As always, I appreciate you taking time to check out my random thoughts on Friday (or whatever day you come across them).
Two more installments are coming this month before I take a little summer holiday!
FOOD NETWORK
Now that I don’t have cable, I miss the Food Network the most. It was my go-to channel and I never watched anything else.
My favorite shows are “Beat Bobby Flay” and “Chopped” with Ted Allen. But, the person I love the most is Aarti Sequeira (I once wrote: “I’m totally mesmerized and I could sit and listen to her read the phone book all day! Well, okay, maybe a cookbook!”).
Earlier this year, I posted this cheesecake I made on X and tagged her and Bobby. Aarti replied!
Okay, it might have only been “Yum” with a yellow heart emoji, but she replied. It made my day!
“FROM SCRATCH: INSIDE THE FOOD NETWORK“
This 2013 Allen Salkin book is subtitled, “Big Personalities, High Drama — The Extraordinary Behind-The-Scenes Story” and it’s a very interesting read.
Several Food Network stars came away rather scathed.
One was Ina Garten. I’ve never watched her, so I knew little about her. Salkin painted her as difficult and that she “requires a lot of maintenance to keep her functioning”.
INA GARTEN
In the 13 years of my blog, I only mentioned her once.
In March 2021, while talking about Jonathan Alter’s 2020 biography, “His Very Best, Jimmy Carter, A Life”, Ina’s name came up.
I wrote, “Finally, famous celebrity chef and TV star Ina Garten (“Barefoot Contessa”) was an analyst in the Office of Management and Budget in the Carter administration to study nuclear weapons!!!” And, then I shared this…
ONE MORE THING ABOUT INA GARTEN
“‘Southern Living’ says Garten always keeps these three things in her freezer: vodka, vanilla ice cream, and bread! Those are definitely three of my favorites! (Well, I love flavored ice cream and flavored vodka!)”
“BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS”
While she started writing columns for “Martha Stewart Living” and published her first cook in 1999, she didn’t release her memoirs until 2024.
It was very enjoyable read: her childhood and the strained relationship with her mother; meeting Jeffrey (her husband of almost 57 years) at the age of 15; and the ups-and-downs of their long distance relationship once she left the White House and bought the specialty store, Barefoot Contessa, (a cheese shop and bakery) in Westhampton Beach, New York in 1978.
It was interesting to learn about how she didn’t want to do television and who cares if she might have been difficult when the TV crews were destroying her home and life while recording the episodes.
And, the story about her catering gig when no one touched the food was hilarious. Why and what happened then was even funnier!
I also checked out her first two books, “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook” (1999) and “Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes For Easy Parties That Are Really Fun” (2001) just to look at the food and the recipes.
Now I’m going to have to start binging on “The Barefoot Contessa” reruns.
“THE BEAR”
“The Bear” is coming back for a fifth season.
I’ll come right out and say it: As I was watching the fourth season of the Hulu’s hit series, I was hoping this would be the last season.
While I loved the first two seasons (GRADE: A-), the third season was enjoyable, but a little uneven (GRADE: B), and this season was interesting and very uneven.
My favorite episodes were one (“Groundhogs”), three (“Scallop”), and nine (“Tonnato”).
I absolutely didn’t care for the season four finale (“Goodbye”). I felt so uncomfortable watching it and I couldn’t imagine being stuck in a situation of having to watch that episode play out in real life!
Will I be back for season five? Of course.
THIS SEASON’S GRADE: B- (and that’s being generous!)
“CONCLAVE”
I’m not Catholic and I’m vaguely familiar with the process of choosing a new Pope, so the movie was enlightening — even if it’s Hollywood’s version of a conclave.
And, that surprise at the end was indeed a shocker since it came out of left field and I was able to avoid the spoilers online.
I thought it was going to be that the old Pope was murdered instead of dying from a natural death. Nope!
GRADE: B
AN AMERICAN POPE
So, if you’re Catholic, what do you think of the world having its first American Pope, Leo? And, from Chicago!
“THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT: 1972”
This is the fourth book I’ve read from journalist and author Theodore H. White. I read his books on the 1960, 1964, and 1968 presidential elections. And, there is one more.
The main drama in the 1972 presidential election was after Democrat George McGovern won the nomination and then chose Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate. Less than two weeks later, Eagleton was dropped from the ticket because of his past treatment for mental issues, including electroshock therapy.
In the November election, President Nixon won in a landslide in 1972 over McGovern. And, then the kicker, the bumbling of bugging the Democratic National Convention headquarters that led to Watergate and Nixon’s resignation in August 1974.
If you were around at the time or are a history buff, you know all that. What did I learn of interest that I didn’t already know?
On the flight back from California to Washington D.C. after voting, Nixon served a Napa Valley California champagne (Schramsberg 1970) and a Mexican-American lunch — the same lunch Nixon had taken with on his Peking, China, trip earlier that year in February.
As Nixon steamrolled to victory on Election Night 1972, White writes, “J. Caleb Boggs of Delaware… [was] “being defeated for the Senate by a young man, Joseph Biden, Jr., who would reach the Constitutional Senatorial age of thirty only a few weeks before he was due to take office.” Yes, the same Joe Biden.
PARTING SHOT — THEN AND NOW!
In White’s 1973 book, he wrote of the 1972 presidential election, “But the problem in the public mind was, simply, his competence [McGovern]. Americans take their vote for the Presidency very seriously — a sense of obligation weighs on that vote.”
Boy, how times have changed — “competence” and taking the presidency seriously!!!
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 