ur inspirational and informative shows have been on the air for 10 years and have held top spot as appointment television with an ever-growing fan base of loyal viewers. Through 4 series and nearly 200 episodes we've been on the cutting edge of lifestyle television and have set the standard which many programs follow. Over the years we've sought to stay one step ahead of the curve and continually evolve to meet the changing needs of viewers. From the Do-it-yourself, hands-on focus of Room Service, to the fast-paced behind-the-scenes peek into the business side of Design Inc, to the real-life high-stakes world of renovating seen in Sarah's House, we've consistently delivered programming that balances exceptional design, timeless style, and good value. Our award-winning programs are seen in over 50 countries worldwide (and dubbed in over 5 languages). Sarah's House is currently ranked as the #1 show on HGTV Canada.
As the host, co-creator and co-producer of every show, Sarah invests a healthy dose of personal energy, enthusiasm and passion for design into each episode. With 4 series on the airwaves, Sarah is always thinking about the next design adventure on television…stay tuned!
- Sarah 101 is a back-to-basics crash course in design as seen by the Gemini Award winning Sarah Richardson. Sarah's approach of tips and tricks solve design problems in any room in any home. It's like having your own personal design tutor!
- Get out the bug spray! Sarah Richardson tackles the renovation of her own weekend getaway on Sarah's Cottage. Sarah bobs her way through the renovation of her own off the grid stress-buster on an island 17 miles off shore.
- Sarah's House intimately chronicles the transformation of an entire home from fixer-upper to magazine perfect! We squeeze maximum design value from each dollar, making your home a pleasure to live in now and a windfall at sale time.
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- design inc., tears back the curtain on the exciting, high stakes world of interior design. As Sarah Richardson and team jump hurdles to create stylish, livable spaces we share each high and low moment along the way. Real stakes. Real Style.
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- room service is much like design school on television. We're your one-stop connection to interiors that fit your lifestyle and help you to get it done right the first time!
SARAH 101 AIRING INFORMATION
HGTV USA Show Schedule:
Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - 9:00 am ESTTuesday, May 29, 2012 - 9:30 am EST
Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - 8:00 pm EST
Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - 8:30 pm EST
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 3:00 am EST
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 3:30 am EST
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - 9:00 am EST
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - 9:30 am EST
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - 8:00 pm EST
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 - 8:30 pm EST
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - 3:00 am EST
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - 3:30 am EST
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - 9:00 am EST
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - 9:30 am EST
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - 8:00 pm EST
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - 8:30 pm EST
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - 3:00 am EST
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - 3:30 am EST
New Zealand's Living Channel Schedule:
Thursdays at 8:00 pm
SARAH'S COTTAGE AIRING INFORMATION
HGTV Canada Show Schedule:
Spring airtimes are subject to change, but are scheduled as follows:June 6 - August 29:
Sundays: 11:00am & 8:30pm
Available in the following countries
Sarah's Cottage airs in:Canada
SARAH'S HOUSE AIRING INFORMATION
Sarah's House 3 HGTV Canada Show Schedule:
April 27 - June 5Tuesdays: 12:00am, 2:00pm & 9:00pm
Saturdays: 1:00am
Sundays: 11:00am & 8:00pm
Monday May 24 - Sarah's House Marathon: 1:00pm - 5:30pm
June 6 - September 5
Tuesdays: 12:00am, 2:00pm & 9:00pm
Sundays: 2:30am, 11:30am & 8:00pm
Sarah's House 3 HGTV USA Show Schedule:
Saturdays: 8:30pm & 2:30pmSundays: 3:30am
FINE LIVING Show Schedule:
Weekends at 11:30am ET through May 30Available in the following countries
Sarah's House airs in:Canada
USA
South Africa
New Zealand
Australia
DESIGN INC. AIRING INFORMATION
HGTV Canada Show Schedule:
Spring airtimes are subject to change, but are scheduled as follows:April 27 - May 28
Weekdays at 8:00am
Saturday May 8: 12:00am
Sunday May 9: 11:00am
May 31 - September 3
Weekdays: 5:00am & 8:00am
Available in the following countries
Design Inc. airs in:Canada, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Republic of Comoros, Madagascar, Congo, Mozambique, Angola, Thailand, Republic of South Korea, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland, Malaysia, Australia, Israel, USA, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bahamas, Bermuda, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands, Suriname, Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guyana, Portugal, Italy, Malta, San Marino, Vatican City State, Monaco, Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Switzerland, New Zealand, Norway
ROOM SERVICE AIRING INFORMATION
Available in the following countries
Room Service airs in:Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Israel, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Martinique, Mexico, Moldavia, Montserrat, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russian Federation, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos, Ukraine, US Virgin Islands, USA, Uzbekistan
Pecan Puff Recipe
2 tsp. vanilla4 Tbsp. brown sugar (I like Demerara)
2 Cups pecans
2 Cups cake flour, sifted
icing sugar for dusting
1. Add pecans to food processor. Puree until well ground and fine, almost to the consistency of pecan butter.
2. Add butter and brown sugar to food processor and mix until mixture appears frothy.
3. Add vanilla and mix again.
4. Add flour a little at a time, pulsing food processor between additions. Resulting mixture should appear as a thick paste.
5. Chill in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes until firm, then scoop out small amounts of dough and roll into balls.
6. Place balls on a non-stick baking sheet (they can be close together as the dough does not expand much when cooking).
7. Bake at 300 degrees for about 35 - 45 minutes, depending on the size of balls. Remove from oven when slightly golden on the outside.
8. Transfer carefully to a cooling rack while still warm (best to use your fingers so you don't crush the cookies with a spatula), then use a flour sifter to dust icing sugar over the top of the cookies while warm. Allow to cool completely, and dust again.
9. Enjoy!...But be warned they are addictive and may stick to the roof of your mouth like peanut butter!
Note: I often double this recipe to be sure I have enough - it's no more work to make extras.
For this recipe, and more instructions on how to create some of Sarah's Holiday items, please visit the Sarah's House Fan Page on Facebook
- AOL living blog: Sarah Richardson Throws a Party
- Nov 27 2009
By Mark Moyes
Sarah Richardson, host of HGTV's Sarah's House, loves Christmas. She loves it so much that every year she holds a party for two hundred of her friends. Sound daunting? Sarah's Holiday Party, premiering this weekend on HGTV, gives viewers a sneak-peek into the week-long preparations, as Sarah and design helper Tommy collaborate on everything from decorating to baking to setting up the trees. We spoke to Sarah about tradition, family, keeping things simple and how to host that many people without losing your mind.
In the show, there's a lot of white stuff on the ground that looks suspiciously like snow. Toronto hasn't had snow yet: Did you shoot this last year?
Yeah. When you work in the business, you sometimes get asked to do Christmas at crazy times of year. And there was one year where I'd done Christmas four times by Halloween. I spent a long weekend in the summer making Christmas decorations in the middle of a heat wave, while all my family and friends were on beaches and lathering up with sunscreen. And I vowed then I'd never again do Christmas unless it's [the season]. Because I actually love Christmas.
How do you hold on to that feeling?
What keeps me inspired is focusing on the things I love about Chirstmas: the entertaining, decorating and celebrating aspect of it. As the years have gone by, I worry less and less about the material side. I refuse to succumb to the pressure of shopping. Not to say that I don't do it, but I don't go crazy and I don't over-indulge. When you look back on Christmases past, I think you always remember the experiences. I honestly could barely tell you what I received as gifts last year. So that part is not on my radar.
But I love entertaining. It's a time of the year when everybody's in the mood to celebrate. And not embracing that is a huge missed opportunity for fun.
Your annual party has 200 guests. It's kind of amazing that anybody--
[Laughing] That anybody would want to do that?
Or that anybody could.
I've never been good at excluding anybody. I'm always like "Oh, of course, well then you'd want to have so-and-so, and what if they found out that they weren't invited..." I think the purpose of an open-house is to throw your doors open and make everybody feel wanted and welcome.
But it also doesn't have to be a huge amount of work. People can do whatever they feel up to. If the idea of having everything totally organized is daunting, then have a self-serve bar. Buy pre-made hors-d'oeuvres and just heat them up. The whole message I was trying to deliver with this show is that there's ways to make it work and ways to make it fun, and I believe that with the holidays, you should do everything you like doing, and nothing you don't.
Don't shy away from entertaining because you feel that you can't pull it off like Martha Stewart. Just do what you can. If you and your friends, none of you feel like you can do it on your own -- instead of nobody having one, why not join forces? Three couples can throw it together, and you all invite some people. Ask people to bring whatever you need.
That sounds like good good advice for keeping your stress level down.
My husband always says about everything in life, "If in doubt, do". If you're stressing about who to invite, just invite them! So what? You can't worry about if so-and-so is going to get along with so-and-so. That's not your problem. As a host, you need to do whatever you can to make sure that you're relaxed, and that you're having a good time. Because if you're not, everybody's going to notice. And your job is to make sure that everybody is engaged and enjoying themselves.
With something as traditional as Christmas, how important are annual trends?
I don't think they are important. I'm not getting new decorations. Instead of trends, I think you should focus on tradition.
My husband has this amazing one. Part of how I knew that he was absolutely one-hundred percent for me was that the first time we decorated a tree together he pulled out champagne in the afternoon. I was like, "This is the most fun I've ever had!" You don't have to pop a bottle of champagne, but find the joy in all of the traditions.
I guess I'm also lucky because I love spending time with my family. I love both my in-laws and my family. So for us, Christmas is a time of celebrating and everybody having a good time, as opposed to "We have to spend it with your family?" So my heart goes out to people who have family situations that make it challenging. Because it shouldn't be.
Was decorating a part of your childhood?
Yeah. My mom's a terrific cook, a great seamstress. I don't know, maybe if she had been born at a different time, she might have pursued a career in design. But she was very stylish, and did a lot of stuff at home.
I learned to sew when I was tiny. She worked when I was little, and there was a rule that if I came home from school and if I wanted to sew, I had to call her at work. So I learned how to use the sewing machine when I was in kindergarten. And by high school I was making my own formal dresses.
It was always my job to put the lights on the tree. That's the one tradition that I would love to pass on to someone else, but somehow, in my childhood home and in my matrimonial home, I'm still the light person. Probably because everybody knows that I'm so maniacal about it that if they did it, I'd just come and fix things anyway. That's my burden.
And what kind of holiday decorating do you do now?
I do simple things. Lots of candles. A tree where literally the branches have so many ornaments on them that they start to sag under the weight. But I don't go visiting those Christmas stores in the middle of July. My favourite ornaments are the simplest, the ones that come in boxes of twelve from Loblaws, Canadian Tire, Sears, you name it.
I don't do swags and garlands and things are impossible to put up and a nightmare to take down.
Real tree or fake?
Going to to get a pumpkin at a pumpkin patch, picking apples with your kids at an apple orchard, and buying your own Christmas tree are touchstones in a year that I think are important experiences for life in Canada. Even when I had an apartment with friends, when I was 23, I remember going to buy my first Christmas tree of my own at the little mom-and-pop Chinese grocer. I literally dragged the tree home in the snow. I remember thinking "Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm in a movie right now. This is so great!"
You'll be throwing the party again this year?
Always. That's the thing. If you start hosting, be prepared: You're going to create a tradition.
'Sarah's Holiday Party' aired Sunday, November 29th at 3pm and 8pm EST, on HGTV.
Read the AOL living blog article.
