In thinking Delia has a death wish for us all?

[mamhaf]

Just watched the Delia Christmas cookery programme on BBC2.

I know she always does this, but I haven't seen her on the tv for a while - everything was crammed with heart-stopping cholesterol - either butter or cream/creme fraiche. And then liberal amounts of nuts, cheese, fatty bacon etc.

It made me feel ill watching it.

And, wearing loads of rings on her horrible liver-spotty hands while preparing food - I hope they chucked the stuff away afterwards.

Admittedly some of the recipes looked delicious in small quantities but AIBU in thinking a full Delia Christmas is a ticket for the morgue?

I was she didnt wear a pinny - she got butter all over that red top she was wearing - bet shes in a vanish advert soon .

Her rings did make me feel a bit .

In my family, we spend Christmas doing extremely vigorous party games: we need the calories to keep going.

WTF has happended to Delia though? all the champage sipping with the poor spouse dragged in! barf
she has always had freckly hands BTW, its not liver spots. My friend used to be obsseses with her freckly hands for some reason, so I speak with authority

She has got unattractive hands though, I don't like watching Delia for her pudgy fingers (have always thought this, am not being ageist, just fat-fingerist.

I watched her last programme (which one was it - I think the How to Cheat one) where she had excrutiating dinner parties with Alan Hansen and a very tense seeming relationship with her other half. Even DP got into it, he said it was like a very odd soap not a cookery programme.

It think when Nigella does it (the eating noodles on a bus, yeah, right) I think she os knowingly taking the piss out of herself and her image, however when Delia invites us into her life it seems very brittle and cringeworthy. All those little vignettes of her life with her husband, Norwich football matches etc is really hide behing the cushion embarassing imo.

(disclaimer - I didn't watch last nights, DP had on that I'm a celeb crap )

I assume she was preparing us for volume two: the post Christmas diet.

Seriously though, it's Christmas. I remember reading somewhere that Christmas Day in many familliesw was the only day some kids got their 5 a day, with allthe veg etc, so if that comes with a bit of cream so be it.

Anyway, am a firm beleiver for the kids in a moderate amont of full fat rather than the loads fo 'lite' diet I was raised on, and they are by far slimemr than I ever was.

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Having seen Delia's recipe for mulled wine (how much water?!?!) then I think YABU.
Ans besides, it's Christmas and we all know that calories/fat consumed over the festive period don't count.
I don't have a problem with Jamie Oliver promoting healthy school dinners and then making fat-tastic puds. He's talking about what dcs eat everyday with the former and about entertaining/once a week indulgence with the latter. I don't see there's a class issue at all.
As for Nigella - I think she always seems a bit drunk, despite her claims to not drink much. Cooks measure and all that. Anyone remember the pissed family on the Fast Show ("I'm not pissed you know!")?

"ans besides"? I promise, I'm not pissed!

As others have said its only once a year for the dinner but the 'sausage fingers' are on every Delia programme. DH & I didn't watch last night for that very reason!

It is Christmas - surely we are allowed to indulge a bit. And yes, in the unhealthy eating stakes Nigella wins - she seemed to visibly widen about 12 inches at the hips over the course of her last series (okay that's bitchy but it's true!).

Did she have a pie-crusty Princess Di cuff around the spotty hands? That's what irritates me about her, that she doesn't roll her sleeves up.

She reminds me of my Mum's neighbour Marjorie. Except when she's pished.

Was there the slight off-vision view of the Portakabin in the garden that she makes the camera crew wee in?

Nigella is bonkers. Lovely, but bonkers.

I love all their books. Reading cookbooks is a kind of therapy.

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I'm not too bothered about the health aspect- it's once a year- but every dish did seem overly rich. Buckets of cream in the bread sauce? Ick. Surely things taste better with a bit of balance (rich v light). I also found her rings in the sausagemeat a bit unpleasant- one thing to cook with rings on, quite another to stick said rings into a bowlful of uncooked pork.

I agree Bucharest - Nigella is lovely and bonkers. I don't mind Delia but she always seems a bit prissy to me.

YABU

I cook like that, and no-one here is a porker. I cannot be doing with half-fat flim-flammery.

the key is not to eat doner kebabs between meals as well .

I much prefer Nigella but I think her self-parody's gone a bit too far on television. Her books are fantastic though.

I don't get Delia at all- none of her recipes are new- they are just standard food that most people know how to cook.

She only got into the press and TV etc because her DH 's connections and i think she has no personality whasoever.

Ooh Christiana that is really interesting re Omega 3 and 6 fats etc

Agree Bucharest reading cookbooks (with no intention of cooking whatsoever, just relaxedly reading of an evening) is the most soothing pasttime.

cream and fat and butter are not bad for you per se.
I would rather have a proper pudding with real ingredients than some hydrogented, nutriweetened shite any day.

Many of the overweight people I know spend their lives eating low fat products.

A reasonable amount of a large range of foods is fine.

Your comments about her hands are unpleasant

I think that's the point of Delia though - she doesn't just do recipes, she tells you how to do every detail of bogstandard stuff and get it right. At least in the classic complete cookery course book - whatever you need to know, it's in there. I'm an experienced cook and know how to make most things, but I still check things in there a lot. Ours is the most falling-apart, food-encrusted cookbook we have.

I think it has gone a bit wrong in recent years with attempts to make her cool and gimmicky, because that doesn't suit her.

Totally agree about the fat - I always use real butter, and avoid low-fat stuff like the plague - but it is possible to make food too rich, so that it's actually a bit overwhelming to eat. And some of Nigella's stuff does actually contain so many calories you couldn't possibly live like that. For special occasions yes, but it's the ay she presents it as if it's normal to be unable to stop bingeing on huge piles of fat, refined sugar and flour.

No the "cool and gimmicky" doesn't suit her. They need to make her even more terrifying and scary Head teachery.

Anyway, it must have been scientifically proven by now that lo-fat foods make you fat. Have you seen the list of ingredients on the back of a low fat yogurt? It looks like a GCSE Chemistry exam.

"horrible liver-spotty hands"

This will come to you, you know.

If you're lucky.

You know- JO and tand the 'fat tastic'puds

ifkids are allowed to runa bout a lot,and get all the stuff they need such as fruit and veg first then there is no issue with puds unless they start to gain weight.

IMVHO far more of the issue is about filling up constantly on crap and lack of exercise (we had an hour at lunch to run about at school, bioys get ten minutes now) than good quality, balanced but calorific foods.