Meet the Parents

Hey y'all, I'm Paula Deen. And guess who's coming to dinner? My son Jamie just got engaged. Woohoo! And it's time to meet the parents. And I have to say I really am a little bit nervous. So I'd like to invite y'all in to see what I'm cooking. I'm gonna be whipping up this spread in my other son Bobby's kitchen. And he said it's okay, but promise not to snoop mama

Finger foods are on the menu today. And first, we're going to be making engagement ring finger sandwiches

that are savory, satisfying, and just sure to break the ice. And the next, I'm going to be fixing my shrimp butter

that's creamy and delicious on crackers and vegetables. And, you know, no southern sit-down would be complete

without my sweet and tangy lemon bars. And then to finish it off, it's my nutty glazed honey bars

and strawberry topiaries that are just bound to make an impression. So stay with me, y'all, and keep me company

because it's time to meet the in-laws. Hey, y'all

I have to confess, y'all caught me snooping through my son's drawers

I guess you'll notice that I'm not in my kitchen. but I'm in my son Bobby's kitchen

This is Bobby's loft, and Jamie lives directly above Bobby. And today's show is all about Jamie

because I've got a very special announcement. The old man is finally getting married

And today I get to meet Brooke's mother and father. And we're going to be meeting in between mealtime

So I just want something light but tasty for them. And I decided that I would make some finger sandwiches

Now I'm going to mix together two containers of softened, spreadable cream cheese

And I'm going to mix this with a half a cup of mayonnaise

All right, so I'm just going to mix this up. And my cream cheese is very soft

and you can see I've got different bowls set up. So I'm going to start dividing my base for these sandwiches

and I'm not going to need a lot because it's just going to be like the six of us

All right, now in this first one, I think I'm going to add the pecans to it

I love pecans and cream cheese. So we'll mix that up just like that

and set that one to the side. And in this one, I love the pineapple in the cream cheese

In fact, here in the South, we eat pineapple sandwiches. All right, so there's our pineapple sandwich

All right, and the next one is our cucumber. So you can see I'm going to have all different choices from the sweeter to the savory

And down south we eat a lot of cucumber sandwiches. All right

The last one is going to be an olive sandwich. And this is just finely minced olive

Okay. Now you'll want to start with some good fresh bread. So I'm going to just cut my shapes out

And I think I'm going to mix my breads up. I think I'll do one side wheat and one side white

Your ends of your bread will be just perfect for toppings, for casseroles and things like that

So don't think you're wasting this bread because you're really not. You can use it for so many other things

All right, let's see. Let's try the heart out. and you'll want to just set it down real hard

and then just kind of jiggle. And look, that's a perfect heart

I love it. All right, so let's try the square now. Let's see, I think I'll come over here

and use this bread that already have trimmed for triangles. All right

So now we're ready to start filling them. So I think I'll start with a cucumber

Now you can put as much or as little as you like in there Normally a tea sandwich is not stuffed full All right now we going to go with the pecan

I know this is boring as a mud fence, watching me do this

I know that Jamie will probably be telling y'all this story, and I hope I don't mess anything up by talking about it

But he had been watching this young lady probably for about six months

He didn't know her name. He knew that she had a job because every day at 5 o'clock he would see her leave work

Well, months went by. And somebody finally arranged a little cocktail hour at our restaurant

And Brooke came, and she and Jamie were introduced. And when he met the 5 o'clock girl, he fell head over heels in love with her

He liked her as much close up as he did far away

And they were inseparable from that first date. Now I have several different garnishes for these sandwiches

So I think I'm just going to dust that one with a little black pepper

Alright, so we'll put him right there. Now this is a pecan. I think I'm going to roll the edges of this one

in the crushed pecans that I've got here. Now see how pretty that is

Alright, I think that I will do the cucumber and the parsley

because kind of green and green. Look how pretty that makes that little sandwich

It took a boring sandwich and really kind of kicked it up

All right, and let's see. Now for the bacon, let's find a pineapple

I think the sweet and salty will be just delicious. Does that look good or what

I think I'm going to do this one in the poppy seed, and I think I'm going to coat him all over

Look how pretty that is. I gotta take a quick break, and while y'all are gone

while I'm gone, I'm gonna finish up these sandwiches, and I'm gonna show y'all the most delicious shrimp butter

I think I'm gonna steal one, nobody will ever know. Oh my goodness, bacon and cream cheese

Hey, y'all, we're back, and I'm getting our crackers laid out here

ready for our next dish that we're doing, and it's called shrimp butter

We're going to start with two sticks of butter, and I'm going to take two cartons

of room-temperature spreadable cream cheese, or you can use the block cream cheese

It doesn't have to be spreadable. All right, there we go. Now I'm going to put some house seasoning, which is the salt, pepper, and garlic

I'm going to put a little cayenne just to give it a little kick

And I'm going to put about a tablespoon of sherry. Mmm, smells good

Just enough to give it a little kick. All right, pulse that until it's nice and creamy

Now, I'm going to put a pound of shrimp into our cream cheese and butter mixture

I'm using fresh shrimp that I've boiled, and I'm just going to pop the tails off

If you don't have access to some good fresh shrimp, just try substituting the canned shrimp

They are packed with flavor. All right, that gets our shrimp. Now I'm gonna add about a teaspoon of lemon zest

because I don't have to tell y'all how good lemon is with shrimp

So that looks like about a teaspoon. So we're just gonna throw that in there

And I think I'm gonna do just about two tablespoons of onion

That should be a gracious plenty. Like I said, because I don't want to overpower it with the onions

All right. Shouldn't take but just a second. All right. I think that gets it

All right. So I'm going to transfer this to my piping bag

Now you could roll it up in a log shape in some wax paper and refrigerate it or freeze it and make slices out of it if you wanted to

But I'm just going to pipe this onto our cracker. Alright, now I think I'm going to put a little pinch of parsley

And I don't know if this will work or not, but I think I'm going to sprinkle just a little paprika just to kick up that color a little bit

See how pretty, and it was no trouble at all. Down south, every party we have, you can usually find a lemon bar

The recipe has been around for 100 years, and they're so delicious

So I'm going to start this lemon dish with all-purpose flour, confectioner's sugar, and a stick of butter

And with my fork, I'm just going to blend that butter into our dry ingredients

And then I'm going to pat it into our pan, and we're going to bake this for about 15 or 20 minutes

All right, now I've got all this mixed up. I'm going to finish it off with my hands

Just make sure that our butter is all mixed in. Now I'm going to put mine into a pan and I don't think I'm going to spray it because

there's so much butter in this piece of pastry. Plus I've got a non-stick pan

Alright, so I'm just going to press this down in here and make sure I level it off good

I bring it up the sides of the pan just a little bit. So when I go to put my lemon filling in it

you know, it kind of has something to wrap its arms around. All right, so I'm going to throw this in the oven

and let it bake for 15 or 20 minutes. And when we come back, I'm going to show you

that luscious tart filling that goes in the center and also honey bars

So I'll see y'all back in a few minutes. Okay, I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready to finish up these lemon bars because I can't wait to get in them

All right, now I've got my crust here. It's baked for about 15 or 20 minutes

I've pulled it out, and we're going to add sugar, a little flour, because this is going to be kind of a loose center

but we want just enough flour to bind it. And we've got lemon juice and two eggs

I'm just going to give those a quick beat. And then pour them in there

And mix that together just like that. I love making these because you don't even have to pull out a mixer

So we're just going to pour that on top. And we're going to run this back in the oven

And while these are baking, I'm going to come over here and show you a glazed honey bar

And they're so good. So let's throw this in the oven. And we'll let that bake and we'll move on over here

Now this is a dessert that I used to serve on the bag lady. And I'm going to start with a self-rising flour

A teaspoon of cinnamon. Two-thirds of a cup of oil. An eighth of a cup of honey

A little sugar. In fact, it's a half a cup of sugar

and one egg. And I'm gonna just give these a quick mix

and then I'm gonna pour in a half a cup of nuts

and we're gonna run this in the oven, bake it in a preheated 350-degree oven

for about 25 to 30 minutes. And I'm gonna give our pan a quick spray

Whoops! Was almost about to forget my nuts. I'm in such a hurry

So that's a half a cup of walnuts. I love walnuts in this

So we're just going to pour this in here. Pop that in the oven

So I want to show you how I finish them off. And these are completely cooled

This is the lemon bars. Now all I do to these is just dust them with powdered sugar

All right, and for my glazed honey bars, I gonna make a very thin glaze using a little powdered sugar and one of my favorite condiments in the whole world a tablespoon of mayonnaise and a tablespoon of milk

Teaspoon of vanilla. And I'm just going to give that a quick little mix

and just pour that. over our honey bars. These are out of this world

Well, what's you say we cut them? And I'm gonna cut these in fairly small little bite-sized

squares so that people will feel like they have room for both

You can see how they're kinda hard for me to cut. because of the chewiness of them

Oh, yeah. And they're just popping right out of my pan

because it's one of those nonstick-type pans. They're going to just love them

All right. And you can see the way these are cutting. They have a much softer texture to them

You can kind of see that lemon custard kind of oozing out of them

All right, let's see how those are going to do. Oh, yum

See that gooey center? I love the corners of a bar-type cookie

where they're really crispy and crunchy. I think I'm going to put maybe a little lemon wheel

Just on the plate. Some fresh mint and some grapes

Just a little bit of green for color. And how pretty do those look

I think maybe just a clump of grapes right there. Look how pretty that looks. Mmm

Oh my goodness. Maybe my cooking will make up for my goofiness

that embarrasses Jamie sometimes. Before I meet the parents, I'm gonna be showing y'all how to make

some beautiful chocolate strawberry topiary trees. So I'll see y'all in a minute

In the meantime, I'm gonna clean up. All right, I want to share with y'all

I'm in a big hurry because, you know, I've got to go meet those parents. But I want to show you something that we do for a party that we're wanting to really make a big impression on

And it's fresh strawberry trees. And for this one, I'm using chocolate-dipped strawberries just to create a little interest

I think you can see the chocolate is so pretty on them

So all we're going to do is start with a good hearty toothpick

and I'm just going to kind of flip that in at an angle and choose a strawberry of my liking

And you'll want to try to make sure that all of your strawberries are about the same size

It will just look a lot more uniform. So you may want to go somewhere where you can hand select your strawberries

For the top row, I think I'm going to go with a smaller berry

Alright, now I'm just going to come in here and fill in with cement

So I hope that when you have an occasion to impress somebody, you'll think back on this little tip that I've given you today

And I think you'll love it. Well, y'all, it's finally here. It's almost time to meet the parents

And I hadn't gone to a great deal of trouble, but I think the trouble that I went to will really impress them

and I think they'll appreciate it, and I think all this will get us in a very relaxed state

I've got the assorted tray of sandwiches, and the lemon squares, and the glazed honey bars

and the shrimp butter, whether they choose to eat it on a cracker or a vegetable

and the topiaries look beautiful, don't they, y'all? And if you're ever in a situation like me

where you gotta meet the bride's parents, I hope that you'll try some of these recipes

or even if you're just having friends over. So until next time, y'all, wish me luck

and I send y'all best dishes and love from my table to yours