Mystrich says:

I’m only on the Rachael Ray part of the video, but thought I’d throw in my two cents.

I was very disappointed with this Week in a Day. I agree it seemed like a big mess and seemed even harder than making them individually. I think it could be VERY improved by having tips like “This is how you can easily make meals” rather than “Here’s a hodgepodge of recipes, you might as well have just bought a cook book and made the first 5 pages.”

Although the premise is also VERY different from what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be making big hearty meals that can, as she said “Feed an army.” That’s how we always cooked in my family. One or two big meals at the beginning and then leftovers for dinner for a while. Repeat.

So lasagnas, casseroles, stews, etc. etc. Things that’s are filling and have a lot of servings to them.

Steve says:

Melissa D’Arabian films her show on a set and the cars driving by are on a reel. They filmed an episode of the Next Food Network Star (I think it was the episode when Aarti and Tom filmed their pilots) on her set and you could see the screens behind the windows.

Lana says:

Also glad to hear a podcast again! Hadn’t realized how much I missed ‘em.

Am horrified to hear you watched Minute to Win It! I just, can. not. bear to watch. The contestants on Worst Cooks are more real, there’re more boobs in M2WI than on all of Giada’s shows put together, the audience is PAID to be there, and Guy is … well, Guy. I’d rather have a root canal without Novocaine than watch.

If Guy is still wearing the same necklace as when I saw him last year, it is of a skull in chef’s hat, embedded with crystals in the eyes.

FN continues to be a bore, as you say. I always have such high hopes for new programs, but … *big sigh* ….

Lemon says:

Yay, finally my favorite podcast ever is back, missed you guys, thank you for taking time to make us laugh, I’m beyond addicted to this site, two month wait is worth it :) this rocks!!

Jaynie59 says:

Ina got on board the money saving kick with this weekends new episode of Barefoot. To benefit a charity that aids victims of sexual abuse, Ina donated lunch for six. It was a great success as the winning bid was $100,000.

The lunch ended up being for 9 since it included the original six plus Ina and Mariska Hargitay, who is involved with the charity, and Alec Baldwin who played Jeffrey for this episode. What’s an episode of Barefoot Contessa without a man making a fool of himself? Not that that is a stretch for Alec.

As usual, Ina did another cheap, lazy meal while congratulating herself on being unpretentious. Her passive aggressive put downs of anyone willing to pay big bucks to eat in the vicinity of her million dollar guest house, which she calls a “barn”, were only a little less awkward than the last episode that featured charity auction winners. She actually had to let them in her house. No wonder she wanted that barn so bad.

Anyway, lunch consisted of cucumber soup, pasta salad, and parfait. The soup had a shrimp garnish which was about a half a pound of shrimp cut in half length wise so that each bowl got 3 halves. Very economical way to stretch your shrimp dollar. Two pounds of pre-cooked lobster meat went into the pasta salad, freeing up the budget for those all important farm stand organic vegetables all down-to-earth, unpretentious people rely on. The parfait was Ina’s signature raspberry sauce, store bought meringues, and whipped cream. For fun, Ina planned to let her guests assemble their own. However, by the time it came to dessert Ina dropped all pretense of caring about hospitality and decided that crumbling up the meringue for her guests was too much work and plopped them, package and all, on her serving tray.

Lunch was a rousing success as the lucky winner’s $100K contribution paid off with an exquisite meal that probably set the Barefoot Contessa production budget back about $100. Maybe more. It depends on how much those orange peppers cost. Viewers also got a big treat from this episode by being spared another edition of Ask Ina. I guess they haven’t had any questions lately relating to entertaining on a budget.