Reunion Family Picnic

Hey, y'all

I hope y'all are doing well today. Things are going great here in Paula's kitchen

I'm getting ready, y'all, for a family gathering. I'm going to be making succulent baby back ribs

with the ladies' barbecue sauce. Delicious grilled chicken pitas will be perfect

with my cool and creamy red potato salad. And what's better, y'all, than a luscious red velvet cupcake

topped with cream cheese frosting. So gather your family. It's time to get eaten, y'all

Why don't we go ahead and start making our barbecue sauce and move this meal along

The barbecue recipe that I'm going to share with you today is called the ladies' barbecue sauce

This is a recipe in my cookbook, the Lady and Son's Savannah Country Cookbook

And this was given to me by a friend from my hometown of Albany, Georgia

Now, I'm going to start with a half a cup of olive oil. I'm going to add a quarter of a cup of fresh lemon juice

I'm going to add a half a cup of apple cider vinegar

I've got three-fourths a cup of water. And I'm going to use one kind of medium-sized onion

and I had that going, but let me finish that up. And by the time we finish

we'll probably have three-quarters of a cup of onion, something like that

So in goes our onion. We like our barbecue sauce a little sweet down here

So to give it that sweetness, I'm going to add three tablespoons of light brown sugar

You know, there is more recipes for barbecue sauce than there is ways to skin a cat, as

we say. Down here in Georgia. All right, a teaspoon of salt

I'm gonna put in three tablespoons of just a yellow prepared mustard

I'm going to throw in three quarters of a cup of ketchup. A couple of tablespoons of paprika

That'll help enhance the color. And a pinch of garlic powder. Now, not garlic salt, but garlic powder

So that's a little bit stronger than the salt. It's just the straight garlic

And then I'm going to add about three tablespoons. Worcestershire sauce. There we go. I'm just gonna make sure all these

ingredients are incorporated together and that looks pretty good. All right now

the only thing this needs now which really makes for a good barbecue sauce

is lots of black pepper. That's the secret to me to a good barbecue sauce. So

There we go. So I don't think there's another thing that this needs

And I'm gonna let that just simmer and let those flavors marry

while we start making our potato salad. Now, I've used red potatoes that I've cubed

and I've cooked them in salted water, and I've cooked them after they came to a boil

for about 12 minutes. Okay, and those look nice and ready. So I'm gonna put this pot over here in my sink

and drain those into my colander. There we go

And let's give our potatoes a shake. Put them back on my pot

Now, come on over here and let's make up our dressing for our potato salad

I'm going to use two tablespoons of Dijon mustard, two tablespoons of mayonnaise

a half a cup of extra virgin olive oil. Now I'm just going to whisk these ingredients together

Now I'm going to add a third of a cup of red wine vinegar

Now I'm gonna add about one and a half teaspoons of salt

That's one and about a half. A little black pepper. So that looks nice, doesn't it

Let's give it a taste and... Oh, that's good. All right into my bowl I gonna add a half a cup of red onion that been minced pretty fine I gonna add one green bell pepper and then I gonna add a fourth of a cup of spring onion or green onion tops

that have been sliced real thin. So now all I have to do is just pour this over our potatoes

Toss them together. This looks really, really good. It's going to be a nice little change

All right, let's go tuck this in the refrigerator and give those flavors a chance to marinate together into our potatoes

There we go. All right, let's move on and get our ribs to go in

All I'm gonna do is just sprinkle them with a little salt and a little pepper

And I'm gonna pour this sauce over them, and I'm gonna put them in a 350-degree oven

And I'm gonna let them slow cook for a couple of hours

And that meat is just gonna, like, fall off the bone. And we're well on our way to a wonderful menu for our family gathering today

I hope y'all will stick around. I'd love to have you be a part of the family today because I can promise you our meal is

going to be lip-smacking good. So I'll see y'all back in a few minutes

Coming up, Bobby and I are going to be making grilled chicken pitas

and later, red velvet cupcakes. Hey, y'all, welcome back

You know, I told you earlier, I'm getting ready for a family feast today

and my family, when they hit the door, they come in just starving, slap slum to death

They want to start eating the second they come in the door. So I thought, well, what if I do some, like, little grilled chicken pitas

something that they can just pick up and scoff down as soon as they get here

So over here, I've got three nice chicken breasts that I'm going to marinate in a lemony garlic sauce

So I'm going to use about three tablespoons of lemon juice, and I'm just going to let the seeds and everything go in there

That'll be just fine. All right. Did I hear ribs? Hey, son

Hey, mama, what's happening? You're early. How you doing? I am early. What's going on

I'm great. How are you, baby? I'm great. I'm just in time to help you. You know what

You're the first one here, so you know what that means. All right. Can I help you

Absolutely, you can help me, because right here I'm mixing up a little marinade

and three tablespoons of lemon juice, one teaspoon of garlic, three tablespoons of soy sauce

I've got the ribs in the oven, Bobby. And if you would take those out

I've got the little grill over there. They're not ready, are they? All we've got to do is just grill them

So if you just take those out and sit them right there. And I've already got some barbecue sauce

some extra barbecue sauce over there. So don't they smell good? They do. They smell wonderful

Oh, yeah. So what I want to do is just kind of dry the outside off a little bit

Okay. And we're going to do that by just sticking them on that griddle

Okay. And I've got some extra barbecue sauce over here. Just baste them a little bit

Yeah, just baste them and kind of dry them out. I got it. I'm going to come back over here and finish up my chicken

Now, I'm going to just kind of break down my chicken so that marinade can get in there

and permeate all that meat and just go all the way through it

So I'm just going to stick my chicken breast in here. We're just going to let this sit on the counter

for about 30 minutes. All right, let me give my hands a quick wash

Oh, gosh, Bobby, they smell so good. All right, so come on over here, and I want to share with y'all a tomato feta sauce that I'm going to mix up to drizzle over into our pita and over that chicken

Now, I've got a quarter of a pound of feta cheese that I've crumbled

I've got two Roma tomatoes. you know, aroma tomato is the one that's kind of oblong and you can usually count on them

to have a good bit of flavor year round. So I've got two that I've diced up and I'm gonna

give it a little squirt of lemon juice I gonna put about two teaspoons of lemon juice in our feta That looks like about two teaspoons Now I gonna carry my oregano on through into my sauce

and I'm gonna add a teaspoon of oregano, and I'm gonna toss these ingredients in a little olive oil

and I'm probably gonna use about a fourth of a cup. There we go

Just gonna stir that up all together. And let that just sit there

All right. We're gonna take our chicken breasts now and bring them over here to our grill

I've had our grill warming. So I'm just gonna put these on our grill

I'm gonna let these cook for about 8 to 10 minutes. So you still coming all right, son

Yes, ma'am. I'm perfect. Oh, good. All right, let me give my hands a quick wash

So this is, uh, the rest of the family's on the way then? They're coming? Yeah, everybody will be here shortly

And when we come back, I'm gonna throw us a little pita on the grill

heat these up just for a couple of minutes, And then put our pitas together

All right. Sounds good, doesn't it? Sounds great. It smells even better

Y'all don't go anywhere. We're having a good time. Thank goodness Bobby got here early to give me a hand

I swear, sometimes I think I'd like to come back as an octopus

You know, have like eight hands. Thank goodness you got... Uh-huh, just give me a bunch of hands

So y'all don't go anywhere. We'll see you back in a minute. Coming up, it's my cousin Johnny's red velvet cupcakes

Hey, y'all, welcome back. Bobby and I have been busy as beavers while y'all were gone

I've gotten my chicken breast done. Oh, thank you, son. Oh, gosh, Bobby

Don't they look great? They look out of this world. They're gonna be fantastic

And they smell so good. All right, now, Bobby, what I'm doing, son

is I'm taking the chicken breast off, and I'm going to slice this up for you

Okay. And if you would put together some pita pockets. You got it

This reminds me of the old days. What, the bag lady days? Yeah, exactly

Oh, my gosh, how many pitas did we stuff? Tons. And I just grill that pita off, Bobby

you know, for a couple of minutes. All right, now, while you're doing that

I'm gonna step down here and I'm gonna make one of the most fabulous cupcakes you've ever put in your mouth

And this is our cousin Bobby, Johnny Gabriel, who has a bakery in Atlanta called Gabriel's Bakery

And these cupcakes literally melt in your mouth. Red Velvet Cake is a southern spice cake with a cream cheese frosting

I've got two and a half cups of all-purpose flour which have been sifted

And to my flour, I'm gonna add one and a half cups of sugar

So half a cup, plus another cup. One teaspoon of salt

one teaspoon of bacon soda, one teaspoon of cocoa

Just gonna take a spatula and kinda stir that up all together

So that gets our dry ingredients. All right, come on over here, and in this bowl

I'm going to mix together one and a half cups of oil

This is what makes those cupcakes so stinking good. Using that much oil is going to ensure that we have a fabulously moist cupcake

All right, one cup of buttermilk, two eggs. How are you coming with your pitas, Bobby

They're beautiful. They look delicious. All right, now I'm gonna add two tablespoons

of red food coloring. So these are gonna be really, really red

You'll wanna be careful that you don't get this on your clothes because if you do

you may never get it out again. Now I'm gonna add one teaspoon of vanilla flavoring

and one teaspoon of white vinegar All right so I just gonna mix this up on very low because I

don't want to sling that red food coloring all over my white shirt. All

right, now I'm gonna add our dry ingredients. Bobby, I got so tickled at

Michael Groover. He said, I think my ultimate dream would to be accidentally

locked into Johnny's bakery. Y'all forget that I'm there and lock me in

and y'all don't miss me until the next day. He said that's my secret dream

All right, Bobby, I've about got the last of my dry ingredients in here

I've just about got some pita sandwiches ready. Okay, great time of day

Look at that. Isn't that red just beautiful? All right, so like two-thirds full on there

That looks like about it. Oh, gosh, it's so good. So, so good

And that little teaspoon of cocoa can add such a nice flavor

Oh, you already started eating. Wait for mama. I was getting hungry

I'm starving too. My stomach is just growling. Now, Bobby, I'm going to put these in the oven 350 degrees

and I want them to cook for 22 minutes. That produces the perfect cupcake

So just don't let me forget when the 22 minutes is up, okay

Got it. Taste it. It's so good. You'll love it. You sure

I think so, yeah. That pita bread's so delicate, though, they'll kind of fall apart on me

Aren't they great? Holy moly! Like, oh, it's out of this world, Bobby

Shazam! Listen, Bobby and I are going to finish our sandwiches. When we come back, we're going to frost those red velvet cupcakes

and we're going to slice up those ribs, and by then, the rest of the family should be here

Hey, y'all. Bobby and I are just in here putting the finishing touches on, aren't we

Yep, it's almost time to eat now. All right, I'm making my cousin Johnny's

cream cheese icing to go on our red velvet cakes. I've got them out of the oven

The ribs are ready. The ribs are ready. The potato salad's ready. All right, I've used one pound of cream cheese

two sticks of butter, four cups of powdered sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla flavoring

All right. Now, I'm gonna take our cupcakes and just mound them up high with that cream cheese icing

And look at that, Bobby. Oh, those look great. Don't those look wonderful

They do. Listen, Michael Groover's gonna dive into these like you wouldn't believe

So if you want one, you might better hide your one. Well, I'm thinking ribs and barbecue sauce and potato salad myself

Oh, gosh, they look fabulous. What did you think about that sauce

That's a little different sauce than what we normally make. It is different. I like it

It's kind of vinegary. Yeah. I'm going to just sprinkle a few nuts on some of them

I may leave some of them plain, but if we run out of the nutty ones

we can just quickly add some more nuts. Look at those. Mmm, yum

How is that, bug cupcake? They look wonderful. What are you doing? I'm fixing you and me a plate of ribs and potato salad

Well, son, the rest of the family's... Late is what they are

You insist. Which plate do you think is yours? I'll take this one. There you go

They're gonna know we have eaten. Don't worry, we'll cut some more ribs. To you and me, we're the ones with the cookers today, weren't we? Mm-hmm

Ooh, your potato salad's good. That's totally good. Mmm! Oh, Bobby! Ribs are good

Holy camole. They're out of this world. Mmm. Mmm! You ready for a cupcake

No, I'm not. I'm having lunch. Come on, be a sport. I'm gonna watch you, though

Live life on the edge. I'm on the edge of this rib right now

I am going to get me one of these cupcakes before the rest of that crew gets in. the rest of that crew gets in

Because I know I can kiss them goodbye as soon as Mike walks in. Mm

Is that good? Mm-hmm. I think probably. Oh, Johnny, your recipe is just the best, girl

Bobby and I got to run. We got some cleaning up to do. Stop by cleaning that bone, son

We'll see y'all later. As always, you know that we send you best dishes and love

from our kitchen dingers. Wow. God, they're going to think we're awful

And don't pay to be late