November 14, 2024 • 46 mins
The recipe for a great Gilmore Girls episode is a heartfelt small-town story, a dash of romantic tension, and of course… a heavy pour of pop culture references. We’re going “semi homemade” this week when we talk to chef and author Sandra Lee!
She was mentioned in “A Year in the Life: Summer” as a potential chef for the Dragonfly Inn, and we’re going to find out what she would have done IF she had gotten the job!
Sandra shares her journey through crafts, county fair blue ribbons, and we learn how to set the perfect tablescape on I Smell Pop Culture!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Am all In.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
As I Smell Pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart
Radio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Do you smell something I do? I Smell pop Culture? Hey, everybody,
this is Easton Allen. This is the I Am all
In Podcast one eleven productions. I Heart Radio, iHeart Media,
iHeart podcasts. We're doing I Smell pop Culture. I'm back again.
Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. I've gotten
all your letters, I've gotten all your fan mail. It's
just overwhelming the amount of positive reaction we've gotten from
(00:42):
this show. So thank you again. Before we get started
to hear on this next episode, I just want to
thank you so much from the bottom of my heart
for giving us a chance. You know, given me the
gift of your time. I listened to a lot of podcasts, Okay,
I listen to a lot of shows, and like every
now and again, a show you'd listen to, you'll get
like the sidekick or like the third guy on the
(01:05):
microphone will like have his own bit or his own
he'll host the show, like some as the producer that
you hear from from time to time, we'll like host
their own show. But never once have I listened to
a show and heard them say, Okay, we're gonna let
the sound guy host it. I've never heard that before,
so I don't want to use the term trailblazer or
(01:25):
pioneer lightly, but I do believe that we're covering new
ground here. We are going boldly into a place that
has never been to before in the world podcasting. And
I'm so glad, glad that you're coming along with us,
because you know, you download a podcast about your favorite show,
it's hosted by the guy that plays your favorite character,
(01:46):
and then you press play and you hear the sound
guy instead, and that's got to be a audio whiplash
on a scale hitherto undreamed of. So thank you for
coming along with us. We're we have a really exciting
show for you today. So here's what we're doing this week.
You know, Melissa McCarthy did not return as Suki for
(02:09):
the revival for the Year in the Life mini series,
and the fix there was to bring in a bunch
of like celebrity chefs that would fill her vacancy at
the Dragonfly in And we're going to talk to a
chef that was mentioned in A Year in the Life summer,
and I'm so excited to get into this, but first
(02:30):
I got to preheat the oven here, I got to
adjust my table scapes. But stick around and we'll be
right back after these words.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
iHeart podcasts. Listen on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Hey, wow, those are some fantastic products, fantastic services. I
can't wait to spend all my money there and use
all those promo codes that we so graciously give you.
My name is Easton Allen. This is I smell pop
culture here on the IM all In podcast. So as
I was saying right before, right before we heard all
this wonderful commercials. In a Year in the Life, we
have a vacancy at the Dragonfly In. The chef position
(03:07):
is open, and they bring in celebrity chefs like Roy Troy,
Anthony Bourdain, Rachel Ray. They all come by to try
to get the job at the Dragonfly In. They're all
chefs vying for this prestigious role. And in summer, in
a Year in Life, summer, there's a scene where Luke
and Loralai are arguing in Luke's diner and Luke storms off,
(03:31):
but first he says, I've got muffins in the oven
at the end for breakfast tomorrow, because Sandra Lee called
and canceled because she talked to Aine Garden who said,
don't go to the Dragonfly because it's awful. How was that? Scott?
Was that good? Could I be Luke in a in
a stage production? Maybe? But so Luke says that, And
we're going to talk to Sandra Lee. Yes, Sandra Lee
(03:53):
is going to be here on I Smell Pop Culture.
We're heading into the kitchen today. We're going to head
into the kitchen. We're going to talk to this legendary
chef and crafting icon, Sandelie. She is a pioneer herself,
talk about trailblazing like we're doing here on this podcast.
Sandralie is truly an innovator. She created the semi homemade
(04:15):
concept that was her show on the Food Network. It
ran for fifteen years, Semi Homemade. And what that concept
is is it's the fraction is like seventy percent store
bought thirty percent fresh ingredients. You're taking like a pre
made food, food thing and adding in something else, changing,
(04:36):
tweaking something, adding in a different ingredient and creating something new.
And I think that is just such a such an
interesting and exciting idea, especially for if you're trying to
create something excellent on a budget. I think that's such
a cool idea she got. She won an Emmy Award
for Semi homide Cooking with Sandralie. It ran for fifteen seasons.
She's also a best selling author. She has written twenty
(04:59):
seven books. Friends, I don't think I have read twenty
seven books in my lifetime. She has written twenty seven books,
the cookbooks, She's written a novel. She's a breast cancer survivor,
she's an advocate, she's an aspiring business woman, truly inspiring.
We're going to talk about it all, and I promise
you we're going to find out what would have happened
(05:22):
if she hadn't bailed on the Dragonfly and if she
had taken that job, what would have happened. We're going
to find out about it all. But wait, do you hear?
Speaker 4 (05:30):
That?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Looks like it's ready. Sandra Lee. She's here. Let's bring
her in. Sandra Lee is here with us. Thank you
for doing this. We're so excited.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for including me.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You're such a legend. There's so much to get into,
but I want to go back to the beginning. I
want to start at the start. That's a great place
to start. How did you first fall in love with
being creative through crafts and food and things?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Like?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
When did you discover you had a passion for that?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Always when I was I mean I remember being when
I lived with my grandmother until I think I was
six years old. We were always in the kitchen or
I was in the sandbox and making something in the backyard,
or coming in the kitchen and decorating cakes with her.
Because my grandma makeed all the cakes for the church.
(06:20):
So that was kind of her donation because we didn't
have a lot of money, but she would bake all
the wedding cakes, she would bake all the shower cakes
and all the birthday cakes, and so that was her
gift because she couldn't donate money, so she did that
and she ran the community service there for her entire
adult life.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I think is that where did she when you were
baking cakes with her? Did she like did she get
super creative with how she decorated them? Is that kind
of where you kind of got that.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Her decoration and her presentation. So my birthday cake, my
sister and I our birthdays are one year and four
days apart, so I'm July third, July seventh. So my
grandma would bake cake. She would bake them from scratch,
though she's not a box girl, but she would do
things like make us an eight inch cake and bake
two of them right like you do. And then she
(07:13):
would take one of those silver pie tins and flip
it upside down and put the cake on top of
that as our pedestal.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
It would decorate it with all the icing and all
the little fancy stuff, and we would each have our
own cake, and then she just hand us a fork.
And I still do that, like I have friends. I'm
a godmother of two boys with my best friend Alexander
Stanton and her husband Sam, And before they were even married,
we would go to the store if we were like
having a week and I was just starting semi homemaid
(07:39):
living in New York City to do some my homemade
and we would go to the store and buy a
sheet cake, take it to the hotel, get forks, and
literally just sit there and eat the sheet cake and talk.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I knew I was gonna love talking to you that
I did this exact same thing. There's nothing matter in
just eating she cake with a fork.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
I know. I have this new QVC show coming it's
called Sandra Lean Now, but it's introducing it Sandy Claus
and they're like, do you want to put cakes in
your show? I'm like yes, and they go, okay, so
how are you going to slice and serve it? I go,
I'm going to stick a fork in it? And they go,
I don't think you can do that. I'm like, I
think I'm gonna do that. Okay, I'll cut a slice
and then I'm going to stick a fork in the cake.
(08:19):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh my god? I love it. And speaking of QVC,
you've you've been with QVC for a long time.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
There is my entire adult life.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
It's something I was really impressed by that I didn't
know until I was doing some research for this. You
created a product in the nineties called the curtain Craft,
and I was so impressed and blown away by that,
Like how how did you come up with that? For
people that don't know's, it's like it's a system to
create your own drapery and things like that and take
(08:52):
spare fabric and repurpose it. How did that idea come
to you?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well? I needed to decorate on a budget. And I
had a bedroom that I was renting in California in
a house and I it was actually hairy Malibu. I
was a waitress at the time, but I went down
and I got fabric sharing fabric from downtown LA. It's
like a dollar twenty five a yard dollar ninety nine
maybe ninety nine cents. It was really inexpensive. And I
(09:18):
take coat hanger wire and I just started bending it
and like making these apparatuses where I could pull fabric
through and make pretty flounces and you know, swags and ruffles.
And my uncle came over, my uncle Bill, who just
went to Heaven a couple of years ago, and he said, honey,
(09:39):
those he was he's a welder and a construction worker,
and he goes, I think that's a product people would like.
So I showed it to my aunt, who was a
huge crafter. I mean she did everything from tri kim
which is like painting, to jewelry making to art making.
I mean she was just a genius crafter, baking, she
did everything you could eat, all for Flora's aunt Peggy.
(10:02):
But my uncle said, you have a gift in this
is a product line, and you have to take it
to a fair and exhibit it. And so his friend
was a welder and he made up all of these
for me, and I took it to the La County Fair.
I won the Blue Ribbon for Product Display and Design.
It's a home decorating line. It ultimately wound up being
(10:23):
about one hundred and twenty products. People think I always
wanted to be a personality, and maybe I did, but
I hired Florence Henderson at this time to be my spokesperson,
and Gary Collins from the Homey Home Show Days, which
nobody remembers that show, but it was just this brilliant
how to show. And so I really started in product
design and manufacturing and creating packaging and ways for people
(10:49):
to do things that were beautiful like you saw in
all the fancy magazines, but on a budget. And so
curtaincraft was born, and then floral craft was born because
my grandmother would say, Honey, don't send me flowers. They
just die. And I'm like, she's right, they just what
should I do? So it was this silica gel crystals
(11:12):
and you put a flower in them and you cover
it up completely and you leave it in there for
like a week or two and all the water is
absorbed and you just have this gorgeous, real flower. And
then I would take the you know, the flower wire
and the flower tape, the floral tape, and I would
make her a bouquet that lasted forever. And she loved them.
(11:34):
But then she called me and she's like, Sandy, it
just collects dust.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I'm like, you can't wait.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Can I say that on the air? I was like, so,
I'm like, she's right. So then I created a product line.
I got with a chemist and I created a product
to go with that silica gel that ate the dust
so you would it wouldn't hurt the flowers, but it
ate up all the dust. I'm like, Grandma, look and
she's like, oh, that's really She goes you know what
I saw, honey. I saw these pretty Cape de Monte
(12:06):
flowers that are on the side of a vase. And
I used to like my first money ever, Nobody's going
to know what the hell I'm talking about. They're just
going to think I'm like crazy. But I drove all
the way out to Librea, California, from Santa Monica, which
is like ninety minutes, because they had a new store
called fitzen Floyd wasn't a new product, but a brand
(12:26):
new grand opening store, Fitzmfloyd. We was all these teapots
with like bunnies on them or bears on them, and
they're really collectible. You were talking about. This is like
the early nineties. So anyway, yes, I was born before
two thousand. Anyway. So I drove all the way out
there to buy this teapot and I'm like, cro call
my aunt Peggy. She's like, you don't even have an
(12:48):
apartment yet, honey, and I go, I know, but I
have to have this teapot from fitz Employd. So fast forward.
Kapi de Monte was like the next level of Fitzmployd,
which you still can't afford. But they make these gorgeous
flowers out of glass. So I created a product within
the floral Craft line that if you sprayed it on
(13:10):
the flowers multiple times, they turned into this glass like thing.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
You spray it on the like once living flower.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
On the one living flower that you dried. So then
that was born. So floral Craft became a whole line.
And I really what I do is I invent products.
Nobody knows that I like invent products like I'm doing
Christmas now and I'm working on twenty twenty five Christmas
because twenty four is done and we're loaded in. But
look at this bow. This is like a double bow.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It's stunning.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It's stunning. You can't get this one yet, but I
mean I literally pulled it out this morning. I'm like,
that's twenty twenty five. So when you're sitting I think
about this Christmas, I'm already decorating for next Christmas. That's
called it Sandy Clause. Like, I just love it.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I love it. And that's something that I'm so impressed
by with you, Like the level of inn I mean,
how many people are when they're creating, come up with
an idea or a product, They're like, let's get a
chemist on the phone, and like so they can create
what I see in my head and what I want
to do. I love that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Thanks. Everything is chemistry. Everything is science, like every single thing.
And that's how some my Homemade was born and it
was so big and everybody told me, they're like, you
can't do that. I go, why And they're like, because
you just can't tell people what name brands to use.
I go, But we are shopping at grocery stores, and
every product has different ingredient bases, and every product goes
(14:31):
with another product differently, Like Hellman's and Best Foods are
the same thing, but that's not miracle. Miracle with is
salad dressing. These are mayonnaise. People don't realize that what
we have to share and cookie mix can be a
base for a pie. Why can't we create recipes and
tell them exactly what I use that they can be
successful at home. Because you can't tell people what brands
(14:54):
to use. I go, okay, well I'm doing it anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
No, I love it, And like I mean, at least
in my experience, I always thought it was like it
was one or the other. It's like, Okay, I'm either
going to make everything from scratch or I'm like making
it from the box and I'm only going to use
what they say on the box. I didn't like. I
didn't really until I watched sam My Hood Made. I
was like, oh, I didn't realize you could mix them
or change that. And it's just such a brilliant idea.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Yeah, it calls for water, and if you don't want
to use water, use chocolate. Malk and a chocolate cake
recipe it just deepens the flavor. If you don't want that,
use coffee. If you want something more elevated. It depends
on the audience that you're serving. Like for brownie mix,
I only get I only buy the browning mix that
has the chocolate pouch in it, and I only put coffee.
(15:40):
I don't even put cof coffee in that. I put
espresso in that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I underbake it by about eight minutes and it is
so gooey and delicious and fattening.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
That's the best, guy, Oh my god, I absolutely love it.
I I want to go back to to your blue
ribbon at the La County Fair. I'm so glad you
filled me on that because I read that you want
a blue ribbon, but I couldn't find what you want
it for, and so I was so curious. Was it
for something baking?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
But it was booth display and design on curtain craft
booth display and design.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
We're going to talk more about the fair element here
in a bit, but I just really want to fanboy
out over the idea of fair. The fair is like
my favorite thing all year long. I live for it.
I go to the La County Fair, I go to
the OC Fair. I've been to the San Diego Fair.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
That's the best fair this Oh my gosh, the San
Diego Fair that was my first fair really put off
my student loans on that fair I did.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
That's incredible. It's I mean, the San Diego County fair
grounds are stunning. But the thing about the fair that
I love is that, especially these days, we're so like
we're so disconnected as people. But when you go to
the fair, I love walking through the baking and the
crafting competitions and seeing like these are things that people
(17:08):
in my community are making, and these are talents that
people have, and I just feel so connected to my
community and people around me. Like brings a tear to
my eye. I always run to the city who got
those blue ribbons at the fair, and I love that
you had that same passion.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
You know what's amazing this particular year in the largest
fair in this country, which is the Texas Fair. It
takes place in Dallas. I've been to it. It is incredible.
I think the child there was a child that took
the blue ribbon in the adult baking competition, and I
think that I think, I don't know exactly, I just
(17:45):
kind of like you know, heard it through the grape vine. Yeah,
I think that this kid was thirteen, maybe twelve, like
it was a thing that this kid won a thing.
But yeah, to look at the baking cases, and it's
also very motive. You really should go though and look
at the baking cases right after they hand out the
ribbons because that's when the baked item looks the best,
(18:07):
right when you go down where it's like, how did
that win a ribbon? Well for three weeks baby? And
that green stuff on there is called mold because the
cases are not refrigerated. But yeah, there's something like two
hundred different entries that you can place jams, jellies, you know,
fruit preserves, you can cookies, brownies, wandies, pies, cake pops, cupcakes, cakes, like,
(18:35):
and that's just the sweet part. There's a whole savory section.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I mean, there's something for everybody there. What do you
think about the Sometimes I'll walk by the cake decorating
and I see the ones that are like ninety nine
percent fondan't you know like where it's like it almost
turns into sculpting at that point, Like, what do you
think about that style of cake decorating?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Well, when I was first going to QBC my first
three years, and I was in my late twenties early
early early thirties, like maybe thirty thirty one. QBC sent
me over to launch QBC in England and Germany, so
it was UK and then I was in Dusseldorf in Germany.
When I went to the UK, my sister Kimmy used
(19:19):
to come with me because it was you know, what
you did here in an hour, it took you a
week to do there, and you're sleeping on couches and
you're just like, it was such an incredible process to
launch this network, but it was you know, it's a grind.
You're launching something brand new, and I was in I
was launching home, garden and crafts, so I was in
(19:39):
that department. I hadn't gone into food yet, but I was.
My sister and I would go to Herod's and Harrods
is like one of those great department stores in the world,
Like you have to go to Herods and we would
go to the food court and we would buy my
nieces and nephews in Santa Claus all their stocking stuffers.
(20:00):
They had candies we didn't have here, and we would
buy them all the beanie baberries, which now are worth working.
I wish we would have kept them. Kids would have
known like we got them all. You couldn't get them here.
But they had a cake area, and in their cake
area was the most beautiful cakes you've ever seen. And
I was sitting there in absolute wonderment thinking of my grandmother,
(20:22):
and I was like, how did they get the icing
that smooth? Like, I don't understand, how do you do that?
And then when they shared with me the process, it
was all fonded. And then years years, years years later
you go to Michael's or Joanne's and you can buy
it ready You can make fond it yourself, but you
can buy it ready made. And they would also use
like almond paste and they would make these great little
(20:44):
like bunnies for Easter, Santa's, for Christmas or whatever it is.
And now it's every day here. Back in the day,
and when I first started some my homemaid, no one
was doing it, so I just felt like I was
so smart sol and coming to the walk around foodstems,
I was like, I'm in hair is learning how to
cake decorate.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Oh my god, I love it so much. We have
so much more to get into with Sandra Lee. Stick around,
We'll be right back after these words. Sandel is with us,
the legendary Sandra Leie. I'm so excited about this. Something
(21:31):
I wanted to bring up is when I go to
the fair, the first thing I look at are the
table scapes, the table scaping competition. That is something that
I am. I'm obsessed with. My wife and I are obsessed.
We study it. It's our favorite thing at the our
single favorite thing. And you coined the term table scaping.
I mean that term is attributed to you.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Yeah, because I created the word.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Like, well, because for me, I really didn't want to
do the Food Network show, and Ray and I are
really good friends, but they said, just watch Rachel Ray
and do what she's doing. And I'd already created two
semi homemade cookbooks and I'm like, yeah, but what Rachel
does is not what I do. She's doing thirty minute meals.
I do semi homemade and I'm not from scratch. And
(22:17):
for me, I at the time, remember I was doing
home and gardening crafts and even though I did cooking,
I almost did the cooking because they told me I
couldn't do it. I was like, oh yeah, I watch this,
and no one will publish it. So I'm like, oh yeah,
I watch this. So I was like bringing my paper
from Japan. I was printing it in China because I
was manufacturing anyway. Then I wrote the cookbooks and they
weren't perfect, but they were me and they were I
(22:39):
was happy.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And so I I told them that I would do
it with a couple conditions, because I really want an
HGTV show.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
They said, redecorate your kitchen. And I said, every single show.
And they're like, yeah, did which the outfits came from,
the hair came from, and the window treatments came from
and all that had come from that, the florals and
all the color palettes, like you know, now you know
my background, so you understand how they came to life.
And I said, the job of this show, the job
(23:15):
of Semi Homemade, is to give you quick tips and
tricks and thoughtful ways to use what you have in
your pantry, not just to save you money, but to
bring your family around the table. Right, your job is
to bring your family around the table and create a
community with your own family and or friends. So I
want to do. I want to do the place settings.
(23:36):
I want to teach people how to do the tables
and make it beautiful. And they're like, oh, that's a
great way to end the show. So that will be yours.
So you're going to have to figure out what you
want to call that, and I said, well, it's a
table escape. It's escape, right, and they said great. So
every single show I end the show, that's an amazing show.
That show. I think I did four recipes, a cocktail,
(23:57):
two wardrobe changes, and a table escape. I mean, I
couldn't have been happier. And we shot almost three hundred
of those shows. It was on for fifteen years. Yeah,
it was on for fifteen years and two Emmys later.
I mean, I have an Emmy for makeup because I
don't look like this in the morning.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Like seriously, oh my god, it's incredible. Can you think
of the most like I don't want to say or
no ambitious tablescape that you that you pulled off? Like,
what was like the most complex that you can think of?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
It was a Thanksgiving tablescape?
Speaker 4 (24:33):
It was.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
It was. I did it up in Albany at the
Mansion and I ordered these huge chocolate turkeys, which you
can get online. They're a fortune. And I ordered flowers
and I just it was a table. I think that
was set for. I mean, I want to say thirty people,
(24:59):
big table. So the tablescape had to run down the
entire line. And then we had a dessert table and
two buffet tables. So there was a kid's table, and
then there was that and I and in addition to
that was so I had the flowers, I had the
edible turkeys, I had all of it. The room smelt amazing.
The other one, I would say was probably my wedding,
(25:20):
and I think that was back in two thousand and one. Obviously,
you know that my marriage at the time only lasted
my relationship only lasted seven years. So but the wedding
tables were really important to me and how I did them.
And then we had it done at a private home.
We did it at a private home, Green Acres in
(25:41):
Beverly Hills, which was so fun at the time because
remember from where I come from, like a small town
in Washington State, welfare and food stamps and you know,
parents that were not participating in our lives. That was
to goat so to be able to do like my
magic at this amazing home and being getting married at
thirty two and having built company, I wanted to be
(26:01):
over the top, of course I did. But my nieces
and nephew's table was the most important table to me.
So I did the centerpieces. But in the centerpiece I
put these huge vases, and the vases were full of
water and they were full of goldfish.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
And it was a Midsummer's night dream table. And then
at each place setting for the child that was there,
my niece or nephew that was there, they got a
beta fish to take home, so all the color was
all the way around, and beta fish have to be
kept separately, right because they're fighting fish. And then they
had plume flowers, so it was flowers and it was fish,
and it was just this fantasy. So that tablescape was
(26:45):
super important to me too. So those are the one
those are the two I remember the most, but they
were for my personal me. It wasn't I couldn't do
that well. I did recreate for Alexander Stanton, which I
brought up earlier. My best friend for her wedding, I
did all individual cakes and individual sugar eggs, so I
wanted her a wedding reception to reflect Faberge eggs. So
(27:10):
I worked with Sylvia weinstock makes You Rest in Peace,
and we did all these edible fab Faberge eggs for
individual wedding cakes on the table, and then we did
big huge sugar eggs that reflected those. So it was
an inredibly jeweled tone bowls. We did everything, so hers
(27:30):
was probably like definitely the top three.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So in the time you've done that, you did semi homemade. Uh,
there's there's a lot of things that stuck in people's minds.
Like me and my sister watched the show a lot
and I told her that you were coming on, and
she was just like beyond excited.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Why isn't she on with us? She's on with us.
I always hear that, and they never invite like their
mom or their sister or their aunt, Like just it's
a party, it's us, let's just do it.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
You know it's a party. Well, let's let's say had
to my sister Kimberly. You know she's she's sitting at
home listening.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
That's her name, Kimberly. M name, Kimberly.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Isn't that a great sister name. It's a great I
call her.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
What do you call your sister?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I call her Kimberly, I do the full thing.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, well I'll call her Kimmy. Hi, Kimmy Aunt. Sandy
loves you.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Oh my god, she's gonna she's gonna die. Thank you.
But uh, you know, so we were talking about like
our favorite things that you did on the show, and
there's a lot of things that people talk about online still,
like the glassware Christmas Tree.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
The cocktail Christmas Tree. So that's where cocktail glasses and
turn them all upside down and hung them in the
tree and wired it in. It was cocktail Time tree
because everybody loves cocktail. Yes, cocktail time was mine too.
I that was my whole thing. I was the first
person to bring cocktails onto the show. They didn't want
me to do drinks. I'm like, okay, I don't really
want to do the show anyway. They're like, I go,
(28:51):
I really don't want. I don't care. It took nine
months to do the show, to do the contract for
the show. I'm like, I don't really care. And they're like,
who says that everybody wants to be on TV? I'm like, yeah,
but that's not what I want.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
To do.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I want to do a daytime show. I wanted to
do a Monday through Friday, like thirty minute or one
hour show and like semi homemade four point oh. So
they told me, okay, fine, but just so you know,
nobody wants to do cocktails. And I said, my best
friend Colleen Schmidt and for Donia Wisconsin, who I went
(29:25):
to college with, who I'm still dear, dear friends with.
She is having a bloody mary when she's watching the
Packers every Sunday at noon. I'm telling you right now.
And they're like, hm, maybe she's right. So they said, fine,
we'll let you do cocktails, but you have to be
really responsible with what you did, and I said, sure,
(29:47):
two shots of vodka.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
It just is kind of like it is. It is
like when semi home aid, Like, you can't do semi homemaid.
Why cause you can't tell people what to use. I'm like,
I'm doing that. You can't do cocktail time. You can't
do more than like one shot per drink. I'm like, oh, yeah, okay,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
There's no rules in the world of Angele.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
And then it was like the biggest meme in the world,
Like my nieces. They're traveling in like Europe, and people
are like, wait, Sandra Lee like two shots of vodka?
Time is your aunt? Yes, she's actually my aunt. I
know she's called Aunt Sandy, but she's actually my aunt.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's I'm so jealous of your nieces. I'm sorry, Like
that would be so cool to have you as an aunt.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I should like Aunt Sandy. I'm not putting it to
your on my head. I'm like, there's only you have
one job. I'll do everything else. I just wanted to
hear on your head. Danielle, She's like.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Ye, do what Aunt Sandy says.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
She's she's definitely my niece doing that.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So you're you're super close with your nieces. Do you
see them often?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
My niece, Danielle. I was just with her in Arizona.
The love one of the loves of my life. I
love that child And now I know how my grandma
feels when I don't call her. Oh yeah, he I
never guilt trip my niece and nephews. But my niece
and called me for two weeks. That is like, that's
like taking this pencil and sticking in my heart and
(31:15):
I'm like, Dan, I finally sent her a guilt trip,
which I never do. I literally never guilt trip her.
I'm like, you're perfect, You're fabulous, You're this, You're not
like I love you so much. You're like fabulous and
smart and all the things that that, and she's like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Like it's some days I wish my aunt was here
saying that to me, but not today. So I said Danielle,
(31:36):
I was so dramatic. I'm like, really hurts my feelings
when you don't call me poor child, But yeah, she's perfect.
My niece Katie is in medical school. Wows going to
be a doctor. My niece Stephanie is a teacher, and
she teaches children that cannot communicate with their parents because
they're deaf. She teaches them sign language and their parents
(31:58):
sign language. She's like amazing and smart. So I have
three nieces, Danielle, Katie, and Stephanie, and I never feel
like I'm close enough to any of them. But then
they're like, Aunt, Sandy, you can be sitting on top
of me kissing my face and you wouldn't feel close enough.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
So true, if they're throwing like a party or having
an event, do they call you and ask for ideas
or anything do they do they know this valuable resource,
they have their fingertips.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
No, no, no, no, Bryce, Bryce might, but when Bryce
and I do it, my nephew Bryce, who grew up
on my show. Bryce's with me a lot, so Bryce
might do it, but the other one's not so much.
I think they're just used to me kind of saying, oh,
(32:46):
I think you should be this for Halloween, or I
think you should do that, or you know, I'm you
know how kids.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Are, Yeah, you know, Yeah, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
You just got to tell them that you love them
and wait for them to call Danielle.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, daniel if you're listening, calling it Sandy right now.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Right now and right wrong, right now?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Maybe we're waitnutes yet.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
She And then of course the other day when she
finally did call, I was on the other phone doing
something I couldn't put down, of course, Like all I
wanted to do was take her call. I'm like, oh, yeah,
every parent goes through this when their kids turn thirty two.
And when she told like, I keep forgetting she's thirty
two because to me, she's five. The other day when
(33:31):
I was with her, She's like, yeah, I'm thirty two.
I go, you're thirty two. She's like, Aunt, Sandy, and
I just started crying. I'm like, you're two. She's like,
are you crying? You know we lost I go, yeah,
but gosh, gosh, you're thirty two. And then it occurred
to me how old I am? And then we cry
(33:54):
hard or not really, I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
To be Sandelie is with us. It's I smell pop
culture here on the I Am On podcast. We have
so much more to get into. You know, we gotta
talk about Gilmore Girls. We have to talk about Gilmore Girls.
Stick around with us. We'll be right back after these words.
(34:17):
We're back with sandel Lee. So it's in the Netflix
revival they mentioned you, and I wanted to know if anyone, Yeah,
did any did anyone call?
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Everybody sent it to me? Yeah, everybody sent it to me.
How I found out, I was like, Wow, good for them,
good for me. This is auce.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So the context of the mention is they're they're bringing
in all these like celebrity chefs to work at the
at the Dragonfly in and and you canceled because you
heard it was bad. That's the that's the reference. It
was a bad gig. Would you have actually wanted to
work at the Dragonfly in Stars Hollow? Is that something
you would have won?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
You know what's interesting is my personality, My real personality
would have never canceled because I would have been like, Okay,
I can fix this.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yes, that's what I thought. I was like, that doesn't
sound like xchange.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Really give me twenty four hours. I'm telling you, I
am at Sandy Claus for a reason. It's just like
a whirling dervish. When has happened? Does everybody go away?
And I'm like Courtney Cox her character and friends. Yes,
and it's true, like I'll do everything for everybody and
I'll make it perfect. And then I literally halfway in
(35:28):
the party, I'll like crawl and go to bed. My sister,
Kimmy kimber Lee will come in the room and she's like, Sandy,
you always do this. You have a party, and then
you miss all the fun and all the kids are
out there having a great time and they're dancing and
you're not seeing it. She's like here and she'll shove
coffee in my face. It's like, drink this coffee, get
your ass out of bed, work, go into party. And
(35:51):
so I'll just put on sweats and I'll like go
hang out. But it's a thing like I would have
fixed that.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that was something else I
was going to ask, is what what would you have
done to make this small town like bed and breakfast
something grand that would bring in people from all over?
What's something you would have suggested for them?
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Well, I'm saving that from my own show, of course,
I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Sorry, It's okay. I had to ask. I still have
to ask. And how does it? I know you do,
and we'll we'll get to see it at some point, right.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
I hope. So, yeah, did you just knock on wood?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I did. I Oh, my Angelie, look at us. How
does it when you heard from all your friends, everyone
that sent you the the reference, They're like, oh, they
talked about you and gil mor girls. How does that feel?
I mean, that's not the first time, obviously, that you've
been mentioned in something. I mean, everybody talks about you
all the time. How does that feel to be like
I am part of popular culture to the point where
(37:01):
these TV shows are talking about me saying my name.
How does that feel?
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Obviously, my career is a big part of my life
and building my career was a big part of my life,
and I did it for a reason, probably a lot
because of where I came from and how I was
raised and what we had or didn't have, and what
I want for my family and the experiences that are
really important for us to get to have. So it
(37:27):
came from that place. But there is definitely I mean,
there's the professional Sandra Lee, and then there's you know,
Sandy who I am, and there's Aunt Sandy Claus. Like,
you know, there's days where I don't feel like my peppy, wonderful,
little cheer lady self, and sometimes those days are triggered
(37:51):
by people just being mean. You know, there's a lot
of that I'll never forget. When The New York Times
came out with that scathing review of Semi Homemade when
it first hit the air, that really hurt my feelings.
But the network called immediately and said, whenever we see
(38:12):
something this big, that means it's going to be really huge,
and it was. Semi Homemade was I think the top
show for almost three years and in the top ten
for the next ten. Semi Homemade was just like this
crazy zeitgeisty thing that helped so many people and I
(38:34):
was happy to do it and proud to do it.
And it requires being the face of it. I mean
I was trained. I was I was educated. I had
fantastic mentors.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Florence Henderson really taught me how to be a good talent.
Florence Henderson did not require makeup and hair. We went
to Chicago to launch curtain Craft. She was a spokesperson
for that. She's like, I'll do my own hair and
hair and makeup. I only had a small amount of money.
I did an infomercial and I had a small amount
of money left, and I needed a talent to do
(39:09):
the infomercial. And she said no to me every which way,
and I finally said to her agent. I co called
the agent and I was I don't know what I
was thinking. I was like twenty seven, twenty six wow,
And I said, I want to meet with her. I
know she lives in Marine del Ray. I live in
Marine del Ray. I want to meet with her. So
she sat down with me and I explained her my
(39:29):
story and I told her what I wanted to do
and why it had to be her because when I
watched Brady Bunch, she was literally my mom. I didn't
have one. So the Brady Bunch mom was my mom,
and it had to be Florence, and that's who it was.
They wanted it to be this mom from this mom
and that mom and this other mom, and I said, no,
it's Florence Henderson. It has to be Florence. And so
(39:50):
she finally said yes. She accepted my money. She took
all of it. I'm happy to give it to her.
But she would show up and she would post for
photos a certain way, and she would stand there certain way,
and she would go to trade shows a certain way
which was different than my way. And she taught me
how to be good talent. Good talent doesn't sit in
a green room with her feet up. Good talent is like,
(40:10):
how can I help you make this better? How can
I work a little bit harder? What will make your
life easier? That is how she rolled. Gary Collins was
the same way Gary Collins taught me about lighting, because
he would walk around going where's my pill? Where's my pill?
And I thought Phil was his assistant. Is like light,
it comes up so you don't look, you know you're
a and it like fills you. Right, there's a reason
(40:32):
why Jennifer Aniston always looks the way she looks on
the set right in Reese Witherspoon, they have a light
like light, light light, and I like God's light. But
God's light can be a little harsh, yeah, compared to
studio lighting. But yeah, being a talent is a And
then I saw a really famous person at Gladstone's here
(40:56):
and I sat there and I watched him. And this
is when I was a waitress and some one came
up to him and he turned around and handed them there.
But were approaching him while he was in a conversation
out in public, And in my mind I thought, I
didn't say anything because I wasn't that bold yet. I
would probably say something now, But I thought, your talent,
(41:20):
your job is to be available. You wanted to be famous,
you are famous. You wanted to be an actor. You're
on the biggest show in the whole wide world. And
someone wants to talk to you and say hello, and
that made their life a little bit better and you
just handed them there. But not cool. Yeah, being a
(41:41):
talent and being famous comes with a lot of responsibility,
and it also comes with you have to eat it sometimes,
meaning you have to suck it up. You have to
eat the bad reviews with the good reviews. I mean,
people always say to me, your facelift is terrible. I'm like, oh, well,
I didn't get one. I gained thirty pounds thanks, I
aged thirty two anymore. And they say like the meanest things.
(42:04):
I'm like, delete delete, delete, Get off my Facebook, get
off my Instagram. You're not nice. Don't be mean to me.
Why would you be mean to me.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
That's something I'll never understand, Like where that that just
breeds more negativity in your life and it poisons you.
I don't know why people do that. It's insane.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Why would you want me to have to go have
two shots of vodka because you're mean not nice? So yeah,
so there's good and bad with being famous.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
And by the way, you don't always get the reservation
even when you're a foodie.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Sandeleie is here. Your new show is called Sandra Lee.
Now it's on KVC. I know that's so exciting.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Home Decorp Trimetry Linen's Gifting. So the first show starts
November tenth. Is that four pm Eastern Standard Time, which
is one pm Pacific. We all know that. And the
first show I'm just picking out all my favorites for holiday.
The second show, which is on the seventeenth of November,
is all my termitory stuff, and that'll probably be the
(43:10):
only show that there is. And I did something very
specific this year. I did a lot of gingerbread and
very kind of pale blonde colors so that you could
take it from Thanksgiving all the way to Holiday. So
the things you're going to see in my show on
the seventeenth you can use on your Thanksgiving tablescape and
you can decorate the tree with it. I decorate in advance.
I used to decorate the Friday after Thanksgiving, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
(43:32):
I don't do that anymore. I am it's time on
November first, so I put it all up and I
do copper. My sister Kimber does a lot of copper,
and I collect cookie getters, so I do a lot
of copper. I do a lot of gingerbread. Now gingerbread
is like the big deal of this Christmas is like
the trend.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
So a lot of gingerbread, and I'll carry it right
through the holidays. I might put some red bows on,
but I leave that off until right after Thanksgiving, and
then it only takes me like an hour. And I
used to do seven trees and themed every single room,
but now I only do two trees.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
A modest two trees I do a moda is too huge.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
And I just love Christmas. I have a storage unit
full of Christmas decor and I love creating crafts at
Christmas time. Love it. And you'll see a lot of
those beautiful, easy things that you can use in the kitchen.
There's like this gorgeous rolling pin that I designed based
off the European Christmas markets which I've gone to for
(44:32):
the last couple of years, and of course I went
to when I was super young. And there's these charming
cookie cutters, Christmas trees, gingerbread Christmas trees, stockings, I love stockings,
stars and snowflakes, which I love. So there's little there's
(44:54):
these tree lights like Charles Dickens tree lights that are candle,
three of them. I love those your tree and it
goes it's They're incredible. I think you're gonna love it.
And then the last show is on the twenty third,
right before right before Thanksgiving, and that will be giftables
and food and just yeah, yeah, if you like Semio
(45:19):
made and you like what I did, You're gonna love
these shows, So tune into QBC. This is my thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Yeah, this is a big deal coming out with Dan
Sandy Claus on QVC. It's sanje Lee now. And then
you can also watch the fantastic and incredible Sandelie on
The Blue Ribbon Baking Championship which is on Netflix, and
that is incredible too. I have seen that show. It's
so much fun and brings the joy and the love
of our state fairs and the thrill of getting a
(45:49):
Blue ribbon right to your screens. You got to check
that out too. Thank you so much for doing this, Sanjelie.
You're just the absolute best. I'm such a big fan.
Thanks and this was a dream come true.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
You're in great host. It's fun.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Oh my god, thank you. I'm blushing. Hey everybody, and
(46:34):
don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am All
In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
I Am all In.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
As I Smell Pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart
Radio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Do you smell something I do? I Smell pop Culture? Hey, everybody,
this is Easton Allen. This is the I Am all
In Podcast one eleven productions. I Heart Radio, iHeart Media,
iHeart podcasts. We're doing I Smell pop Culture. I'm back again.
Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. I've gotten
all your letters, I've gotten all your fan mail. It's
just overwhelming the amount of positive reaction we've gotten from
(00:42):
this show. So thank you again. Before we get started
to hear on this next episode, I just want to
thank you so much from the bottom of my heart
for giving us a chance. You know, given me the
gift of your time. I listened to a lot of podcasts, Okay,
I listen to a lot of shows, and like every
now and again, a show you'd listen to, you'll get
like the sidekick or like the third guy on the
(01:05):
microphone will like have his own bit or his own
he'll host the show, like some as the producer that
you hear from from time to time, we'll like host
their own show. But never once have I listened to
a show and heard them say, Okay, we're gonna let
the sound guy host it. I've never heard that before,
so I don't want to use the term trailblazer or
(01:25):
pioneer lightly, but I do believe that we're covering new
ground here. We are going boldly into a place that
has never been to before in the world podcasting. And
I'm so glad, glad that you're coming along with us,
because you know, you download a podcast about your favorite show,
it's hosted by the guy that plays your favorite character,
(01:46):
and then you press play and you hear the sound
guy instead, and that's got to be a audio whiplash
on a scale hitherto undreamed of. So thank you for
coming along with us. We're we have a really exciting
show for you today. So here's what we're doing this week.
You know, Melissa McCarthy did not return as Suki for
(02:09):
the revival for the Year in the Life mini series,
and the fix there was to bring in a bunch
of like celebrity chefs that would fill her vacancy at
the Dragonfly in And we're going to talk to a
chef that was mentioned in A Year in the Life summer,
and I'm so excited to get into this, but first
(02:30):
I got to preheat the oven here, I got to
adjust my table scapes. But stick around and we'll be
right back after these words.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
iHeart podcasts. Listen on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Hey, wow, those are some fantastic products, fantastic services. I
can't wait to spend all my money there and use
all those promo codes that we so graciously give you.
My name is Easton Allen. This is I smell pop
culture here on the IM all In podcast. So as
I was saying right before, right before we heard all
this wonderful commercials. In a Year in the Life, we
have a vacancy at the Dragonfly In. The chef position
(03:07):
is open, and they bring in celebrity chefs like Roy Troy,
Anthony Bourdain, Rachel Ray. They all come by to try
to get the job at the Dragonfly In. They're all
chefs vying for this prestigious role. And in summer, in
a Year in Life, summer, there's a scene where Luke
and Loralai are arguing in Luke's diner and Luke storms off,
(03:31):
but first he says, I've got muffins in the oven
at the end for breakfast tomorrow, because Sandra Lee called
and canceled because she talked to Aine Garden who said,
don't go to the Dragonfly because it's awful. How was that? Scott?
Was that good? Could I be Luke in a in
a stage production? Maybe? But so Luke says that, And
we're going to talk to Sandra Lee. Yes, Sandra Lee
(03:53):
is going to be here on I Smell Pop Culture.
We're heading into the kitchen today. We're going to head
into the kitchen. We're going to talk to this legendary
chef and crafting icon, Sandelie. She is a pioneer herself,
talk about trailblazing like we're doing here on this podcast.
Sandralie is truly an innovator. She created the semi homemade
(04:15):
concept that was her show on the Food Network. It
ran for fifteen years, Semi Homemade. And what that concept
is is it's the fraction is like seventy percent store
bought thirty percent fresh ingredients. You're taking like a pre
made food, food thing and adding in something else, changing,
(04:36):
tweaking something, adding in a different ingredient and creating something new.
And I think that is just such a such an
interesting and exciting idea, especially for if you're trying to
create something excellent on a budget. I think that's such
a cool idea she got. She won an Emmy Award
for Semi homide Cooking with Sandralie. It ran for fifteen seasons.
She's also a best selling author. She has written twenty
(04:59):
seven books. Friends, I don't think I have read twenty
seven books in my lifetime. She has written twenty seven books,
the cookbooks, She's written a novel. She's a breast cancer survivor,
she's an advocate, she's an aspiring business woman, truly inspiring.
We're going to talk about it all, and I promise
you we're going to find out what would have happened
(05:22):
if she hadn't bailed on the Dragonfly and if she
had taken that job, what would have happened. We're going
to find out about it all. But wait, do you hear?
Speaker 4 (05:30):
That?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Looks like it's ready. Sandra Lee. She's here. Let's bring
her in. Sandra Lee is here with us. Thank you
for doing this. We're so excited.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for including me.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You're such a legend. There's so much to get into,
but I want to go back to the beginning. I
want to start at the start. That's a great place
to start. How did you first fall in love with
being creative through crafts and food and things?
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Like?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
When did you discover you had a passion for that?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Always when I was I mean I remember being when
I lived with my grandmother until I think I was
six years old. We were always in the kitchen or
I was in the sandbox and making something in the backyard,
or coming in the kitchen and decorating cakes with her.
Because my grandma makeed all the cakes for the church.
(06:20):
So that was kind of her donation because we didn't
have a lot of money, but she would bake all
the wedding cakes, she would bake all the shower cakes
and all the birthday cakes, and so that was her
gift because she couldn't donate money, so she did that
and she ran the community service there for her entire
adult life.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I think is that where did she when you were
baking cakes with her? Did she like did she get
super creative with how she decorated them? Is that kind
of where you kind of got that.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Her decoration and her presentation. So my birthday cake, my
sister and I our birthdays are one year and four
days apart, so I'm July third, July seventh. So my
grandma would bake cake. She would bake them from scratch,
though she's not a box girl, but she would do
things like make us an eight inch cake and bake
two of them right like you do. And then she
(07:13):
would take one of those silver pie tins and flip
it upside down and put the cake on top of
that as our pedestal.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
It would decorate it with all the icing and all
the little fancy stuff, and we would each have our
own cake, and then she just hand us a fork.
And I still do that, like I have friends. I'm
a godmother of two boys with my best friend Alexander
Stanton and her husband Sam, And before they were even married,
we would go to the store if we were like
having a week and I was just starting semi homemaid
(07:39):
living in New York City to do some my homemade
and we would go to the store and buy a
sheet cake, take it to the hotel, get forks, and
literally just sit there and eat the sheet cake and talk.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I knew I was gonna love talking to you that
I did this exact same thing. There's nothing matter in
just eating she cake with a fork.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
I know. I have this new QVC show coming it's
called Sandra Lean Now, but it's introducing it Sandy Claus
and they're like, do you want to put cakes in
your show? I'm like yes, and they go, okay, so
how are you going to slice and serve it? I go,
I'm going to stick a fork in it? And they go,
I don't think you can do that. I'm like, I
think I'm gonna do that. Okay, I'll cut a slice
and then I'm going to stick a fork in the cake.
(08:19):
Why not?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Oh my god? I love it. And speaking of QVC,
you've you've been with QVC for a long time.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
There is my entire adult life.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
It's something I was really impressed by that I didn't
know until I was doing some research for this. You
created a product in the nineties called the curtain Craft,
and I was so impressed and blown away by that,
Like how how did you come up with that? For
people that don't know's, it's like it's a system to
create your own drapery and things like that and take
(08:52):
spare fabric and repurpose it. How did that idea come
to you?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well? I needed to decorate on a budget. And I
had a bedroom that I was renting in California in
a house and I it was actually hairy Malibu. I
was a waitress at the time, but I went down
and I got fabric sharing fabric from downtown LA. It's
like a dollar twenty five a yard dollar ninety nine
maybe ninety nine cents. It was really inexpensive. And I
(09:18):
take coat hanger wire and I just started bending it
and like making these apparatuses where I could pull fabric
through and make pretty flounces and you know, swags and ruffles.
And my uncle came over, my uncle Bill, who just
went to Heaven a couple of years ago, and he said, honey,
(09:39):
those he was he's a welder and a construction worker,
and he goes, I think that's a product people would like.
So I showed it to my aunt, who was a
huge crafter. I mean she did everything from tri kim
which is like painting, to jewelry making to art making.
I mean she was just a genius crafter, baking, she
did everything you could eat, all for Flora's aunt Peggy.
(10:02):
But my uncle said, you have a gift in this
is a product line, and you have to take it
to a fair and exhibit it. And so his friend
was a welder and he made up all of these
for me, and I took it to the La County Fair.
I won the Blue Ribbon for Product Display and Design.
It's a home decorating line. It ultimately wound up being
(10:23):
about one hundred and twenty products. People think I always
wanted to be a personality, and maybe I did, but
I hired Florence Henderson at this time to be my spokesperson,
and Gary Collins from the Homey Home Show Days, which
nobody remembers that show, but it was just this brilliant
how to show. And so I really started in product
design and manufacturing and creating packaging and ways for people
(10:49):
to do things that were beautiful like you saw in
all the fancy magazines, but on a budget. And so
curtaincraft was born, and then floral craft was born because
my grandmother would say, Honey, don't send me flowers. They
just die. And I'm like, she's right, they just what
should I do? So it was this silica gel crystals
(11:12):
and you put a flower in them and you cover
it up completely and you leave it in there for
like a week or two and all the water is
absorbed and you just have this gorgeous, real flower. And
then I would take the you know, the flower wire
and the flower tape, the floral tape, and I would
make her a bouquet that lasted forever. And she loved them.
(11:34):
But then she called me and she's like, Sandy, it
just collects dust.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I'm like, you can't wait.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Can I say that on the air? I was like, so,
I'm like, she's right. So then I created a product line.
I got with a chemist and I created a product
to go with that silica gel that ate the dust
so you would it wouldn't hurt the flowers, but it
ate up all the dust. I'm like, Grandma, look and
she's like, oh, that's really She goes you know what
I saw, honey. I saw these pretty Cape de Monte
(12:06):
flowers that are on the side of a vase. And
I used to like my first money ever, Nobody's going
to know what the hell I'm talking about. They're just
going to think I'm like crazy. But I drove all
the way out to Librea, California, from Santa Monica, which
is like ninety minutes, because they had a new store
called fitzen Floyd wasn't a new product, but a brand
(12:26):
new grand opening store, Fitzmfloyd. We was all these teapots
with like bunnies on them or bears on them, and
they're really collectible. You were talking about. This is like
the early nineties. So anyway, yes, I was born before
two thousand. Anyway. So I drove all the way out
there to buy this teapot and I'm like, cro call
my aunt Peggy. She's like, you don't even have an
(12:48):
apartment yet, honey, and I go, I know, but I
have to have this teapot from fitz Employd. So fast forward.
Kapi de Monte was like the next level of Fitzmployd,
which you still can't afford. But they make these gorgeous
flowers out of glass. So I created a product within
the floral Craft line that if you sprayed it on
(13:10):
the flowers multiple times, they turned into this glass like thing.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
You spray it on the like once living flower.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
On the one living flower that you dried. So then
that was born. So floral Craft became a whole line.
And I really what I do is I invent products.
Nobody knows that I like invent products like I'm doing
Christmas now and I'm working on twenty twenty five Christmas
because twenty four is done and we're loaded in. But
look at this bow. This is like a double bow.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It's stunning.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It's stunning. You can't get this one yet, but I
mean I literally pulled it out this morning. I'm like,
that's twenty twenty five. So when you're sitting I think
about this Christmas, I'm already decorating for next Christmas. That's
called it Sandy Clause. Like, I just love it.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
I love it. And that's something that I'm so impressed
by with you, Like the level of inn I mean,
how many people are when they're creating, come up with
an idea or a product, They're like, let's get a
chemist on the phone, and like so they can create
what I see in my head and what I want
to do. I love that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Thanks. Everything is chemistry. Everything is science, like every single thing.
And that's how some my Homemade was born and it
was so big and everybody told me, they're like, you
can't do that. I go, why And they're like, because
you just can't tell people what name brands to use.
I go, But we are shopping at grocery stores, and
every product has different ingredient bases, and every product goes
(14:31):
with another product differently, Like Hellman's and Best Foods are
the same thing, but that's not miracle. Miracle with is
salad dressing. These are mayonnaise. People don't realize that what
we have to share and cookie mix can be a
base for a pie. Why can't we create recipes and
tell them exactly what I use that they can be
successful at home. Because you can't tell people what brands
(14:54):
to use. I go, okay, well I'm doing it anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
No, I love it, And like I mean, at least
in my experience, I always thought it was like it
was one or the other. It's like, Okay, I'm either
going to make everything from scratch or I'm like making
it from the box and I'm only going to use
what they say on the box. I didn't like. I
didn't really until I watched sam My Hood Made. I
was like, oh, I didn't realize you could mix them
or change that. And it's just such a brilliant idea.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Yeah, it calls for water, and if you don't want
to use water, use chocolate. Malk and a chocolate cake
recipe it just deepens the flavor. If you don't want that,
use coffee. If you want something more elevated. It depends
on the audience that you're serving. Like for brownie mix,
I only get I only buy the browning mix that
has the chocolate pouch in it, and I only put coffee.
(15:40):
I don't even put cof coffee in that. I put
espresso in that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I underbake it by about eight minutes and it is
so gooey and delicious and fattening.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
That's the best, guy, Oh my god, I absolutely love it.
I I want to go back to to your blue
ribbon at the La County Fair. I'm so glad you
filled me on that because I read that you want
a blue ribbon, but I couldn't find what you want
it for, and so I was so curious. Was it
for something baking?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
But it was booth display and design on curtain craft
booth display and design.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
We're going to talk more about the fair element here
in a bit, but I just really want to fanboy
out over the idea of fair. The fair is like
my favorite thing all year long. I live for it.
I go to the La County Fair, I go to
the OC Fair. I've been to the San Diego Fair.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
That's the best fair this Oh my gosh, the San
Diego Fair that was my first fair really put off
my student loans on that fair I did.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
That's incredible. It's I mean, the San Diego County fair
grounds are stunning. But the thing about the fair that
I love is that, especially these days, we're so like
we're so disconnected as people. But when you go to
the fair, I love walking through the baking and the
crafting competitions and seeing like these are things that people
(17:08):
in my community are making, and these are talents that
people have, and I just feel so connected to my
community and people around me. Like brings a tear to
my eye. I always run to the city who got
those blue ribbons at the fair, and I love that
you had that same passion.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
You know what's amazing this particular year in the largest
fair in this country, which is the Texas Fair. It
takes place in Dallas. I've been to it. It is incredible.
I think the child there was a child that took
the blue ribbon in the adult baking competition, and I
think that I think, I don't know exactly, I just
(17:45):
kind of like you know, heard it through the grape vine. Yeah,
I think that this kid was thirteen, maybe twelve, like
it was a thing that this kid won a thing.
But yeah, to look at the baking cases, and it's
also very motive. You really should go though and look
at the baking cases right after they hand out the
ribbons because that's when the baked item looks the best,
(18:07):
right when you go down where it's like, how did
that win a ribbon? Well for three weeks baby? And
that green stuff on there is called mold because the
cases are not refrigerated. But yeah, there's something like two
hundred different entries that you can place jams, jellies, you know,
fruit preserves, you can cookies, brownies, wandies, pies, cake pops, cupcakes, cakes, like,
(18:35):
and that's just the sweet part. There's a whole savory section.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I mean, there's something for everybody there. What do you
think about the Sometimes I'll walk by the cake decorating
and I see the ones that are like ninety nine
percent fondan't you know like where it's like it almost
turns into sculpting at that point, Like, what do you
think about that style of cake decorating?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Well, when I was first going to QBC my first
three years, and I was in my late twenties early
early early thirties, like maybe thirty thirty one. QBC sent
me over to launch QBC in England and Germany, so
it was UK and then I was in Dusseldorf in Germany.
When I went to the UK, my sister Kimmy used
(19:19):
to come with me because it was you know, what
you did here in an hour, it took you a
week to do there, and you're sleeping on couches and
you're just like, it was such an incredible process to
launch this network, but it was you know, it's a grind.
You're launching something brand new, and I was in I
was launching home, garden and crafts, so I was in
(19:39):
that department. I hadn't gone into food yet, but I was.
My sister and I would go to Herod's and Harrods
is like one of those great department stores in the world,
Like you have to go to Herods and we would
go to the food court and we would buy my
nieces and nephews in Santa Claus all their stocking stuffers.
(20:00):
They had candies we didn't have here, and we would
buy them all the beanie baberries, which now are worth working.
I wish we would have kept them. Kids would have
known like we got them all. You couldn't get them here.
But they had a cake area, and in their cake
area was the most beautiful cakes you've ever seen. And
I was sitting there in absolute wonderment thinking of my grandmother,
(20:22):
and I was like, how did they get the icing
that smooth? Like, I don't understand, how do you do that?
And then when they shared with me the process, it
was all fonded. And then years years, years years later
you go to Michael's or Joanne's and you can buy
it ready You can make fond it yourself, but you
can buy it ready made. And they would also use
like almond paste and they would make these great little
(20:44):
like bunnies for Easter, Santa's, for Christmas or whatever it is.
And now it's every day here. Back in the day,
and when I first started some my homemaid, no one
was doing it, so I just felt like I was
so smart sol and coming to the walk around foodstems,
I was like, I'm in hair is learning how to
cake decorate.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Oh my god, I love it so much. We have
so much more to get into with Sandra Lee. Stick around,
We'll be right back after these words. Sandel is with us,
the legendary Sandra Leie. I'm so excited about this. Something
(21:31):
I wanted to bring up is when I go to
the fair, the first thing I look at are the
table scapes, the table scaping competition. That is something that
I am. I'm obsessed with. My wife and I are obsessed.
We study it. It's our favorite thing at the our
single favorite thing. And you coined the term table scaping.
I mean that term is attributed to you.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Yeah, because I created the word.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Like, well, because for me, I really didn't want to
do the Food Network show, and Ray and I are
really good friends, but they said, just watch Rachel Ray
and do what she's doing. And I'd already created two
semi homemade cookbooks and I'm like, yeah, but what Rachel
does is not what I do. She's doing thirty minute meals.
I do semi homemade and I'm not from scratch. And
(22:17):
for me, I at the time, remember I was doing
home and gardening crafts and even though I did cooking,
I almost did the cooking because they told me I
couldn't do it. I was like, oh yeah, I watch this,
and no one will publish it. So I'm like, oh yeah,
I watch this. So I was like bringing my paper
from Japan. I was printing it in China because I
was manufacturing anyway. Then I wrote the cookbooks and they
weren't perfect, but they were me and they were I
(22:39):
was happy.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
And so I I told them that I would do
it with a couple conditions, because I really want an
HGTV show.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
They said, redecorate your kitchen. And I said, every single show.
And they're like, yeah, did which the outfits came from,
the hair came from, and the window treatments came from
and all that had come from that, the florals and
all the color palettes, like you know, now you know
my background, so you understand how they came to life.
And I said, the job of this show, the job
(23:15):
of Semi Homemade, is to give you quick tips and
tricks and thoughtful ways to use what you have in
your pantry, not just to save you money, but to
bring your family around the table. Right, your job is
to bring your family around the table and create a
community with your own family and or friends. So I
want to do. I want to do the place settings.
(23:36):
I want to teach people how to do the tables
and make it beautiful. And they're like, oh, that's a
great way to end the show. So that will be yours.
So you're going to have to figure out what you
want to call that, and I said, well, it's a
table escape. It's escape, right, and they said great. So
every single show I end the show, that's an amazing show.
That show. I think I did four recipes, a cocktail,
(23:57):
two wardrobe changes, and a table escape. I mean, I
couldn't have been happier. And we shot almost three hundred
of those shows. It was on for fifteen years. Yeah,
it was on for fifteen years and two Emmys later.
I mean, I have an Emmy for makeup because I
don't look like this in the morning.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Like seriously, oh my god, it's incredible. Can you think
of the most like I don't want to say or
no ambitious tablescape that you that you pulled off? Like,
what was like the most complex that you can think of?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
It was a Thanksgiving tablescape?
Speaker 4 (24:33):
It was.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
It was. I did it up in Albany at the
Mansion and I ordered these huge chocolate turkeys, which you
can get online. They're a fortune. And I ordered flowers
and I just it was a table. I think that
was set for. I mean, I want to say thirty people,
(24:59):
big table. So the tablescape had to run down the
entire line. And then we had a dessert table and
two buffet tables. So there was a kid's table, and
then there was that and I and in addition to
that was so I had the flowers, I had the
edible turkeys, I had all of it. The room smelt amazing.
The other one, I would say was probably my wedding,
(25:20):
and I think that was back in two thousand and one. Obviously,
you know that my marriage at the time only lasted
my relationship only lasted seven years. So but the wedding
tables were really important to me and how I did them.
And then we had it done at a private home.
We did it at a private home, Green Acres in
(25:41):
Beverly Hills, which was so fun at the time because
remember from where I come from, like a small town
in Washington State, welfare and food stamps and you know,
parents that were not participating in our lives. That was
to goat so to be able to do like my
magic at this amazing home and being getting married at
thirty two and having built company, I wanted to be
(26:01):
over the top, of course I did. But my nieces
and nephew's table was the most important table to me.
So I did the centerpieces. But in the centerpiece I
put these huge vases, and the vases were full of
water and they were full of goldfish.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
And it was a Midsummer's night dream table. And then
at each place setting for the child that was there,
my niece or nephew that was there, they got a
beta fish to take home, so all the color was
all the way around, and beta fish have to be
kept separately, right because they're fighting fish. And then they
had plume flowers, so it was flowers and it was fish,
and it was just this fantasy. So that tablescape was
(26:45):
super important to me too. So those are the one
those are the two I remember the most, but they
were for my personal me. It wasn't I couldn't do
that well. I did recreate for Alexander Stanton, which I
brought up earlier. My best friend for her wedding, I
did all individual cakes and individual sugar eggs, so I
wanted her a wedding reception to reflect Faberge eggs. So
(27:10):
I worked with Sylvia weinstock makes You Rest in Peace,
and we did all these edible fab Faberge eggs for
individual wedding cakes on the table, and then we did
big huge sugar eggs that reflected those. So it was
an inredibly jeweled tone bowls. We did everything, so hers
(27:30):
was probably like definitely the top three.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So in the time you've done that, you did semi homemade. Uh,
there's there's a lot of things that stuck in people's minds.
Like me and my sister watched the show a lot
and I told her that you were coming on, and
she was just like beyond excited.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Why isn't she on with us? She's on with us.
I always hear that, and they never invite like their
mom or their sister or their aunt, Like just it's
a party, it's us, let's just do it.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
You know it's a party. Well, let's let's say had
to my sister Kimberly. You know she's she's sitting at
home listening.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
That's her name, Kimberly. M name, Kimberly.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Isn't that a great sister name. It's a great I
call her.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
What do you call your sister?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I call her Kimberly, I do the full thing.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, well I'll call her Kimmy. Hi, Kimmy Aunt. Sandy
loves you.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Oh my god, she's gonna she's gonna die. Thank you.
But uh, you know, so we were talking about like
our favorite things that you did on the show, and
there's a lot of things that people talk about online still,
like the glassware Christmas Tree.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
The cocktail Christmas Tree. So that's where cocktail glasses and
turn them all upside down and hung them in the
tree and wired it in. It was cocktail Time tree
because everybody loves cocktail. Yes, cocktail time was mine too.
I that was my whole thing. I was the first
person to bring cocktails onto the show. They didn't want
me to do drinks. I'm like, okay, I don't really
want to do the show anyway. They're like, I go,
(28:51):
I really don't want. I don't care. It took nine
months to do the show, to do the contract for
the show. I'm like, I don't really care. And they're like,
who says that everybody wants to be on TV? I'm like, yeah,
but that's not what I want.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
To do.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I want to do a daytime show. I wanted to
do a Monday through Friday, like thirty minute or one
hour show and like semi homemade four point oh. So
they told me, okay, fine, but just so you know,
nobody wants to do cocktails. And I said, my best
friend Colleen Schmidt and for Donia Wisconsin, who I went
(29:25):
to college with, who I'm still dear, dear friends with.
She is having a bloody mary when she's watching the
Packers every Sunday at noon. I'm telling you right now.
And they're like, hm, maybe she's right. So they said, fine,
we'll let you do cocktails, but you have to be
really responsible with what you did, and I said, sure,
(29:47):
two shots of vodka.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
It just is kind of like it is. It is
like when semi home aid, Like, you can't do semi homemaid.
Why cause you can't tell people what to use. I'm like,
I'm doing that. You can't do cocktail time. You can't
do more than like one shot per drink. I'm like, oh, yeah, okay,
no problem.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
There's no rules in the world of Angele.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
And then it was like the biggest meme in the world,
Like my nieces. They're traveling in like Europe, and people
are like, wait, Sandra Lee like two shots of vodka?
Time is your aunt? Yes, she's actually my aunt. I
know she's called Aunt Sandy, but she's actually my aunt.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
That's I'm so jealous of your nieces. I'm sorry, Like
that would be so cool to have you as an aunt.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I should like Aunt Sandy. I'm not putting it to
your on my head. I'm like, there's only you have
one job. I'll do everything else. I just wanted to
hear on your head. Danielle, She's like.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Ye, do what Aunt Sandy says.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
She's she's definitely my niece doing that.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
So you're you're super close with your nieces. Do you
see them often?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
My niece, Danielle. I was just with her in Arizona.
The love one of the loves of my life. I
love that child And now I know how my grandma
feels when I don't call her. Oh yeah, he I
never guilt trip my niece and nephews. But my niece
and called me for two weeks. That is like, that's
like taking this pencil and sticking in my heart and
(31:15):
I'm like, Dan, I finally sent her a guilt trip,
which I never do. I literally never guilt trip her.
I'm like, you're perfect, You're fabulous, You're this, You're not
like I love you so much. You're like fabulous and
smart and all the things that that, and she's like yeah, yeah, yeah,
Like it's some days I wish my aunt was here
saying that to me, but not today. So I said Danielle,
(31:36):
I was so dramatic. I'm like, really hurts my feelings
when you don't call me poor child, But yeah, she's perfect.
My niece Katie is in medical school. Wows going to
be a doctor. My niece Stephanie is a teacher, and
she teaches children that cannot communicate with their parents because
they're deaf. She teaches them sign language and their parents
(31:58):
sign language. She's like amazing and smart. So I have
three nieces, Danielle, Katie, and Stephanie, and I never feel
like I'm close enough to any of them. But then
they're like, Aunt, Sandy, you can be sitting on top
of me kissing my face and you wouldn't feel close enough.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
So true, if they're throwing like a party or having
an event, do they call you and ask for ideas
or anything do they do they know this valuable resource,
they have their fingertips.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
No, no, no, no, Bryce, Bryce might, but when Bryce
and I do it, my nephew Bryce, who grew up
on my show. Bryce's with me a lot, so Bryce
might do it, but the other one's not so much.
I think they're just used to me kind of saying, oh,
(32:46):
I think you should be this for Halloween, or I
think you should do that, or you know, I'm you
know how kids.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Are, Yeah, you know, Yeah, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
You just got to tell them that you love them
and wait for them to call Danielle.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah, daniel if you're listening, calling it Sandy right now.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Right now and right wrong, right now?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Maybe we're waitnutes yet.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
She And then of course the other day when she
finally did call, I was on the other phone doing
something I couldn't put down, of course, Like all I
wanted to do was take her call. I'm like, oh, yeah,
every parent goes through this when their kids turn thirty two.
And when she told like, I keep forgetting she's thirty
two because to me, she's five. The other day when
(33:31):
I was with her, She's like, yeah, I'm thirty two.
I go, you're thirty two. She's like, Aunt, Sandy, and
I just started crying. I'm like, you're two. She's like,
are you crying? You know we lost I go, yeah,
but gosh, gosh, you're thirty two. And then it occurred
to me how old I am? And then we cry
(33:54):
hard or not really, I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
To be Sandelie is with us. It's I smell pop
culture here on the I Am On podcast. We have
so much more to get into. You know, we gotta
talk about Gilmore Girls. We have to talk about Gilmore Girls.
Stick around with us. We'll be right back after these words.
(34:17):
We're back with sandel Lee. So it's in the Netflix
revival they mentioned you, and I wanted to know if anyone, Yeah,
did any did anyone call?
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Everybody sent it to me? Yeah, everybody sent it to me.
How I found out, I was like, Wow, good for them,
good for me. This is auce.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
So the context of the mention is they're they're bringing
in all these like celebrity chefs to work at the
at the Dragonfly in and and you canceled because you
heard it was bad. That's the that's the reference. It
was a bad gig. Would you have actually wanted to
work at the Dragonfly in Stars Hollow? Is that something
you would have won?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
You know what's interesting is my personality, My real personality
would have never canceled because I would have been like, Okay,
I can fix this.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yes, that's what I thought. I was like, that doesn't
sound like xchange.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Really give me twenty four hours. I'm telling you, I
am at Sandy Claus for a reason. It's just like
a whirling dervish. When has happened? Does everybody go away?
And I'm like Courtney Cox her character and friends. Yes,
and it's true, like I'll do everything for everybody and
I'll make it perfect. And then I literally halfway in
(35:28):
the party, I'll like crawl and go to bed. My sister,
Kimmy kimber Lee will come in the room and she's like, Sandy,
you always do this. You have a party, and then
you miss all the fun and all the kids are
out there having a great time and they're dancing and
you're not seeing it. She's like here and she'll shove
coffee in my face. It's like, drink this coffee, get
your ass out of bed, work, go into party. And
(35:51):
so I'll just put on sweats and I'll like go
hang out. But it's a thing like I would have
fixed that.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that was something else I
was going to ask, is what what would you have
done to make this small town like bed and breakfast
something grand that would bring in people from all over?
What's something you would have suggested for them?
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Well, I'm saving that from my own show, of course,
I can't tell you.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Sorry, It's okay. I had to ask. I still have
to ask. And how does it? I know you do,
and we'll we'll get to see it at some point, right.
Speaker 3 (36:33):
I hope. So, yeah, did you just knock on wood?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I did. I Oh, my Angelie, look at us. How
does it when you heard from all your friends, everyone
that sent you the the reference, They're like, oh, they
talked about you and gil mor girls. How does that feel?
I mean, that's not the first time, obviously, that you've
been mentioned in something. I mean, everybody talks about you
all the time. How does that feel to be like
I am part of popular culture to the point where
(37:01):
these TV shows are talking about me saying my name.
How does that feel?
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Obviously, my career is a big part of my life
and building my career was a big part of my life,
and I did it for a reason, probably a lot
because of where I came from and how I was
raised and what we had or didn't have, and what
I want for my family and the experiences that are
really important for us to get to have. So it
(37:27):
came from that place. But there is definitely I mean,
there's the professional Sandra Lee, and then there's you know,
Sandy who I am, and there's Aunt Sandy Claus. Like,
you know, there's days where I don't feel like my peppy, wonderful,
little cheer lady self, and sometimes those days are triggered
(37:51):
by people just being mean. You know, there's a lot
of that I'll never forget. When The New York Times
came out with that scathing review of Semi Homemade when
it first hit the air, that really hurt my feelings.
But the network called immediately and said, whenever we see
(38:12):
something this big, that means it's going to be really huge,
and it was. Semi Homemade was I think the top
show for almost three years and in the top ten
for the next ten. Semi Homemade was just like this
crazy zeitgeisty thing that helped so many people and I
(38:34):
was happy to do it and proud to do it.
And it requires being the face of it. I mean
I was trained. I was I was educated. I had
fantastic mentors.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Florence Henderson really taught me how to be a good talent.
Florence Henderson did not require makeup and hair. We went
to Chicago to launch curtain Craft. She was a spokesperson
for that. She's like, I'll do my own hair and
hair and makeup. I only had a small amount of money.
I did an infomercial and I had a small amount
of money left, and I needed a talent to do
(39:09):
the infomercial. And she said no to me every which way,
and I finally said to her agent. I co called
the agent and I was I don't know what I
was thinking. I was like twenty seven, twenty six wow,
And I said, I want to meet with her. I
know she lives in Marine del Ray. I live in
Marine del Ray. I want to meet with her. So
she sat down with me and I explained her my
(39:29):
story and I told her what I wanted to do
and why it had to be her because when I
watched Brady Bunch, she was literally my mom. I didn't
have one. So the Brady Bunch mom was my mom,
and it had to be Florence, and that's who it was.
They wanted it to be this mom from this mom
and that mom and this other mom, and I said, no,
it's Florence Henderson. It has to be Florence. And so
(39:50):
she finally said yes. She accepted my money. She took
all of it. I'm happy to give it to her.
But she would show up and she would post for
photos a certain way, and she would stand there certain way,
and she would go to trade shows a certain way
which was different than my way. And she taught me
how to be good talent. Good talent doesn't sit in
a green room with her feet up. Good talent is like,
(40:10):
how can I help you make this better? How can
I work a little bit harder? What will make your
life easier? That is how she rolled. Gary Collins was
the same way Gary Collins taught me about lighting, because
he would walk around going where's my pill? Where's my pill?
And I thought Phil was his assistant. Is like light,
it comes up so you don't look, you know you're
a and it like fills you. Right, there's a reason
(40:32):
why Jennifer Aniston always looks the way she looks on
the set right in Reese Witherspoon, they have a light
like light, light light, and I like God's light. But
God's light can be a little harsh, yeah, compared to
studio lighting. But yeah, being a talent is a And
then I saw a really famous person at Gladstone's here
(40:56):
and I sat there and I watched him. And this
is when I was a waitress and some one came
up to him and he turned around and handed them there.
But were approaching him while he was in a conversation
out in public, And in my mind I thought, I
didn't say anything because I wasn't that bold yet. I
would probably say something now, But I thought, your talent,
(41:20):
your job is to be available. You wanted to be famous,
you are famous. You wanted to be an actor. You're
on the biggest show in the whole wide world. And
someone wants to talk to you and say hello, and
that made their life a little bit better and you
just handed them there. But not cool. Yeah, being a
(41:41):
talent and being famous comes with a lot of responsibility,
and it also comes with you have to eat it sometimes,
meaning you have to suck it up. You have to
eat the bad reviews with the good reviews. I mean,
people always say to me, your facelift is terrible. I'm like, oh, well,
I didn't get one. I gained thirty pounds thanks, I
aged thirty two anymore. And they say like the meanest things.
(42:04):
I'm like, delete delete, delete, Get off my Facebook, get
off my Instagram. You're not nice. Don't be mean to me.
Why would you be mean to me.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
That's something I'll never understand, Like where that that just
breeds more negativity in your life and it poisons you.
I don't know why people do that. It's insane.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Why would you want me to have to go have
two shots of vodka because you're mean not nice? So yeah,
so there's good and bad with being famous.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
And by the way, you don't always get the reservation
even when you're a foodie.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Sandeleie is here. Your new show is called Sandra Lee.
Now it's on KVC. I know that's so exciting.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Home Decorp Trimetry Linen's Gifting. So the first show starts
November tenth. Is that four pm Eastern Standard Time, which
is one pm Pacific. We all know that. And the
first show I'm just picking out all my favorites for holiday.
The second show, which is on the seventeenth of November,
is all my termitory stuff, and that'll probably be the
(43:10):
only show that there is. And I did something very
specific this year. I did a lot of gingerbread and
very kind of pale blonde colors so that you could
take it from Thanksgiving all the way to Holiday. So
the things you're going to see in my show on
the seventeenth you can use on your Thanksgiving tablescape and
you can decorate the tree with it. I decorate in advance.
I used to decorate the Friday after Thanksgiving, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
(43:32):
I don't do that anymore. I am it's time on
November first, so I put it all up and I
do copper. My sister Kimber does a lot of copper,
and I collect cookie getters, so I do a lot
of copper. I do a lot of gingerbread. Now gingerbread
is like the big deal of this Christmas is like
the trend.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
So a lot of gingerbread, and I'll carry it right
through the holidays. I might put some red bows on,
but I leave that off until right after Thanksgiving, and
then it only takes me like an hour. And I
used to do seven trees and themed every single room,
but now I only do two trees.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
A modest two trees I do a moda is too huge.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
And I just love Christmas. I have a storage unit
full of Christmas decor and I love creating crafts at
Christmas time. Love it. And you'll see a lot of
those beautiful, easy things that you can use in the kitchen.
There's like this gorgeous rolling pin that I designed based
off the European Christmas markets which I've gone to for
(44:32):
the last couple of years, and of course I went
to when I was super young. And there's these charming
cookie cutters, Christmas trees, gingerbread Christmas trees, stockings, I love stockings,
stars and snowflakes, which I love. So there's little there's
(44:54):
these tree lights like Charles Dickens tree lights that are candle,
three of them. I love those your tree and it
goes it's They're incredible. I think you're gonna love it.
And then the last show is on the twenty third,
right before right before Thanksgiving, and that will be giftables
and food and just yeah, yeah, if you like Semio
(45:19):
made and you like what I did, You're gonna love
these shows, So tune into QBC. This is my thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Yeah, this is a big deal coming out with Dan
Sandy Claus on QVC. It's sanje Lee now. And then
you can also watch the fantastic and incredible Sandelie on
The Blue Ribbon Baking Championship which is on Netflix, and
that is incredible too. I have seen that show. It's
so much fun and brings the joy and the love
of our state fairs and the thrill of getting a
(45:49):
Blue ribbon right to your screens. You got to check
that out too. Thank you so much for doing this, Sanjelie.
You're just the absolute best. I'm such a big fan.
Thanks and this was a dream come true.
Speaker 3 (46:00):
You're in great host. It's fun.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Oh my god, thank you. I'm blushing. Hey everybody, and
(46:34):
don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am All
In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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