I just caught up on The Great British Baking Show, and I had no idea how different baking was in Britain- I have never heard of most of these things like yeast leaven cakes and hot water pastry, and so much pork IN pastry.

I said something similar upthread recently. So many things I had never heard of (but probably have eaten) despite having traveled to the UK several times.

This sounds more and more like something I need to watch.

Where can a person catch up on this show? Though I'm not sure I want to--I'm still dieting, and very susceptible to suggestion (also, I had to spellcheck to get "susceptible" because apparently I had no idea how to spell it).

I watch on pbs.org. I think they have all the back shows for this season as well.

It is so different from American reality shows because everyone is super nice, and even the judges try to give constructive criticism that will help in their baking in the future.

FWIW, apparently in the UK it's called The Great British Bake-Off or similar, but Pillsbury has that phrase on lock here. So if you're looking through methods, you might try that title. Or pbs.org, yeah.

I have just noticed they also have a couple cookbooks available. I'm trying to remind myself that I don't have room for more cookbooks.

I need to watch this show.

I'm catching up on Face Off - really enjoying this season so far. I don't have any favorites among the contestants, yet, but they all seem pretty good. Someone just said "...and I sprayed it with glitter to make it look...classy?" which I just love to pieces.

I didn't understand the judges on Project Runway All-Stars this week at all. I thought the top two and the bottom two should be reversed.

Really? I get what they were saying, but really, they were all pretty close and I can kind of see what you're saying, too. I was prepared to hate Sonjia's as soon as she said "giant bow" but I actually really liked what she ended up with (although the judges were all right and the mini-underskirt was too much). Michelle's was great except for the chain, which was maybe bad enough to warrant putting her on the chopping block. I really hated what she did for the extra-special live on the runway challenge, but I hated that they did an extra-special live on the runway challenge more. I"m happy with the outcome, however they got there, I guess, although I'm not sure I need to see any more from Dimitri.

Honestly "timeless red carpet look" is just sort of a blah challenge.

I would have liked to have seen more of the dog challenge, frankly. That seems like an interesting design challenge that I'd like more details about. Proportions and whatnot.