Semi-homemade and fully scary

This past weekend I read a blog post by someone who attempted to cook an actual meal from recipes created by Sandra Lee, the doyenne of that cooking (I use the term loosely here) show "Semi-homemade." Predictably the food was super gross and I had to laugh because it reminded me of my own semi-homemade-with-Sandra-Lee experience wherein I tried to make a cake in my crock pot.

Which, right there, should have tipped me off to what lay ahead. There are a lot of things on a religious front I don't understand, but I do know that God didn't invent crock pots in which to bake a cake. He already gave us ovens for that.

Anyway. The recipe whereof I speak called for yellow cake mix, a can of cherry pie filling, and oatmeal for the topping. (Brown sugar may have been involved, but I honestly don't think so.) I wondered at the time how that could possibly be good, but I was intrigued because sometimes really unlikely combinations turn out to be surprisingly great. And even though I am in the middle of writing a snotty post about Sandra Lee, I'm not much of a food snob. I'm sort of like the Statue of Liberty when it comes to food, in fact. Bring your poor huddled masses (of food) to me because I welcome them all with my big old Statue of Liberty arms.

Still.

I threw all that stuff in my crock pot, just like Sandra told me to and WOW. It turned out to be this sticky, gooey, non-cakey thing with bits of dry oatmeal on the top. It was completely inedible.

And here's the thing. It didn't save me any money. And it barely saved me any time. And what's the point of cooking something like that?