Watching Rachael Ray

We start off in the kitchen today, with cool cucumber cups, three ways: Curry Chicken, Mediterranean, and Asian Chicken.

While the audience takes one and passes it around, Rachael is joined by one of the world’s most beautiful women, Cindy Crawford - who looks stunning as usual! (though the pan of the audience applauding shows one girl who looked like she didn’t know who the hell she was clapping for. Funny!)

They start off talking about the reactions that Cindy gets running around her neighborhood, where she says folks are used to it. But when she’s in professional mode, it’s fun - like when guys on bikes crash rubbernecking. Ha! She likes that most people in Malibu respect when she’s in her sweats hanging out with her family. They talk about the Pepsi Commercial with the two boys - which was almost 20 years ago! There’s a new one now, that includes her kids, and she wore her original shorts from the first take for this new version! They had to adjust them a little, because the style was different (They altered the high waist to a lower one).

She’s been married for 10 years now to Rande Gerber - she admits that marriage is hard work, and anyone who says it’s not is lying. It’s not all fun like in the movies, they work hard at having couple time because family life can overwhelm and take over every aspect of your marriage. Cindy loves to cook - and says she’s not bad, and her husband likes it so that’s what matters, and they do family dinners. When asked if her kids are picky dinners - she laughs and says they’re kids. Edamame is the rage at her house too (Everyone is talking about that stuff - I’m going to have to try it. Heh.)

She juggles her family life and career and is now at the forefront of becoming environmentally conscious. It’s intimidating, she says, but you can start with just one thing - unplugging your appliances when you don’t use them, then take another step, and the next step. Stop drinking bottle water, and use reusable water bottles. You can check out PUR’s Thirsty for a Change here where the proceeds go to help provide safe drinking water in underdeveloped countries - and she encourages filtering your own water with PURs filter system.

An audience member asks her what she indulges in - what cheat foods does she love? She doesn’t call them cheat foods, and says that’s where they make the mistake, you need to give yourself permission to have the things you love in moderation. She loves the Dagoba Chocolate Chips, a small handful does ya, and it’s not overwhelmingly bad for you that way. When asked what she still wants to do, she says she doesn’t want to limit herself, and she has always wanted to simply be open to opportunity that comes her way. She does judge each one now on what will be best for her and her family. She also plugs her new beauty line - Meaningful Beauty. Last but not least, she admits to being completely startstruck by Paul Newman. She was with her ex-husband, Richard Gere, a very handsome guy, and was completely enthralled by seeing Paul Newman.

Next up, we meet a very special cook who was brought to the show’s attention by a very special letter. Mary cooks for 50 college boys three meals a day, 5 days a week. Mary is the house cook for the boys at 17th Avenue House, a student community house in Seattle. The boys decided to write into the show because Mary watches it while she’s at work - they went one step farther though, as each of the fifty boys wrote their own paragraph to say how much Mary means to them and how much they love her.

The boys, with the help of the show, surprise her with a trip to New York to be on the show, something that brought Mary to tears as they told her she was going to help make a school video project. They gave her a note, that sent her downstairs where all the boys gave her flowers and then a note that told her to look outside where a Limo waited with a driver holding a sign saying “Come outside”. Once there, Rachael, via DVD, invites her to the show. The boys cheer and send Mary off to pack for the trip - and surprise her again by meeting her on the plane, where she squeals “YAY! MY BOYS!” Awwww! How cute is she?!

Mary and the boys join Rachael on stage for a group photo, where the boys are all wearing “I heart Mary” shirts, and she says she’s just thrilled to have them there, and doesn’t have to worry about who’s taking care of them while she’s gone. The boys were thrilled to see how excited she was to see them, and says the experience was priceless. Too cute, seriously! Zach says that Mary is more then just their cook - she cares about each of the guys and it’s like having a house mom. Mary jokes “That’s a lot of kids!” And Rachael adds “Glad you didn’t do THAT the traditional way!” Alec adds that they appreciate her, and they’re in New York, and she’s their house mom and they love her like she was their own mom, and Mary is brought to tears. There’s a picture op, of course, as all the guys huddle close around them.

And if that isn’t enough - dinner time! Steamed Napa Rolls.