I don’t recall the exact moment I first came under the magical spell of the talented Sandra Lee but I think it might have been around the time (2004?) of what I like to call her fabulous Hannukah Treif Cake: a luscious store-bought angel food cake adorned with blue-tinted canned frosting, marshmallows inexplicably stuffed into the center, and non-edible plastic pearls securing its perimeter.  

Of course none of us can go to that much trouble every day, which is why I love cookbooks like this one.  With its creative use of processed and pre-prepared ingredients, they challenge the very notion of “recipe.”  Who says “cooking” has involve anything but heat and the thoughtful choice of Campbell’s soups?  Julia Child is dead people, get over it!

And I know that you will also appreciate doing things the Sandra way.  Like me, you will love how every ingredient is brand-specific with a registered trademark symbol beside it.  And what on earth are you going to do with the time you save by buying RealLemon juice in the plastic lemon-shaped container vs. squeezing it out of a problematic and hard-to-find actual citrus fruit?  (Well, you could work on your tablescapes for one thing.  I’m just sayin).

So pour yourself a glass of April Fool’s Vineyards Rose and let’s avoid cooking!