Easy Late Night Snacking

Hey there y'all, I'm Paula Deen and today I want to show you some good old-fashioned meals that can

be pre-made, frozen, and served whenever your on-the-go family is ready for them. But before

we get going, we're gonna pick up some key ingredients to my number one freezer favorites

And then we'll come back to the kitchen where we're gonna kick up that oven and make the most

lip-smacking lasagna you ever did taste. And the next it'll be a tasty toss-up between my

scrumptious Savannah seafood gumbo with rice and this sinful sausage pie. But hey, they'll all be

there just waiting for you. So y'all take a tip from me and befriend your freezer, because after

all, a lady's got a life to live. Today's show is all about late night snacking

And one of Michael's favorite late night snacks is lasagna. And I make a killer lasagna, southern style

But I want to try a little something different. I want to get some fresh mozzarella from some of my Italian friends

and bring it back home and do it my way. So y'all come ride with me

We're going to get the scoop on the cheese. Hey, how are you ladies doing

Hi, how are you? I'm Paula. Hi, I'm Irene. It's nice to meet you, Irene

Same here. This is my sister, Carmella. Hi, Carmella. How are you? I've heard so many good things about your shop here

I've heard that y'all make the best mozzarella. Did I say it right

Mozzarella, yes. Mozzarella in the whole entire world. I'm making a big lasagna, this big, Irene

So how much cheese do you think I'll need? Maybe two mozzas. Okay, yeah, because I like it really, really cheesy

This is a very rich cheese. You'll enjoy it. That sounds great, because I'm going to have some other cheeses in with it

I love your store. This should be enough. We're here like 70, about 75 years in the same store

You've been in the same location. So it's definitely a family tradition, right

Yeah. And you'll make all this right here. Right here. All made here

Mama, you've got a great group of girls here. Thanks so much for having me today

And I'll see y'all later. Take care. Bye. Bye. Y'all keep cooking

Okay. Bye. Bye, Paula. What'd y'all think about those mozzarella sisters

Weren't they hoots? I tell you what, I can tell that they were Italian women

They tried to feed me to death while I was there. They stuffed me full of cheeses

Speaking of cheeses, I've got that fabulous fresh mozzarella cheese. And we're fixing to get started on a pot of lasagna that's going to knock your socks off

Before I left, I asked Michael if he could kind of get me ready because I wanted to quickly run in and be able to get started on this lasagna

And he's done a great job. He's already browned off my ground beef for me, which is such a nice head start

And I like to saute my vegetables in half butter and half olive oil

Now I'm going to dump in onion, bell pepper, and that great fresh garlic that adds so much flavor to your pot

I'm going to add some canned tomatoes now. If it's tomato season and you have some fresh, by all means use them

And next I'm going to add tomato sauce. Italian seasoning, some fresh parsley, a good seasoning salt, a little pinch of sugar

house seasoning, your mixture of salt, garlic powder, and pepper, and a couple of bay leaves

I'm just going to stir those up together, and then we're going to add some water

I'm going to transfer the ground beef into the sauce, just like this

And this is lean ground beef, so I'm not even going to bother draining it

All right, so I'm going to put that lid back on there

and let that simmer while I step on over here and grate up this mozzarella that I got from the sisters this morning Isn that pretty pretty cheese You know I don think that you can get too much cheese in Italian dishes can you

And this is so good and soft and fresh. It's just kind of rolling on the grater, but that's all right

because by the time it's mixed in, what's a little hunk here and there in the lasagna

can't hurt it. I know that most of us probably use the box lasagna noodles. Well, I was able to get

my hands on some fresh lasagna noodles that are going to be so good in this, and we're not going

to have to cook them like you would the box. Now, I'm using cottage cheese today. I didn't have any

ricotta on hand, so this will work nicely, and I'm just going to break a couple of eggs up into

it. I have made lasagna and spaghetti a thousand times, and there's not one hint of Italian

heritage in my blood, but we make it so good. Everybody just loves it. So I'm going to start

assembling the dish that we're going to bake our lasagna in. I'm going to start with a very thin

layer of sauce and I'm gonna put just enough that that lasagna has something to sit on

So I'm gonna come in here and I'm just gonna break that off to fit the pan. Now we're gonna

start with all of our cheeses and one more time you can do any cheeses that you like

Whatever is your favorite, not mine. I've got cheddar, Gruyere, and Swiss

I love Swiss cheese and lasagna. And I'm gonna go in there with the mozzarella

from the Mozzarella Sisters. Put a little layer of grated Parmesan. Then I'm gonna add some dollops of the cottage cheese

and egg that's been mixed together. And now cream cheese, and I just tear it off

in little bite-sized pieces and just drop it randomly in there. Now we're gonna ladle on some more sauce

All right. This time I'm gonna put just a little bit more sauce

because that fresh pasta is really gonna soak up the liquid. We're gonna go back in here now

with another layer of pasta. All right, now we're gonna start by doing the same thing all over again

So I think this time you know the steps. Oh, I've served this so many times at home

When we were young, married, poor kids, we would make spaghetti sauce because it was a lot cheaper

than lasagna because of the cheeses. It can get a little pricey

but when we had a little extra money to blow, we'd change that spaghetti pot to a lasagna pot

and oh my goodness we just thought you couldn't eat any better than this

All right now this is ready to go into the oven and I've got one right next door to it in the oven that's ready to be cheesed

Now you can finish yours off with any cheese that you want to

This is the three cheeses that I'm using. We're gonna give that about 15 minutes and then it's ready to eat. Oh my gracious

look at that. All right I'm gonna have to just taste this

It's so good. Y'all stay with me, because I'm going to show you how I make seafood gumbo, Father Hank style

So I'll see you in a minute. All right, I'm just finishing up our roux, and I'm sure that most of y'all know how to

make roux. It's just about half oil and half flour, and you want to bring it to the color of a new penny

All right, I'm going to switch to the wooden spoon. I'm through with my roux

So I'm going to add onions, celery, and bell pepper. We just gonna cook those off just for a little while I wanna tell y about my seafood gumbo My future brother Hank Groover in fact his name is Father Hank

He's a Catholic priest in New Orleans. Well, Hank has become so involved in the community over there

and learned so much about Louisiana cooking. Every time he comes home to Savannah

first thing I say is, Hank, let's get in the kitchen. I want you to teach me another dish

and so I conformed my way of doing seafood gumbo to Father Hank's influence on it

Now I'm gonna add chicken stock, slowly to that. Now I'm gonna add a little water

All right, now I'm going to start with the seasonings. I've got fresh parsley

I've got lemon pepper, house seasoning, basil, thyme, a little cayenne pepper, garlic, a couple of bay leaves

So now I'm fixing to change the color of this just a little bit by adding a few tomatoes, not a lot

and last, a little Worcestershire sauce. Now you can use different kinds of sausage

Today I'm gonna use shirazo, which is a Spanish influence. And you can't hardly beat the kielbasa sausage

which comes from a Polish influence. And this is what's gonna flavor our pot

This sausage that I'm putting in right now is actually used in a lot of Mexican cooking

And it's gonna be a little on the spicy side. And good old kielbasa is delicious with seafood

Okay, so we've gotten everything in here except for the okra. Now today I'm using fresh okra, but frozen works so nicely

Now we're ready to put the lid on this, and it's going to be a wonderful pot of gumbo

I'm going to move this pot back here and let it simmer

and I've got a pot that has been simmering low for about an hour and a half

I'm going to pull out our seafood and we're going to start adding that to the pot

You definitely don't want to add your seafood too early. Now, I have chosen to use scallops, oysters, shrimp, and crab

Now, the first ingredient is going to be the crab. The next things are scallops

Now, my oysters. Now I'm going to stir that around and let it cook for a few minutes because the shrimp truly take

only two to three minutes. Okay I think it's about time for the shrimp now

And you can see that I've left the tails to the shrimp on strictly because that's the way I like

it. You can see them already changing colors on us just that quickly. At this time you would add

your filet powder. That's ground sassafras leaves and it gives it a nice flavoring but it also serves

as a thickening agent for your gumbo. So unless I know the whole pot's going to be eaten now

I would not add it. All right while those shrimp are cooking, I'm going to start fixing me a little

plate. I love rice with gumbos. I like gumbo with rice and french bread. I don't want any salad

any slaw, no nothing. And then I would add just a little filet to that. Looks so delicious

Can't wait to dig in. My stomach's just growling. It's just heavenly, Father Hank

You devil, you. Coming up next, one of my favorites, my friend Ron's Tybee Island Sausage Pie

Hey while I was waiting for y to come back I went ahead and scrambled up the sausage for our next dish Now this is just a bulk breakfast sausage

and he's browned up and ready to go. I'm going to take a slotted spoon

and just clean that sausage out of that pot because we've got a little more things to do in this pot

And now we're going to put just a pat of butter in our pan

and we're gonna saute just some yellow chopped onions until they're tender

All right, we're gonna add some milk and cream cheese. I've got a buddy that lives out at Tybee Island

which is Savannah Beach, but Ron makes this for his guest. It's a great brunch dish

but it's also a nice late-night snack. All right, now I'm going to transfer this to a glass bowl, and we're going to cool that off

We're going to chill it just like that in that ice bath. And in this bowl, we're going to break the eggs

This is a very quiche-like dish. So we're going to break these eggs just like this

and give them a few beets. I'm going to add a little fresh ground pepper

a little salt, cheese, and Worcestershire. All right, I'm using today a refrigerated store-bought pie crust

and you can really decorate these up pretty. We're going to just take our sausage, and then I'm going to take our cooled cream cheese milk and add it to the eggs

Beat that together and pour it over our sausage. So this is ready to go. Just that simple

To protect the edge of my crust, I've made me a little rim of tinfoil to just keep it from getting a burnt look to it

So he's ready to go in the oven now for about 30 minutes

Now I've got another one in this oven that should be ready. I'm going to remove this very gently because I like to keep my pie crust whole

Looks beautiful. Now I'm just going to sprinkle this with a little fresh parsley, and that's it

So let's hope it'll come out whole. Mmm. Thank you so much, Ron

Beautiful and ready to eat just that easy. Let's see if mine is as good as yours, Ron

I'd say you taught me well, Ron. Y'all stick around because I'm going to share some tips with y'all

that's going to make your late night snacking real tasty. I want to give y'all a few tips that I think will be helpful when you're making any of these dishes

First of all, I want to talk to you for a minute about seafood safety

It's very, very important that you keep your seafood very, very well chilled, even in the refrigerator

It's a very good idea to line your bowl with ice, and that will give it an extra chill

and keep it fresher and safer for you longer. When you're getting ready to bake off your pie

you know how sometimes, especially if you make a pie crust from scratch

it'll bubble on you? Well, a good way to keep that from happening

is to take your thought out pie crust, prick it with your fork, line it with parchment paper

and then weight it down with peas, and that'll keep your pie crust from puffing on you

And the last thing is freezing foods for later use. The lasagna is great frozen in small portions

and it will last safely up to at least a month. And you can enjoy that great Italian flavor one more time without all the work

The seafood gumbo or the lasagna or Ron's Tybee Island sausage pie

will make a great, quick, late-night meal for those unexpected guests. So whether it's yourself or your friends that you're feeding

I wish you best dishes from my kitchen to yours