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- I wanna share with y'all today
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some really, really happy, happy memories.
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I was living downtown in my little pre-civil war house.
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It was so tiny, and so cute, and I loved it.
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But one day, I got up and said, "I wanna live on the water."
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So I came out here to Wilmington Island,
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the first and only place I looked at, I bought it,
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because it was in a subdivision called Turner's Cove,
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and there was six condominiums that were right on the water.
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In fact, when you walked out your back door,
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you could almost spit in to the creek.
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So I had been there almost a year, like nine months,
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when my dogs ran in front of me
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and ran around that big wall, right up to this man,
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who scared me, 'cause I ran and chased my dogs around there,
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and there was this man with shaggy bear, shaggy hair,
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propped on his fence talking on his cellphone,
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And so I apologized and got out of there
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just as quick as I could.
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Well two weeks later, my dogs did the same thing,
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Otis and Sam, and so I chased 'em right back.
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At least this time, I knew where they were going.
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And so I stayed and asked him a few questions,
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and a friendship began forming that day.
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And it's a long story, so I'm gonna tell it now,
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but it's a funny, funny, funny, funny story,
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and I tell all about it in my book,
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"It Ain't All About The Cookin'," my memoirs.
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And so we decided, because he had two children,
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I had two children, plus a niece and a nephew,
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so all together, there was six children,
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and before I knew it,
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it seemed like it was always somebody's birthday.
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So I chose one Sunday out of each month.
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If you were born in January,
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we had a party for all the January birthdays.
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February birthdays, March birthdays, we had a lot in March.
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But we would have the best time.
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We would cook out, we'd get out in the yard
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and play games, and oh, we just had so much fun.
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It was like a birthday party when we were a kid,
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but now we were big kids.
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And so many fun memories.
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Well, we were having one of those Sunday birthday parties,
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and my nephew, Corrie's brother, Jay,
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who was no longer with us,
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he was this beautiful, beautiful young man,
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and he cared about his body, and he was a clothes horse,
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and he really took a lot of pride in the way he looked,
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and he was drop-dead good looking.
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He was one of the most handsome men I've ever known.
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So he watched what he ate,
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so I decided that I was doing hamburgers
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for this particular birthday party.
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And I said, "Well I wanna make 'em special."
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Because I think we had three birthdays
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in that month of March, so I wanna make 'em special.
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So I took my ground beef,
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I put me a stick of butter in the freezer.
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You can see where this thing is going, can't you?
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I got my hamburger meat, my ground beef, in a big bowl,
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and I seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic powder,
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and the final ingredient, after I got this mixed up good,
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was gonna be one of my favorite condiments
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in the whole entire world.
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I thought, "Now what can make these burgers better?"
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And I remember one time, I made, on one of my shows,
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a Krispy Kreme cheeseburger.
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And that happened quite by accident,
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so I think I got talked about a good bit for that.
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They accused me of trying to kill everybody.
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Even though I said, "Once in a lifetime item.
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"You can only eat that one time in your life."
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But it was so good, that sweet with that savory.
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So I decided that I would take my frozen butter,
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and cut it up in to cubes,
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and just mix it in with my ground beef.
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And the reason I froze it is because I want it
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to have an opportunity to melt slow.
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So I mix this up just like this, and I patted 'em all out,
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and I put 'em on a tray with parchment paper.
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I'm out of parchment paper.
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Cling clang, I can't wait
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to get a lot of room back in my kitchen.
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So I took my burgers, and I patted 'em out,
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and they look so beautiful.
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And my precious little nephew came in the kitchen,
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and I proceeded to tell a story,
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'cause he said, "Those look so good, what is that?"
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And I said, "Garlic."
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'Cause I wanted him to eat one.
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So we cooked 'em, and we got through eating 'em,
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and Jay came up to me and he said,
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"Aunt Paula, that was the best garlic cheeseburger
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"I have ever put in my mouth."
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And we all started laughing.
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And he said, "What, what's the matter?"
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I said, "Well Jay, I told you a little tiny fib,
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"because I was afraid you wouldn't eat it,
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"but that was butter, not garlic." (laughs)
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So we all had a big laugh.
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But this butter, as it melts while they're cooking,
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It's just so good the way it flavors that ground beef.
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So I try to hide 'em in there the best I can,
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but sometimes it's a little hard to do.
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Now these are gonna be a little tinier.
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And naturally, we cook these on the, whoa,
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look at the piece of butter trying to get away from me.
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That piece of butter don't know who they're dealing with,
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do they, Eddie? (laughs)
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Alrighty, so I'm not gonna try to cook these
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I'm gonna cook them in the Air Fryer.
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And like I said, our butter's gonna melt,
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but it's gonna melt throughout that burger,
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and it's gonna be so, so good.
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And naturally, I served this
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with some good ol' steamed buns.
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My grandma taught me to put a colander
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in the top of a pot, and then a dish rag,
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and then put my buns, whether it be hot dog buns
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or hamburger buns, and just steam 'em,
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where they're real soft, but they're very, very hot,
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and it just makes for a succulent burger.
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This is coming along mighty good, y'all.
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Mmm, I did a good job of hiding the butter in that way.
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All right, did you see that, Eddie?
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- All right, as I do everything, I'm putting this on 400,
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and any time I'm doing something like this, y'all,
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I put it on for 10 minutes, and then I check.
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I check it after that, because these machines cook quick.
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I know mine does, I really don't know
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about others out there, but my brand cooks very, very fast,
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quick, and I don't wanna overcook 'em,
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but when I turn 'em over and cook 'em
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for another couple of minutes,
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I'm gonna put some cheese on 'em,
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and it's gonna be good, good, good.
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And Jay, I can't tell you, honey, how much we all miss you,
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Well y'all, I set the timer for 10 minutes
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on our butter burgers, and you know what,
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they're done perfectly, 10 minutes.
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Look, perfect, perfect doneness.
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So it's time for the cheese, cheese please.
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Oh my gosh, I got a royal flush, Eddie.
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No, I've got five aces, they're all just alike. (laughs)
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So put the cheese on 'em, run 'em back,
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just for less than a minute,
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and serve these up on warm buns with lettuce, tomato,
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mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles, avocado.
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Did I say tomato, lettuce and tomato, did I say that?
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I do love avocados on my burgers.
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But any kind of cheese you want,
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and you gone be eating a lip-smacking,
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Paula Deen's butter burger.
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Thank y'all, Love and Best Dishes.
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This brought back a lot of fun memories for me,
