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Saturday, March 19, 2005 

Weekends

The weekend is when the Part Time Gourmet kicks in. There isn't the distraction of work, and there can be more focus on food. I usually love Saturdays. This weekend however, it's not as enjoyable as usual. In my opinion, Food Network during the week has gone downhill quite a bit. It's pretty much the same shows over and over. I look forward to Saturdays because I can usually get my fox of PBS cooking shows. I love America's Test Kitchen, Lidia's Italy, and a number of other shows. There's a variety available. I live in an area where there are actually two PBS stations, and they both show cooking programs on Saturdays. This weekend however, they both are in the middle of pledge drives. As a former PBS employee, I recognize the necessary evil that are pledge drives. But instead of any cooking, I'm getting Suze Orman and David Carradine.

Food Network does have more variety on the weekends, possibly because of competition from PBS. I like a number of the shows on the weekend. Michael Chiarello's Easy Entertaining show is a favorite of mine, and it's one that's no longer on my PBS stations, but has moved to Food Network. My girlfriend is from Napa, and I love it out there. Perhaps that's part of the draw to that show for me.

In any event, I also plan my food for the week on Saturdays, and generally do the grocery shopping. I try to go more towards the evening when it's generally less crowded.