Fair Food

Hey, y'all

Today at Paula's party, we're gonna be going to the county fair

Someone from my audience takes a dip to make the perfect chocolate apple

We're gonna be frying up some funnel cake and making the biggest chili dog

that Savannah, Georgia, has ever seen. Why don't we deep fry your butter

So everybody out there, grab your ticket, bring your appetite, Because we've got some eatin' to do today

Let's party! Whoa

Y'all hush. Y'all are going to give me the big head. Well, I kind of already got the big head, don't I

You know, I'm a product of the 50s and 60s. We like them high

Well, y'all are precious. We got kind of a young audience today, don't we

And y'all are perfect. just perfect for this party I'm throwing today

Because I'm going back to my younger days. You know, a couple of years ago

Some of my favorite memories, y'all, are going to the fair. Did y'all love it or what

I just loved it. Oh, my goodness, and I remember one year

I was 14 or 15, and I was kind of developed at a young age

So I was like the youngest contestant in the Miss Southwest Georgia Fair

I had on this beautiful red evening gown that was just like real, real big

and I thought, oh, my God, I'm going to win this thing. Well, I got there, and all these other older girls, like 17

they were so poised, and they carried themselves just right, and here I was, you know

in my evening gown. I didn't win. But it was so much fun

So are y'all ready to party? Yeah! We're in for some fun today

because we're here at the county fair. one of the first foods that you think about when you think about the fair is what

Cotton peas! Candy apples! A candy apple! That's what I was thinking

So, but there's only one little problem here. In order to make our candied apples

we gotta get our apples. Get up here, girl! You are adorable

Well, thank you. So are you. There's your microphone. All right, now, what's your name

My name is Sherry Whitman. Well, Sherry, you're as cute as a button. Well, thank you

You ain't going to be there in a couple of minutes. We are going to bob for our apples

Are you game? I am game. Just go for that apple because you know what I'm going to do for you when you get through

Give me one? I'm gonna give you an apple, girl. I am

I've got my makeup and hair people standing by, so they'll fix you right back up, okay

Okay, go, Sherri, get us an apple. Get us an apple. Can't you..

Can't you... No hands allowed now, no hands allowed. Okay. We ready

We're ready. Go, Sherri! All right, I'm there. Glory to God

Only for you without GPS. When you got it, flown it. You're exactly right

All right. Here you go, baby girl. Take your microphone. Now, I've just got to come over here and ask

Would you have done that if I'd ask you to? Probably not. Would you

Anything for you, Paula. That's what fairs are all about. Got to

Come on up here, baby. Get you an apple. All right. Oh, gosh

Okay, here we go. Get in there and get that apple, baby

Just like you did that beauty contest. You get in there and make it your own

There you go. You are a great coward. Thank you. All right, baby

You want to go to hair and makeup and let them touch you up too? What, darling

Did you know you had the mother first and then the daughter? What

Are you kidding me? I can't believe it. Well, they are both good sports

Grandma, you did something right. I tell y'all what, we had so much fun bobbing

why don't we take a quick break, and when we come back, I'm gonna have

Mama and daughter out here, and we're gonna make candied apples. So y'all don't want it, but we'll see you

right back in a minute. Coming up, somebody gets real cozy with my chocolate apple

And later, county fair turkey legs. Welcome back, everybody

If y'all out there sitting on the sofa were late getting to this party

you missed a very fun part of this party. As it turned out, I needed some apples

I picked out the mother and her daughter, the beauty queen, not knowing

There you go. But they had to go to hair and makeup during the break

So I want to welcome them back because I want them to help me make the candied apples So come on out girls

Oh my goodness. And it is our honor and pleasure to crown you Miss Butter Queen

No! No! Oh, I love my tiara

Listen, I can't believe. Y'all come on in here. Come on in here. You get on this side, Sherry

Rebecca, you get on this side. You don't look old enough to have a daughter this age

You are just beautiful, and you were such a good sport. So these two girls went in

They got our apples for us, so they're ready. All right, reach over there, Sherry, and get our apples out

and you girls wash up. I've got us two pots going over boiling water

I've got milk chocolate or a dark chocolate, and then I've got a white chocolate

Yum. Yes, ma'am. And then I've got us all kind of toppings up here so we can put together our favorite toppings on our apple

So the first thing you want to do is make sure you start with a nice dry apple

Just dip that apple, run it all around. Yeah. Oh, you got it

You got it. You got it. All right, now let's take that out, Sherry

Doesn't that look yummy? Yes. All right, now let's pass that to your daughter

Yeah. Yeah. There you go. There we go. Great. All right. Now, Rebecca, what I want you to do, and you can go ahead, Sherry, and finish working on our apples

All right. Now, what I want you to do is just drizzle this with the white chocolate

You see how we've already got some? All right. So, stretch your stuff, baby girl

Here, I'll bring the apple to you. Thank you. Whoa. Uh-oh

Yeah. Yeah. Ooh, perfect. That was perfect. Yum. All right

Sherry, you got us another one ready. Yes, ma'am. Ooh, that looks so good

You know what I think we can do? I think we can maybe take this stick and maybe help that white chocolate on a little bit

All right. Ready for the tray? I'm ready. Oh, okay. You know what

I think I'm just going to take it just like this, Sherry. Great. Just let it fall down all around there. Goodness

And what sticks will leave it there. Uh-huh. You want some, don't you

Yes, ma'am. Come on, baby. String down there. There we go. Wow

That's amazing. Yeah! All right. That looks good. Yum. Doesn't that look good? Mm-hmm

Oh, this one's beautiful. I'm trying my best. That's beautiful, Rebecca. Look at all the design she's got going on

All right, now, what kind of toppings do you like? I've got coconut, and then I've got cinnamons

I've got M&M's. I've got toffee up here for you. I've got stars, beads, crushed banana chips

Oh, wow. So what do you like? I'm an M&M and sprinkle person

Okay, baby, do your apple the way you want it. Come on, get some on there

Girl, grab some. Get over there and show her how, mama. Now, I love chocolate and coconut, and I love toffee

Watch out, baby. Ooh. Ooh. I think I might want that one

I saw the way you've been looking at me. And you've been wanting me, hadn't you

Yes. You want me? I can't do it. Well, reach in there and get me

Whoo! Y'all don't go anywhere, because we're at the county fair

We're having a phone. Coming up, hurry

I'm making turkey legs with a real strong man. And later, it's a Paula's Party record-breaking hot dog

Are we having fun? Y'all, they ain't nothing like a county fair

That's what we're doing today. We're at the fair. We brought the fair here on our set, and we're having a ball

Now, for this next dish, it's really a manly dish. You know, it's for hunks

I need three hunks. Who's going to come help me? Come on, y'all

Come on. Come on. I'm beautiful. All right

What's your name? I'm Rick. I'm Rick. You're Rick. Yep. Nice to meet you

Give me that microphone, Rick. Brad. Brad? Larry. Larry. Curly, Larry, and Moe

Here, take your microphone, honey. All right. I can only have one of y'all up here to make this recipe with me

So this is going to be a contest. All right. Y'all come on over here

The one that hits this thing the hardest, goes the highest, is going to help me with the recipe

Sounds good. All right. All right. Y'all, cheer him on. One, two, three. Oh

That was pretty good. Come on, that was nothing

You can do it. There you go, darling. One two three Oh There you go All right are you ready honey I guess

Come on up here. There you go. Come on. Come on. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go

Oh! You showed him, didn't you? Now, what are we going to do, y'all

All right, y'all, scramble up. Scramble up. Scramble up behind me. Scramble up

We're going to do this like the old nut under the shell thing. Switch about

Switch about. Switch about. I choose you. Woo! Woo! Thank you, guys

Y'all are wonderful. I definitely won, didn't I? You definitely won. This dish that we're fixing to make is turkey legs

Sounds good. Here in Savannah at St. Patrick's Day, everybody you see is walking around with a turkey leg

I'm going to show y'all how to make them. Now, we've got two liters of lemon-lime drink

Okay. We're going to pour that in the pot. All right, get over here, honey, so you can grab those ingredients

Okay. All right, we've got our four turkey legs. All right, now that's some sugar, just two tablespoons

We've got some hot sauce. Tossing. Two tablespoons. Hot sauce. Our legs are going to be kicking, baby

That's right. We've got two tablespoons flaked red pepper that's going in the pot

All right, now you come over here and just rough chop our onion. Uh-oh

Sorry. Wash your hands. I forget. Alright, so in go our turkey legs

When you get the onions chopped, we're going to let this cook y'all for about 30 minutes because

you know turkey legs are big and they're a little on the tough side

So they're going to need to really get cooked good. Alright. How am I doing? That's fine. Just throw them in the pot

Alright. Throw them in the pot just like that. Now I've got

some turkey legs that have cooked for like 30 minutes. We're going to throw these

on the grill. We got, yeah, to get that flavor. Oh, yum. All right, so you tossed in our onions

Yes, ma'am. Now, all these flavors are going to marry together, and they're going to go all the

way to the bone in our turkey legs, so we've got some flavor to them, but to give them a pretty

color and make them look real appetizing. We've got some honey and we've got some house seasoning

Now our house seasoning is just one cup of salt, a fourth

of a cup of black pepper, and a fourth of a cup

of garlic powder. Now all you have to do is just brush. There you go

Put it right in there. All you have to do is just brush those legs

and don't be scared. Come on, get in there and slather that thing

Uh-oh, they're coming after you, honey. We didn't get you back to the home in time

Hurry. Get her done. There you go. Get her done. Now do we need to flip these

Yeah, flip them. Flip them? Here, I'll flip and you rub. because you're a little bit on the slow side

Come on, get her on. All right. Switch that little booty around

so I can get to these six. Ooh, don't those look good

So what you say, you ready to sample? I'm ready to good food

Ooh, look. The honey's just running off of mine. We don't like one out there

Girls, bring out the legs. Y'all don't go anywhere. We'll be back in just a minute

We're at the county fair today. Coming up, y'all

Why don't we deep fry and butter? A hot dog and a stick of butter

You might be the man of my dream. Oh, I'm very flattered

And later, someone from my audience is making a splash. Y'all, I can't believe how much fun we've had already at Paula's County Fair today

You know, I've had my crowning moment, a beauty queen got all wet, a few strong men rang mama's bell, and later on, y'all, a record-breaking hot dog

Thank you, thank you. Welcome back, y'all. All right, before we get started on our next favorite fair food

I need a strong man. I need a volunteer. You volunteered, right

He doesn't even know what he's going to have to do, and he's volunteered already

While I'm cooking, you go to the restroom, honey. And you put this on, because you know what

There's fun ahead for you and me. Alright

Now, we've been doing fair foods, right? But what is the ultimate fair food

I mean, the very ultimate fair food. A hot dog. A good greasy

big hot dog. What kind of hot dog? Sloppy. An elbow-licking hot dog

Well, I've got the king of hot dogs here with me today to help us make

just that kind of hot dog. His name is Brian Averna. He is the executive

hot dog chef for Sarah Lee. Come on up, Brian. I am so glad you didn't make me put that wetsuit on

Oh, my God. Were you scared? I was so nervous. I saw you hide behind everybody

Yes, ma'am. Well, you're definitely the hot dog king. Yes, I am

I'm going to be the chili queen. Okay, good. Show me your stuff Because we can have a hot dog without chili can we All right I got three pounds of ground chuck and a pound of bulk sausage and some onions that I scrambled up in here

And I'm going to add to that a fourth of a cup of chili powder

That's a lot of chili powder. A little flour, two tablespoons, a little oregano, one tablespoon sugar and salt

Now, I'm going to cover this, and I'm going to let those flavors simmer together for about 30 minutes

And at the end of that 30 minutes, we're going to come back and we're going to throw in our crushed tomatoes and our kidney beans

Now, there's always been a debate. Does hot dog chili have beans or not

I say it does. A lot of people would never eat a chili with beans on their hot dog

Me personally, I love it. It's got a nice flavor, and then it tastes good in the mouth

Yeah, it does. I'd say the more beans, the merrier. Why not

Absolutely. All right. So I've got some meat here that has been simmering for 30 minutes

Now, whose recipe is this? Has this been a family recipe? This is, you know, my family and I, we fight all the time over chili

And I have to confess, I do it different ways every time I make it. This is one of the chilies that's in one of my cookbooks

Nice. Very nice. All right, so there goes the beans. So we're going to let this simmer for probably 20 or 30 more minutes

and it's going to be fabulous on that hot dog that you're going to fix for us

Now, I'm from the East Coast, and we love a full-flavored hot dog

something that's just like every part of it's got to taste good. Yes. So, in my house, I don't know if you're going to have a problem with this or not, but we cook with butter

So, I've got a little cast iron skillet here, and we're going to cook, I don't know, maybe that might not even be enough

No. No. Well, Ed, why don't we deep fry in butter? How's that

You might be the man of my dreams. Oh, I'm fine. Very flattering

Thank you. Okay. A stick of butter, y'all. So, a stick of butter, and then I take the hot dog

Yeah. And I slice it down the middle. Not all the way, but just butterflame

Right, exactly. And then I place this in the pan. So you could put, like, we could put the other butter on top to kind of smoosh it down so it doesn't curl

Yes. Or we could add more butter to this to make it even more flavorful. Yes

Okay. And then after about 45 seconds, we just turn it over, and all the flavors, all the sugars in the hot dog kind of caramelize and get nice and crispy

I could suck that hot dog right now. I know. It's good. It's good

Now I'm going to put the roll in the butter. That's the way I do them at home

That's the way you have to do it. That is the way I do them at home. And I'm going to flip this

And by the time the hot dog's ready, the roll will be nice and crusty and messy and certainly elbow-licking good

Y'all like him too, don't you girls? Look at all that butter

Oh, my goodness. You're going to need some napkins, Paula. All right, well, I got the chili going on, honey

So I don't think you need salt or pepper because there's plenty of salt in the butter. There's a great deal of spices in the ballpark franks that we're using, so it's perfect

Now these are, you know, I think I actually might have put a little too much butter in here. Oh, no, you didn't

But this is ready to go. Okay. I'm going to shut this off. You're not going to put some butter on that one

What was I thinking? There you go. Yeah, just a little. There you go

That's going to be kind of hot. Uh-huh. You want to taste that? You ask a fat girl if she wants to taste a hot dog

Is you crazy, boy? We're going to share it then. Is that all right

Is that fair enough? We're just going to taste it with no chili or anything

No, this is just a warm-up. Okay. Cheers. Cheers. This is our appetizer, isn't it

Yes, it is. Mmm. You like it? You can't go wrong

That's for sure. Now, if we add your beautiful chili on this hot dog, imagine

That dog is so good. You just suck it. I'm just going to take small bites

Okay. It's wonderful. It is good. You want to just, like. Don't forget the roll, though

It's got plenty of butter on it. That's good, too, but the juices from that dog are so good

Yeah, they are. Because they're buttery. Yeah, I like butter, too. You did a great job

I'm a big fan of butter. What makes you the king of hot dogs? Well, I love to eat hot dogs, and I always like to make sure that whoever's going to put a hot dog in their mouth

that it's the most delicious hot dog they can eat. And I'm going to prove that to you in a little bit because I'm going to show you the most amazing hot dog that Savannah has ever seen

We can't have a hot dog without chili, Ken. Oh, I can't wait, baby. Put your money where your mouth is

We'll see you back in a minute. It gets bigger and better

Coming up, y'all, the biggest hot dog to ever hit the South

And later, what's a county fair without somebody getting dumped? Welcome back, y'all

I'm here with Brian Averna. He is the executive hot dog chef with Sarah Lee

We're making the king of fair food, the hot dog. But before we get started, I've got a person I've got to check on, Brian

One second. Where's my volunteer? Where's Nick? Looks good on me, doesn't it

You look great. You look fabulous, darling. Thank you. All right, now listen, I've got something I want you to do while I'm putting this hot dog together

You see that dunking tank out there? Is that my post? You go crawl up on that post, baby, and we'll be out there in a second

All right. Get going. Sorry, Brian, I just had to take care of a little business

All right, now we've got our buttered bun. Yep. We've got our hot dogs

And we've got our chili. That's beautiful. That is beautiful. Are we going to share one or are we going to each get to eat our own

I think we've got enough of us to each have our own, don't you think? You like cheese

Yeah, yeah. I like cheese too. Nice. Yum. You know, that's never going to feed the whole audience

I mean, it's a beautiful looking dog. I'm not worried about them. There's enough for me

I know. But wait till you see what I've prepared for you. Seriously

Can we bring that out, please? You got a surprise for me. Seriously, just hold on to your hot dog there

All right, so we made the world's largest hot dog in Georgia

in Atlanta, for the Olympics. Oh, you didn't know! Yes, we did

So this is Savannah's largest hot dog. It's one hot dog. Look at your eyes light up

You want to eat that, don't you? I do! I just want to go, you know, like those dominoes

How you set those dominoes up and they just fall? I want that hot dog to fall

You want to decorate it and fill it up with all of our toppings? Okay. All right, so we've got bacon, tomatoes, fried onions

your beautiful chili potato sticks that are unbelievable on a hot dog

Oh, get out. Honest to God. You just finished the hot dog with that? Okay. I'll do the mustard

All right. I'm going to start on this end. Excuse me. Excuse me

Wait, wait, wait. What, what, what? How are we going to pick this thing up

How are we going to measure it? Very carefully. Well, I think let's stretch it out

and then we dress it. How's that? We need volunteers. All right, I need help

Y'all come on. Come on. Come on. Now, we're going to have to do this very carefully. Right

It's one hot dog with many rolls, so put your hands underneath it. Okay

Very careful. All right, so y'all come on. We're going to need a bunch of folks to get. All right, pick up right here

Y'all get to here. Pick it up. Walk that away with it. Two hot dogs per hand would be great

Here, baby, you need two hands for that. All right. Now we need some more people

All right, kind of walk that way, baby. Come on in here

Get that dog going. Here we go. Here we go. That's one heck of a dog, Brian

That is one solid, long dog, y'all. All right, get up there, baby

Grab you a handful of weenies. Watch the chili. Watch the chili. Hold up. Huh

No, honey. I don't want your answer to this. All right, come on up there

Get that dog. All right, now we got a dressing, Brian. Okay, I'll start on one end

All right, honey, you help me dress these dogs. Get the mustard, get the ketchup, go down the line

Brian's going to come with the chili. Uh-huh. Your dog is hanging out

Look at your weenie, girl. Woo. You're about to lose your weenie

All right. Get up in there. Get your mustard. Get your ketchup. All right

Let's see. Let's get some onions. Come on. Somebody grab those onions, baby

Just get over their shoulders. Put them onions on. Get them tater sticks going, girl

Grab that cheese. All right. Come on. How are we going? Do we need some more ingredients

Almost done with the chili. All right. You got plenty of chili, Brian? Plenty

We got to get every inch of that dog Because size does matter Don it Come on you guys Move that line Move that line Come on There you go There you go

Good. All right. Oh, my goodness. We're about to lose our dog

All right. Now, what I need for y'all to do is inch this way down here, because we got to stretch that

dog out. because Brian said he has broken the record for the biggest hot dog in Savannah, Georgia

Yes, ma'am. And we're going to measure it. So come on. Come on down. Keep walking until we can get a straight line

Come on. Straight line. Come on, beauty queen. Come on. Down a little bit more

Down a little bit more. Have we got a straight line now? Pretty close

Okay, Brian. Go that way with the tape, baby. That way. Okay. And you and I are fixing to measure off

All right, you take that in. All right, okay, good, good. You take that in

So everybody count with me, okay? Go, Brian. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 8 inches long

Brian, that's a dog, baby. We have successfully made Savannah's largest hot dog

I just want to congratulate you. Good job. Thank you, Brian. Better job

We'll be right back because I think we might go swimming. Next, it's funnel cakes and even more fun

Nick, you ready, baby? Ooh

This has been a great time at the county fair today, y'all

And I've got the perfect dish to finish off our visit at the fair

Do y'all have any idea what it is? Funnel cake. A funnel cake

I cannot go to the fair without getting a funnel cake. You see, I get one when I'm coming in, and I get one when I'm going out

So funnel cakes are really, really easy to make. Now in this bowl I got two cups of flour a teaspoon of salt a teaspoon of baking soda and a tablespoon of sugar Over here in this bowl I have two cups of milk one egg and a teaspoon of vanilla flavoring

Now, I'm just going to add our wet ingredients to our dry ingredients

I'm going to stir that up because I had all the salt and soda

and all that right there on top. All right, so I'm just going to take our blender

We got a question over there. How about a microphone, y'all? Hi, Paula. I was noticing your thumb ring. Can you tell us a story about that

Yeah, that thumb ring really landed on my finger by accident. My children's father was in the car business, and he traded in a car, and this ring was left on the key ring

So I slipped it on this finger. Jamie was a senior in high school

He came home from school that afternoon, and he said, Mama, what

What is that on your finger? It is so not cool. So Jamie slipped it off of this finger

put it on my thumb, and it's been there for 20 years. I got so excited I was about to leave out my favorite ingredient

Little melted butter! All right, so you can see how easy that batter was to mix up

Just fold in that butter. All right, y'all, I've got a Dutch oven here full of hot oil

It's probably around 350 degrees, and I've got this little ring down in my pot

that's going to keep our funnel cake in a perfect circle. Y'all, I apologize if I'm going a little fast with this recipe

but if y'all will look outside, look at little Nick. He's sitting out there looking like that bad little boy that was sent to the corner of the room

So I want to hurry because we have got to go out there and see if we can brighten up Nick's spirits and send him for a little swim

Alright, so I have just coated that whole top with that batter

All right, at this point, I think we'll be safe to take our ring out so I can turn our funnel cake freely

All right, here we go, y'all. Look how easy that was. You know, and you could use different size rings, you know, if you wanted to make little funnel cakes

Instead of, you know, like eating one the size of your head, you could bring them down a little bit

Ooh this is looking great All right I got me a spider I going to be able to lift him out with I got a plate to put him on I got a little powdered sugar to sprinkle him with

All right, can y'all see Nick? He's still with us. All right

Look at that. Look at that. It is perfect, isn't it? And I'm going to just dab him right there a little bit

That's enough dabbing for him. We want enough grease that that powdered sugar is going to stick to him

A little more? Okay, how's that? More? More? Y'all want to see me taste it

Okay. Y'all twisted my arm. Oh, my goodness, it's hot as blue blazes

Mmm. Mmm. Oh, yum, that's so good

Well, what you say, let's grab our goodies and head outside. We got some dunking to do. Yeah

Oh! Nick, how are you, baby? You ready to go swimming? Oh, yeah

Y'all, come on, come on. Gather round. Come on. Come on. Come on, Miss Beauty Queen

Those heels ain't gonna sink too deep. Come on. Come on. All right, y'all ready

Nick, you ready, baby? That's a little mark. Take it home

Take it home. Come on. You think I can't do this? don't you

Paula, Paula, Paula, Paula, Paula. I'm out at three strikes. All right, I got the bigger ball

I got the bigger ball. Paula, Paula. I got to hit it

Paula, Paula. You think I can't hit it? Paula, Paula. Who else wants to give it a try

Give Mommy a cram. Go, Mama! Go, Mama! Go, Mama! Oh

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh, my God! Y'all, we've had a great time at the county fair with y'all today

And don't forget, if the county fair comes to your hometown, go and pretend like you're 17 years old again

See ya