Watching Rachael Ray

And its a showdown that’d make Garfield - and me! - happy!

Potluck Thursday means two dishes, the audience gets to choose, and everybody eats! The unchosen dishes are donated to hungry New Yorkers who go to City Harvest for a hot meal – no hurt feelings among the lasagnas! Everybody wins! The choices today were between two different Lasagnas – Red and Green Lasagna, and The Winter White Lasagna. It was an easy choice for the audience – Red and Green all the way!

Before we get to that, though, it’s time to talk about Holiday Manners with the kids. A mom of four is at her wits end when the kids tear into the gifts without looking at names, and disrupt sanity at the dinner table. From shoving food in their mouths, to thinly veiled insults – all Mom wants for Christmas is kids with good manners.

[…..Lessa Soapbox Time. Why haven’t these parents been training the kids all along? There is NO EXCUSE for this – it’s straight up lack of parenting. When you expect everyone else to train your kids, from the schools to the television, you don’t get your bloody good manners anywhere? UGH. Seriously. Kids will be kids, but there are limits, and the parents must set them early!]

Ahem. Harriette Cole is on hand, wanting to get mom and dad on the same page, because dad jokes, and mom is the law maker. The Parents can’t agree, so the kids take total advantage. Unsurprisingly, the kids themselves are unapologetic for their behavior, and even proud of it. Talk about getting the attention for negative behavior, they got on national TV! Am I the only one who sees the irony there? The kids, of course, were cracking themselves up.

Gotta give the 8 year old Mike his props though – when asked why he wanted to have bad manners, he said “Because I want to be a bachelor when I grow up!” Harriette has some hints, from showing by example, to getting the kids to teach the younger kids. If all else fails, use bribery. Make it a game, and reward them for good behavior.

Unsurprisingly, the kids weren’t buying it. It’ll take a little more Martial Law before fun and games can be used, IMHO. So we’ll just move on before I drag my soapbox out again…

Moving on! Yay, another Food Stylist segment! Rachael doesn’t bake, of course, but Patrick backstage has a favorite shortbread cookie recipe, made three ways! Yum-o indeed! How cute was he?! As a bonus, check out his recipe for Minty Double Chocolate Pie, too!

Josh Groban joins Rachael to help get us all in the holiday spirit with his beautiful voice – singing Christmas Classics, and sharing some traditions of his family. His mom has collected so many ornaments they have to use two trees! He’s also gone home and found his mom blasting his CD, so he’ll sneak in and change it to Heavy Metal Christmas on her. He loves the music they chose for Noel, but is a little sad he couldn’t get Gramma got Ran Over by a Reindeer on there. (That’s a favorite in OUR house… right Nana? (grin))

Last but not least – it’s time to make that Red and Green Lasagna for Dinner! (And get the White Christmas Lasagna recipe too!)