Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other - Ann Landers and Mediterranen Burgers with Feta Cheese Sauce and Tadziki

Photo by Susie Nelson

Sometimes I find myself wondering what ad execs are thinking about with some of the commercials showing on TV at the moment.  Particularly those offering products or services to save you money or loan you some of the elusive green stuff.  One in particular makes us laugh every time it airs.  Basically, a dental group is pushing the orthodontics side of their business by offering great interest free financing.  To set the bit, they show two yuppie looking women most probably in their early thirties lying on high-end chaise lounges. Both are in bikinis with perfect tans and toned bodies sipping tropical beverages out of lovely glassware. Lounging comfortably, they are discussing the fact that now they’ve become aware of this amazing dental financing they can afford braces for their children. Behind them the children are seen cavorting happily in their fabulous pool area with a beautiful in-ground hot tub.  Really?  These ladies look more like they are married to dentists, then needing financing to see one.  The only thought it illicits in my mind, is that if they quit spending all their money at the mall buying lawn furniture or at Trader Joe’s picking up Mai Tai ingredients they could afford hardware for these poor underprivileged little tykes.

It is just me or wouldn’t it be more appropriate to show someone who obviously really needs help with the financing? Someone, say, in a lower-income home. Perhaps a long-suffering pregnant woman with three or four young children circling her legs with dirty faces, crooked teeth and noses that need wiping.  Maybe throw in an older kid in the background with a hairnet and tattoos for atmosphere.  I’m just not convinced in any way that these two well-to-do young women need what this commercial has to offer, and unless I’m mistaken, that’s what I’m supposed to be believing.

Also, my other half pointed one out the other day offering a $1,000 loan at fairly high interest.  First shown is a man leaning on his pool cue in front of a custom table in a beautiful game room.  This gentlemen is telling us that he just wouldn’t know what he would have done without getting his $1,000.00 loan.  Following him, a well dressed woman loading groceries into the back of her Mercedes SUV (probably with a sticker price hovering around the $100,000.00 mark),  also simply is unable to imagine what bad turns her life would have taken without getting her $1,000.00.  Now, I’m not saying that people able to afford these toys don’t need a loan now and then, I’m only thinking that perhaps someone without them might be more appropriate as a spokesperson.  I’m just saying.

Lately I can’t seem to watch any television.  By the time I get comfortable, pour a glass of ice water, plump my pillows and turn something on I want to watch it’s morning.  If it wasn’t for my DVR, I truly wouldn’t have any idea who was eliminated, married, suing who, wearing what, and uncovering which grossly decomposing body and transporting it to the lab for identification.

Some shows I will not watch.  For instance, I find The Bachelor and it’s counterweight The Bachelorette a total waste of air space, or oxygen in general.  I’m sure I’ll get some push back about this because obviously someone out there is watching, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why.  Has any couple ever stayed together in the history of the show?  I believe it could be possible to meet the love of your life in such a contrived situation but I put the odds right up there with me winning the lottery off that ticket sitting in between my driver’s license and my credit cards as I write this.  Let’s just say I’m not going to run out and put a down payment on a Porsche with those odds and I wouldn’t bet any of these relationships hang in their for the long run either.

For me I watch TV to get away from reality not find myself immersed in it, and especially the worst kind of reality, the dreaded Kardashians.  Please tell me what they have done to deserve our undying admiration because I am lost for answers to this puzzling question.  Whatever happened to wonderfully inane shows with ridiculous plots and characters based on no reality whatsoever, like June Cleaver, who made you forget your leaking toilet and overdue phone bill and allowed you laugh out loud for a minute?  Remember the Cosby children, well, maybe not, who always got the moral of their bad behavior minutes before the credits rolled.

Another one that’s annoys me is Jerseylicious. Spending sixty precious minutes of my life watching Snookie pouf her hair is about as intoxicating an idea as getting lost in Mexico City after the sun goes down.  I have my own issues, why oh why, do I need to be privy to hers as well and a nail breakage crisis.

I’m yearning, simply yearning for something that sweeps me off my feet on the screen.  Beautiful, poignant Color of Purple, cinemographically magnificent Out of Africa, scream inducing Exorcist, and hysterically funny, slapstick, farcical and laugh out loud Money Pit.  I need a fix, and I need it bad.

As a closing note here I’m somewhat interested in Halle Berry going after the paparazzi.  About time somebody got in their faces instead of them getting in other people’s. I kind of like that, another probably unpopular view.  We are left with such a saffron thread of privacy these days. As such, I have to sympathize with people who have signed up for being forever focused in the public eye. As public figures, it seems impossible to extract a shard of a moment for themselves or their families not captured by a camera.

So, to follow with the other wordly note of this silliness, we are trying Susie’s Canadian version of Mediterranean burgers.  The tadsziki to me is the rope that pulls the pants together in this recipe.  Yummy.

Mediterranean Burgers  and Feta Cheese Sauce with Tadziki

Mediterranean Burgers with Feta Cheese Sauce

1 lb. ground lamb
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 yellow onion, chopped fine
1/4 cup green pepper, chopped fine
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. parsley flakes
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. dried mint
6 Hamburger buns
Olive oil

In food processor crumble 1/2 ground beef, then 1/2 ground lamb, then 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground lamb. Pulse until a medium fine mince. Place in large mixing bowl. Add onions, green peppers and seasonings. Work to mix with your fingertips trying not to overmix. Form into 6 patties.

Grill or broil to desired doneness. Serve with a generous dollop of feta cheese sauce, and hummus with sliced onions, tomato and lettuce.

Brush buns with olive oil. Place under broiler until golden brown. Spread with hummus if desired and top with other garnishes.

Garnish:

Sliced Tomatoes
Sliced red onions
Lettuce leaves
Hummus
Tepenade

Feta Cheese Sauce

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup sour cream
Dash or two of garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste

Mash feta cheese in bottom of small mixing bowl. Mix in remaining ingredients and serve over burgers.

Tadziki

1 cup plain yogurt
1 cucumber, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Serve with burgers.
Mix together and refrigerate until ready to use.