Bed Breakfast

Hey, y'all. You won't believe whose house I'm walking out of

I'm actually walking out of the childhood home of our President Jimmy Carter

I'm here in Plains today to sit down and have a chat with the President

I want to find out about some of his childhood memories, his favorite foods, and all about his town

So, y'all, please stay with me. I promise you it's going to be a wonderful, wonderful time with one of the greatest men of our times

So y'all, please come with me. Hi, I've got the most spectacular day planned for us

We're going to see President Jimmy Carter, and I'm going to do the breakfast

because like any southern girl, you know I can't go empty-handed, so I've got to have something in the way of food to take to him

So I have decided, I thought and thought and thought, and I said, well, sweet rolls really go with a bed and breakfast

So I thought, well, I'll make him some of my gorilla bread, and it's so simple and easy

We're going to start with canned biscuits. And before we open our biscuits

I'm going to get a stick of butter melting and a cup of brown sugar

And before I open the biscuits, I'm going to do one more thing

I'm actually going to cut this cream cheese into 20 cubes. And I always have to stop and think about this one

All right, because five times four is 20. So I'm going to go down the center, and I'm going to get four rows out of this

And then I'm going to come back, and I'm going to make one, two, three, four, five cuts out of that

So that will give us 20 squares because we have 20 biscuits, and we want a piece of cream cheese for each biscuit that we have

All right, I'm going to give this a quick stir. All we need to do is just really get that brown sugar melted into that butter

While I'm working over here, that will finish melting. And now I'm going to open our can of biscuits

I'll never forget the day I was on Ready, Set, Cook. And I was going up against a French chef

And I looked over at him. And he was just working like crazy with a can opener and a can of biscuits

And I looked over and I started hollering, no, no, no, stop, stop, stop

And he wouldn't listen to me because he thought naturally I was trying to lead him astray

Well, about that time, they exploded in his face. and I just died laughing

I thought everybody knew how to open a can biscuit. All right, now I'm going to take our biscuits

and I'll do one can at the time. I'm going to spray our Bundt pan

and this is a Teflon coated, but I'm going to put just a little bit of spray in there

and I'm going to sprinkle some walnuts evenly around the bottom. Now, you can use any kind of nuts you want

but I either like pecans or walnuts. Now I'm going to take each one of these biscuits, and I'm going to flatten them out a little

bit, and I'm going to cut me a chunk of cream cheese and put it inside that biscuit

Doesn't that sound heavenly? And I'm going to mix some sugar and some cinnamon together, and just stir that up

Take the biscuit, and I'm going to put about half a teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture

and there. And then I'm just going to seal that biscuit up real good and then place it in my

bunt pan. And I'm going to do that until every one of the biscuits have been done. You'll want to

make sure that you use like a 10 count tube of biscuits. And you'll want to make sure that you

use a quality biscuit. These are not expensive, so you don't want to skimp on that. I'm so excited

about visiting this man. I have been so fortunate in my life

Even though this visit hasn't happened yet, I'm literally just hours away from it happening

Our butter and our brown sugar is separated a little, so I'm just giving it a few stirs

to kind of incorporate that butter back into that brown sugar. All right, now I'm gonna sprinkle

some of our brown sugar and cinnamon over that. And then I'm going to take our butter mixture and drizzle those biscuits

And this is going to make like a... have you ever had a sticky bun

It going to be something like that You know with the kind of rich caramel sauce on top So we going to do about half of that onto that first layer And then I going to take a few more nuts

and sprinkle over that layer. And I'm going to place the rest of the biscuits that I have

done on top of those. Doesn't that look good? Biscuits and cream cheese. I don't believe

it can get any better. All right, here we go again with the last of the brown sugar and butter

making sure that gets on every biscuit. And I love eating this while it's still warm out of the oven

but if you can't get it straight out of the oven, you can pop this bread into your microwave

and it's just as good. All right, now we're going to take the remainder of our cinnamon sugar

and just sprinkle over those last 10 biscuits. The cinnamon smell is terrific

Then we're going to take the last of our nuts and pour over in there

And we're really going to have one great big fat sticky bun

So we're going to put this in our oven and we're going to bake it for about 50 to 60 minutes

And I should have one over here that's ready. Oh, look

This is a presidential sticky bun. Who would have thought some little South Georgia girl would be making something for President Jimmy Carter

Blows my mind. I hope he loves it. but I think he will

I understand that he can have a little bit of a sweet tooth. Now, I'm going to take this, and I'm going to invert it onto my plate

and with any luck, it'll come out. I heard a clunk. That's a good sign

Y'all ready for the unveiling? How does it look? Does that look okay

I think he's going to just love it. I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready to go see Mr. Jimmy

because we don't want to keep a president waiting, do we? Welcome back, y'all

I'm actually standing in the personal pecan grove of Ms. Lillian Carter

Ms. Lillian was President Jimmy Carter's mother. She actually harvested the nuts off of these trees to help feed and clothe and educate her children

And, you know, I happen to know that one of President Carter's favorite foods is pecans

So I have cooked him up something extra special to serve him up today

Well, we've got our gooey and gorgeous gorilla bread and these hot fresh scones to take to President Carter

And do you know he still lives in the small town he was born in? Plains, Georgia, which is actually just a few miles down the road from my hometown of Albany

And you know, I've visited it many times, but I've never seen such a beautiful bed and breakfast as the one Mr. Carter helped build on the main street

And true to his character, he actually constructed it along with other volunteers

In fact, this bed in the presidential suite was built by President Carter's very own hands

His wife, Rosalind, supervised a different decor in the period-themed rooms. And the generosity of workers and sponsors has created a historic gym well worth visiting

But, you know, I wanted to catch up with my own favorite president about some of his own history

and that of the town he loves so much. What store are we standing in front of

Well, when my father had a warehouse here, that business, an insurance business

so when I came home from the Navy, this is my first office. And so I lived here until, I guess, about seven or eight years

and then finally built another office building. But this was original Carter's Warehouse

And this was a grocery store. And my uncle Alton, my daddy's brother, had a grocery store down here

and so did my father, by the way. And so all of these were very wide open operating on Saturday night in particular

because folks didn't have automobiles to ride around in or pickup trucks

Then they rode in wagons or either walked. So once a week they would come to Plains

This, by the way, was a bank building. It was built in 1901, as were most of the places along the way

And so we've converted the bank building into the old bank cafe

I've eaten here before. It's a good place to eat. It's a good place to eat

We have a couple of really good restaurants sometimes. And then this next store here was my uncle Plains Mercantile Company And sometimes on Saturdays and particularly during the Christmas holidays I worked in this store Yes sir They had a wonderful store upstairs for women goods where men couldn even go upstairs

Well, they had unmentionables up there. No, like slips and stuff like that

Oh, well, we wouldn't have said those words back in those days. And they had a whole bunch of mannequins up there

And they would put the latest women's styles on the mannequins. And ladies would come from all around this part of the state to shop here

For their foundations. And for the foundations and other things. And my uncles would send his bar up to New York City every year, twice a year

in the spring to buy fall fashions and in the fall to buy spring fashions

So ladies' styles here in Plains. This was a good mercantile store

It had everything in it that you can imagine. But as much as I enjoy learning about the president's family and hometown

you know, as a southerner myself, I've always been curious as to why he stays so close to home

Well, first of all, this is where my family's been since 1860

It's where Rosen's family's been since 1833 when the Indians left. So our land is here

Our churches are here. Our family still lives here. The only home we've ever owned is here in Plains, and we are where we belong to be

It's just a matter of a haven that Rosa and I have always chosen without argument, I might say

Something else that just fascinated me is your business mind. It started when you were as early as four years old, didn't it

The biggest thing that amazed me, though, was at eight years old, you became a property owner

Yes, I owned five houses when I was eight years old. Eight years old

I had saved up a dollar a day all during the entire peanut season every year for four years

And I had enough money. When cotton got down to five cents a pound, the lowest price it ever got in the United States

I had enough money to buy five bills of cotton. And I put it in one of my daddy's storehouses, and when it got up to 18 cents a pound

we sold it, made a big profit. and the undertaker in Plains who owned part of the building where the inn is now

he had died, and so I bought five houses from him. And so the total rent on my houses was $18.50

For five houses, the total rent was $18.50. Two of them rented for $2 and the biggest ones for $5

And when I went off to be in the Navy, to the Naval Academy, I was still collecting $18.50

So I was an entrepreneur and a property owner as a little boy

That's amazing because, you know, at 8, I don't think I had learned to tie my shoes yet

But I desperately wanted to ask Mr. Jimmy, as he prefers to be known around his hometown

what his food memories were growing up in Plains. Well, my favorite memory was our Sunday meals

when we always had either chicken pie or fried chicken, plus mashed potatoes and rice and gravy and hot biscuits with butter

And then we generally had the vegetables of that time, collard greens, turnip greens, black-eyed peas, butter beans, sweet corn

And then we almost always had banana pudding or strawberry shortcake for dessert

Just a few simple things like that. And one of my favorite desserts, really, because I ate it at the end of the meal because it was so precious

was cornbread crumbled up in buttermilk and eaten with a spoon. That is so good

Well, I have a few things that I have made for you to taste, if you would agree to it

And I hope you love them. Can we walk across the street? I'm looking forward to it

Would be delighted. Hurry back, because I can't wait to show you how President Carter enjoyed my gorilla bread

And then he had a surprise for me. Welcome back, y'all, to one of the best days of my life

I was so proud to spend time with a man that I admired so much

And as you can imagine, I was excited about him tasting my food

But I did worry that the scones and the gorilla bread that looked so good in my kitchen

may be a little too humble for this occasion. But as y'all will see, it appears my favorite president has an appetite as big as his heart

What do you want to taste first? Oh, I think a, well, I'll take a bite of a scone

A scone? Did I just get one? Yes, sir, just get one. And I don't know that, I brought you some strawberry, oh, here's the strawberry figs for you to taste it with

I made these, I made these week before last off of my fig tree

And let's see if I can. There you go. There your fork You know scones are they a little different from our biscuits aren they Yeah I know To me they more drier and you need something good and wet Good Well that does You sorry All right look at him

Look, that's the way I eat. The gorilla bread is so good

You cook this? Yes, sir, I made this just for you. This may be a little messy because it's been traveling

All right, that looks beautiful. Mmm, you're right. It's a gorilla, isn't it

It is. I just love it. Georgia pickaxe, isn't it? Yes, sir

That is great. I was just so happy that Mr. Jimmy liked my gorilla bread and scones

but now he has a surprise for me. Yes, that's right. Mr. Carter wanted to introduce me to his favorite cook

and local celebrity, Maggie Crimes. Her home-style restaurant has fed Mr. Carter and his family for years

So when you come back, we'll learn a little bit about pleasing the presidential palate

Welcome back to my great day in Plains with President Jimmy Carter

who was kind enough to ask his friend and favorite cook, Maggie Crimes

to share some of her legendary fried chicken with us. And this isn't just any old chicken

It's Mr. Jimmy's lifelong favorite. Paula's a great cook, but... Uh-oh! In Plains, nobody can compete with you

I may be in trouble here. No, you're not in trouble. I've heard about you, dear

Is that right? Yes, ma'am, I have heard about you and your food through not just Mr. Jimmy

but other folks here in town, and it's all been good. Thank you

So you got some secrets to tell me. No, ma'am. The only thing I got to say is that all these are good

Absolutely. And that's where you get the taste from. And you know what I think, Mom

Well, honey. That Southerners use that makes it so good, tremendous amount of love

Yes. I know that you have put your heart into that place. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am

Everything that I fix, I want to make sure it tastes right

And if it tastes right to me, then it should taste right to you. Will you buy your chicken

Yes, sir. Thank you. I'll tell you something. A lot of places I have chicken

This is my favorite part of chicken. A lot of places I went and went out to eat, and what they trouble with their food, they

cut short on seasoning. You know, you have seasoned food to the taste, to make it taste right

You know, I think the only thing that we differ on, which surprises me, is I think I just

I just lost my piece of pecan pie. I'm gonna... Well, you have to share it with our friends

I say pecan, y'all say pecan. Well, they'll... There are four different ways to pronounce that delicious nut

Pecan, pecan, pecan, and pecan. That's right. So you put the accent on different syllables and you pronounce it anna

But even when you go to... It's wonderful. No matter what you call it, it's wonderful

to an international convention about pecans, they pronounce it four different ways. And

I sometimes change the way I pronounce it. Well, I want to thank y'all so much. I hope that one day I'll have grandchildren to be

able to tell this story to. Well, if it not, you can show them the film. You mean so much to so many people

That's the truth. Thank you very much. We all love you so much

Well, one of the best things about Plains, Georgia, is not only the love that exists

but also having Maggie crying, see her. Oh, well, you know why, don't you cook

Yeah. I know that you make him feel good from the inside out

And it makes me feel good, too. And let me tell you this little story. He don't come regular enough

Sometimes I think about going to his house. Yeah, I get shocked. But you know what

Maggie wants his boss to eat every meal, though. You know what

Mr. Jimmy, if you ate every meal there, you might not could get in your car. That's right, I know

All with you. All with me. Well, this has been great. I had so much fun visiting with President Jimmy Carter

and his adorable hometown of Plains, Georgia. The bed and breakfast was just perfect

It was an honor to cook up some goodies for him, and I was so excited that I got to meet his favorite cook, Maggie

Her home-style cooking was incredible. I want to thank you all so much for spending time with me today

along with President Carter. It was a very humbling experience for me to be with such a great man

So from Plains, Georgia, we wish y'all best dishes from our place to yours