They show you luscious pictures of the most delicious food.
Then you just can't get those images out of your head.
So you have no choice but to try to replicate what you saw.
The one shot that stayed in my head all week was that of a pan of apple jam.
All the cook did was to throw apple into the pan, add sugar and cinnamon and five seconds later jam of the deepest amber appeared.
Well, in the real world, making apple jam is not that easy.
It takes a bit more effort but it's well worth it.
I made mine with Granny Smith apples, brown sugar, lemon rind and juice, ginger and cloves.
It was way past midnight by the time I got everything ready.
So instead of staying up all night stirring jam, I put the whole pot in the fridge.
As it turned out, that was probably a good thing.
The sugar melted and juice came out of the apple so that by morning I had a soupy mixture ready for the long road to sticky success.
So while I had breakfast and watched more TV, the pot of apple soup bubbled away on the stove.
If you plan to follow my example, be sure to give the pot a good stir each time there is a commercial break.
This will pre-empt any tendency for the apple to stick to the pan.
After about an hour, the soup started to look more like it was going to turn into a sticky caramel.
It occurred to me that biting into the cloves wouldn't be very nice when all I want is sweet, fragrant jam on toast.
The thing to do then is to pick out all the cloves with a pair of chopsticks.
Once that's done, it's time to stop watching TV and turn all your attention to the pot.
It's now non-stop stirring till all the moisture is gone and the apple is a glorious sticky amber jam.
I had enough to fill three regular jam jars plus a small one.
Here's what you need to make Fen's Apple Jam.
10 Granny Smith apples, pared and cut into thick slices
2 and a half pounds brown sugar
Juice and rind of 2 lemons
A 2-inch knob of ginger, julienned
About 15 cloves
Once the jam is done, let it cool in the pot.
Sterilise some clean jam jars by boiling them for about 5 minutes.
When the jars are dry fill them with the jam.
Spread the jam on home-made wholemeal bread for breakfast.
Or serve it with roast chicken or nasi bryani for dinner.
I don't know how long the jam can be kept.
But I am sure it will all be eaten long before any mould has a chance to grow.
