Movie Magic

It's movie night at my house, y'all, and who better to watch it with than my favorite ice cream man and movie producer friend, Stratton Leopold

Stratton has kind of combined his two loves by adding a Hollywood theme to his ice cream parlor

And he's here to help me turn our dishes into superstars, like our turkey burger sliders

Then it's an ice cream Sunday pizza topped with one of Stratton's special flavors

And movies mean popcorn. So I make my Parmesan popcorn mix. Now, Paula

Yes? I got something to show you a little bit later. You do. I do. What is it

It's something I can't tell you. Stratton Leopold is a fixture here in Savannah

His family was in the ice cream business. He opened up about 90 or 91 years ago

You can go in there and you can find Stratton and his wife, Mary

quite often behind the counter dipping up ice cream. I'm going to make something that we can use your ice cream on

Oh, okay. How about an ice cream Sunday pizza? Well, listen. Okay

To get started, this is one of those simple, simple things stratton. If you would chop up those four one-ounce bars of unsweetened chocolate

And put that. Yes, chocolate. And put that one cup of butter in our double boiler

Okay. And just throw your chocolate in on top. And we're going to melt that all together

And while you're doing that, I'm going to mix up the dry ingredients for us

Okay. And tell me now, when Kari got married, you made a wonderful ice cream for her wedding

Yes, we did. We had a very special occasion, and that was my niece Kari, Bubba's daughter's wedding

For the reception, he made a special ice cream. You know, it just made for a very special night

Have you come up with any more? Oh, of course we have, Paula. In fact, we'll be talking about that a little bit later

Oh, we will? Yeah, we will. We will. I'm not going to tell you now. Two cups of sugar is going in my bowl, Stratton

I'm chopping away here. And then I'm going to add four eggs

And what was that flavor we had at Kari's wedding? It's called burnt sugar bourbon

Had bourbon, of course, it's Savannah. Yes. And it had burnt sugar

I mean, it was really a tasty flavor. Burnt sugar bourbon. Yeah, that's it

You gave us about three or four flavors to choose from. Yes

And I don't know why Kari and I chose that one, but we felt like it went along with something

Oh, I know what it was. the chocolate fried pies. That's right. Remember the ice cream

station was set up next to the pie. Yes. Yes, we thought that would be good

with that, so that's why we chose it. Is this okay to stir it? Yes, please

Just stir it around and as soon as it melts, we'll take it off

Okay. And we're going to be adding that to what I'm mixing up over here

Add a fourth of a teaspoon of salt to this. I'm going to add some vanilla to this too

Okay, and I'm going to add a cup and a half of flour. So I sure did appreciate your doing that that night

It made it, you know, just over the top memorable. It was a magical night

It really was. It was. This is doing really well. I'm going to cut your eye off, darling

And you just take that rag and just lift that off, and you'll want to use your rag maybe

and just pour that into this. Ready? And we've got our chocolate brownie

Ready? Yeah. What's your number one seller? Well, in any ice cream business..

Please don't say vanilla. That is number one at all. Is it really? That's because..

Chocolate's number two. Well, with us, chocolate chewies and cream, which you know a little bit about

that's the cookie. That. and in chocolate yes it's a big seller and in butter pecan I was talking about

you and I said you know Paul always corrects me that it's not butter pecan

there's butter pecan p-e-c-a-n not c-o-n right right butter pecan all right now if

you'd grab that pan right there is it hot no okay no and if you would spray it

it good with our nonstick we are just gonna pour this into our pizza pan spray it real good so it come out now Don want any sticking going on All right

There you go. And if you'll hold the bowl, because that glass bowl is heavy

I'll just scoop it in to our pan. And we're going to put it in the big oven. Okay

And we're going to bake this at 350 for about 35 to 45 minutes

Smells good. Doesn't it smell good? And we're just going to top it with all kind of good stuff

I think ice cream's in my future. I think maybe. Okay. Let's just drop it a couple of times

Get those air bubbles out and let it level out. There you go

Here, just a second. Kokomo, it's all yours. Wait a second. second. This will start again now. Perfect. Coming up next, Stratton and I chow down on some turkey

burger sliders. Isn't that yummy? And later, Stratton surprises me with something very special

This is fabulous! And then it's a pizza like you've never seen before

While our brownies are cooking, I thought I'd make us some basil turkey sliders

Okay. I've got my basil there. I only need about four tablespoons

I got four fat cloves of garlic. I'll need you to mince all that up. Okay

Reserve one teaspoon of the garlic, because I'm going to need it for our burgers, okay

Okay, and put the rest in here? Yes, and put the rest in here. Now we in business

I love garlic. I love garlic, too. You just got to make sure everybody has some

Yeah, exactly. All right, now I've got two pounds of ground turkey

and like I said, I'm going to need most of that garlic in it

But I'm going to need a teaspoon for our sauce. Okay. Because I'm going to make us a nice little roasted red pepper sauce

You actually have to stop me here. I don't have time to cut this. You're doing good, good, good, good

All right, our griddle's heating. I've got some nice tomatoes. And I've got us some little mini buns

That's pretty good. I'm going to just rinse these tomatoes off. Make sure they don't have any dust on them

You didn't know I was going to put you to work, did you? Well, it's fun work. This is pretty basal

Foot traffic's pretty good downtown. Foot traffic downtown is great. Oh, my gosh

It really is. It's so good. You know, we're getting a lot of tourists from Florida, getting a lot from up north from Ohio

And, you know, I was doing a movie in England. What movie

It was Wolfman, The Wolfman, with Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro

On weekends, I would go with Mary, we would go to bookstores

And we would purposely find books that mention Georgia and Savannah. Really

Yeah. And then in half of the ones, or maybe a little bit more, that mention Savannah

they mention our ice cream shop. You are kidding. No, I'm not. But to mention you, of course, as well, obviously

Do they? Oh, yeah. My goodness. Oh, my gosh. To see it in print. I have no idea

Wow. Would you unscrew that mayonnaise? That kind of meat is so lean

You gotta have a way to moisten it up a little bit. The oil in mayonnaise, you know, that gave it a little moisture

Otherwise, it could be really dry. You have been in the business for many years, hadn't you? Mm-hmm

And I bet you've seen quite a few changes over the years

All right, I think we can get one more. Now, get over there and wash your hands good

How long have you been at it? Oh, gosh, 30-something years now

Gosh, you have seen some changes. Yeah, yeah. Some people coming up

I had huge fun back in the day, back in the early days

It was great. So tell me some stories. Want to hear some stories? Yes

I'll tell you stories once we go outside because there's a big surprise outside for you

You've got a big surprise for me waiting outside. Outside. In this heat

In this heat. All right. I may need to turn this up because you're telling me I got a surprise outside

I am ready to get this going. So I'm going to leave you in charge right here, Stratton, and I'm going to step right here down from you

Well, I'm going to make this a sauce, and I'm going to make a sauce using the third cup of mayonnaise

teaspoon or two of Dijon and then I've got some roasted red pepper and then I

got that garlic in there and I add a little salt and pepper so is there anybody you can tell me a story about I know you can because I seen all those pictures hanging on the wall in Leopold

A movie I did, Mission Impossible 3, with Tom Cruise. There's a famous sequence in that movie

a very big action sequence. There's a bridge sequence. So I go on the set

There's Tom and JJ looking at me and smiling. They put a big Leopold's ice cream truck on the bridge

but you can't blow it up. They blew up everything else. Tom runs

When you look at it on DVD, you gotta go real fast because Tom runs very quickly

But it was a great moment that, ah, and both of them like Cheshire Cats

just smiling. So you wouldn't let them blow up the Leopold's ice cream truck

Oh, how funny. Tom's a very nice young man. He really is

He really is. Hard worker. Hard, hard worker. I had the pleasure of having a little bitty tiny role in Elizabethtown

And Tom was one of the producers. And I found Tom to be a delightful, kind, kind man

Well, I'm just going to start kind of getting the bread ready. I'm going to put us a dollop of that

I love this roasted red pepper sauce. And you can put anything you want to straten on it

I've just got some sliced tomatoes to go on it. You know what

These are beautiful little plum tomatoes. Look at that. I'm just going to do a little extra heat. Ooh

Doggies! What a nice treat for you and me. We have another treat coming, too

I can't wait. Perfect sliders. Perfect. All right, if you'll pull me a couple up, I'll fix your plate. Okay

Ooh, thank you, Stratton. I'm going to go ahead and... I'm going to join you

Mmm. Isn't that yummy? That's delicious. That sauce is great. Mmm. That's great

Isn't that bad? It's all good on him. Now, I know you love ice cream

I do. And I know the flavors you like. This is movie night

Right, right. I got a little something to show you. Coming up next, we head outside to check out Stratton's Surprise

No, you can't look at me. I've already seen it. I've seen it. Oh, God, I can't get it too early

I've seen it. And later, it's time we top off this ice cream pizza

Love the sweet and salty. And we throw together a popcorn smorgasbord

I love surprises. Okay, so now, it's Hollywood night, right? It's something that's about movies

Yes. About ice cream. You like surprises? Yes. Okay, we've got a surprise for you

I'm going to walk down this way with you. Can I look? No, you can't look

Oh, my God. I've already seen it. Seen it. Oh, God, it gets you too early. I've seen it

When you see Stratton, you're looking all around for the ice cream bucket

because you know he's usually going to come bearing gifts. But I had no idea

Get right there. I mean, he really set up a real ice cream stand

This is like my dream to have an ice cream stand in my backyard

Well, this is it. But this is a special one here. We call it movie

Movie. It's curvy. And what it has in it. Butter. Is that butter

It's butter, caramel, and popcorn. Get out. Mary and I often make flavors together

We have fun creating. Think, what if? Let's do this. Let's do that

I think this is it. And then we all get around and try it and sample it

I think Paul's going to like this a lot. I think so. But it's just great fun to do that

It keeps the creative juices flowing. Doesn't need nothing but my lips, honey

Oh. The ice cream was over the moon. You could taste the butter

And I love sweet and salty. And the popcorn and the peanuts in that sweet cream was so good

There was a boat went by with a couple of guys in it, and I hollered at them

Guys! Hey! Y'all want some ice cream? I'm thinking about opening an ice cream parlor here on the river

And I got down, and I didn't recognize this young man. Robbie

I said, oh, my goodness, I didn't recognize you in just your swim trunks

He's one of Anthony, mine and Michael's son's best friends. Mmm, that's very good

You know, there it goes. Everybody knows everybody out here. If the ice cream was out of this world Let top it with Yes All right I tell you what if you take the ice cream scoop and let me have this Okay Because as I just said ice cream waits for no man

That's it. It does melt. So we've kind of got to hurry to finish up this Sunday ice cream pizza

You know what? I'm going to have to go straight to my hands. There you go. All right

I love ice cream pies, but you definitely got to kind of move quickly

Mm-hmm. All right. Look at that piece of popcorn. There we go

With butter all over it. Yum. All right. So we've got to work quickly now, Stratton

I'm going to rinse real quick. And now we can put anything we want to

Put it down here. Sit it right there. Let's put some nuts to go with that popcorn

Okay. We've got some topping here, too. Yes. What do you think? Caramel

I'd say a little bit of everything. Okay. That sounds good. We'll do some pretzels

Love the sweet and salty. A little toasted coconut. A little chocolate here

Yes. Mmm. It's a fine ice cream sundae, honey. It's going to be nice

Yes, some peanuts. Some more salty for the sweet. A little color, a little strawberry

A little color. Cherry. I got some maraschino. Here, some raspberries. Yes

A few more peanuts. A few more coconuts. Coconuts. A little more pretzel

A little pretzels. I'm eating more. Into the freezer and some candied nuts

That looks great. Doesn't that look yummy? Coming up next, these delectable desserts are good. Good

We can't have a movie night stratton without popcorn. Now, I know we've got it in our ice cream, but we've got to have it like in a bowl with the butter and my Parmesan mix

All right, we've got our popcorn popped. Okay. Pour it in there. The whole thing

Yes. Yes, whole thing. I'm going to move this down a little bit

If you would start grating that Parmesan cheese. Well, look at you doing it like that

I suppose. You know, that's funny. I wouldn't have thought about doing it that way

And so I showed him the way I would have done it. He said, well, I'm gonna do it my way

I said, well, do it. Now, I'm gonna pour this melted butter on top of our cone

I'm gonna put just a little bit of salt. Not a whole bunch. Now, I'm gonna toss it

With you being the Hollywood producer, I'm just gonna rely strictly on you

as to what movie we're gonna watch. Okay. When we get to a certain scene, you can say

You broke my damn thing. That's why you don't do it that way, Stratton

Here. Now you got to do it by hand, big boy. All right, now I'm going to put some little cheese crackers in

Stratton, why don't you grab the pizza out of the freezer? Got to cut through that brownie

Okay. Maybe we should get spoons and eat it out of here. Look at that pea on that plate

That means pretty for you. It means pretty Paula. Thank you. Listen, you and I are used to climbing hills, aren't we

Yeah, we sure are. Okay. We're going to have this all over us, Stratton

That's happened before, Paula. Dig in. The last one gets a rotten egg

Mmm. Mmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm. That's good. What kind of ice cream did we put on top of our pizza

I can't remember. The movie? Movie night. Movie night. Mmm. Mmm. That's good

Don't you like that? It's kind of like a banana split almost

Without bananas. Without bananas. Mmm. Taste our popcorn. Mmm. I'm eating ice cream

Look, Stratton, at the Parmesan cheese. Paula's recipe for the popcorn was lovely

The cheese just made it savory. It was great. Isn't that yummy

All right, Stratton, don't be leaving that time where you're going to need it. It sort of matches a little bit, too

Because I don't want to find any butter on my sofa. No, on my pants

Or only. It's only on your pants. I know it's on my pants. Only on your pants