Until I was alerted to this video, by way of Jezebel alum Bobby Finger’s Twitter account, of Sandra Lee sprucing up box mac and cheese by adding different cheese and a possibly fatal amount of pepper, I was only dimly aware of who a person called Sandra Lee was. That gap in my cooking knowledge was so vacuous I’m now deeply ashamed of anything I ever cooked before I entered the world of Semi-Homemade. Bobby’s tweet introduced me to a world where box mix instructions were only suggestions and white chocolate paired deliciously with polenta. Sandra Lee’s cooking reminds me of my favorite Southern holiday foods, like crockpot meatballs simmered in BBQ sauce and grape jelly, or a ranch dressing mix cream cheese ball rolled in also potentially lethal amounts of black pepper. Her willingness to play loosely-goosey with the thin line between ill-advised and absolutely delicious speaks directly to my Louisiana roots. So when I realized I had everything in my home to create my own recipe for key lime pie flavored Jell-O shots, I set about attempting to make Sandra Lee proud whilst getting drunk in the process, which I hope will make her doubly proud.
