A serving of crow with a side of my own words

In preparation for the Sandra Lee potluck, I've been flipping through her recipes on Food Network's website. As I was reading through the always mixed reviews--for every person who claims her food is "filling and delishes" [sic, naturally] or makes the baffling claim that her cupcakes "definitely tasted like a Boston Creme Cake. I know this and I'm from Nevada......... :)", there are an equal number who describe the dishes as "greasy grey and highly unappetizing," or "tragically malicious"--something occurred to me.



If and when I report that the food at our potluck was horrible--as recipes that involve instant oatmeal, apple pie filling, whipped topping and cream soda can hardly help being--the random Sandra defenders that keep turning up are going to say that I'm only saying that because I hate her, or because I can't stand admitting I was wrong. Which is plainly untrue. I have no problem admitting I was wrong; it's just that it happens so very rarely.



Case in point: When Rachael Ray's Express Lane Meals: a 30 Minute Meal Cookbook (aka the last Rachale Ray book I will ever buy) came out last April, I took particular exception to her recipe for an Inside Out Pizza-dilla Margherita, saying that "pizza made on a tortilla" was "wrong, wrong, wrong."



My reasons for thinking this include but are not limited to the following: 1) pizza is baked; quesadillas are fried. Fried pizza = gross. 2) a tortilla fried in olive oil = gross (tortillas should only be fried in butter or lard for that mas autentico y delicioso flavor). 3) fusion food is overdone, and this is such low end fusion--it's like it rips off both Mexican and Italian cuisine (both of which I love) without actually being or even paying homage to either.



But then I was home one night and I hadn't been grocery shopping, and I hadn't thawed any meat, and I was out of eggs and I didn't have any salad stuff. What I did have was one tortilla, some sliced provolone cheese, and some marinated sun dried tomatoes.



And I thought: Pizza-dilla. They weren't quite the same ingredients as the Rachael Ray recipe, but they were close enough. And I used her technique, even down to frying the bloody thing in a little bit of E.V.O.O.--that's extra virgin olive oil for those of you who've been in a coma for the last five years.



It was so. Very. Good.



I have made variations on the Pizza-dilla several times since that fateful night. The one pictured at left was yesterday's lunch--basil pesto, Sargento Italian cheese blend, sun dried tomatoes, and a little grated pecorino romano. Worlds of gooey deliciousness.



So I will admit: I was wrong about the Pizza-dilla. Very wrong. It's actually fast, delicious, and probably much better for me than the Wendy's and Taco Bells that beckoned to me like beacons in the suburban wilderness as I ran my errands.



Does this mean I no longer think Rachael Ray is overexposed, and that I take back what I said about kind of wanting her to die a little? No. It just means that I have the grace to admit when I'm wrong (I suppose it's easy to be gracious when such things happen so very, very infrequently), and that you can rest assured that I will extend the same courtesy to Sandra Lee should any of her recipes prove to be edible.



But just between us? I wouldn't hold your breath on that one.