Laughing at Sandra Lee is Cathartic and Good for the Soul

Normally I vote democrat ... but Andrew Cuomo is dating Sandra Lee?

Gack!

I'm gonna have to look over all my voting options this upcoming election.

This headline brings an especially huge evil grin to my face: Cuomo's Mom Trashes His GF Sandra Lee's Lasagna. Mama Cuomo don't like it!

Apparently Sandra's recipe uses cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I have nothing against this. Cottage cheese has more protein. It has a lot less calories and fat than if you use whole milk ricotta. But it doesn't have that much fewer calories or grams of fat if you've been using low-fat ricotta (low-fat ricotta has about 30 more calories and 3 more grams of fat per cup than 4% cottage cheese, so if you use 2 cups for a small lasagna or 6 servings, then that's a difference of 10 calories per serving).

Also, apparently, she uses canned tomato soup instead of tomato sauce. Now, that gets me peeved. Why?? Soup, sauce. It all comes in a can. So her choice isn't due to convenience. If you want condensed tomatoey goodness, use tomato paste. The only reason to use tomato soup is if you actually want less real tomato and more corn syrup in your lasagna!

But still, it's not so much about her recipe. It's more about her. What is it about her? There's really nothing wrong with her. There's actually a lot of stuff to admire. I admit: If I ever met her at a party, I'd compliment her on her success and on her appreciation and obvious love of her grandma. I bet she'd be a lot of fun to chat with. Lots of fun at a party. Nonetheless, as soon as I see her on TV, I start to giggle and squirm.

I guess it's all a matter of degree and awareness:
Degree
It's not just that she uses packaged foods. Noo! It's that she uses TONS of packaged foods, calls it healthy, serves it to kids (on her show), and comes up with atrocious egregious wasteful combinations of packaged foods in completely unnecessary ways (so many examples, but here she is cooking with baby food).
Awareness
It's not just that some of her recipes are absurd, silly, weird, and gack-a-licious. Noo! I'm cool with that. Frost ice cream to look like a baked potato! That's cool. Just at some point, I want to see a flicker of awareness of what you're selling to your audience. That you know this food probably doesn't taste great. That you know this kind of cooking is just to be silly and foolish. That's it's all just for fun.

I can stand behind fun. I can't stand behind peddling corn-syrup-chemical-preservative-crap for fun.

I guess Cuomo picked a person perfect as a running mate, oops, I mean date. They both seem like ultimate politicians. Each in their own ways. And, of course, I'm sure he loves the way she says the word "COCK-tail."

The aforementioned ice cream made to look like a baked potato