Product Description

• Recipes for every palate and mood—the Semi-Homemade way creates an inspiring pairing of fresh ingredients and packaged foods.
• Quick-to-the-table, delicious recipes to satisfy any culinary whim any time of the day. Delectable breakfast fare, light lunch bites, family-pleasing dinners, simple appetizers and snacks, sassy cocktails, and more.
• Most recipes prepared in 30 minutes or less.
• All-new bonus chapters on red-hot topics: slow cooker favorites, restaurant remakes, and kid’s cooking.
• Time-saving tips for shopping, prepping, leftover storage, and Sandra’s brand recommendations for success.
• Wine suggestions to create delicious dining occasions every day.
• Beautiful photo of every recipe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265167 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-20
• Released on: 2005-09-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 239 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780696226854
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Does the thought of cooking from scratch make you panic? Do you stand in front of your supermarket's canned vegetables display frozen with indecision? Is your fridge filled with takeout containers, and your oven used for storage? If you answered these questions with an emphatic "Yes," Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Cooking might be the cookbook for you.

There are plenty of excellent quick-and-easy cookbooks out there, but this book feels like a cross between a giant advertisement and one of those free recipe books you get with mail-in proofs of purchase. Every ingredient that can possibly be branded is labeled as such. Lee's Salad Chinois is made with Swanson premium chunk chicken breast, Kikkoman soy sauce, McCormick ground ginger, Hellman's or Best Foods mayonnaise, La Choy chow mein noodles, Fresh Express prepared green salad, Chun King chow mein vegetables, and Dole mandarin orange segments. Gnocchi Dippers are whipped up with Alessi gnocchi, Bertolli olive oil, and, believe it or not, Kraft Velveeta cheese. The Malibu Rum Cake includes Malibu Rum, Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe yellow cake mix, and Jell-O vanilla instant pudding. And not only does Lee dictate brand names, she chimes in with advice on music and wine selections, as well. One can only hope that Wolfgang Puck wrote the introduction to this book without ever seeing it. --Leora Y. Bloom

From Publishers Weekly
Replete with high-gloss, high-glam food photography, Lee's debut looks like a sophisticated cookbook, but closer inspection reveals that most recipes offer little a neophyte couldn't figure out for himself. A professional "lifestylist," Lee includes recipes such as a Golden Mushroom Soup that's simply a gussied-up can of Campbell's, and a Kahlua Tiramisu that demands three containers of refrigerated pudding. Harried home cooks might appreciate her shortcuts on the nights that authentically homemade meals are strategically impossible, but some will take issue with her use of brand names for virtually everything but the cooking water-a decision that, unfortunately, makes the book read as though it were underwritten by Nabisco, Kraft and Swanson. Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes, for example, call for Aunt Jemima pancake mix, and the Tropical Salmon necessitates French's mustard and Sunsweet Fruitlings. Lee even extends to animals the prospect of semi-homemade dishes: the chapter on pet foods includes a recipe for Kitty Tuna Cakes, wherein the intrepid cat-lover is instructed to fry Purina Pet Chow and StarKist tuna into patties. With a eye towards crafting the whole dining experience, Lee also suggests wine and music for some of her creations: pork kabobs, for instance, call for Hugel Gentil (an Alsatian white) and Celine Dion. Television appearances and Lee's sunny persona will help sales, but purists should look elsewhere for quick recipes.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Semi-Homemade Cooking definitely will appeal to so many people . . . it thinks for them." -- Ellen Rose, Cook's Library, Los Angeles, CA

"Brilliant." -- The Today Show

"Fast and fab." -- Readers Digest

"Recipes are easy to follow and come with beautifully simple photographs." -- The Everett Herald

"Sandra Lee showed me an amazing new way to cook that everyone can enjoy . . . delicious and quick." -- Dick Clark

"Sandra Lee will make you look like a master chef." -- Entertainment Tonight

"Sandra Lee's philosophy makes sense and her delivery is entertaining." -- Karen Grant, The Grant Radio Show

"Sandra is an absolute delight. Informative and helpful. On a scale of 1 to 10, she is a 14!" -- Phil Paleologos, Talk America Radio Network

"Sandra's Semi-Homemade approach creates the ability to live life easier." -- Faith Popcorn

"This liberally illustrated book outlines more than 100 artfully presented, homemade-tasting snacks." -- The New York Daily News

Customer Reviews

Semi- additive Cooking
Very disappointing The recipes are filled with unhealthy ingredients .The concept is great but the nutritional benefits are not there-- so it isnt a quick fix for me.
Hard to imagine Wolfgang endorsing such a book

Not fancy, just easy and delicious!
I have to take issue with those reviewers who have attacked this book so passionately! True, there are "gourmet" cooks who wouldn't dream of adding any prepared foods to their recipes; they obviously have the time and energy to spend hours in the kitchen every day. However, I don't understand why a "gourmet" cook would even consider buying a book entitled "Semi-Homemade" anything!

This book was obviously written for people like me, who no longer have the time or energy to spend all day in the kitchen, and "Semi-Homemade Cooking" has been the answer to my prayers! I probably own a hundred cookbooks, most of them gathering dust on a bookshelf in the living room. I've been cooking for forty years, and only a few cookbooks have stood the test of time well enough to remain on my kitchen counter; this is the newest one to make the grade.

No, I do not consider myself a "gourmet" cook. I used to make complicated, time-consuming dishes that took hours and hours, but, frankly, many of them weren't any better than my favorite quick & easy recipes! And at 63, I want recipes that I can put together quickly and that everyone will enjoy. I am having a great time trying one recipe after another from this cookbook because none of them have taken a lot of time, and every single one has been delicious! Try Country Biscuits and Gravy, for example; my husband asks for it every Sunday. And Salad Chinois (Chinese Chicken Salad) is superb!

Bottom line: This is not a book for food snobs! This is a book for people who want delicious meals they can prepare themselves with a minimum of fuss. Try it, you'll love it! Many thanks to Sandra Lee -- I'm ordering "Semi-Homemade II".

Don't be fooled by these books,
just because the recipe says to use pre-made ingredients doesn't mean you can't take the extra time to make as many of them from scratch that you can, like shredding your own cheese, cutting up a onion, or making your own mashed potatoes, etc. I sub as many fresh ingredients as I can for the pre-packaged and I still have a good meal made in no time. That may defeat the purpose of the cookbook, BUT, the recipes are what stand out, and any can me made with fresh or pre-packaged items.

They are good, everyday family meals. The photos and lay out are outstanding, and the books are well priced for the quality we get from them. Worth the money.