Just my luck. I bought DD and DDIL PW cookbooks to put in their stocking and they were 19.95 each.

It's like buying electronics - the minute you do, the prices drop.

Thanks gg. I just bought it. (and two crock-pot cookbooks...)

Is it me or has PW become the person people love to hate? Two times recently someone served something of hers and announced it rather sheepishly, leading to a pretty negative conversation. She’s irked me since day one so I’ve rarely seen her. Although I’ve had success with a few recipes I’ve tried.

(This one’s for you, plllog, you may be right about that link!)

Shes' the new Paula Deen. I like her recipes mostly except they're not really the kind of food I eat.

Oh, you found a doozy, FOAS!

Re PW, before she was on FN, when it was just her blog, people really liked her. Many were disappointed to learn her true circumstances. Perhaps that's a source of the love to hate? I admire her for being true to her authentic self. Unfortunately, there's something about her voice and the way she expresses herself that I can't deal with (perhaps others have this issue, as well?), so I rush to change the channel when she comes on. From the bit I have seen, she does know how to cook, which some TV figures do not, but I find her recipes, the few I've seen, to be pretty ordinary. Sort of like Rachel Ray's. More for the harried homemaker than the cooking enthusiast. Nothing wrong with that. There are plentywho benefit from that. Just not for me. And perhaps another reason for the love to haters. There are plenty of offensive people in the cooking world. It's a shame that people have to go hating someone for little reason.

I do not watch PW or RR, except if it's on at the nail salon while I am there. But in defense of the somewhat ordinary type cooking, I usually come away with an inspiration. That's why I come here, why I subscribe to Serious Eats, read cookbooks, why I read the food pages in the paper and why I watch FN. I'm old enough so that I tend to slip into a rut when it comes to meal planning or ideas for appetizers or whatever. Just an inspiration is all I ask. Sometimes PW prepares a dish that I have made in the past (or something similar), and the idea just clicks. Sometimes the TV recipe might be a nice variation of what I already prepare, so I can tweak my recipe. Sometimes I learn a nice presentation.

Just because the cooking itself is pedestrian doesn't mean that I (not exactly harried, not a true "enthusiast", either, at least not every day) don't pick up inspiration.

When I'm wandering around the grocery store and some clerk asks what I am looking for, I just say "Inspiration." Gets a laugh and they leave me alone.

Excellent! Just to be clear, I wasn't putting down PW or RR, just trying to figure out why people hate PW, as FOAS mentioned. I don't care for her voice, but I have nothing against her! A lot of people want accessible recipes that they can follow verbatim without having to do or buy anything special or fiddly and feed good food to their families. That's what PW and RR offer. But I can definitely see being inspired by them in the way you described.

Yes, I don't care for PW's voice, either, and I can't quite put my finger on why. My cooking habits are transitioning now as my family is gradually leaving the nest, but for many years, I cooked family meals. I found PW's recipes better than, say, Paula Dean or Ina Garten's. I love to watch Ina in her lovely Hampton-y element, but very few of her recipes turn out well for me.

I work from home most mornings, and often have the TV on in the background to my local news. After it ends, Rachel Ray's show comes on, and I'm usually heavy into a project by then and not really paying much attention. But I'll be darn if I don't pick up some trick or strategy from her. I don't like what she cooks, but I like how she cooks. One tip I recently heard was to let water come to a boil before adding salt when boiling pasta. If you add the salt when the water is still cold, it scalds the pot. I've been boiling water for years and never, ever heard of this tip. It really makes me wonder what else I'm missing.

You can hear PW's dimples! I'll go 3 rooms away to turn the channel!