So, last night we had a little party for my BIL’s birthday, and my SIL said that there were two really good cooks coming who were going to bring great food. “Yay!” I think–I love great food. But when they arrived, I realized that in fact, they had brought 3 Pampered Chef recipes. I dislike PC food, esp. since the main ingredients always seem to be either mayonnaise or cream cheese, and I’ve been avoiding PC parties for several years now.
But since there wasn’t exactly anything else to eat for dinner, and the food did look pretty yummy, I tried it out. There was a pizza roll which was bland and goopy, taco dip which was bland and gooey, and that infamous fruit pizza–the fruit part was pretty good. Cream cheese was indeed the major ingredient in all 3 dishes.
Mulling this over in bed later, I realized that Pampered Chef is the modern version of those 50’s cookbooks you see featured in Lilek’s pages. The emphasis is on convenience of preparation and on presentation, but no attention is paid to flavor or nutrition. Everything ends up pretty but bland and boring and bad for you. The cookbooks have lots of pretty pictures that make you hungry, but the actual dishes are crap.
After the food was eaten, my SIL came by and said brightly, “You have to come to my PC party in June, we’re going to make more yummy food!” I think I need some really good Indian daal right about now…
Wait, I have to admit I’ve avoided the horror that is Pampered Chef. But I thought they sold kitchen tools and gadgets. Did they start putting out recipes to sell their gadgets?
Googlegooglegoogle.
Oh. I guess they did. On their website recipes, they thoughtfully put all their crap for sale in a sidebar AND they bold their items in the recipe itself. “How on earth will I measure this ingredient? Oh, look! A Pampered Chef measuring cup! click”
Is there any real food, or is it all Sandra Lee “Mostly Crap I bought at the store and mixed together to look new” style cooking? 'Cause I’ve only clicked on three recipes so far, and I’m a little scared. (Don’t get me wrong, I use mixes all the time, but it ain’t “company food”, and I don’t claim myself a good cook for being able to follow directions off a box.)
The whole plan seems to be ‘create a “recipe” that uses as many gadgets as possible, looks good, and is simple enough that the demonstrator can keep a running sales pitch going while assembling the entire thing.’
Lots of premade stuff, like Pillsbury crescent rolls used for anything that might work with any type of dough whatsoever, prepared cookie dough, etc.
The pitcher thingy rocks, though. This one, although I have older models with far less stupid-looking handles.
Me too. I’ve managed to avoid learning who or what it is, because the phrase makes me picture a chef (possibly Hector Boy-ar-dee) wearing nothing but Pampers and one of those poofy chef’s hats, and that’s not something I want any part of.
Is “Tastefully Simple” the same way? I know they sell lots of mixes. My girlfriend who sells it is a really interesting person, but I can’t bring myself to pay those prices.
I don’t know anything about Tastefully Simple, so I can’t compare, but PC basically puts out lots of little recipe books–seasonal or desserts or whatever–and the instructions all call for the special PC tools (“grate some Parmesan in the PC Hand Cheese GraterTM”). They don’t sell any mixes that I know of, but the recipes always call for frozen pizza dough or various pre-made items, so that they’re very quick to put together. They do put in veggies and fruit, which you can slice up by using special slicers.
Just be grateful to have avoided the plague, WhyNot–don’t venture into places you wot not of!
One may have to dig into the PC ‘cook books’ to find nicer, cleaner recipies, but they do have a few. Emphasis on FEW. Why I got outdone with their recipes is that they heavily rely on ‘whop-em’ canned dough. I mean, really, how hard is it to turn out a pie crust or biscuit dough?
I kinda liked their “use up the leftover turkey, include some dried cranberries” version of the biscuit ring. I grew up in Minnesota, though, so I can enjoy the elements of white cuisine, (referring both to color and ethnicity, I guess) like cream cheese and mayo.
I think I need some really good Indian daal right about now…