Brown Baggin' It

Y'all, I'm here in the kitchen today with Cheryl Day

And Cheryl's here to give me a taste of one of her family recipes

Sweet tea brined fried chicken on a biscone. Looks like my mom's part

You did it. That thrills me to pieces. And I'm sharing one of my family favorites, an Italian pasta salad

I better see something sweet come out of this kitchen besides you. And, you know, a visit from Cheryl wouldn't be complete without something sweet like this scooped-out cupcake tart

My God, so good. Look at Cheryl. She's back here steeping tea bags

We're going to be making Cheryl's mother's fried chicken that is grinded in sweet tea

Sweet, salty tea. I have to confess I've never heard of this Cheryl. That's okay. So you're gonna love it. I can't wait to taste

Basically what I'm gonna do Paul is I've got this tea here and then I just quartered a lemon two big

gallon-sized tea bags in here a quarter of water then we're gonna add the salt

To do our brine because you know when you brine the chicken It just takes it to a whole nother level

It really does you know lets the moisture stay in the chicken And then it just really brings out the flavor of everything

And that flavor just goes all the way to the bone. Exactly. Well, Cheryl was telling me a while ago that, you know, she was still really a little unclear on this recipe

Because she found it written on an envelope or something. Well, actually, you know, both of us have lost our parents early

And I can't tell you how precious it is when you find those little bits of paper

Yes. I treasure my recipes that are handwritten by my mother. Now, how much salt was that

A half a cup of, like, kosher salt. Now, you don't want to put table salt

How long did you let it steep? I let it steep probably only about five minutes, Paula

Okay, so not long. If you want a good strong tea. We're going to have to let this cool down

And so that's everything that we need in there, except for I'm going to have you add the sugar. So if I could get you to add a cup of sugar in there

and then we're going to let that dissolve. This is going to be some sweet fried chicken

And sometimes what I'll do, Paula, is add a little ice, you know, because obviously you don't want to put your chicken in there

We're not trying to punch the chicken. So that's basically all we're going to do

And then I'm going to just plastic wrap this. Okay. You want me to get your little ice, Cheryl, and put it in there

Yeah, let's put some ice in there just so we can chill it down. Okay, maybe just... Because we want to eat these today, so..

Yeah, maybe just kind of a cup of ice. Yeah, about a cup of ice would be perfect

Okie doke. I'm just going to wrap it up and put it in the refrigerator until we're ready for it

That sounds great. Well, in the meantime, I'm going to share a recipe with Cheryl

and this is one of my favorites, y'all, an Italian pasta salad

I've got some bow tie pasta that's ready. If you would drain that, Cheryl

Sure. Let's come on down here, and we're going to put together a pasta salad

Hopefully you'll like this, and you can always serve this. Paula, there's nothing you cook that I'm not going to like

Well, let's just say we appreciate each other's cooking. Yes, we do

All right. I'm going to need, like, two cups of cherry tomatoes sliced in half

And I need a half of a bell pepper diced. Okay. And I've got some calamata olives

And I'm going to need, like, two-thirds of a cup. So if you would just cut those in two

So this is like Italian pasta sauce. Yes. Yes. But, you know, I like my pasta just a little on the sweet side

Me too. Now, we've got one four-ounce can of mushrooms, sliced mushrooms

We need two-thirds of a cup of that. All right. And then we've got some fresh Parmesan cheese

When we get all of our salad mixed up, we'll grate some of this on it

Because, Paula, you know, any recipe you can give me, because I'm still the baker

I'm happy to share with you. I'm going to start making our dressing

Yum. And Jamie made all my pasta salads in the bag. This was a big bag lady lunch that we served

And Jamie Dean got where he could make the best pasta salad

Now, I'm measuring out one cup. And this was just a store-bought balsamic vinaigrette dressing

I love that sweetness. I do, too. So I'm going to put that in my bowl

And then I'm going to add a fourth of a cup of mayonnaise

and, you know, I'm just going to kind of... Paula, I think that's cool enough

Okay, honey, here. You want to take the spatula and give it a toss

Oh, that looks good. I love the bow tie. Now, you can use any kind of pasta that you want

And because I said I liked it a little sweet, here comes the sugar

I'm going to put one tablespoon of sugar in that. Yum. So this is so easy to make

While I mix this up, You just go ahead and toss all those chopped veggies right on into our pasta

All right stick your finger in this Cheryl and tell me what you think Just stick your finger in it Fingers are fine in my kitchen That perfect

It's good, isn't it? It is good. Nice little sweetness to it. Just that little bit of sweet

And I'm going to add just a little salt and pepper. Just about a half a tablespoon of each

Then slice the kalamata olives. Add them right along with the bell pepper in the dressing

That's going to be good with our sandwiches, Paula. Yes, I can't hardly wait, Cheryl

Just mix it up now and top it with that grated Parmesan cheese. So, Paula, we need to go ahead and get that chicken in the brine so we can eat

Okay, that's great. This is ready. Okay. So, now we're doing the little sandwiches

So, Cheryl is using a boneless, skinless breast. Yes. So we can eat them with ease

Hopefully. Yes. I'm not above knowing a bone, though. Me either. I have never heard of a sweet tea Brian before

Well, my mama, and I know yours did too, loved, her pride was her sweet tea

Oh, my mama made the best. Yeah, I believe it, Paula. So we're just gonna wrap that back up

and forget about it, and then we can go out and do everything else. I'll make you some cupcakes

and we'll do all kinds of stuff. Coming up, Cheryl shows me what you get when you mix a biscuit with a scone

Look at these for scones, y'all. And later, scooped out cupcake tarts, y'all

I'm here in the kitchen, y'all, enjoying a little bit of my day by going back in the day with Cheryl Day

Yay! She has a fabulous bakery here in town, and she has come up with a... Biscone

A biscone. It's a cross, y'all, between a biscuit and a scone

It is. Well, I so love both. So we got a lot of action going on in the kitchen right now because Cheryl's going to be on one end, y'all, making the biscones

and I'm going to be on the other end frying up the chicken

I'm actually going to shut up, y'all. believe it or not, and let Cheryl tell you what she's doing

So I've got three cups of all-purpose flour, and then we're gonna add to that

two tablespoons of baking powder. We're gonna put in a teaspoon of salt

and a teaspoon of pepper. And so basically what I'm gonna do is

I'm just gonna whisk this all together. And then, you know, with biscuits

people are so afraid to make biscuits because, you know, if you handle them too much

you're going to get tough biscuits. So next I'm going to put in our butter

That's my girl, Cheryl, two sticks of cubed butter. And then we're just going to put that right in

And then Paula, I'm just going to cut in this butter. And what are you doing down there, Paula

I did about a heaping cup of flour, two tablespoons of cornstarch

and one teaspoon of my house seasoning. And over here I have buttermilk

And you told me that you like a little hot sauce. I do, because with that sweet tea, you know, it just gives it kind of that just little edge

That's funny because this is the secret ingredient to the fried chicken at the Lady and Sons

So I'm just going to mix a little of that hot sauce in with our buttermilk

and right now I'm fixing to make the decision as to how many times I'm gonna dip

Okay. Now I've got our fryer set at 350 degrees. Awesome. So now I've got my butter cut in so I'm

gonna measure out a one and a half cups of our buttermilk here. Add in our buttermilk. Uh-huh

And then kind of toss those around and this will make eight sandwiches. Okay. Now I'm just taking

our chicken out of our brine, y'all. Now, Cheryl, I see that you're adding

a cup of grated Parmesan cheese, which I just love. Now, I'm gonna start breading your chicken

I'm gonna dust it with flour. And then I'm gonna go into the buttermilk

and the hot sauce. Yum! And then I'm gonna come back and dust it again

Now, this should give it a real thick crust. And we may look at this and decide

ooh, that's too crusty. What, for the sandwich? Yeah, so we'll make a decision

I'm going to just drop that one in and let him brown up a little bit

Ooh, yum. All right, so I can look at this and tell it's just a little bit too sticky still

Excuse my hands, but they are nice and clean. It's very similar to a biscuit, but what I do is, you know how a lot of times you see scone recipes

they say turn it out onto another surface Well why When you can make it right in the bowl Yeah right in there Exactly So we going to do that Well I going to need private lessons after we through

Okay. All right. Now, what do you think, Cheryl? Do you think that's too much batter

Was that one or two? That was two, honey. Ooh, I don't know, Paul

It's going to be good either way. What do you think? I'm perfectly happy with a single dip. Okay

So I'll dip this one just once, and then we can just see how it turns out

So, Paula, look, I've just got, I just kind of pat it down

Uh-huh. And then I take a little all-purpose flour, and there is the scone

Cheryl, I think I like this just once. The once, okay. So once, I think that's enough

So now I'm just going to go all of the chicken into the buttermilk

Now, Paula, check this out. It's my revolutionary one bowl, no roll, biscone

This is so funny because this is how we do our biscuits at the Lady and Son

Is it really? Yes, we use an ice cream scoop. No rolling

Oh, my goodness. No rolling. Oh, I might have to come get me a day job at the Lady and Son

I just do a little egg wash. We'll back up, Jack. I'll tell you what

It's hot, isn't it? Oh, gosh, and I see those chunks of butter

And that's it. Well, Cheryl, they look fabulous. I'm just trying to figure out what you gonna need

I'm gonna do 375 for about 18 to 20 minutes. I like mine golden

I do, too. The chicken is almost done. It looks fabulous. It looks like my mom's, Paula

You did it. That thrills me to pieces. Yeah, you're gonna love it. Y'all don't go anywhere, because I better see something sweet

come out of this kitchen besides you. Coming up, y'all, that fried chicken baston comes together

out of this world. And later, Cheryl delivers with her scooped-out cupcake tarts

These are beautiful, Cheryl. All right, Cheryl. I'm taking our last piece of chicken out

And look at these for scones, y'all. So, Paula, decision time. Should I cut it in half or

Oh, Cheryl. Hush your mouth. Should we cut it in half? Let's cut it in half

Okay. All right, because we do have all that chicken. All right, so then all we're going to do is cut it in half

and you can toast it or whatever, but, you know, it's a pretty hearty thing

And what you're going to do is, we made some scallion butter earlier

It's just basically butter and chopped scallions. Butter. You know I had to get some butter in here

Smear it on there. You are such a bad girl. What do you think

I love it. I'm going to get you to plate this up for us. That's a big old hunk of chicken in it

I'm telling you what it is. And you can tell it's dark from the tea, y'all

Because Cheryl brined this. And I'm telling you the flavor. I can't wait for you to try it

Well, Cheryl, now go ahead, honey, and serve up some of that Italian pasta salad for us

Is that enough for you? Listen to the crunch. Oh, yeah. Ooh, that looks so good

Yeah, because I'm saving room for the dessert. That looks so good

Is this sinful or what, y'all? It's sinful. Looks delicious, Cheryl. Okay, grab your stool

Out of this world. Yum, yum, yum. Well, I'll tell you what

I promised you cupcakes today. Yes, you did. So I've come up with a special little recipe

to go with our delicious lunch. Oh, I can't wait, Cheryl, for that scooped-out cupcake tart

I'm bringing my baston. Okay, well, come on down. And my biscuit with me

So this... I'm listening. This is a simple recipe, and I'm gonna need at least one..

I bet you could do this one-handed. I can't do this one-handed, though

All right, so we're going to cream this together. We've got three sticks of butter in here, Paula

Mm-hmm. And then we've got two and one-third cups sugar. Mm-hmm. To that, we're going to add some vanilla and some other good stuff

Okay, so that's creamed. And then I'm going to let you take this over

All right, so what I'm going to do is separate three egg whites

Okay. I'm like you, Paul. I always like to check and make sure that I'm getting good eggs

So that one Is this rude Cheryl not at all not at all

because it was hard for me to put that down let me just tell you I'm just glad

you're enjoying it so good I love the Bistones yeah they're great

aren't they and easy alright so to that Paula I'm just going to get you

to add the egg whites our three egg whites Add it to that and then I'm just gonna add in two teaspoons of her vanilla, okay

And then you're just gonna cream that until it's light I can do that you can do that and then now what I'm gonna do is I've got three cups

cake flour I use this recipe a lot for wedding cakes because what it's going to do you'll see when we make the tart is it bakes kind of flat

it's just kind of like you used to get to make your your shortbread a teaspoon and a half of

baking powder three-fourths teaspoon of baking soda and then we've just got three-fourths

teaspoons of salt. So one, two, three. Okay. Then I'm just going to sift this up

Okay. Well this is nice and creamy over here. So I'm going to come over here. Are we going to add that

alternately with your buttermilk? We're going to add it alternately. Okie doke

So we'll just add thirds of the dry mixture with one and

a half cups of room temperature buttermilk. I'm just gonna spray this with baking spray

Okay. Because then we're just gonna pop them right out of the cups. I love this spray

And scoop them in. Isn't that good? That's a delicious batter, Cheryl

So we're gonna use our little... Yep. And how many scoops do you put in

It's just one scoop, because these will rise up on you, because it's got the baking soda and the baking powder

and the buttermilk. And then we're just going to pop them in the oven

for about 18 to 20 minutes at 350. That's perfect. Yummy, yummy

And then they're just going to rise up and they're going to bake kind of flat. And then we're going to finish them up

and we're going to eat. All right, I'm going to pop these in the oven. I don't see how the cupcakes can be any better

than the batter, y'all. Coming up, I'm fixing to find out how good these scooped out cupcake

tarts really are. Isn't that good? So good. Well, y'all, I'm finally

getting that cupcake that Cheryl promised me. Now, they came out of the oven, and Cheryl

they're beautiful cupcakes. Aren't they? Paula, these are great for this because they bake nice

and flat. And so we can do our little scoop. I just like to take a paring knife

and these are baker's treats in the bowl. So I just like, yeah, kind of scoop it out

because then we're going to fill them up with whipped cream and fresh fruit today

But Paula, I do all kinds. Like I'll do lemon curd sometime

I've done pastry cream. I mean, I've done all kinds of things. Oh yeah, you could put anything in the world that you wanted

Beautiful. Scoop, scoop, scoop. Scooped out tarts, baker's treats. You want to try one

I do want to try one. You know I want to try one. You want to try a little piece of cake

Yeah, I got one right here. Feel nice and light. Yummy. And we're just going to fill them up with a little just a stew

And this is just sweetened whipped cream. Mm-hmm. All right, so then we're just going to fill them up with fruit

How do you want to do yours? Oh, my little Jack loves blueberries

Okay. I mean, like you could do some with all blueberries for Little Jack

And we've got our vegetable. Yeah. And then we'll do one with a little raspberry and some blueberries

Oh, these are beautiful, Cheryl. Now, you would need to keep these refrigerated because of the heavy cream

Exactly. Okay

Oh, my gosh. As promised. Cupcakes. I think I'm going to take this one

I'm going to take this one because it's got one of each. It's got a raspberry, a blackberry, and a blueberry

If y'all are ever in Savannah and are out walking the streets

make sure you stop by at Back in the Day Bakery, and I grant you she will give her love and her best dishes to every one of you

Best dishes. Mmm. Mmm. So good. Isn't that good? So good