of America. Bitchin' Kitchen is totally over-the-top and ridiculous but also totally entertaining, and even the food truck show is more interesting that watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives for the millionth time.

To sum up, I'd straight up trade in my Food Network for Cooking Channel at this point. Does anyone else who has seen both channels want to weigh in? I'll be busy trying to think up bribes for my cable company to get them to add this channel.

Man vs. Food

Guest post from: Joe Castro

My favorite travel show is Man vs Food. It's basically about a guy who travels all over the United States - and sometimes beyond - trying all kinds of famous foods and the dishes that put places on the map. Adam, the host, is a big, jolly guy who loves to eat and makes the best faces when he's tasting something for the first time, whether it's a great Philadelphia hot dog or a strange Puerto Rican delicacy.

I watch the show all the time and I've pretty much seen every episode. I have direct tv, so I can watch it whenever I want - my husband gets annoyed sometimes, but I don't bug him when he's watching football, so he'll just have to deal with it!

I love the way the show gives you a great look at both foods and major cities. I mean, if you're going to travel, you'll eventually have to branch out and eat something there - you won't have a choice. I like to think that the next time I go on vacation, I'll go to one of Adam's spots and I'll already know exactly what I should eat, because he's already done it for me.

Plus - and this might just be me - but I think Adam's pretty cute, too.

Sappy Stacey Moment: My Grandma Is My Best Friend

This Humana commercial gets me every time.  It features lots of adorable little kids hanging out with their grandparents/best buddies.



I have no idea what they're advertising and I don't really care, but I love it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go call my grandma.

It's a Semi-Homemade Halloween!

It's that time of year again - time for Sandra Lee to do a semi-homemade Halloween like only she can. FN was nice enough to put together a special video about her past and present costume craziness.




Sandra also gave an interview to PopEater about this year's Halloween show.

"It is hilarious. It's good TV. You'll never know you're watching Food Network," Lee tells PopEater of her Halloween episode.

You're close, Sandra. The reaction is usually more like "I can't believe this is on the Food Network!"

We know that you love to make cocktails on 'Semi-Homemade,' so what's on your drink menu for Halloween?

My Crystal Ball martini and my Queen of the Fairies cocktail. They're great. But I have to say for moms that are going out with their kids trick or treating, I highly recommend you have one espresso martini.

Oh Sandra.

5 Hour Energy for Busy Moms?

I've been seeing this commercial for 5 Hour Energy a lot lately.




So this mom needs 5 Hour Energy to get her through the day because she works so hard, both at her day job and her second job of taking care of the kids and the house.  She tells us this as she struggles in the door in her work clothes with two big grocery bags while the kids run around her, and then she tells us that 5 Hour Energy was suggested to her by her husband, who they show sitting around on the sofa reading a magazine.

I can't be the only one who saw this commercial and thought, "Hmm.  Maybe if her husband would put the magazine down, get off his butt and help her out a little, she wouldn't need an energy drink in the first place!"  Maybe I'm overanalyzing, but it seems a bit tone deaf to make a commercial targeted to busy working moms and include a not-at-all-busy-just-chilling-on-the-couch-with-a-magazine dad in there as the person who recommended the product in the first place.  "Hey, this stuff will give my wife more energy to do everything so that I don't have to get up and help!"

Of course, the main reason I've never tried 5 Hour Energy is not their advertising, but the fact that I've heard that the product tastes like cough syrup.  But ads like these don't really put me in a hurry to find out for myself.    

Who else hates the new Burger King breakfast ads?

If unfunny and grating is what Burger King was going for with these commercials, I think they succeeded:



I don't think I'll be downloading the BK Breakfast March for my ipod any time soon. I never thought I'd miss the ads with the creepy king. And of course the only woman who is prominently featured in the ad is the stereotypical hot chick who causes the guys to fall all over themselves. Sexism: it's what's for breakfast.

Semi-Homemade Wordless Wednesday: Broccoli Pie

Okay, I lied, I do have one word...WHY?!

[Photo from Food Network Humor]

Cooking Show Classic: Two Fat Ladies Afternoon Tea

I adore the Two Fat Ladies.  I watched it religiously when it was on and I never get tired of looking at their cookbooks and watching old clips.  Here's one of some yummy desserts for an afternoon tea.

Paula Deen's Lasagna Sandwich

Oh, Paula.

Sappy Stacey Moment: Subaru's Baby Driver

Another daddy/daughter commercial.  I think this little girl is totally freaking adorable.

Semi-Homemade Moment: Baked Potato Ice Cream

Let's all watch as Sandra Lee makes her Baked Potato Ice Cream.



"If you've ever wondered what to do with the top of your butter dish...".  Actually I never have wondered about that, Sandra.  Silly me, I always just thought that the top of my butter dish was meant to cover my butter.  Thanks for showing me the light.

This recipe is classic semi-homemade.  I'll actually give Sandra a few points here - it's a cute idea, the final product doesn't look that bad, and kids probably would get a kick out of it.  But as usual, the problems pop up when you start to think about how someone would actually eat this.  First of all, that's a LOT of cocoa powder dusted over that potato, and I can't imaging that would taste too good after a couple of bites.  I get that she wanted it to be brown on the outside and white inside like a real potato, but maybe chocolate ice cream would have been a better choice.

Then there's the frozen icing "butter".  She freezes an entire butter dish top full of icing just to use only one slice?  Do I smoosh the rest back into the icing container, or just keep it in the freezer for the next time I decide to serve ice cream potatoes?  And Sandra doesn't say how many this is supposed to serve, but because it's just one big potato, I'm guessing that some people are going to get end pieces that are extra cocoa powdered, and one or two people are going to get the whole "butter" slice to themselves.  Not that I'm that excited about the idea of eating a big slab of frozen lemon icing, but I feel like it might have been better to make some smaller individual potatoes instead of one big one.  Or maybe make use caramel or some other light colored sauce and call it melted butter, just to add more flavor.  I guess that wouldn't be "super simple" enough for our Sandy.

And finally, how truly sad is it that she refers to Reddi-wip as "the fancy spray stuff".  Oh, Sandra.

Cooking Show Classic: Galloping Gourmet

I love Graham Kerr. I've been watching his cooking shows since I was a kid. Here's a classic moment from his iconic show The Galloping Gourmet.

Semi-Homemade Moment: Brave Recipe Tester

Sometimes people who aren't that familiar with Sandra Lee and her semi-homemade cooking approach wonder why she's so hated by so many people. One of the biggest reasons is that most of her recipes just don't seem to be very good. And the frustrating thing is that with some of them, a couple of simple tweaks would improve the quality by a lot, which leaves people wondering if these recipes are the result of ignorance of laziness or both.

Here's some proof - a very brave person from EvilShenanigans.com tried out Sandra's recipes for cherry pie and king cake.  Her shocking conclusion was that they are not good at all.

Semi-Homemade Moment: It's Delicious!

This video compilation captures the essence of Sandra Lee in about two minutes. Make yourself a cocktail and enjoy.

Cooking Show Classic: Julia Child on Lobsters

Julia Child takes on some live lobsters in this classic clip from The French Chef.



Side note - I really love The French Chef theme song. It's so cheerful that hearing it just makes me happy. I know I'm a dork.

Sappy Stacey Moment: Just for Men Commercial

I know I'm a total dork, but I think these father/daughter commercials for Just for Men  hair color are cute.



There's another one where the dad is going on a job interview instead of a date, but I couldn't find that one on YouTube.

Now, do I think that the dad in this commercial really needed to dye his hair to make himself more of a "nice catch"?  Of course not.  But I still 'awww' at these ads every time I see them.  Like I said, total dork.

Some of My Favorite Sites Right Now

Here are ten sites that are favorites of mine right now.  This list should give you some idea of the topics that I'll probably be blogging about a lot.

1. Food Network Humor - I love to cook and watch cooking shows, but I also think the Food Network can be pretty ridiculous sometimes, so I spend a lot of time checking out Food Network Humor.
2. Design*Sponge- This is "a daily website dedicated to home and product design". I could spend hours looking through all of the cool stuff that the Design Sponge team posts every day.
3. Decor8 - Founder Holly Becker says, "I created decor8 to catalog beautiful finds and to inspire others."  Mission accomplished.
4. Orangette - Food blog written by Molly Wizenberg.  I love her column in Bon Appetit and I love this blog. Wonderful recipes, beautiful photos, and great food writing.
5. Cake Wrecks - Yeah, I know, who doesn't love Cake Wrecks?  But that's because it's hilarious.
6. Regretsy - Where DIY Meets WTF
7. Fred Flare - I could spend so much money shopping this site.  Cute clothes and extra super cute home accessories.  How have I lived without an ice cream cone lamp and a cheeseburger phone?
8. Coconut & Lime - Another awesome food blog.
9. The Semi-Homemade Cooking forums on TWoP - Sandra Lee's Food Network show tops my "love to hate" list, so reading this forum is like hanging out with a bunch of like-minded (and hilarious) friends.
10. Better Living Through Design - Features a wide variety of cool, interesting, and sometimes just plain wacky items.  Fun and inspiring.