A 'Semi-Homemade' Halloween With Sandra Lee

By Maggie Coughlan Posted Oct 22nd 2010 12:43PM

Sandra Lee struck gold when she introduced her concept of "semi-homemade" cooking, which combines 70 percent ready-made products with 30 percent fresh food, to create unbelievably easy and mouthwatering dishes on her Food Network show. 14 seasons of 'Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee' later, Lee is preparing for one of her most epic episodes yet. Airing Sunday at 11:30AM, Lee will don five different Renaissance-themed Halloween costumes as she conquers the kitchen in character.

"It is hilarious. It's good TV. You'll never know you're watching Food Network," Lee tells PopEater of her Halloween episode.

Sandra also revels what it was like cooking in costume and compiling 1,001 recipes for her new cookbook, and she even shared a recipe for her Halloween cocktail! Read the interview (and get the recipe!) after the jump.

Fall kick starts the holiday cooking season in many homes. What do you do to get into the spirit of the season?
Oh gosh, we do baking. We started baking and decorating this past weekend. We put out our mums with pumpkins, little tiny bails of hay, we put little baby pumpkins inside of our ferns, the ferns left over from summer. So we decorated outside, and then what we did was we put the candy in the candy bowl, which never lasts 'til Halloween. I've gotta buy it twice.

And my new cookbook came out this past weekend. I've got a 1,001 recipe cookbook that I did with Food Network; it's called 'The Complete Cookbook.' It's got 19 chapters and 570 pages and photographs, and it's got an index, where when you get to page five you're still in "C" for chicken!

1,001 recipes! How long did it take you to compile all those recipes?
[It's] an anniversary cookbook, and I've been on Food Network for 14 seasons. We did this in partnership, so I can say it's taken seven years. So it's a huge testament to not only how popular 'Semi-Homemade' is, but to how great [what you] can make from your very own pantry with normal ingredients and just change it up.

You've been called the "Queen of Halloween" of all the Food Network stars. How does it feel to be the top dog?
Yeah, I have to say I'm the one that enjoys it the most. I do the costumes and I take it seriously. When you watch my show this Sunday, we're going to open the show with a young Queen Elizabeth I on a royal barge coming in from a pond, a huge, huge pond, greeted by an entire court of people who are also dressed. Then I turn into Lady Mary Anne, more like Angelina Jolie meets Lady Mary Anne, a horse, I'm actually riding a horse and jousting, and I knock a guy on his tushy. And then I do some cooking for the merry men that live in the forest. Then I'm Robin Hood; I have a bow and arrow and I actually shoot it!

It sounds like it's pretty tough to cook in costume. How do you move around the kitchen while dressed as all these characters?
If you wait for the outtakes after the special, you'll see I fall down as Lady Mary Ann because I've got a copper corset on. My costumes are amazing, you'll laugh so hard. Most people don't even know what I made because the people are looking at the costume and [saying], "Oh my gosh, I can't believe she's doing this."

We know that you love to make cocktails on 'Semi-Homemade,' so what's on your drink menu for Halloween?
My Crystal Ball martini and my Queen of the Fairies cocktail. They're great. But I have to say for moms that are going out with their kids trick or treating, I highly recommend you have one espresso martini.

Want to whip up Sandra's Crystal Ball Cocktail this Halloween? Here's the recipe!

Crystal Ball Cocktail
Yield: 2 servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Inactive prep time: 5 hours
Ease of preparation: Easy

Ingredients:
2 cup white cranberry juice
4 shots green apple vodka (Smirnoff)
1 shot cinnamon schnapps
2 ice balls

Special Equipment:
2 silicone ice ball molds (available at www.muji.com)

Make 2 ice balls using the ice mold according to manufacturer instructions. You can also use ice cubes.

Combine all ingredients together in a pitcher and stir together. Place the ice balls into two martini glasses and evenly divide the cocktail between the two glasses.

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