Fantasy Cooking

True to my “to do when retired list,” I have been watching the food channel every day. One of my favorite celebrity chefs is Sandra Lee who hosts a show called “Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee.” She is so over the top with foo foo that even I can hardly believe it. She is youngish, blonde, articulate, and very pretty. She is always dressed impeccably in stylish clothes, ranging from tracksuits to frilly blouses and dresses. But, here’s the kicker. Whatever color she is wearing, the kitchen is decorated in the same color. It must cost a trillion dollars to produce her show because the set changes for every episode. The blinds on the window, the dishes on the shelves, the small appliances such her mixer and blender, pots and pans, even the light fixtures, are the same color as her outfit. She usually has a beautiful floral arrangement in a color that matches. Today she had on white, so everything in her kitchen was white. She was even cooking and baking white foods! I cringed every time she turned on the blender or poured something into a bowl, expecting her to spatter something on that white outfit, but somehow she didn’t. Yesterday, she had on pink, so everything in the kitchen was a different shade of pink. Her Christmas show was all red and white. Halloween was all orange and rusts. Even so, with all that matchy-matchy going on, her recipes are really good and her decorating ideas and cooking tips are very helpful. She is enthusiastic, but not gratingly so; and she is not a dumb blonde in any sense of the term. She presents a fantasy-cooking world, with just enough usefulness to enable you to take her seriously.