Favorite Foods

Hey, y'all

Today on Paula's Party, I'm cooking my all-time favorite foods. You taste sweet

And sharing memories with my best friends. This is what we'd eat when we'd call ourselves dieting

You remember? Yeah, with that half a stick of butter. Then we're gonna be making

my Grandma Paul's potato shrimp stuffed lobster. We're gonna be grilling steaks

and we're gonna do a Saturday night Vidalia onion and homemade ice cream

And I want to introduce y'all to a very special man, Jamie and Bobby's daddy

my ex-husband, Jimmy Dean. Come on in and let's party, y'all. Woo

Y'all are not going to eat my buffet today, are you

I could wake up broke. so how are y'all all doing good i've got the prettiest audience

oh great time of day where are y'all from i'm a fan i'm local you're local how come i haven't seen

you i've been around i bet you have been around well how are y'all doing today y'all doing good

Oh, Michael and I were laying in the bed the other night, and we were..

I'll save the other part after the show. We were laying in bed the other night, and we were talking about favorite foods

If we were on death row, and we had one more meal to eat, what would it be

Today's party is all about my favorite foods. What makes these foods so special

And this is what I've been so excited about. I've got the most wonderful friends joining me today

Most of us girls have a favorite ex-husband in their life. I could not do this show without my favorite ex-husband, Jimmy Dean, stand up

Come here. This is Jamie and Bobby's daddy. There had to be a daddy somewhere

Jimmy, thank you for coming. Oh, I love you. You know that

Thank y'all. Now go sit back there. Let's party! You know, I can't prepare a meal, especially meat, without my house seasoning

Do y'all know what that is? Do y'all know how to make it? You do? All right, who's got my salt

This is how simple our house seasoning is. I need your garlic powder, handsome

them. We got a cup of salt, a fourth of a cup of garlic powder, and a fourth of a cup

of black pepper. Now, it's just that simple to mix up. But you know what? I got a pile

of meat here. And I'm going to need some meat rubbers. Guys, will y'all let me teach

you how to rub your meat? Come on up here, guys. Oh, I'm going to teach y'all

a thing or two. Follow Mama. Look at this big meat y'all got

Come on up here. Pick your meat. Pick your... All right. This is the meat you like

That looks like your meat. That's the one right there. Okay. Is that your meat

That's good enough, yeah. All right. Well, looky here, guys. I'm a big, big believer in rubbing my meat

Me too. I'm liking these boys better than that. Y'all, first thing you got to do is wash your hands

I don't know where your hands are being. All right, pretty thing

Are you with those three guys? Uh, yes, unfortunately. I'm married to that one

I was thinking you were a lucky chick this one's your husband

yes he is and what about who are these other two guys those two are friends of ours

so I'm the groupie I hang out with all and make sure they all stay in line

I bet you got your work cut out alright guys one down

two down three down go find your meat guys alright like I said I'm a firm believer

in rubbing my meat, whether it's chicken or beef, pork, because I want to get those flavors worked in there

So just take your house seasoning, and don't be frightened. Don't be frightened that you're going to put too much

because this is going to form a nice crust. All right, so let me see y'all rub your meat

Put it in one there? Yeah, just flip this meat all over and rub him

See that bone? Rub that in that bone. We're going to finish this up when we get back

So y'all stay with us. When we come back, y'all, three humps

Look at this. That's the, you're tired. Of meat, that is. And later, y'all, Jimmy Dean, I was married to you

for 27 years. I know. Long years. 27. I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself

Get up here and cook me a medium-rare steak. Yes, ma'am. Come on, Bob

We're back, y'all. Today is all about Paula's favorite foods. And we're here today making a standard rib roast with some garlic roasted potatoes

All right, so guys, y'all rub your meat. While y'all do that, I'm going to wash my hands, and I'm going to get started on our potatoes

You've got to have a potato. So I'm going to do a wonderful, fresh, roasted red potato with garlic and rosemary

Who finished I done We about done I done I think we all done Y are good meat rubbers All right one of you come on over here and help me Because what I want to do now to these potatoes

I love to cut a little strip out of them so that you've got the red and the white

you've got different textures. And plus, that's going to open it up some

and hold my seasonings on it real, real good. So these taters are going to be real flavorful

Come on over here, doll baby. And help me. Take that knife

Yeah. Yeah. See what I'm doing? So, what you do for a living

I'm in the military. Have y'all been overseas at all? Mm-hmm. We just got back in January for a year touring in Iraq

Did you? Well, God bless you guys. Thank you. Thank you. All right

You did great. Huh? So you taste sweet. Well, thank you. That's because I are

All right, Brian, what I need you to do is just kind of cut these potatoes up like that

The smaller ones you can do in half. The bigger ones you can kind of just do like that

All right, while you're getting that done, I'm going to come down here and I'm going to fix our bag up with our seasonings

Now, I'm going to wind up. I've got some fresh rosemary here

that's been picked from the stem. I'm going to chop about two tablespoons of fresh rosemary

I've got about two tablespoons of fresh minced garlic. So I'm going to do just a rough chop on these

And it doesn't have to be too, too tiny. And a couple of tablespoons of olive oil

That looks like one, doesn't it? and I'm going to rub it

All right, now I'm going to throw in a little salt, a little pepper

All right, now you throw in the taters, baby. Okay, honey. Oh, I like you

You're a lucky chick. I want you to take these taters. Okay. and

just roll them all around in there. Make... Oh my goodness

my taters! Well, keep going, baby. Alright. We can do more taters

I'll take a mulligan. Maybe we better do it up here, you reckon

On the counter? Where it's safe? All right, now what I want you to do now, Brian, is take those potatoes and pour them in here

Okay. And I'm going to step around your taters back here on the floor. All righty

Whoa, y'all have been a-rubbing, haven't you? That's right. Look at this

I'm tired. You're tired? All right

That's perfect. All right, Brian. I've got to wash my hands one more time because I'm seasoned-y

All right, now we're going to put this roast, this standing rib roast

we're going to put it in a 375-degree preheated oven. We're going to cook that for one hour

One hour. And we're not going to open our oven door. We don't want any of that heat to escape

and then about an hour before we're ready to serve it, we're going to cut the oven back on

and we're going to cook it for another 45 minutes. And this roast is going to come out absolutely perfectly medium rare

and it doesn't matter if you're working with a 4-pound roast or a 7-pound roast

It will always come out medium rare. So you want to help me get this in the oven

We're going to get our taters in the oven and you can roast them for 30 to 40 minutes at about 350 degrees

And guess what? What's that? While you were sleeping, baby, I've been working

I got you some meat. Look at that. Look at that. Now you pull out the taters

We got some more taters. You pull those out. There you go

Put these in. Oh, sorry. It's a little hot. You're tough, but you're not that tough, are you

All right, put these in, darling. Okay. I want to show y'all something

Take a look at that. You want some? Oh, yeah. Well, you ain't going to have none right now

But when we come back, we're going to taste all this, And then we're going to be making my Grandma Paul's

potato shrimp stuffed lobster. So I'll see you all back in a minute

Sounds great, baby. Coming up. How much weight are you long? 38 pounds on the Paula Deen diet

Lobster stuffed with shrimp mashed potatoes. Welcome back, y'all

In case you've just tuned in, today is all about my favorite foods

But right now, my friends are over there eating some of that standing rib that we just cooked

and those rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes. How is it, guys? Great

Delicious. This is the first time y'all behaved since the show started

Well, y'all sit there and continue to eat. And I'm going to move on with my next dish

Y'all probably know that I learned most of my cooking techniques from my grandmother Paul

One of the favorite things that she did for me as a teenager was

if I was hungry for lobster, she would just go to the kitchen and magically

come out with this fabulous lobster that was stuffed with a homemade mashed potato with shrimp in it

Now, I'm going to need a volunteer to come up here and help me

Do I got a volunteer? Come on up here, because you know what job I got for you

I don't know. I want you to pick my lobster out for me

Does that scare you? Well, it doesn't scare me. They're just, you know, kind of funky looking

Kind of funky looking. Do you like to eat them? Yeah, sure

Well, then let's go digging. All right, pick your lobster. All right, wait, wait, wait

I'm going to help you. I hope so. I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you scope him out

You're going to want me to pick it up, aren't you? Yes, I want you to pick it up. I can't cook the aquarium

I want a great big fat one yes Let choose him You want to Sure All right reach in there and get him Oh Come on get him

Get him. Get him. I think he likes you. He's heavy

What's your name? Kim. Kim. Yes, he is heavy. We want him heavy because I'm going to make two servings out of this boy

So we're going to have to cut him in two. So we want a nice, fat, big lobster

But you know what, Kim? I'm not cutting him. I got him out for you

That's as far as it's going to go. You know what? I can't kill him

Why don't you put him back in his tank? I got some already ready

All right, Kim, what we're going to do is we're going to make the mashed potatoes

to stuff our lobster with. Now, I've got some red potatoes here

They're ready. They're cooked off. And while I'm doing this, you go over to the counter and chop the shrimp for me, okay

And I'm going to strain them, and I'm going to put this pot back on the stove

because there's water in these and I'm going to just let that water kind of sizzle out

So I'm going to beat them and I don't want to overbeat my potatoes. I love them with lumps in them

Do y'all? All right, now to our potatoes, y'all, I'm going to stir in some sour cream

To me, sour cream is a secret to wonderful mashed potatoes. This is what I put in last

How much should we put? I'm with y'all. So, Kim, I've got the potatoes ready

Have you got something you can bring me those shrimp in? Now, y'all, our lobsters are just like a three-pound, three-and-a-half-pound lobster that's been boiled or steamed, however you prefer to make it, and just cut in two

So we're actually using a half of a lobster tail per serving

All right, now I'm going to take your shrimp. That's perfect, Kim. That's a perfect size

You'll know exactly what you're getting. So we're just going to dump all those in the potatoes

All right, now what we're gonna do is we're gonna take our potatoes

Look-a here, Kim. How wonderful does that look? It looks good. And I'm gonna stuff them high

All right, I've got a little paprika. It's gonna give it a nice, toasty, light brown color

And now you bake them for about 15 minutes at 375 degrees

I'll take the ones out that are ready if you'll put these in

Okay. Look. Don't those look yummy

Now, Kim, you're precious. Thank you. You are just precious. A little too skinny, but precious

I really don't think that you're going to appreciate this. Like, I would like for the person that I'm eating with to enjoy it

So go sit back down, okay? I am looking for somebody that shares the love that I have for lobster

How about sin bad and sin batter? We're on it. Come on up here, guys

Well, y'all are both just perfect. Come on in here. Thank you. That looks wonderful. Squeeze around me

That looks wonderful. Have I got a pile of meat here? Grab the one you want, honey

This one's bigger. I'm going for this one. No, no, no. That one's toastier like that. I lost all this weight to eat all this fat

Come on now. How much weight have you lost? 38 pounds on the Paula Deen day. Butter

Oh, God, that's my favorite bite. Here we go, thank y'all. It's hoe cakes and fried eggs

Up next. Up next is hoe cake fever, y'all. Catch it

Good catch. Welcome back, y'all

For those just tuning in, today is all about Paula's favorite foods

If I was having my last meal, what would they be? Well, I couldn't cook this meal without doing this wonderful, special bread

This bread actually changed my life. Hoe cake cornbread. The meal is not complete without that bread

And I'm also going to be making every Southerner's popcorn. Fried okra

Now, I'm going to need some help because I'm going to be busy with the hose

I'm going to be taking care of the hose. And I need some help with the okra

And I choose you. Come on up here. Hey, handsome

How are you? What's your name? John. John, where are you from

San Diego. What are you doing here? I'm here for my best friend's wedding

Are you? In to see you. There you go. I'll slip that 22

After the show. But right now, we've got to cook, John. While I'm heating my pan, if you would do me a favor and take this okra and go over there and cut it up for me

Now, I've got some cut here. That's about what I want. You'll need to cut off the stem, cut off the tip, and then slice it

If you come up on a piece that's like as hard as my arteries

throw it to the side because it's too tough. All right, you get over there, and I'm going to come here with the hoe cakes

Now, I'm going to start with flour. I going to start with a cornmeal mix Now this is not regular just cornmeal This is a mix You can find it in your meal and flour section in the grocery store

I'm going to add a little bit of sugar. Just a little bit because southerners really don't like their cornbread really sweet

We actually don't eat it like cakes. If we want something sweet, we bake a cake

So I'm going to mix my dry ingredients together. I'm going to add some buttermilk

That's about three-quarters of a cup. I'm going to throw in a couple of beaten eggs

All right, John, how are you coming over there, baby? We're doing all right. You learning anything new

A little bit so far. Good. All right, now I'm going to throw in a little water, about a third of a cup of water

And I'm just going to mix these up. Now I want to check on my grease

I want my grease to be nice and hot so when we do this, they'll sizzle

All right, John, I think my pan's ready, so I'm fixing to drop in my hoe cakes

John, come over there, baby. Grab my ice cube. Yeah. Yeah. And hold that right in there

Y'all see those hoe cakes starting to sizzle. All right, John, you get back because we've got to have that okra

Now, I've got my fire going good, so I'm going to turn it back down a little because I don't want to burn those

You about through, John Bowie? I'm getting there. What do you do for a living

I design shoes. You do? You do? I do. I want you to see my shoes

Let me show you something, John. You're not going to believe this story

I was just in New York, went to this department store. I found these sandals that I really, really liked

And they were like $260. Well, to me, that's a lot for shoes

I like bargain stores. But I like those sandals so much that I bought them

Honey, I didn't own them 30 minutes before I lost them. I went to the airport, and when you leave New York to fly to Savannah

you don't go down the runway. You have to get on a bus, and they have to take you to the plane

Well, I left my brand-new $260 sandals on that little transport bus

Got on the airplane, didn't realize until we got home, and Kari, my niece, said

I think I left your shoes on that bus. And I thought, well, you little heifer

if I'd bought those shoes for you. If it had been your shoes

they wouldn't have got left. Well, I just panicked, so I called a friend of mine

Do you know he called New York City? He found my shoes and he sent them to me

Look at my shoes. Come help me, John. Y'all are just the kind of people I like to have at my party

All right, John, I'm going to get started on our okra. Now, if okra..

Thank you, sweetie. If okra is not in season, they make a fabulous frozen cut okra in your grocery store

It's just as good as fresh. Now, I'm going to take our okra and I'm going to pour some buttermilk over it

And I'm just going to kind of wet it up. See that

All right, John, I'm going to add some house seasoning to that flour

I'm going to add a little cayenne pepper. Now, you don't have to do that if you're afraid you're going to heat everybody up

All right, now what I want you to do, I'm going to wash my hands again. Now what I want you to do is lift this okra out of this buttermilk and into that flour and toss it

And I'm going to keep my hands clean. Good catch! I'll help you

Come on, come on. Now, you can't dilly-dally because you want all this okra to go in about the same time

Look-a-there, look-a-there. We're going to have fried okra shortly to go along with our hoe cakes

Let's show everybody, John, you want to. Let's take a look. This needs to cook until it's golden brown

Doesn't that look delicious? But it's not ready yet, John. When we come back from break, we're going to taste this, and guess what

I'm reliving Saturday night with my buddies. We're going to be grilling steaks, and we're going to do a Saturday night by Day of Onions

So y'all don't go anywhere! When we come back, y'all, this is what we'd eat when we'd call ourselves dieting

You remember? Yeah, with that half a stick of butter. A charred grilled get-together with my best friend

We're back, y'all. Y'all ready to party? Well, that's what it's all about today

It's about Paula's favorite foods. And that cute little John over there is sitting over there with the okra that he fried

and the hoe cakes that I fried up for him. Have you tried it yet, John

Well, pour that syrup all over that hoe cake. Sop it. Sop it, baby

Isn't that good? That was worth it. Good, I'm glad you like it. All right, now pop one of those okras in your mouth

because the savory and the sweet is fabulous together. Is it good

I'm glad you like it. Well, the next thing I'm going to cook, y'all

brings back so many wonderful, wonderful memories. There was a handful of people that I spent every Saturday night with

We were poor as church mices. Didn't have two nickels to rub together

But we saved our money to buy that steak to eat on Saturday night

I truly do have some wonderful friends. And I can't get up here and prepare this meal without them

Susan, come on, honey. to do the ts. That's a fact, Jack

And Jimmy Dean, I was married to you for 27 years. Another long year

27. For 27 years, I begged him to please cook my steak medium rare

For 27 years, I got it the color of this chair. I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself

Get up here and cook me a medium-rare steak, Jimmy. Yes, ma'am

Come on, Bob. Now, this is the way it was on Saturday nights

The guys were outside grilling. Susan and I was inside fixing all the ts

Now, all these years later, these two are divorced. These two are divorced

But can I tell you how wonderful it is to be back as a group

You know, there is life after divorce, isn't it? Oh, there always is. And the four of us have been blessed with beautiful children. Absolutely

So how could I not love Jimmy Dean? All right. So I'm going to get y'all started, guys

And I mean, I want a medium-rare steak, please. You'll do it

I'll let you in. Don't burn the steak. They would get out there at the chargrill

and they would have such a good time drinking cold beer. They didn't want it to end

That's right. So I think that's why we got the steaks like well done

Susan, you go over there. Remember the onions that we used to do on the real, drop on the real colds

You start those. All right, now listen, guys. I've got your grill preheated

I want you to take these beautiful filet mignons. I want you to throw the Italian dressing over them

This is just a steak sauce. I want you to add equal amounts of steak sauce and water

And y'all get these ready, okay? And I'm going to help Susan. Okay, you start

All right, Susan, you remember how we used to do that, darling? Well, I used to do them this way and this way

Yeah, and you leave about five much, you know, so they'll stay together. Now, what Bobby is pouring on these steaks, y'all, is just a bottled Italian dressing

And you just let the steaks marinate for three to four hours

All right. All right, guys. What? What are y'all doing now? Did I put the water in there

Yeah, but that's what you're going to baste with. Susan, something's never changed

No, they don't. All right, come here. We're going to get these steaks down here. Come here. Swamp out your steaks now, boys

This ain't hard. No. This ain't hard. All right. All right, now, you can't get no work done with your hands in your pocket

Well, you know, I'm supervising. Oh, you're supervising. I'm fixing to put them on

All right, y'all put those up here and wrap your bacon around them. Here's your toothpicks

Yes, ma'am. Then we're going to start cooking and basting. All right, Susan, here we go

This was the most wonderful side dish wasn it This is what we eat when we call ourselves dieting you remember Yeah with that half a stick of butter in them Alright now I just going to take our onion I going to press down a beef bouillon cube in it

And then I'm going to take that butter in, this is how we did it, Sue. Oh yeah

Just like all down in yonder. Yeah. Alright, I'm going to take our onion, and I've peppered it a little

And I'm just going to wrap it up in this foil just like this

because we're actually going to cook these in the oven. Now, if we were going to cook them on the grill

I'd have to roll them and seal them up very tight because when these are done, it's like onion soup

It's got a lot, a lot of broth in it. But they'll be fine just like that in the oven

I got some ready for everybody to see. Yay. We're going to put these in

and we're going to cook them probably for about 45 minutes to an hour. But look at these

Look, Susan. Oh, just wonderful. Doesn't that look fabulous? Can y'all see it

You can't see it. Oh, you're going to get the machine. Doesn't that look delicious

It's truly like eating a French onion soup. There's just no bread in it

All right, Susan, you grab the onions. All right. Let's come over here and check the steak, Sal

How are you guys doing? We're doing great, thank you. Oh, good

Here. Hand me a fork or something. I ain't got a fork. You'll have to use that. You know what

What? That was a rot. Oh, well. You didn't mean burning again

Oh, I didn't. No, he didn't. I don't believe it. Susan, look

Perfect. All right, folks. This is the testimony so y'all can see

I believe. Perfect. See how quickly he catches them? Look at that

That's perfect. That's perfect. Perfect. Good job, Jim. We did good. Jimmy Dean, you finally did it

That's right. Yay! Whee! I got it right. You finally did it

I got it right. Yeah, taste that. And when we come back, this meal ain't over yet

We can't finish up without homemade ice cream. Welcome back, y'all

The last dish that I would want to have as my last meal

is butter pecan ice cream. Yes. That's so bad. And sin bad and sin badder is going to help me make this

All right, guys, get your churn up. Get your churn up All right do you know how to do this I listening to you Okay We going to put some ice in there Put a layer of ice a layer of ice cream salt and do it about halfway up because while y are doing that

I'm going to be mixing up our ice cream. Over here, I'm adding a half a cup of sugar

I'm adding one package of instant French vanilla pudding. Now I'm going to slowly add three cups of milk to this mixture

And like I said, I'm going to do that slowly. I took some finely chopped pecans

and I just roasted them on top of the stove with a little butter

And that process really pulls out the flavor of those pecans. All right, now to this, I'm going to add one tall can of evaporated milk

Now that's evaporated, not condensed. Okay? Got it. Evaporated. And I'm going to add one teaspoon of vanilla

And I'm going to toss in our pecans. And we're ready to make ice cream

Okay, hold on. There we go. Now you'll want to be careful, guys

You just want to make sure now that you don't let any ice cream salt get into our ice cream

Now, do you add a whole stick of butter to this? I put a whole stick of butter in it

It's perfect. My husband said I'm the only girl he knows that eats butter on her cornflakes

All right, now, guys, I've done probably a bad trick for you

What'd you do? I have really stepped back into my childhood. When I was a little girl, all of our ice cream was churned by hand

but as a young married woman, we had moved to electric. There you go

The electricity is you, baby. Okay. So get your panties outside. Take your ice

Take the rest of your salt. Here you go. Don't forget your salt

Thank you. Now, I'll be checking on y'all out there. Okay. And listen, as the ice melts

make sure you kind of pour it off, okay? Okay. Keep adding salt. You got it

Ice. Salt, ice. All right. I'm going to talk a little bit about snow ice cream

Now, you know down in the South, we don't get much snow. Well, in 1972 or 73, we got like 17 inches of snow

It was unbelievable. It was such a surprise to us. because most of us living in the South had never seen snow

Well, I found out during that snowstorm that that white snow, not the yellow snow

but the white snow made the most fabulous ice cream Now I don have snow but I do have some shaved ice

To me, the very best ice cream in the whole entire world is made with snow

And it's so simple. All you have to do is take a sweetened condensed milk

and add it to your snow. a little bit of vanilla

And all you do is stir that sweetened condensed milk and that vanilla into that snow

Look at that. Y'all look at those two guys out there. I'm cranking as fast as I can

Add more ice! More ice! They're just a-churning

Oh, my goodness. Do what, Jimmy? It's a mess! Yeah, you know what

Those are two lively boys. All right, now I'm going to pass this ice cream down here

We don't get one. Y'all... What? It's getting hard to crank. Guys, y'all come on back in

It's ready. Thank God. Uh-oh, they're going to take off the tablecloth

While y'all were outside, I made snow ice cream, guys. Okay. Have y'all ever had snow ice cream

Never have, never have. Well, get your spoon and dig into this. We having martinis with that

You can have it with a martini. Or you can have it in a big spoon

That's what I want, big spoon. Big spoon. Big spoon coming up. That ice cream that y'all were making out there would probably take about 45 minutes

Well, I've got some ready for you. You've got to have a little pretty to go with it

Absolutely. All right, guys. Thank you so much, Paula. To sin and sin battle

Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. of my friends. I'm very

very sad to end this day. It's been so much fun being with y'all and introducing

y'all to these wonderful people that have been a part of my life for so many years

My life has certainly been enriched by my time with them and my time with you today

Y'all are welcome to come back and party with Paula anytime. God bless y'all