Boy oh boy do we see eye to eye on this one.

>And since boiling/simmering water is the same to many - why isn't steaming and boiling the same? <

At least this one makes some sort of sense, in a "if this, therefore that" kind of reasoning. If boiling and simmering are the same, therefore, boiling and steaming are the same. Logical! Of course, logic is a house built on sand, but that's another problem.

>You'd be surprised what I have come across in all these years and it is getting worse.<

No, I wouldn't be surprised. And yes, it is getting worse. Unfortunatly, as long as people like Sandra Lee have access to millions of people worldwide, the dumming down of the culinary arts will just accelerate.

>So let's beat them at their game - COOK IT OR BAKE IT - because that is just where we are heading!<

Nah, that won't work. It just brings us back to the concept of dry heat.

So many terms are being lost, forgotten, unused, pushed to the side, ignored - etc. as well as s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d beyond the limit and we have the so-called "experts" (like Sandra Lee - who actually is a big baby playing in a kitchen) that are leading today's cooks down the path of "HUH" ?????

And to think that they are going to be teaching our futures cooks!

Scares me.

I am dead-set against it - but I cannot change the world. I teach - and I teach exactly as it is supposed to be taught. Don't like it? There's the door - don't let it hit you in the butt on the way out. When I am teaching - I don't care who told you what - it's my way or the highway. Period. You think you know it all - teach your own classes and see just how far you will get. My first lesson is the toughest - and the worst anyone can imagine. Make it through that class and you're on your way. They all come back for the second class - amazing. But they learn and they know to do everything the way it should be.

I do not put out into the world - Sanda Lee's and the like.

Unfortunately - someone is probably out there trying to figure out how to beat Sanda Lee at her game - and so another following will begin.............