Gone Brunchin'

Today I'm brunching it

I'm teaching a home viewer some of my best tricks, y'all. Hi, y'all

First, I'm going to make a scrumptious orange coffee cake with the most decadent glaze

And Crystal's going to love it. Then Crystal and I are going to be

fixing up her favorite brunch recipe, breakfast pizzas. Now we'll do a dance to the pancakes gods

And we're firing up the deep fryer, y'all, y'all, with my deep-fried sweet potato home fries

Nothing like the sound of a fryer. Especially if it's full of taters, y'all

And finally, a grilled peach salad with a tangy Dijon dressing that you don't want to miss

I've got a little Vister coming in. A little girl that I've never met, but I got an email from her

asking if I could help her with some breakfast pizzas. So, you know, I can't have her come without me having a little something for her that she was not expecting

So I'm going to make her an orange coffee cake. And this is so simple, y'all

I'm going to be showing her ways to kind of... If I don't die of a heart attack first, I'm going to have her this wonderful coffee cake made

Now, the first thing I'm going to do, I kind of want the coffee cake to have a little bit of maybe a sunflower look to it

So I'm going to put that first biscuit in my pan in the center

And then I'm just going to take my biscuits and I'm going to cut them in half

And I'm going to kind of just put them around like that so that they make a flower

is nothing like a canned biscuit, y'all, to help you out in a pinch

I just love them. And I'm using the jumbo. I may have to come back and adjust them in a second

because my pan's about full, and I've still got two biscuits left

And I say no biscuit shall be left behind. Just like that

Now I've got some melted butter over here behind me. And I'm going to take our biscuits and brush them with a little of this melted butter

And this is going to help it get crispy and golden brown

Looks good just like that, doesn't it, y'all? Yes, indeed. All right, I'm going to take some walnuts

Now, you can use pecans or any kind of nuts you want

And I'm just going to mince up about a quarter of a cup of nuts

You know, I'm not worrying if it's over that amount, because the more nuts the better

All right, I'm going to come in here, and I'm going to take a third of a cup of sugar

And then I'm going to zest about two teaspoons of orange zest

So there we go. I'm just going to mix that zest into that sugar

And now we're just going to toss in our nuts. And I've got our butter over here just bathing those biscuits

Do you know if you don't have a fresh orange on hand, you know you can buy orange zest in your spice section at your grocery store so you don't have to worry about them going bad or anything

So on top of our biscuits goes my sugar and my zest and my nuts

So I'm going to put this in the oven, y'all, for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees

Now our glaze is going to consist of about two ounces of cream cheese

But you know I say who's counting. So that looks like about two to me, doesn't it, to you

and I love that because I really like that cream cheese flavor

that's going to go on top of these coffee cakes and I'm going to mix this with

a half a cup of powdered sugar or confectionate sugar I'm just going to take my fork

and cut that sugar into my cream cheese because I want this to have a little bit of an orange kick

I'm gonna add just a wee little bit of juice. That's gonna make this kinda more pourable

and give it that flavor. And see, to me, that's just like perfect

So when those hot coffee cakes come out of the oven I just going to drop that on top

And Crystal's going to love them. So while I'm mixing this up, come on over here to my computer and I'll show you the email that Crystal wrote me

Dear Paula, my family loves pizza so much I decided to make it for them for breakfast

I would love if you could help me turn my breakfast pizza into something really, really special

Love, Crystal. I hear the knock right now. Y'all, come on. Let's go meet her

Crystal! How are you? How are you? I'm great. How are you

Good. Nice to meet you. Nice to see you. I've been waiting for you to get here

It's time for a one-on-one cooking lesson. When you see all these bubbles, that means it's ready to flip

Fried sweet potato home fries that are to die for. That's going to be my new favorite way

And a refreshing grilled peach salad. Whoa! Y'all, if you're just joining us, I'm in the kitchen with Crystal DeSalva

She needs my help to doctor up one of her favorite recipes. So you make a breakfast pizza

I love the breakfast pizza. My family loves it, but there's just something missing

I thought you could help. Well, why don't we see if we can't take that recipe that you've been making and bump it up a little bit

Sounds great. Well, what I'm thinking, Crystal, is maybe a pancake crust

So let's get started on the pancake batter. Say two and a half cups of all-purpose flour

Okay. This is my half a cup measure. This is my one cup measure

I love these. Thank you. I love them, too. I use them all the time, and I've got you a knife here

Thank you. To level off your flour. You're engaged to be married

Yes, I am in two years. Tell everybody how he proposed to you

So he came over with a cake in a bag, and he told me that his mother had bought him a cake for good luck on finals

It was finals weekend school. I was like, oh, that's really nice. Two teaspoons of baking powder. And he told me that they forgot to eat it at dinnertime

so he wanted to share it with us. Half a teaspoon of baking soda

And my mother went to open the cake, so she started to giggle. I'm like, oh, she must have wrote something funny on there

I'm like, okay. A teaspoon of sugar, sweetie. Thank you. And a pinch of salt

So I'm like, I want to read what's so funny on this cake. So I go over, and I open the cake, and there it says

will you marry me on the cake? And I turn around, he's on one knee with the ring. And my mother is there

Oh, so magical. Yeah. So your mother was actually the first one he proposed to

Yes. Oh, that's cute. All right, now let's gather up our wet ingredients

We need two eggs. Sure. Y'all are planning on waiting until after everybody graduates from college

Yep, graduate college, go for a master's. Oh, thanks. Y'all look so smart

Yes. What is his major? His business, he's doing business and marketing as well. Uh-huh

So we'll need two cups of milk. All right, so you can just add that to your eggs, whisk it up, and now I just need for you to add your wet to our dry

Sure. And I'm going to step over here and give our griddle a little spray

Now I'm going to add just a little bit of vegetable oil. Not much, just a little bit

And a tip for your pancakes and your waffles, you don't want to overbeat them

Okay. Like you would a cake. You don't want to do it for, like, several minutes

So you might want to take your whisk. Okay. Because this is going to have lumps in it

Right. It's going to have lumps in it, but, you know, a few is okay. Okay

That looks good. I love pancakes. Yes. I'm hoping that the pancake gods will be with us this morning

You think that's good? I think that is good. A few lumps

So come on over here. Now, I'm going to let you dip out your pancake batter

Sure. Because you probably have more in mind the size that you want

So just two? Yeah. So that's like an individual pizza size, isn't it

Perfect size. And right now we'll do a dance to the pancake gods

Do you happen to know what it is? No. You know, I love it

So I'm just going to look in here. When you see all these bubbles coming at y'all, that means it's ready to flip

All right. Let's see. Oh, perfect. Let bring him over here All right Crystal we gonna come back and make a few more pancakes cakes but first I wanna get started on the next dish Sweet potato home fries So what we gonna do is just peel these potatoes and if you would cut them into cubes just like for potato salad about that size

And we're gonna boil these for about 10 minutes before we fry them up. And I'm gonna go down here and I'm gonna fiddle with this grill

and get us some more pancakes going. Okay, so how are you coming

I'm doing great. I've got us at least five pancakes ready for five little pizzas

Four for me, one for you. You know what? That'll work. We're going to fry the sweet potatoes and put together those breakfast pizzas

I like the way you think. And we're making the most amazing grilled peach salad

Oh, gosh, those look so good. Getting those pretty grill marks on them

Well, we're in here in the kitchen cooking up some wonderful breakfast and brunch things with my little friend Crystal here

She wrote in to me and said she needed a little bit of help on some breakfast pizzas that she was making

And so we are working on those breakfast pizzas. Yeah, just give that a shake, Crystal

Now we need to scramble up some eggs because we're going to make a scrambled egg pizza

Now I'm going to need five eggs. And Crystal, my secret to good eggs is a little sour cream in it. Ooh

So if you put a little spoon of... Just one? Yeah, that would be great

Yeah, that's perfect. That's perfect. Rather than putting cream in them, I just like that little bit of sour cream

And it makes the eggs so creamy, y'all. All right, now I'm going to put a little bit of salt

And, Crystal, you can just go ahead and get some butter in our pan and get our eggs going

All right, now I'm going to get our potatoes. And you take care of the eggs

We've got our pancakes down here. So I'm going to just put our sweet potatoes into the fryer

Still got a little water on them. It's all right. It won't last but just a second

All right. So we're going to drop these down. And remember, y'all, we parboil these so they're done

All we want to do is just brown them off. Nothing like the sound of a fryer

Especially if it's full of taters, y'all. While you're scrambling those eggs, I'm going to make us what will be our marinara sauce

Ooh. Okay. Now what's in that? Well, I've decided that some diced tomatoes would be good

Now I'm going to take some cream cheese that has come to room temperature

and I'm just going to dump that in my bowl. And these are good tomatoes

they've got onions in them. They're not just a plain-o tomato. So you just get that pre-season

Oh, yeah. I'm just going to squish that all together. Just working it, working it, honey

Doesn't that look good? Pretty color. All right, now we've got some bacon over here that I cooked

off earlier. And if you would be just chopping that bacon up

I'm gonna take our pizza crust. Ooh. Can't wait to try it

I can't either. And I'm gonna put our marinara sauce on our crust. Mmm

Mmm-hmm. I hear you. All right, now let me step down here

When you get done with that, you can take your bacon and stir it into your eggs

There we go. All right, Crystal, your eggs are looking good. So I'm ready to put them together if you are

I am. Well, grab those eggs, and on they go. All right, our sweet potatoes are ready

If you would chop us up a little fresh basil. Sure. I think the fresh basil would be wonderful

Now, I'm going to dump our sweet potatoes out onto some paper towel to help drain some of that oil

Do you season them at all? I'm glad you asked me that because here is the question

Do you want them seasoned with salt or do you want them seasoned with sugar

Mmm, I like salt. Okay. Well, I tell you what. Why don't we, so you can compare taste

salt one end and sugar the other? I like the way you think And that way you be able to taste and compare right there on the scene Do you know sweet potatoes are good for you

Are they? Absolutely. That could go bad. So tell me what you think

Are they good? I love them fried. That's going to be my new favorite way

Put a little of this on the pizza. I think they look great. I think they do

It's not coming to Raleigh. Is it? And now a little mozzarella

Now all we are going to do is bake these until they're piping hot again and the cheese melts

That's all that cheese. So put that in the oven, honey. We've got our oven preheated to 400 degrees, and within a couple of minutes we're going to have a piping hot pizza

Can't we? Y'all, you don't want to miss this grilled peach salad

You're going to so want this recipe. Easy peasy. And I'm going to surprise Crystal with my scrumptious orange coffee cake

I just wanted to have a little something sweet for you. I thought we needed a little salad

So how does a grilled peach salad sound to you? That sounds great

I think it does, too. If you would just slice our three peaches, just some nice little wedges

And while you're doing that, I'm heating the grill. I've got our greens ready over here

And I'm going to make us a little dressing. And I'm going to just eyeball all of this

I'm going to begin with a tablespoon of Dijon. Three tablespoons of rice wine vinegar

A little salt. And if you would now, when you get the peaches done, put a little olive oil on them to keep them from sticking, and a little salt pepper

Great. And I'm going to do about a third of a cup of olive oil

Add a little olive oil. A little bit of salt. I've got my greens, and I'm using mescaline greens

I'm just going to add some chopped pecans. Let's go ahead and get those peaches on our grill

And I'm going to add a third of a cup of feta cheese

Oh, gosh, those look so good. Now, do you just want slight grill marks

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we don't want them, like, burned. See, that's looking so good

Getting those pretty grill marks on them. Looking good. So I think these are red

What do you think? They look great. All right, so I think I'm going to turn this off

If you want to start grabbing them off. Sure. And just tossing them in there

Throw them there on top. Yes. They smell delicious. Whoa! One of them's trying to get away there

Okay, sweetie, and I'm going to just start tossing those peaches in there

And it's going to kind of wilt our lettuce a little bit, the heat from the peaches

All right. And I'm going to drizzle that with our vinaigrette. I smell the vinaigrette, you know

You can. Look at that. Looks very good, doesn't it? So, Crystal, I've got a little surprise for you before you got here

I made you one of my favorite coffee cakes of all time. So if you would, darling, go in that small oven and grab our coffee cake

Just sit it right here because I've got to put a little drizzle on it

And I'm going to be putting your salad on your plate. That looks delicious

You're going to so want this recipe. It's easy peasy. Now I'm going to just put us a little drizzle

This is powdered sugar with a little orange juice. I just wanted to have a little something sweet for you

I always have to have something sweet. So here's your salad. Thank you

There's your napkin. Thank you. And I'm going to put a little coffee cake

This is delicious, Paula. You like it? It's a combination of the sweet pizzas with the cheese and the salad, and it's warm

Isn't it good? That glaze is perfect

Isn't that good? Let's see. So here we go. I love it with the pancake

That is out of this world. Thank you. You are so welcome

So listen, I want to ask you to help me tell everybody goodbye because it's that time

Love and best dishes from our kitchen to yours. That's exactly right

Till next time. Thank you, darling. Thank you. Eat up