Welcome Aboard / Thoughts on Rachael Ray

Debut Post! This blog doesn't really have much of a point so don't expect a whole lot of deep posts about the meaning of life (or the meaning of my life). For the most part I just started this as sort of a dump for random thoughts on things I'm interested in like cooking, books, movies, music, etc. So please enjoy today's topic: Rachael Ray...

Okay. Now I know most (a lot) of people I know cannot stand her for reasons ranging from her use of cutsey phrases (like EVOO and Yum-O) to just her voice. Very few of the complaints actually stem from her recipes because (shocker) they are good.

So let us first talk about her wonderful cutsey phrases. Personally, I find that there is nothing wrong with them. Just because she talks that way does not mean that she wants everyone else in the world to talk that way to. And its not like everyone is devoid of verbal ticks. I say "actually" and "no big deal" and many other embarassing phrases that fortunately I have managed to only say around Brian but let's jsut say that if anyone else heard them they would probably want to vomit. So there you go. And sometimes I find myself thinking EVOO in my head (begin the mocking now). As for her voice, who cares.

And finally we come to the food. I have only made two recipes of hers so far that I have not liked. The first was this salad that probably would have been pretty good except the dressing part of the recipe was inedible (in fact her dressings are always a little weird but this one was actually full on disgusting). The other recipe was for Green Goddess Dip that might not have been so bad if it hadn't actually been green and if I wasn't already obsessed with the Melting Pot's version of the dip which tastes almost nothing like this one did. But I digress. What I was really going to say was that for people who aren't, you know, aspiring gourmet chefs her recipes are easy and tasty. And (huzzah) only take about 45 minutes (30 minutes, my ass like I'm that fast at chopping stuff) to make which for people who can't figure out what they want to eat until it's actually time to cook dinner, very helpful. Plus a lot of her recipes include the side dishes so you don't even have to think about that. Whole meals in one recipe including when you should start working on the side = awesome! Anywho for dinner last night we made Spanish Style Chicken with Mushroom-Chorizo Sauce and Butter-Herb Potatoes. Delicious. See visual proof.