Gotta See TV Party

Hey, y'all

Tonight here on Paula's Party, I have got TV stars in the kitchen, y'all

I've got the Brady Bunches, Maureen McCormick. Did I put them all out

What? With an oven-baked fried chicken, y'all, and sweet potato fries. And from American Idol, Constantine

I have to make him an all-American apple pie. And Dallas star Charlene Tilton is making us a deep-fried blooming onion that comes straight out of Texas

It's a party. I can play if I want to. So sit back, y'all, grab your remote, and let's party

Hello! Hello! I heard y'all were good

Thanks, y'all. Not too, too terribly long ago that y'all were addicted to some TV shows

that truly took over our country. In fact, they became, let's see, what do they call them

Appointment TV. You know, a show that you were not going to miss

The beautiful girl that's going to be coming out here in a minute

I would be willing to bet my last dollar that every one of you guys had a crush on her

And you know her as Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. Maureen McCormick

Come on out! I'm so excited to see you! Oh, my God

Oh, my God! Thank you so much! It's all for you! I was right

Honey, it's all for you! You're the queen! No, honey, no, honey. Paula Deen is the queen

I'm so excited to be here with her! Yes, yes! So you're just adorable

You're like America's sweetheart. Oh, that is so sweet. So are you

So are you. So are you. No. Yeah. You know. I am so excited to be here

Well, if we don't start cooking. I know. We're not going to have any fried chicken

Oh, well, we've got to have fried chicken. And that's what we're going to do. You know, back during the day, TV dinners, they came with like that fried chicken in them

Well, we're going to do a baked oven fried chicken. Now, we've got our chicken cut up here for you

Yes. And we got some tarragon. We got some salt. We got some paprika

We've got some mustard. Yes. We're going to put in a little hot sauce

And I'll tell you about this recipe, Maureen. You tell me, girl. This was my Grandma Paul's, and this is one of the recipes in Bubba, my brother's cookbook

Are you serious? I am dead serious, honey. Wow. All right, so we're going to put in our yogurt

So you be stir, stir, stir. I'll stir, stir, stir. And I will add the buttermilk

And what we're going to do, Maureen, is pour this over the chicken

Okay. Over the chicken, and we're going to let it marinate. Oh, baby

For about eight hours. Oh, yeah. We're going to cover it, put it in the fridge, let it sit

Love that. I think we've got to swap out. Look over there. Yes, we've got to swap out

We do? Oh, my gosh! The girl loves fried chicken. I do. Love chicken

I do, too. I love chicken. A million different ways. You know, when people ask me, what's your favorite southern dish

It's got to be fried chicken. Your fried chicken, honey? It's good, ain't it

It's good. You're too cute. I want you to come live with me. What do you mean? I want to! Oh, my gosh

You're just too cute. It's a wonder, Maureen, that your head's not this big

I love the way you say Maureen. I love that. I mean, how is your head not so big

Every guy in this country loves you. Well, I love your boys

They're cute. You did good, Paula. Yes, thank you. I did good, too, though

You know. Yeah! I've been married for 23 years. To the same man

To the same man. Go, girl. Woo! When you met Mr. Wright, you knew

I knew automatically, right away. Unbelievable. You couldn't have been doing nothing for 20-something years

You're only 22. Honey. Yeah, right. I'm 50. You just. 51. Oh, my gosh

I just turned 51. Yay. Let's celebrate it. I didn't know we were that close

We were that close in age. I thought. How old are you? I'm in another

Honey, we could be best friends. I'm like 6-0. You cannot be fit

Marcia, break. Yeah, oh, my God. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. You can't be fit

I got an 18-year-old daughter. No, and I know she's beautiful. She's gorgeous

Too cute. So, I tell you what. Why don't we take a quick break

Okay. When we come back, we'll put it in the oven. Because we've got oatmeal here

We've got all-purpose flour right here. We're going to dust our chicken in that, throw it in the oven, bake it

at 450 degrees, y'all, for about 45 minutes. So we're going to cook it so fast

it's going to be like fried chicken. Don't go anywhere. I'm here with the queen of TV

I'm here with the queen of food. When we come back, y'all

we're going to be finishing up our chicken with the Brady Bunch's Maureen McCormick

Do you ever cook? I do. And later, y'all, it just don't get no more American

than an American idol in apple pie. You like apple pie? I love apple pie

Welcome back. I'm in the kitchen. I am in the kitchen, y'all, with TV legend Maureen McCormick

I love the way she says my name. I love it. Masha, Masha, Masha Brady

Paula, Paula, Paula. Every man in America, or every young man in America just loved you

Well, probably some of the daddies. I hope so. We're in here today

It's all about TV dinners because we would make sure that we were home in time to watch your show and eat dinner at the same time

You know, I grew up on TV dinners. And they always had a baked fried chicken in it, didn't they

Yes. Did you eat the fried chicken? Yes. Well, that's what I'm doing now, y'all. For those that have just tuned in

I'm gonna do an oven fried chicken and Maureen is gonna be over here working on

sweet potato fries. Which I am so excited about and look at this cute cutter. This

crinkle cutter that makes them so pretty Isn that beautiful Love that Yeah Almost looks like somebody fancy mansy did them doesn it Yes it does Sweet potatoes are real rich in fiber y and vitamins A and C

All right. Now, I've marinated my chicken. Now, you're going to dust those with a little olive oil

Yes, I am. Just so that her seasoning, she's got the lady and son's house seasoning and some paprika, right

That's right. And I'm going to take like a half a cup of all-purpose flour, put in my sack, along with a half a cup of oatmeal, Maureen

Oh, the oatmeal sounds so good. Yes, yes. It's going to make it crispy. All right

I've got to tell you. Tell me, baby. Peter Brady has been at my party before

Has he? I love Peter Brady. I had a crush on him. Did you

Honey. Don't you think he's cute? Oh, God. Do I think he's cute

Do you all think he's cute? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. He's precious

Isn't he? Yes. And he told me that he had his very first kiss on that set

You're kidding with Eve, probably. Was it Jan? Well, it wasn't me. Was it Jan

Is Eve Jan? Eve Jan, yes. That's who it was. I never knew that, that that was his first kiss

It was his first kiss. Wow. And how does it feel, you know, to come off a huge show like that and be so normal

You're so normal. Oh, thank you. Well, I try to be. Normal is great. Do you do a lot of work still today

I do. I do. I just finished a show called Celebrity Fit Club. You did

I won. I won. Now, tell me, did you have to lose a lot of weight

I did. I lost like 30-some pounds. No, you didn't. I did, and I've put on a little bit of it back

How did you do it? How did I do it? I ate really, really healthy

You know, like baked fried chicken. No, you're laughing, but this is healthy, I think

Well, I think so, too. And I exercised a lot. That's my story, and I'm going to stick to it

I think we should, because it tastes so good. I think we should, too. You know, I like eating, and I finally accepted myself

You know, I used to cry. Yeah. How did you accept yourself? At 60, you're not going to look like you did when you were 20

Exactly. So we have to embrace it. Embrace it. Exactly. And you know what we need to embrace right now

What, honey? Them fries. Oh, yeah. Yes, we are. We're going to embrace them

Should I get them through the oven? Well, honey, you've got to put them in the oven first

Oh, okay. Maureen doesn't cook a lot. She's used to kind of being real cute and flirting with all the guys

Oh, excuse me, Maureen. Now should I... Wait, honey, what in the hell are you doing

Wait a second. Okay, now, what you got to do is put them on the paper

and you got to make sure... Maureen! You got to make sure that they're... Maureen, do you ever cook

I do. I swear. What if this had been a plastic bowl we were using

But honey, I knew it was glass. We're going to put your fries in a 500 degree oven

Yes, for 20 minutes. You are two stinking cutes. So are you

And we're going to turn them halfway, and they're going to be so crispy because we're putting them apart from each other

And what time are we going to eat that we're going to cook 10 fries at a time

Should I put them all out? I would. Great idea. I'll put them all on

Great idea. Okay. All right, get them taters on there before they cancel our show

Okay. All right, now I'm putting the chicken in 450 degrees for about 45 minutes

We have got a mess in this oven. I love you. I love you too and my britches are falling down my hip-hugging

When I bend over there. All right. Hide me, Maureen. I don't look like the plumber back there, do I

All right, now we baked our chicken for 40 minutes. Look at that

And we baked our sweet potato fries for 20 minutes. I swear

You look so cute in them. I do. Oh, honey, you look hot in those

That's all that matters. Exactly. Comfort, who cares? It don't matter what you feel like on the inside

as long as you look good on the outside. Exactly, baby. Exactly

Well, let's taste. You want to? Yes, yes! That's my favorite part. What do you want to taste first? Everything

What do you like, white or dark? White. You bite that one

Right there? Which should I bite, Carla? Right there. Okay. And I love dark

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Oh, my gosh. You like it? Oh, love it

I was always told, don't eat in front of your friends if you don't have enough to offer them

So bring out the sweet potato fries, y'all. Yummy. We'll be back in a minute

Marsha Brady, everybody. Up next, y'all, American Idol star Constantine

learns how to make apple pie, which is going to rock and roll

And still to come, Charlene Tilton and Texas Tumbleweed deep fried onion

Welcome back. For y'all out there in TV land, I wish you could be here

We're having a great time today, y'all. Today's show, it's all about obsessive TV shows

There's some shows that they just grab us, don't they? And we just gyrate towards them

Well, is that a word? Gyrate, though, is probably that, isn't it

Listen, there is a show that got us all. American Idol. Did it not grab us

Well, I've got somebody that went the mile and I can't wait for him to come out

You girls, get ready to put your eyeballs back into the sockets

Constantine Marlucous. I screwed your name up

Tell me how... Y'all recognize him, dog. Hello, girl. Hey. How bad did I screw your name up

Marus. Wait, let me try it one more time. Try it again. Marus-less

Well, close. Marulis. Marulis. Yes. I was very, very close. I was absent the day they did phonics

That's okay. That's okay. Maroulis. Maroulis. Greek name. You look like a Greek guy You think so And I heard that Greek guys like older women This is true This is true I heard that Greek guys like gray women This is true

It's a mouthful sometimes. It's great to have you. All right. It's great to have you

Thank you. It's so good to be here. Here with us. In honor of American Idol and you, Constantine

we have to do something very all-American for him. And we're going to be making an apple pie

Yeah. You like apple pie? I love apple pie. Yeah. Why don't we switch places

Okay. You're going to definitely have to guide me through this. Oh, I am so going to guide you

Not much of a cook. You don't have to be. No. Does he, girls

I don't know. You know, we're going to make our filling first

Okay. All right. Well, I've got you some apples that have been peeled, paired, and sliced

Awesome. We've got brown sugar. We've got all-purpose flour. We've got a little cinnamon

We've got some fresh nutmeg. We've got some fresh lemon juice. And then we're going to zest this lemon

Zest the lemon? Yes. Okay. So you have lemon juice and a... Yes

Oh. This is zesting, yes. Wow. And you don't want to go into that white part

That's the pith. And it can make it bitter. Should I try that

So, yes. I'm going to, like, cut myself or something. No. These rasp are so easy to... Wow

Smells so good. Doesn't it smell wonderful? I need this in my bathroom. Yeah

Maybe I shouldn't have said that. So just keep doing this? Well, you know, but like I said, now don't go down too deep. Oh

Just, you know, just take that top. All right. All right. So maybe we've zested it

There you go. All right, just reach in there. Yeah. And just pull your zest out

Just like that. You're a bad boy. I'm not. I'm not. I'm a nice Greek boy

You're a good bad boy. Something like that. You know there's bad boys and then there's bad boys

You're a bad boy. All right. All right. So just toss your apples now in your lemon juice

And that's going to prevent your apples from turning dark and ugly and brown on you. Okay

Take your spoon. Toss them. Toss. So you don't do much cooking

Well, you know, I'm on the road a lot. I was going to say, you don't have time, do you

No, I think I'm capable of following maybe a recipe, but I just haven't

Well, you know, that's all right. You do things I certainly can't do. And the advantage you have over me is if you can read, you can cook

I can read the words on that song, but that don't mean I can sing. All right

All right. So add your dry ingredients. and we're using a fresh nutmeg, and we're going to do that on the rasp

Okay, go for it. Yes, go for it. So what I want to ask you is, you probably went from a very normal life

Stir, stir, baby. Okay, thank you. You probably went from a very normal life to all of a sudden

you're standing in line with thousands of people, auditioning, and you made it

I did. I did pretty well. You know, I got pretty far on there. Ultimately, I was always working in the business

I had graduated Boston Conservatory. I had an agent. I was on the road

So you were very comfortable up there. I was, and I basically just needed a job

So you had a feeling you were going to do pretty well. I thought I was confident in what I could bring to the show

but I had never seen the show before. Well, there's something else that I have got to ask you

I am an American Idol nut. Okay. Those people that come up there and audition that suck so bad

I can out-sing them, and I can't sing. Do they really think they're good

The whole draw with the show is, certainly everyone loves the audition week

and all the sort of bloopers, I guess you would call them. But I think what makes for great television is a lot of them do

A lot of them really believe that they're great, and people have been telling them, yeah, you need to go for an American audience, you need to go for it

And then so they go in there really confident. And then when Simon breaks them down, it's sort of sad

I can't imagine a parent telling their children that they're good. So they can go up there and be humiliated

Am I doing the right thing here? Yes. Just rotate your nut

And nutmeg is very strong. That's right. So toss your nutmeg in there

And when we come back, I've got a question that I am so yearning to know the answer to

And I bet you are too. So don't go anywhere. We're going to be right back with American Idol Constantine

All right. Up next, Constantine serenades me. I'm all in flesty aspect

And later, Charlene Tilton from TV's Dallas takes on a deep-fried blooming Texas onion

Handsome, gorgeous, sexy onion. Welcome back, y'all

I'm here with that dreamy guy Constantine from American Idol It's all about

Obsessive TV shows And you certainly probably had the list Uh, yeah

It's a big show How much fan mail do you get? How many underwears did you have thrown on the stage

I bet you did Yeah, there's some of that, you know What's that

This is your CD That's my new record In stores everywhere I left the last name off because, you know

You don't need a last name. I can't pronounce it. That's beautiful

Thank you. Beautiful. Well, I just wanted everybody to be aware of that

All right. And we've got to make pie, honey. Let's do it. All right

We have gotten our pie ingredients mixed together. It's all-purpose flour, a little salt, a little white sugar

one and a half sticks of cold cubed butter, a fourth of a cup of vegetable shortening, and ice water to get it to where we need it

Okay. Now, the key to making a good pie crust is making sure your shortening

your solid shortening, and your butters are very, very cold. Because if they're warm, it doesn't work as good

It's probably going to take, y'all, to get your pastry to the right consistency

probably about a fourth of a cup of ice water. Very important that it's ice water

Okay. No, go in there with your hands, and let's see. I added you a little bit more ice water

All right. And we're fixing to roll these out. And while we're rolling these out, tell me what you really think of Simon

Honestly, one of the nicest men I've ever met in my life

See, I love Simon. I love Simon. He makes the show. He does

All right, how's yours feel? It feels good. Is it sticking together

It doesn't look like yours. No, yours is not ready. All right. I'm sort of obsessive-compulsive in this

Oh, are you? Well, then I will drive you totally over the wall

Because I'm so not. So get in there and see if that will stick together for you

All right. What I was saying is I went to this school in Boston, Boston Conservatory, right

Uh-huh. And of music and did my BFA there. And I had a lot of teachers from the U that you know were raised in the Royal Shakespeare Academy and all this So I had a lot of serious teachers like that that would kick my butt in class every day So I was sort of prepared for him

All right, Constantine, you're going to divide your bowl of dough and put it in the refrigerator and chill it for about 30 minutes

And I don't just do rock and roll, you know. I like opera. Do you really

I do, I do. Maybe I should sing you a little something. Sing me. Sing me

Sing me. Yes! Wasn't that romantic

You know, if I could just get the captain to do that for me, it knows

All right. How's your hands look? Are they very doughy? No, they're not so bad

They're not so bad. Good, because my britches are falling down again. Do you need some help

You need some help there? I'm trying to get my britches on

Wow. You're so coming back. Oh, my gosh. Yes. All right. I like it down here

All these southern ladies, my goodness. Oh, listen. Very nice. Yes. Southern girls are just some of the most charming

All right, honey. Thank you. It's time to get serious. This is a serious rolling

This is a serious tool. It's heavy. So just roll it out. Yeah

So what we're going to do, wait, I'm going to give you a little flower. Wow

to put on your thing, your rolling pin. All right, now we're going to roll

Just going to rock and roll. That's right. And now we're going to pick up our dough

and we're going to turn it the other way, just like that

Like a pizza. Well, not really. Kind of. It is, kind of

All right, honey, we have to hurry. Rolling, rolling, rolling. Rolling, rolling, rolling

So what we're going to do now is we're going to use your crust and put in the bottom

I'm just pushing that crust against that pie plate edge. There we go

We're going to throw that over there because we may need it. Okay. All right

Now, just take our pie stuff and pour it in. You got it

There we go. All right. Now, we're just going to dot it with butter just like that

Now I'm going to show you how to make a lattice top

A lattice top. Yeah. Is that the zigzag kind of? Yeah. All right, so I'm just going to cut off these uneven edges because I don't want to use those

There we go. All right, so what we're going to do now is I'm just going to cut us some strip

Now you can use a pastry wheel, you know, that gives you a kind of a fluty edge

I like a knife because I can control that. So here we go, just cutting our strips

See? See how simple that was? That's awesome. All right. Now what we're going to do is we're going to take our strips

and we're going to lay them over our apples just like that

So you want to finish that? Sure. And then I'm going to show you how to lay and tuck

Okay. And maybe one more? Yes, one more. Or do you go back on the other way

All right. Now we're fixing to start latticing. And I'm going to turn it so our strips are this way. Okay

To start our latticing process, we're going to take every other strip

fold it back, and lay another strip right there. Now we're going to have to start from this end

All right, now we're going to go to the opposite strip, first, third, and fifth

Wow. There you go. All right. And then this. There you go

Nice. Go see, you got it, honey. Yeah. See how easy it is to last

I do. And here we go. All you have to do is take your knife and just cut off your excess

We got something as purely American as you. All right. Now, to make our crust pretty, we just want to give it a little egg wash

Okay. That's just beaten eggs, so just brush over the top. We're going to put this in a 450 degree oven and we're going to bake it for about 45 minutes

Okay. And when it comes out, we're going to let it cool on the counter for about 20 minutes

Masterpiece. I heard about these new jeans you have on today. Honey

Blue riders. Or something. Honey, they're hip huggers. I ain't got no hips

I like a woman with a little something, something. A little something-something. Well, I ain't got no something-something

I don't know about that. Come on over here now. Okay. This is fabulous looking, isn't it

Yeah, I'm looking. All right, but you can't have apple pie without ice cream, can you, honey

I agree. Wow. So I'm going to get you a big old... You know, I've been sort of watching what I've been eating lately

I have, too. I have. But after, you know, eating at your place last night, I think I've had a change of heart

This is, uh... Since you're watching what you eat. Wow! Oh, my gosh

Wow. Let's just top it off with a little caramel. Oh, my goodness

Oh. Shall we? Yes. Oh, my goodness. To you and your career

Thank you, and thank you so much for having me. This has been wonderful. Oh, I've so enjoyed you being here

I think I need to feed you this little one right here. Well, I'll feed you too

All right. Sweet. Yeah, just it's messy. That is a big bite you've got for me

Is that a big bite? Let me take a little off. Okay, I got a smaller one

You got a huge bite right now. Okay, ready? Take a breath

When are you coming back? Anytime you'd like to have me. Soon

Yes, I promise. Soon, that's my favorite word. We'll be back in a minute, y'all

Up next, Charlene Tilton's deep-frying a big old onion, and we're dishing up the dirt

Well, what happens in Savannah stays in Savannah. Did y'all have any idea that today when you came to see a TV show

that you would be meeting all these people that literally changed TV

Well, I remember in the 80s, y'all, my friends and I were so addicted to this show

Well, my next guest was kind of like the vixen on this show

Do you have any idea what show I'm talking about? It took place in Texas. Dallas. Absolutely

Charlene Tilton! Come on out! Come on out! Hi, you guys. I'm gonna cry

I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna cry. I love you so much. And I love you, too

I love you. And so does he, and so does he. I am not kidding

I just, I love you. You're like the sister that I never had

Oh, well, we'll be sisters. I don't have a sister. I don't either. I know I was talking to Bubba

You gotta be. Did you meet Bubba? I love him. Hi, everyone

I'm sure he loves you. What? Heart? What you peeking at? You sure do got some big eyes, girls

You know, I loved you. I loved you on Dallas. You're just adorable

Thank you. And you brought so much pleasure. Us watching you, you know, swish around that room looking all sexy and everything. Yeah

And they even blamed the murder of J.R., who shot J.R., on this precious little thing

Now, you know what I heard about you? Well, I heard that you were frightened to death of frying

I love to cook, but I... Do you? The oil scares me or something

Well, you know, it can be dangerous. You want to be careful when you're frying. I've always thought that frying and grilling and taking out the trash are men's jobs

I just... Because of the heat involved. Yeah. And the danger. Well, I don't want to scare you, Charlene

Well, I trust you. But today you're going to fry. Uh-huh. And in honor of you being here and the show that meant so much to America

we're going to make the J.R. Tumbleweed. I love it. Texas Tumbleweed

There you go. Yes. Well, it's a blooming onion, y'all. Oh, listen, I love fried foods

I mean, it's not that I don't want the fried food. I mean, my favorite food is butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, and fatty cheese for dessert

You shut up! I mean, I'll put a little baked... We are sisters! I know. I'll put a little baked potato with my butter and my sour cream

Did your daddy ever travel in Georgia? No. I don't know. Well, I thought maybe for a second we truly were sisters

Maybe we are. All right. Now, you know, I taught myself, y'all, to do this blooming onion

Here's your onion. Now, we've got the root part, and we want to leave that root

Okay. Because if we cut our root off, all these petals will fall apart

Okay. And we'll have onion petals, not a blooming onion. Okay. All right

Now, if you can use that knife. Now, I have a question for you

This knife is almost bigger than you, girl. I know. What is your question

Looking a little, Glenn, close here. I've always heard if you put your onion in the freezer that it won't make you tear up when you're cutting it

Well you know that may be true but sometimes you don want your onion frozen So get a wooden matchstick put in your mouth Chew on the matchstick That sulfur will absorb that burn and it will not burn your eyes Okay

All right, now we're going to take our knife tip and come about a quarter of an inch away from the root

No, you're too close to the root. All right, right there, and we're going to go all the way through

Just like that. Good knife. All right, and then we're going to go back up there

And we're just going to do petals. Oh, okay. See? But you got to make sure that you go all the way through that onion

Well, mine is coming out. Oh, no, just keep going. No, I bet yours is going to be better than mine

Now, you know, I taught myself, y'all, to do this Bloomin' Onion when I opened my restaurant in 1991

Bloomin' Onions were really coming in big. Yeah. And, you know, restaurants had these $1,000 machines and plus a lot of staff to help

Well, I had a knife and Paula. So I bet I went through 25 pounds of onions, Charlene, trying to teach myself how to cut a blooming onion

So just keep a cutting. Okay. Here we go. There we go

Well, you got me on the two things I don't do. I don't do onions and I don't do frying. So we're just going to shake that onion out

We're going to drop it in ice water because the ice water is going to help it open up and bloom

Mine came out beautiful. I told you. Yours came out prettier than mine

So we're going to drop it in the ice water. Okay. And this is what it's going to look like

Oh, wow. Just going to kind of help it open. You know, we're just going to do it like that

All right. And over break, I'm going to make a beer batter. just using equal amounts of flour and beer

a little baking powder. When we come back... What I don't use, you can drink

Y'all don't go anywhere. I'm in the kitchen with Charlene Tilton, and we are doing a Texas tumbleweed

That's right. Next, y'all, we're finishing up our Texas tumbleweed onions. And just think how good he's going to make your breath smell

Welcome back, y'all. Welcome back

I told a little story out there. I said over break I was going to mix us up some batter

Well, I didn't get it done because we was talking. This is an all-purpose flour, but I'm going to add about a half a teaspoon of baking powder just to make sure it puffs

But see the yeast that in our beer is going to activate with that all flour and it going to cause it to have this great batter that going to it going to like bloom Now you want to sit this on the counter for maybe anywhere from 15

minutes to three hours. Okay. And just let it kind of bloom. Now, I've got several spices. I've got

house seasoning, which is salt, pepper, garlic powder. I don't know what it is. I watch your show

I'm going to put a little bit of that in there. I've got different herbs, a chili spice, you know, depending how you want to season it

I kind of like mine just plain like this because I'm going to have a sauce with it

Right, exactly. So I can let my sauce take me where I want to go

Exactly. All right, so let's come over here, honey bunny. All righty. Let me step in front because I'm going to protect you

From that mean old fryer. In case something goes wrong. I'm just trying to open it up and get some of that ice water out

Oh, okay. Because you don't have oil and water. The water don't mix. All right, so I'm just going to come in here and put that batter

using my fingers to get that batter in between those petals. Uh-huh

And then I'm going to pick him up and kind of, you know, let that batter come around a little bit

Now, I'm going to slip him into that grease very gently. All right

and then very quickly, all right, you go ahead and get you one out. Okay

And then very quickly, after he's dropped in the fryer, I'm going to bring him out

Okay. I'm going to bring him out, and I'm going to take my knife

and I'm going to separate those petals so he'll bloom better. I did this with every onion

that I ever served at the Lady or the Lady and Sons

It's just like this. I want to go there so bad. You know, I have like 20 people that said

please bring me something back from Lady and says they want me to bring the food. I'm like, yeah, I'm supposed to be carrying like 20 to-go things

All right. No, we're going to stick it in the batter first, remember? Getting ahead of myself here

All right. The natural blonde. I want to get yours battered just perfect

So you'll look like the huge star that you are. All right, now, I've shown you how to do it, Charlene

So you step in there. Okay. And conquer, honey. And conquer my fear of hot oil

Yes. And just drop it in? No, don't drop it. Ease it in because, you know

Any way, right? You know, kind of hold it on the side and just very gently

And you don't want to. Oh, you did yours in. You put yours in upside down. Damn

All right, let's look at your onion. OK. Your onion. Oh look he came back up Charlene he beautiful He gorgeous All right so while we waiting for this to cook a second tell me will Dallas do you think there ever be a reunion or anything like that or a comeback

Well, I understand they're making a feature film of it. You're talking about, like, for the theater

Yes. That's what I hear. And supposedly John Travolta is supposed to play J.R

But we did do a reunion special that I co-produced with one of your dear friends, Henry Winkler

Oh, my gosh. I love me some Henry. Isn't he the best? Love me some Henry

So, look at your onion. That's beautiful. Who said you couldn't do this onion

All right, now you take this onion. All right. We're going to just, I don't have a good grip on you, so I don't want you to burn yourself

But you get over here now and you tend to your onion. All right. What do I do? Just watch him

Well, just, yeah, kind of just pick him up and look at him and turn him over

Talk sweet. Uh-huh. Handsome, gorgeous, sexy onion. Yes. And just think how good he's going to make your breath smell

All right, now kind of flip him over, baby. All right. Because we want him to open up

He's getting busy. Yes, because he's got a lot of raw batter inside

Ah. So what are you doing now? I am just, I'm going to start a movie called Superhero

And then I also am producing and starring in the Tammy Faye Baker story

That's going to be good. I think that would just be a fabulous project

And I just want to tell you something. I'm getting splattered by hot grease. You are

Yes, ma'am. Now step away, honey. All right, now, your onion is beautifully ready

Isn't that gorgeous? That is beautiful. Honey, you are great. Oh, look at me frying up stuff

All right, now come in here. Come in here, Charlene, and get your petal

Okay. And I have to say, for the best blooming onion, if you can get your hands on Vidalia onions

Now, it's an onion that we grow in Vidalia, Georgia. And honey, you can eat an onion sandwich, and it tastes like it's got sugar in it

It's so good. So slip him into that ranch dressing. You're such a great hostess

Well, thank you. You're such a great guest. Oh, my. Do you like it

Make me do a happy dance. That is good. Let me ask you

What, baby? Who can fry? You can fry. No, you can fry

I can fry. You can fry. It's her party! I can cry if I want to

It's her party! My name's Daniel! Happy crying! Happy crying! From my kitchen to yours

We'll see you later! Best dishes