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CNN Live Today

Talk with Sandra Lee

Aired December 18, 2002 - 10:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is crisis time. If you are as far behind in your holiday cooking as you are in shopping and mailing, our next guest is here to help. Sandra Lee is the author of "Semi- Homemade Cooking." She joins us now from our Los Angeles bureau, and you know, it has to be some shortcut if you're getting up this early and looking this good in L.A.
Sandra, good morning.

SANDRA LEE, AUTHOR, "SEMI-HOMEMADE COOKING": You're very sweet. Good morning. Thank you for having me back.

KAGAN: Good to have you last week. I was in a little party crisis myself, stuck in New York, party was supposed to be down here in Atlanta.

LEE: Well, today we have some amazing food ideas. I want to talk to you a little bit about my new cookbook. I have some news to share with you.

KAGAN: What is that?

LEE: "Semi-Homemade Cooking," my cookbook, just hit the week of December 22nd, number five on the "New York Times" bestseller list, which means there are a lot of people who can use some tips. So let's get right to it, Sandra.

KAGAN: What's with this tree you can make out of angel food?

LEE: Well, this is a tree that I just picked out of a fabric store, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take an angel food cake that's already been premade for you in the grocery store. That's what this is here. You cut this little baby right in half, and then you frost it with cream cheese frosting, put in some white chocolate chips right in the center, put this back on, frost the whole thing, and then you'll just take your tree and pop it on the top.

This what it looks like when it's all done. And what I did was I embellished this with some packages. These are very inexpensive little packages that you can get at the crafts store anywhere at all.

KAGAN: I think it's even possible -- it would be impossible for me to mess that one up.

LEE: This is very, very simple. But you look fabulous, and that's the point.

KAGAN: And drinks, how to make drinks.

LEE: Fabulous drinks. Behind my book, I have champagne. I like to make bellinis (ph), something very, very wonderful to serve, taste great, and you don't need an expensive champagne to make them.

In fact, the less expensive the champagne that you use, the better, because what you want to do is highlight the flavor of the juice. Yes, juice is good. There's a couple of ways to make this, by the way. I like Kern's juice from the can. And they have great flavors. They have, like, strawberry kiwi,mango nectar, fabulous things. Also, you could use, of course, cranberry juice, which is very festive.

Or for true bellinis (ph), I like to take canned peaches, put them in the blender and pulp them, so you have a nice pulp, and then put them in your champagne glasses, put in your champagne, decorate the glasses a little bit. Notice how I've done this. This is just silk greenery, or ribbon, but look how sweet this looks.

KAGAN: That's nice.

And then, Sandra, do you come over to my house afterwards and clean all those glasses?

LEE: That's right. Or, you know what, use plastic ones and toss them.

KAGAN: That's what we did last weekend.

Quickly, what is the number one mistake people make when they're entertaining that make it harder for themselves?

LEE: Well, I think they don't enjoy themselves enough. I think they spend too much time stressing out and not enough time enjoying their company or themselves, or what they've created. I mean, I just threw my holiday party on Monday evening with my husband, and we had over 100 people, and I was walking around saying hi to everybody. And I thought next year, I'm going to invite 30 people, and I'm going to sit down and have a nice chat.

KAGAN: Well, the key for me was having my sister come to my rescue, and I still say thank you, to me, my sister. But everyone can't have Kalin (ph), so if you can't, check out Sandra Lee's book, "Semi-Homemade Cooking." Sandra, thanks for joining us.

LEE: Thank you. Merry Christmas.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 18, 2002 - 10:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is crisis time. If you are as far behind in your holiday cooking as you are in shopping and mailing, our next guest is here to help. Sandra Lee is the author of "Semi- Homemade Cooking." She joins us now from our Los Angeles bureau, and you know, it has to be some shortcut if you're getting up this early and looking this good in L.A.
Sandra, good morning.

SANDRA LEE, AUTHOR, "SEMI-HOMEMADE COOKING": You're very sweet. Good morning. Thank you for having me back.

KAGAN: Good to have you last week. I was in a little party crisis myself, stuck in New York, party was supposed to be down here in Atlanta.

LEE: Well, today we have some amazing food ideas. I want to talk to you a little bit about my new cookbook. I have some news to share with you.

KAGAN: What is that?

LEE: "Semi-Homemade Cooking," my cookbook, just hit the week of December 22nd, number five on the "New York Times" bestseller list, which means there are a lot of people who can use some tips. So let's get right to it, Sandra.

KAGAN: What's with this tree you can make out of angel food?

LEE: Well, this is a tree that I just picked out of a fabric store, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take an angel food cake that's already been premade for you in the grocery store. That's what this is here. You cut this little baby right in half, and then you frost it with cream cheese frosting, put in some white chocolate chips right in the center, put this back on, frost the whole thing, and then you'll just take your tree and pop it on the top.

This what it looks like when it's all done. And what I did was I embellished this with some packages. These are very inexpensive little packages that you can get at the crafts store anywhere at all.

KAGAN: I think it's even possible -- it would be impossible for me to mess that one up.

LEE: This is very, very simple. But you look fabulous, and that's the point.

KAGAN: And drinks, how to make drinks.

LEE: Fabulous drinks. Behind my book, I have champagne. I like to make bellinis (ph), something very, very wonderful to serve, taste great, and you don't need an expensive champagne to make them.

In fact, the less expensive the champagne that you use, the better, because what you want to do is highlight the flavor of the juice. Yes, juice is good. There's a couple of ways to make this, by the way. I like Kern's juice from the can. And they have great flavors. They have, like, strawberry kiwi,mango nectar, fabulous things. Also, you could use, of course, cranberry juice, which is very festive.

Or for true bellinis (ph), I like to take canned peaches, put them in the blender and pulp them, so you have a nice pulp, and then put them in your champagne glasses, put in your champagne, decorate the glasses a little bit. Notice how I've done this. This is just silk greenery, or ribbon, but look how sweet this looks.

KAGAN: That's nice.

And then, Sandra, do you come over to my house afterwards and clean all those glasses?

LEE: That's right. Or, you know what, use plastic ones and toss them.

KAGAN: That's what we did last weekend.

Quickly, what is the number one mistake people make when they're entertaining that make it harder for themselves?

LEE: Well, I think they don't enjoy themselves enough. I think they spend too much time stressing out and not enough time enjoying their company or themselves, or what they've created. I mean, I just threw my holiday party on Monday evening with my husband, and we had over 100 people, and I was walking around saying hi to everybody. And I thought next year, I'm going to invite 30 people, and I'm going to sit down and have a nice chat.

KAGAN: Well, the key for me was having my sister come to my rescue, and I still say thank you, to me, my sister. But everyone can't have Kalin (ph), so if you can't, check out Sandra Lee's book, "Semi-Homemade Cooking." Sandra, thanks for joining us.

LEE: Thank you. Merry Christmas.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com