Paula to the Rescue

Hey, y'all

Today on Paula's Party, it's Paula to the rescue. Get it, girl

Grab cakes without the expensive crab meat. OK. Boring leftovers. Doesn't that look yummy

Turned into a fabulous meal. Spin, spin, spin. A high-speed challenge that lets me have my cake and eat it, too

So y'all gather in, get comfortable, sit down, and join our party

Oh, my goodness. I recognize you

Look at this hair. Oh, yes. My brother would rather be doing this, but I'll do it instead

It's great to have y'all here today. Hey, handsome. How are you

Woo, that's hard. I like that. So y'all know what we're going to do today

What? I bet everybody here has had some kind of kitchen disaster

Well, you know what? Old Paula's going to show you how to fix that

Don't panic. Just turn to your pantry. There's not a disaster that we can't fix

And that's what we're going to do today. Who's ready to party

Let me tell y'all something. You know, I may be a cook and I may have my own show

but believe it or not, I do have kitchen disasters. I'll never forget one day we were knee-deep in catering jobs

down at the Lady and Sons. And then Gina the baker comes to me and says

Paula, we don't have any desserts for the restaurant for our customers here

I said, throw some blonde brownies in the oven. Quick. Well, she did, but then she forgot about them

And they burned. Well, lo and behold, out of that disaster came one of the most requested desserts

that we ever served at the Lady and Sons. I grabbed those blonde brownies

I took them out of that pan, I trimmed every bit of the burn off of them

and made a fabulous chocolate trifle. Oh, no! They burned them! Look, I hear these things are burned good, but that's not a bit of problem

I'm just going to shave every bit of that burned off, just like that

Paula, what exactly is a blonde brownie? A blonde brownie doesn't have any cocoa in it

But it's got brown sugar, so it gives you a lighter brownie

I'm going to show you quickly how we do this. We're just going to take our brownies and crumble them up just like this

And you don't have to be particular with it. And guess what

You get to eat it, girl! You get to tell me how you like it

All right, so I'm going to do about half of that. And then I'm just going to sprinkle that cake with some sherry

All right, now I've made just a regular chocolate instant pudding because I had this in the restaurant

I knew what I had in my pantry, and I knew I could fix it

All right, so I'm putting the second layer on now. I started out 17 years ago with a business called the Bag Lady

Well, you know, in my mind, in my heart, I will always be that poor, broke bag lady

I can't, I just can't shake that. So it just kills me to throw anything away

So every time I go to clear a bowl or think I need to put something in the trash

I'm working on a way to recycle that baby. So look how simple that was

Everybody has instant chocolate pudding in your pantry, don't you? Everybody does

Everybody usually has heavy whipping cream on hand, don't they? You don't

You don't use heavy cream in your coffee? No? Well, let's pretend that you do

All right. I've got some heavy cream here. In your life, you know, not being able to throw away anything in the pantry when you're cooking

does that roll over into the other parts of your home? Are you a pack rat

Yes, honey. I am a pack rat. In fact, you can't hardly move in my closet

because I just know that one day I'm going to be a size 8 again

I'm almost there. You just add a 1 and I'm there. All right, look at this

Isn't this beautiful? I'm going to add just a little mint. Who would ever have guessed that this was a ruined burnt brownie

And that burned brownie turned in to one of the most requested favorite desserts that we serve at the Lady and Sons

Okay. Y'all want to try it? Bring it on, girls. Bring it on

Bring it on. Let me check it out. Oh, it looks delicious

And look at here. While y'all are tasting y'alls, I got me a spoon to taste mine

Isn't it yummy? You have it. You have it. That is very good

I love it. So when we come back, y'all... More common kitchen disasters

What are you doing over there, Laura? Solving kitchen disasters Thank you, thank you, thank you

Today is all about rescues. It's going to be Paula to the rescue

This pretty lady right here brought with her a photo of a terrible disaster, Laura

Come on up here, girl. Next. What happened? Well, it was the first Easter that my husband and I were married

so I thought I'd make a really special dessert, and we had two puppies we'd nickname Buttermallow and Fudge Cake

so I'll make a Buttermallow Fudge Cake. Well, the cake part turned out just great

but the frosting was a disaster. When we sat down to eat it, that frosting had oozed all over

It was flowing off the cake plate, heading for the tablecloth like a giant white volcano

You had to chase your ice. I did. It was like the blob. It was like scooping up the blob

And you can see I put two little chocolate Easter bunnies on top and they're just browning

Are they standing or are they laying? They kind of fell over. It almost looks like they're in bed with the sheets pulled up

Well, you know what? I'm going to show you how you could have fixed that icing

Thank you. Made it pretty and still very, very good. Excellent. So look at this

Think you can fix that runny icing? You know, the main thing, let's go, I'm going to take you to your kitchen

How about that? That's great. Oh, and you got some more runny icing

You've got salt, black pepper, and house seasoning. Don't use any of those

I was starting to panic. Those are not yours. Okay. Okay? This is yours

All right. It's confectionate sugar. Okay. So what I want you to do is just simply give this some more body by adding powdered sugar

Okay. How much do I know to add? Just keep adding until I got a good consistency

Well, you're supposed to know that. Until I get the consistency I want

Yeah, so it'll stay on the cake. Okay. You know I have a problem with that

Fix that icing, baby. Because I'm going to go over here and I'm going to be working on another disaster

How many of y'all out there have overcooked a vegetable? Every one of you, hadn't you

Well, I've got a plate full of overcooked broccoli. How am I going to fix it

I'm going to turn that steamed broccoli into cream of broccoli soup

and my family will get their vegetables, and I will get every penny's worth that I paid for that broccoli

And to get our broccoli soup, I'm going to add some chicken broth

which is going to give it a wonderful flavor, and I'm going to add about a half a cup of heavy cream

What are you doing over there, Laura? I'm making the world's sweetest frosting

What are you doing? Well, I added the sugar. You told me to add the sugar, and I'm adding the sugar

Isn't it looking good? Yeah, I believe that's about perfect. Yay! All right

Even though it's not even resembling the color that we wanted. But here, let's do this

No, no, no. Yes, yes, yes. You can fix that, girl. You're just tired of stirring

All right, now see, now we're getting back to our color a little bit

Okay. All right, now just a little bit more sugar in you there

Okay. You're close. Okay. All right, does everybody have one of these in their kitchen

Yes. These are handy little pieces of equipment. Now I'm just going to go down in there and blend up our vegetables

If you don't have an immersion blender, but you've got a regular blender

you could just blend your broccoli in the blender first, and then you wouldn't have to go through all this

It would already be done for you. But just that quickly, I've turned that into soup

And I'm going to add a little salt, a little pepper, and let's see what we've got

All right, it's looking pretty good. That takes care of that. Laura, you are doing wonderful, aren't you

I am doing fabulous. Ooh. You want to taste my soup? I sure do

I want you to. I want to see your icing. I'm so proud. Look how beautiful

Yeah, and see the way it hung on to your... Uh-huh. Whisk, that'll hang on to your cake

That's not going to make a white volcano, is it? No. All right, here, let's taste the soup

Congratulations, Laura. I knew you could do it. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you

Oh, yum. Isn't that delicious? That is so fabulous. When we come back, more Paula to the rescue

So we'll see y'all back in a few minutes. Don't y'all go anywhere. Yum

Now get your meat and beat it. The whole thing. Leftovers made new again

Well, welcome back, y'all. I was just out here talking to Marla

She had emailed us a question. Exactly. So, you want to come up here with me

I'd be happy to. Come on up here. And we'll talk about your problem

I want you to tell everybody the email that you sent me

My husband and I love roast, and we fix one every couple of weeks

The great thing about it is that it makes lots of leftovers

but that's also the problem. It's lots of leftovers. Lots of leftovers

So they can get a little boring sometimes. Well, I love leftovers. So I want to share with you a recipe that we make at the restaurant

When we have leftover pot roast, and we love to turn that into a shepherd's pie

we're going to cut the pot roast. Okay. Now I want you to take this out

and we'll leave as much of that gravy in there as we can

Now, we want to just cut our pot roast up into chunks, okay

And you can do that by like going down the center of that and then just cube it up Where would you like my tea All right Marla you can keep your tea over there in your kitchen okay Okay so I washing my hands And give your hands a wash

And then you take this over there. Here's your rag. Now get your meat and beat it

The whole thing. That was my evil twin sister that said that

All right. Cut your meat up. All right. All right. Now, over here, I'm going to start with a little melted butter with some onion

How are you coming, Marla? I'm doing well. All right. All right

Our onions are sauteing nicely. Now I'm going to take our potatoes

and I'm going to put them in the bottom of my casserole dish, put a nice, generous layer

Paula. Yes, darling? That new daughter-in-law of yours, have you been giving her some tips in the kitchen

You know what? Have you seen what she looks like, honey? She ain't got to cook

My goodness, Jamie Dean is breaking his legs. getting in the kitchen cooking for that girl

All right, Marla, how you coming, honey? We're getting it down to the fine cubes

Okey-doke. Well, throw it. Throw it in the gravy. Okay. I've got the onions ready

All right. I'm going to layer my corn onto my potatoes. All right, Marla, how we coming, baby

It's in the pan. Good. Well, let's come get it. Come on

Now, I'm going to put this in the pan because I want to heat it up

It smells good. So it won't have to start from scratch. Doesn't that smell wonderful

All right, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to take our meat and our gravy

and we're just going to ladle that on top of that corn and potatoes

That gravy's just rolling down in there. Yes, we want that. That's exactly right

We want that gravy to just get all over those taters. Now what are we going to make our crust out of

What are you going to do? More mashed potatoes? No. You know what we're going to frost it with

What are we going to frost it with? I package those wonderful cheese biscuits

Oh, those are so good. Those are good. So I always, always have a bag of biscuit mix on hand

So we're going to take two cups of a biscuit mix, and I'm going to take a cup and a half of milk

Okay. Just regular milk, and we're going to mix that together. You want to do that for me

I'd be happy to. Now, that's way too thin for a biscuit, isn't it

Yes, it is. But we want it that way. We don't want it as tight as a biscuit because we want to be able to pour this over our meat and vegetables

So you see how quickly we got that together? Yes, okay. Now we're just going to take this and we're going to pour it

Ooh-wee. That looks good. Doesn't that look yummy? Now is that going to rise

Oh, yes, baby. It's going to rise. Now I'm going to pour just a little butter

There's the butter. I love butter. I do, too. All right, we're going to put this in our oven

a preheated oven at 350 degrees. Okay. And you'll be able to look at it and tell when it's ready

because that biscuit crusty top is going to be a light golden brown

Okay. And you'll know that it's ready. So let's get that in the oven. You know how I always like to be prepared, Marla

Yes. Well, guess what? All right. Mmm. Yum. Who would like to come up and taste

All right, girls, y'all come on up. Now, Marla. Ma'am. Come on, you're the hostess

Okay. Get them some plates. There's our plates. Get them spoons, and y'all dig in

And when we come back, crab cakes on a budget. Eat up, girls

Well, you would love to serve your friends crab cakes, wouldn't you? I would. But you don't have any money

That's true. Spend it all on beer and stuff. A little later on, y'all

What do you want, Regina? You want some of this four-minute cake

Thank you, thank you. Today is all about rescues. It's going to be Paula to the rescue

We got e-mail the other day from somebody that needs some advice from me

Elizabeth, come up here. Y'all meet Elizabeth. Hi. You contacted me, didn't you

I did. Well, I am in law school. Uh-huh. And it ain't cheap

That ain't cheap. So when I want to impress people, I have to cook something good

but I don't have, you know, tons of money. Yes, yes. Well, good luck to you, darling

Thank you. And you know what? I think I can help you and rescue you

I thought you might. From lack of money. Great. And you know how I'm going to do that

Tell me. You know crab meat is very expensive. It is. Lump crab meat, my gracious Elizabeth, what is it

$14, $16 a pound. In Atlanta, it's something like that. Is it

Well, you would love to serve your friends crab cakes, wouldn't you

I would. But you don't have any money. That's true. Spend it all on beer and stuff

At least you're truthful. And you know what? It's very, very important that you set your priorities

And that beer is very important for it to be a fun party, right

I'm going to help you out here, Elizabeth. since we can't afford to go to the seafood market

and buy that expensive crab. We're going to go to my pantry

and we're going to pull out a can of tuna fish. Believe it or not, we're going to fix these

and your study group is going to think they're having crab cakes. Good

You want to help me make it? I want to. Okay, well, you get over here. I'll get over here

I have a half a cup of regular breadcrumbs. These are not seasoned

Okay. I have one egg that I've beaten. I have a fourth of a cup of mayonnaise

And I have a few tablespoons of green onions that have been chopped fairly fine

So I got all this set up and ready for these foe cakes Okay And over there in your kitchen I got you the same thing set up It bigger than my real kitchen

Come on! All right, I think that you have everything that you're going to need

You've got your tuna, your breadcrumbs, your eggs, your mayonnaise, your pepper, your green onions

And you've got house seasoning, black pepper and salt. So hit it girl

Great, thanks. If you need me, holler, okay? All right, now I'm going to add a little oil to my pan

and I'm going to let that start warming up for me. Now over here, I'm going to take my breadcrumbs

I'm going to take my mayonnaise. I'm going to take my egg, and I'm going to take my green onion

And I'm going to just mix this together. And then I'm going to take my tuna and I'm going to fold it into this

Now, the reason I didn't mix everything all together is because I don't want to work this a whole lot

I want those chunks to stay pretty whole. So they'll think that they're getting lump crab meat

I'm just going to fold this and work it gently in together. All right, now I'm going to take just a little lemon juice and squirt in mine

You can do whatever you want to, Elizabeth, but I'm going to add just a little bit

And then I'm going to sprinkle mine with a little house seasoning. How are you doing, Elizabeth

I'm all right, except I put the tuna in first. Well, you know, that's all right

You put the crab in first. Okay. Right? Of course. Just come over here with me

Better. Come on over here with me and start making these patties

How about that? That's easy. Yeah. Bigger? Well, you can make them any size you want

I kind of like this size. I gotcha. And you see I got my pan warm

Perfect. Perfect. So where are you going to go after you graduate from law school

Wherever they hire me. Did you go to college, Paula? Well, I rode by one one day

But I didn't actually go in the doors. Can you tell? No, but that counts

I think that should count. All right, I got to wash my hands, Elizabeth

I got our skillet pretty full. All right, now, let's look over here at our faux crabs

Oh, look, Elizabeth. Looks good. John, that looked delicious. Think that would impress people back home

Oh, shoot, yeah. I think so, too. They would have no idea that you just spent all of $1.99 on them

How long do you have before you graduate? Paula, in two years, I can do anything legal that you need done

I can help you with anything you need in two years. Oh, Elizabeth, that's wonderful

And it hasn't been easy, has it? No, it's not. But you know what

Anything worth having is not going to be easy. You know, the hardest thing I've ever done was 17 years ago when I started the Bag Lady

It was so hard. Only had $200 to start with. And, honey, I couldn't even afford a hairnet

Do y'all know what I put on my head to keep the hair from getting in the food

What? My underwear. My clean underwear. So I can appreciate what you're telling me

But you know what? This, too, shall pass. All right. Now, I would like to serve these, Elizabeth, with a nice tartar sauce. Yeah

Of course. A tartar sauce more so than a cocktail sauce. But look-a here

It looks so good. Now, with a little rice and a can of spiced up black beans

do you ever keep black beans in your pantry? Got some right now

Do you? Well, you can take those up, chop some jalapeno in them

a little bit of ham or butter, something to flavor them up

cook you some white rice and pour those black beans on top of that rice

and then top them with these faux crab cakes and you will be a hit

You ready to taste? I am. Well, reach down there and get you a fork

Thank you. Taste that, girl. It's a little bite. Oh, take a regular bite

It's so good. It's crispy. Great! Oh, here. You have it, girl

You need it more than me. When we come back, y'all, it's more Paula's party

So I'll see y'all back in a minute. When we come back, y'all

Well, our door is open to Paula Deans. I'm going to be going door to door

Thank y'all. You're most kind. Welcome back

As y'all know here in the audience, today's show is all about cooking disasters

How many of y'all can go to your refrigerator right now and find a bunch of leftover food

that more than likely is going to be thrown out when it starts growing hair

I'm going to show you how you can take those leftovers and turn them into a whole new meal

that your family is not going to recognize that they've eaten just the day before

In fact, to prove it to y'all, I'm going to go knock on the door

take their leftovers, and make them a fabulous meal. So y'all come with me

Hey, y'all. I'm over here in Habersham Woods in the south part of Savannah

Today, I'm traveling with Paula's Portable Pantry. And I'm here to prove a point that if you've got the right few select things in your pantry

if you keep your pantry stocked with these things, you can throw together a meal just like that

Let's see which house I want to go to. Ooh, I think that yellow house looks good, y'all

Ding dong. Hey! Hey, girls! Hi

I'm Paula. Hi, I'm Abigail. Hi, I'm Annie. Annie. Annie and Abigail

Am I seeing double? Yes, ma'am. We're twins. You're twins? Hi, I'm Jan

I'm looking for a house that'll let me in. Well, our door is open to Polly V

Is this the fridge? Is this it? Come around here and help me

Ooh, look. Look, y'all didn't eat much of that chicken. Let's pull out that chicken

Let's see what else. What's she finding, y'all? Some cheese. I don't think you want what's in there

That might be a little old. Coleslaw. Oh, what is that, wild rice

Yeah, we got some wild rice. Let's use that. What's this? Apple cider

Oh, it looks good. I might want a glass of apple cider

How about an onion? Plenty of onions. Ooh, light. No, we don't want that

No. I feel a casserole coming together. No, we like casseroles. A cream of celery

I think we'll go for that one. Green beans and water chestnuts

Pimentas. That'll be beautiful for color. I think that's all we're going to need

All right, Mama's going to cut our onion for us, and we're going to get our vegetables open

What is your favorite thing to cook? Um, I like cooking brownies

Oh, yum. And what do you like, Abigail? Um, yeah, I'll have to say I like brownies, too

You like to make brownies, too? But I love my sisters. They're better than mine. Why

Jane. Yes, ma'am? How about heating us up a skillet, please? We're going to saute off those onions

What we're going to do, girls, is pick this chicken, and we're gonna dice it

I'm gonna give you some chicken and you just cut that up

How's it going over there, Jan? We're all melted. Throw your onions in now, Jan

Isn't that yummy? Alright. How about a measuring cup, girls? We're gonna need to measure out

three cups of chicken. You show me where three cups is. Right there

Alright, Jan? Yes, ma'am. You can bring that on over here, honey

Yeah. Ooh, that looks good. Now, Abigail, I need for you to get

the casserole dish for me. Thank you, darling, y'all are so sweet

I wish y'all could go home with me. Oh, they can. They can

No, they really can't. No they really can I sorry So into the casserole this goes All we gonna have to do is just cook this until it hot and bubbly We going to put it in a 350 oven

and we're going to bake it probably for about 20 or 25 minutes

I bet I could start a fight with my hands. You know it

What are you laughing about? You got to get your sister. Don't get me far

There, that'll go. Yay, I got a fight going, y'all. Are you tasting

I'm tasting. Girls, mama's. Girls, mama's not going to want me to come back

That looks so delicious. Doesn't that look yummy? Good

Is it good? Mm-hmm. You did good. Y'all are good cookers. Thank you

All right, so what kind of toast? What can we toast to, Jan

Leftovers. Okay. Paula's pantry. Okay. And how about the two cooks of the future

Sounds good to me. Hear, hear. Hear. So how'd y'all like that

It was great, wasn't it? I proved my point. I had fun

And I produced a whole new look to a meal. And in a few minutes, more Paula's Party

A half a cup of shortening. Who's got the sugar? Come here with the sugar

Dump, dump, dump. You're supposed to slowly add that, but who cares

This race takes the cake. Welcome back

You know, I'm going to miss y'all. When y'all leave here, I'm going to expect Michael to clap now for me every time I walk in the room

And I can tell you he's not going to do that. Y'all are going to be sorely missed

Guess what we're fixing to make, y'all? What? We are fixing to make my mama's pound cake

Now, you think a pound cake, you can't do that quickly. Well, you know what

I'm going to prove it. I'm going to make this pound cake in 4 minutes

Four minutes? Four minutes, baby. Who's got a stopwatch? Or a second hand

All right now y I got two sticks of butter that been cut up here in my bowl Now here the kicker y I got all the ingredients to put this cake together hidden in the audience So when I call out

for an ingredient, you have to run and run like the wind, because you don't want me to

look like a fool, do you? No! So y'all run quickly, and if it's dumpable, dump it. Oh

except for the flour and the milk. All right, so you ready to give me my count

I'm ready. Are you ready? Let's go. Three, two, one, go. All right

Shortening. Who's got the shortening? All right, I got two sticks of butter

a half a cup of shortening. Who's got the sugar? Come here with the sugar

Dump, dump, dump. You're supposed to slowly add that, but who cares

I got a time clock to beat. All right, who's got the eggs

Come on, I need eggs. All right, baby girl. One at, whoa, whoa, one at a time

One egg at a time. There we go. Yeah, one egg at a time. There you go

You're doing perfect. One more egg. One more egg. One more egg

Now get out of here. Hurry. I got a cake to make, baby girl

All right, who's got the flour? Who's got the milk? Who's got the bacon powder

Oh, Hansome's got it. Three more minutes, Paula. Huh? Three more minutes. Three more minutes

Okay. We've got to sift this real quick, girl. All right. Hansome, throw that into the flour

Okay. All right. Sift, sift, sift. Do y'all know I was on Regis Philburn the other day

Did y'all see that? I was making a cake with him, and I told him I heard he sucked in the kitchen

He threw raw eggs on me. Get your spoon. We're going to add flour and milk alternately

We're going to start with flour, and we're going to end with flour. So, baby, you make sure there's some flour left

when she gets... Okay, go. Whoa! Alternately. Two minutes. Alternately. Whoa, whoa, whoa

Two minutes. Okay. I'm getting this on my jacket. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha

Whoa. No, you're good. Pour, baby, pour. All right, pour, pour, pour

All right, spatula, spatula. You're at two minutes and 30 seconds. How much

You've got a minute and a half left. We can take a nap in a minute. I didn realize how good we were All right now who got the vanilla flavoring Come on up here baby Give it your best shot

One more minute. Oh! All right, let's taste it

Isn't that delicious? Let me just give it a quick stir. All right, now this has got a little flour on it

but y'all know what? I love it. 30 seconds. Woo, we got it, we got it

All right, baby, spin. Spin, spin, spin! Whoa! Don't spin it too fast, you done spun me out

All right, now I got to save baby girl over here. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

I've just proven, y'all have just proven that we can do anything if we got the right stuff in our pantry, right

All right, girls. Y'all ready for a piece? Yeah, we are. What you want, Regina

You want some of this four-minute cake? Well, you are a wonderful timekeeper

You going to feed it to me? No, honey, you're going to have to feed yourself. All right, now let's get our strawberry

and I'm just going to slice our strawberry. Just put a few slices

That's how you do it. Yes, and just fan him out. And do we have any mint

No, but we got some bushes. Oh, it's pretty. And we got a little powdered sugar

All right, girls, y'all eat up. I can't believe it that our time is up already. Aw

It's been a great party, though, hadn't it? Yeah. We've taken a little time out of the day to get together and enjoy good food and good fellowship

I hope every day of your life, every day that you walk in the kitchen, turns into a party for you

I love y'all, and I'll see y'all next time