Meals on DVD: Shop, Watch, Cook! (DVD)

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I'm not the FDA, but I'd have to say that this food-related set passes inspection. And the price is right.

Here are some of the recipes included on other discs:

Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner
Good Eats Roast Turkey
Tart Cranberry Dipping
Southern Cornbread Stuffing
Cornbread
Garlic String Beans
Homemade Apple Sauce
Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes

Elegant Entertaining
Loin of Pork with Fennel
Frisee Salad w/Blue Cheese and Port Wine Vinaigrette
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars w/Streusel Topping
Pea Whipped Potatoes
Ina's Chive Biscuits
Spiked Cider Cocktail

Holiday Cookies
Gingerbread Girls and Boys
Chocolate Filled Hazelnut Cookies
Florentines
Hidden Mint Cookies
Pastura
Fig and Walnut Cookies

Mac and Cheese Feasts
Creamy Macaroni and Cheese
Mac and Cheese with Bacon and Cheese
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Next Day Mac 'n' Cheese Toast
Roasted Tomato Soup
Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

Simple Side Dishes
The Baked Potato
Crunchy Noodle Salad
Cheesy Broccoli Bake
Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Easy Chicken Dinners
Oven-Fried Chicken
Chicken Divan
Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breasts w/Tomato and Basil
Potatoes w/Peppers and Onions
Green Salad w/Blue Cheese Dressing

Cozy Comfort Foods
Minute Shepherd's Pie
Potato Casserole
Betty's Chocolate Cake

Soul Soothing Soups
Lentil Sausage Soup
Italian Vegetable Soup
Clam Chowder

Quick Meatloaf Recipes
Rachel's Meatloaf
Italian Style Meatloaf
Paula's Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Bacon Green Beans
Pesto Crushed Potatoes
Chocolate Sybil Cake

The Great Bakeoff: Great Dessert Recipes from Paula Deen
The Best Bread Pudding
Orange Brownies
White Chocolate-Coconut Cookies

Slow Cookin': Great Slow Cooker Recipes from Paula Deen
Swiss Steak
Creamy Macaroni and Cheese
Dutch-Oven Peach Cobbler

Food Network is distributed to more than 96 million U.S. households and averages more than seven million Web site users monthly. My guess is that these low-priced samplers will serve as audience-building teasers. If people buy one of these impulsively, they might start watching the show or look for cookbooks the celebrity chef has written. From a public relations and marketing perspective, this line of quick-fix DVDs looks like a stroke of genius. The only problem is that the Brain who dreamed these up didn't think the packaging through. The "tabs" should have been a little larger, the title should have been printed on the tab, and the tabs should have been staggered from title to title so that they can be housed in a box and "read" like recipe cards in an index file. Right now, what do you do with these cardboard sleeves? They'd get lost on the shelves with the rest of your DVDs.

Video:
The picture quality isn't throwaway. Though I can't say it's better quality than the TV broadcasts, it's at least as good. There's just a little grain and fuzziness to contend with, but nothing all that noticeable. But the colors seem true, and for cooking that's the main thing. The mini-shows are presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
No audio is specified, but it appears to be either a Mono that's split or a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. Either way, it's mostly dialogue narration, with just a little porno-style music in the case of Giada's disc, as she works on her dishes.

Extras:
There are no bonus features.

Bottom Line:
These Food Network offerings are bargain-priced samplers that give start-to-finish directions on how to prepare dishes that will impress the people your entertaining without putting too much of a dent in your budget or asking you to do things in the kitchen that seem beyond your capabilities. It's not exactly "Cooking for Dummies," but these are hand-holding lessons that give you printable recipes and plenty of visuals, so it's pretty impossible to get it wrong. These are meals in minutes, and the half-hour discs are priced to either throw away after the meal is done, or save it for "left-overs" (and repeat cooking).