Simply Dinner

I'm here with my family, our daughter Michelle and our grandson Henry

And we're making a meal that the whole family will love. It's delicious

First, my pretzel crusted chicken with a cheddar cheese sauce. Henry will love it

And what better side dish than my broccoli and rice pilaf? By nook or crook, I'm going to get Henry to like the carrot

So we'll see what he thinks of Guinea's glazed carrots. And for an extra special treat, how about some brownies topped with a braline frosting

Ooh. Today we're going to fix a meal, y'all, that's really good for Henry

And good for our daughter Michelle, because she's got us another boy in here

So Michelle, I'm going to start us off with a broccoli rice pilaf

I think Henry will like that. I think he will too. So if you'll come over here and just kind of rough chop that broccoli

And Papa. Let me cut onions up? I would love for you to cut the onions

I'm going to put a little butter in our pan, because we're going to saute these onions

I'm going to bring Henry to Daniel. Okay. Daniel! Daniel is our son-in-law, y'all

Michelle did a great job picking him out. I guess you picked him out, didn't you

Or did he pick you out? What happened? I picked him out. You picked him out. Well, you did a good day's work, honey

We're proud to call him son-in-law. I'm going to brown these onions when your dad gets those ready

And Michelle, after this gets transparent, honey, we're going to just throw that in, saute that off

and then I'm going to make us some chicken cutlets. Pretzel crusted chicken cutlets

Ooh, Henry's going to love those. Henry will love it because Henry loves a pretzel, y'all

Michelle, I think we're ready for that broccoli now. And next, we'll get the crust going for our chicken

We're going to need about a cup and a half of crushed pretzels

so if you'd stick that in the bag and just beat the heck out of it with a rolling pin, okay

Okay. All right, how's this pot coming, Papa? Perfect. So let's go ahead and add our rice, a cup and a half of rice, Michael

And because this is a peel-off, we're going to kind of let it brown just for a second

And we're going to use three cups of the chicken broth, Papa. Uh-huh

You gave the kids a pretty hard time, didn't you, Michael, when Michelle and Daniel were first courting

Well, kind of. Dads do that. Dads have to do that. Absolutely

It's dad's jobs to do that. Now, what about your take on it, Michelle

Looking back on it, I understand all of it. Now that I have a child, I don't think I'll trust Henry when he brings home his first girl either

I love it. And we're going to salt and pepper this. Let's let that come back to a boil

And then we're going to turn it down and simmer, put the lid on, and let it cook

Are these pretzels for the crust for the chicken? Let's get some more and give this to your daddy

That'll give him something to do. I can't remember exactly how you say it

but that's why I'm so worried about having two boys is because once they take a wife, that's it

You know? What is it that you say? A daughter is a daughter all of her life

A son is a son until he takes a wife. Sorry, y'all, but girls have power

I see the way you and Daniel love Henry. Y'all not gonna have any problems

All right. You know what? What? I need for you to chop up a couple of tablespoons of thyme

and we're going to do a couple of eggs, because we're going to dip them in our wet first

and I'm going to add a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, because this will be good with those pretzels

Let's get the chicken cutlets out of here. Right there. They're in that bag

All right, so let's salt and pepper those, baby. You know, I've been amazed at Henry's palate

He really has, like, some unusual dishes right from the start, hasn't he, Michelle

He has. I'm going to spray this a little bit. Well, he pretty much just eats whatever we eat, so, I mean, semen, Brussels sprouts, anything

You can just leave it laying in there and kind of pat it. That's all right. Just kind of pat it on, you know, good

The only thing I've seen him spit out was egg salad. Yeah, that is the only thing

I tried to give him some egg salad the other night. You can't trick him with egg salad

I can tell you that. What was that shrimp gumbo we were eating not too long ago

Oh, my gosh, he loved it. He got that up, too. He loved it, didn't he? Yum, this looks so good

What are you doing to it? Are you coated enough? No, I'm just... Now that it's had a chance to dry a second

I just gonna reinforce it with a second coat And those fine crumbs are kind of in the bottom Yum

Yeah. You want to get rid of that, sweetie, and we'll see if our grease is about ready

All righty. That looks really way good. That does look really good

Now we're going to just brown this, Michelle, a little bit on each side

And then we're going to put it on our pan, and we're going to put the oven on low, y'all

And just kind of let it just, like, low simmer until we're ready to eat

So don't go anywhere. Coming up, glazed carrots as sweet as my grandson

Henry, you hungry? Then we'll see what Henry thinks of our family meal

Don't we love a pretzel dipped in chicken and cheese? And later, the most decadent brownie you'll ever eat

When we do it, we do it good. I'm in here with Papa and Michelle today in the kitchen

and we're cooking up a meal that hopefully will be good for Henry

and the rest of us will love. Now, we stuck our pretzel-coated chicken into the oven

and we're kind of cooking that like real, real, real low because we don't want it to dry out

We've got our rice pilaf done. Now what I want to do, I think Henry will adore Michelle

is glazed carrots. So if you and your daddy will peel these carrots real quick like for me

and put them in chunks. I think I'm going to make us a cheese sauce for the chicken

How does that sound? Sounds good. And, Michael, a couple of tablespoons of butter for me

And if you would just flip on that eye right there, please. Okie dokie

I'm going to let my butter melt, y'all. I'm going to add a couple of tablespoons of flour

and then I'm going to add in the milk. And while I'm waiting for our butter, I'm going to be grating our cheese

Uh-oh, I hear Henry. Henry! Guinea's hurrying. It's popping your mama that slowed us down

Why not blame them? Y'all hurry. You got a hungry boy. Michael, you did a good bit of cooking while your kids were growing up, didn't you

You know, I did a little bit. There's a few things I had that I was really good at

chicken and dumplings. An egg sandwich, y'all. Egg sandwich. I could do a pretty serious egg sandwich

Michelle, what was your favorite thing that your daddy made you? Ooh, grilled steak

Grilled steak. Michelle's... And twice-baked potatoes. Yes. And then barbecue shrimp. Mm-hmm

To this day, every Christmas, daddy still does his twice-baked potatoes with the shrimp

It takes him all day long, I have to say. Well, you can't rush an artist

But he does a heck of a job. All right, now I've got my flour in with our butter

and that's going to tighten this sauce up. I'm going to just slowly add that milk

All right. Now to this pan, Michael, I'm going to add you a little butter

And let's toss those carrots over in here. And we're just going to saute those around

Okay. We're going to glaze and sweeten these carrots because by nook or crook, I'm going to get Henry to like a carrot

So, Michael, we're going to have to. How much apple juice do you want? Let's see

We need about a half a cup of apple juice. You want to swap? Yes

I want to swap. I would love to swap with you. Thank you. And, Michelle, we're going to

Well, we're going to add this cheese to our sauce once it starts thickening up

Uh-huh. So that's coming along. Michelle, we're going to need like three-quarters of a cup of brown sugar

Okay. And we're going to wind up using like a teaspoon of Dijon mustard

and about a fourth of a teaspoon of a smoky paprika. Henry, you hungry

Him's your hungry guy. Look! Hey, buddy. Look! We're cooking the boy lunch

We're going to add the apple juice and the smoked paprika. You smell it

Y'all, this is our son-in-law, Daniel. He has been occupying Henry for us

Henry, turn around and look at Jimmy's friends out there. Everybody's friends

All right, Mikey, just dump the cheese in there. Can you have me pull the chicken out? Yes

Let pull the chicken out All right Michael Uh We just gonna cover that Cut it down yes and let that cook for about 15 minutes y if Henry gives me 15 minutes That looks yummy

So, Daniel, I got everybody's take on when you and Michelle first met

Nobody ever intimidated me a day in my life until I met him. I've got to say it worked out perfect

It worked out really good, actually. Y'all, he has found the measuring spoon that his mother measured the brown sugar with

He is happy. Here, Michelle, let's start fixing our plates, because that baby is hungry

A little cheese sauce for our pretzel chicken. Don't we love a pretzel dipped in chicken

And cheese. Yes, precious. Y'all remember when Henry first started eating and he'd see you and he'd say, mmm, when he first saw you

See, I knew who had the goods. I thought you thought that was your name

Henry. Yummy. He's digging the carrots. Yay, I knew he would. Try the broccoli

Mmm. Here. Here. Mikey, you want to taste something delicious? How did we all get so fat around here

It's so hard to get to eat a meal. How did this happen

Yeah, I'm in. Michelle, did you try the meat? It's delicious. Well, listen, y'all eat up, because I know it's time for Henry's nap

And your dad and I are going to make some brownies, so we'll just run them over to y'all

That sounds perfect. Can you say bye-bye, Henry? Say bye-bye. Mmm. Coming up, a well-deserved treat for Guinea and Papa

Wonderful, sweet, chocolatey, buttery brownies. All righty

Well, we got Henry fed, didn't we? Yep. So, Michael, I want to hurry up with these brownies because Henry will sleep about an hour

So I want to get these done because I do want him to taste them. Our mommies of our grandchildren, they don't like us to give them a lot of sweets, do they

So they monitor us pretty closely, but I think Michelle will let me give Henry two bites of this wonderful brownie with a little praline frosting

Yum. So when we do it, we do it good. All right, so I'm going to put Michael in charge of melting eight one-ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate

And we're going to add two sticks of butter. And Lulu is roaming the kitchen, Michael

She's looking for scraps. She told me a while ago, I know you had chicken in here

All right, so when that starts melting a little bit, Mikey, go ahead and drop your butter in. Okay

And while you're doing that, excuse me, Lulu, I'm going to start beating up our sugars

I'm going to use two cups of granulated sugar and one cup of brown sugar

And I want to pack that down in there good. Make sure it's one cup

And then I'm going to need five eggs. All right, then go ahead and throw your butter in there

Michael. Uh-huh. We love our children, don't we? Oh, yeah, we do

But I'm telling you what, grandchildren. Aren't they great? What is it about them

I don't know. I think when you're the parent, I think you discipline them more than when you're grandparents

When you're grandparents, it's just like you're at the fair or something

But I think as grandparents... Not that I don't discipline them, but not nearly like parents

Parents have to do it every minute. Well, we don't feel that responsibility that you feel as a parent

because we can love and say, okay, go home to Mama and Daddy

All right, I'm going to move that from the heat. Okay. Because we want that to cool down a little bit. Okay

Because we're going to add this chocolate to our batter. Right. So if you scoot around here, and after I get this beat up

we're going to need one and three-fourths cup of all-purpose flour. Okay

That is perfect. All right, now if you take this spatula and just run around this bowl for me

Make sure we get all the goods down there. You almost got me

I did. Yeah. All right, Mikey. It is time to add the chocolate

Yeah Yeah Yeah Y can look at Michael and tell that he not eating as many sweets as he used to He made up his mind he was going to lose 100 pounds

So we still eat very, very good. We just allow ourselves like one day a week to eat anything we want

And this is our Saturday, isn't it? I know, but I can still only like have one of these

Oh, that's right. No, we're not. It really is all about moderation, isn't it

All right, now, Michael, if you'd start on the ganache. Okay. That was some heat

Yes. To our pot, we're going to add two 8-ounce semi-sweet chocolate bars and a quarter of a cup of heavy cream

And how much heavy cream do you have, darling? A half. I was hoping you'd say it a little quicker than what you were saying

A quarter of a cup of heavy whipping cream. Well, that's what I was thinking

If you would help me just scrape this into my pan while that's melting

Oh, gosh. Can I have the bowl? Yes. We used to fight over the bowl when we were kids

Yes. If it's not baked, it doesn't have calories, does it? That ain't, William

You didn't win. Hank won. Wonderful, sweet, chocolatey, buttery brownies

Now, I'm going to put this in the oven, y'all, on 350, and I'm going to let it bake for about 25 or 30 minutes

Michael, would you open that oven door, please? I sure will. And we're going in with this because before we know it

Henry is gonna be awake, and Ginny's gonna have him a brownie

Coming up, we're making a frosting that takes our brownies to a whole new sinful level, y'all

I may hold off on altering my clothes for a little while. Michael, it's our Saturday

Good, I'm ready. We're going to have a brownie. Let's do it. Our brownies are out of the oven, y'all

We've got our ganache. So, Michael, all I'm going to do is pour our ganache over our brownie

And then I'm going to stick it in the fridge and we're going to let it cool. Yes

Look at that. So now, Michael, we're going to make our praline frosting

Okay. And it's so easy. Like a third of a cup of butter

And how much does a third of a cup? That looks like a third to me. You measure us out a half a cup of whipping cream

And while you're doing that, I'm going to put one and a fourth cup of packed brown sugar

Okay. Well, no, no, no, Chad. You are so anxious, man. Calm down

I'm hungry. Now we're just going to whisk this. Yum. Smell it

Smell that brown sugar. Smells just like a praline, don't it? Yes, it does

Now you can slowly add our heavy cream to that. Look. What does that look like

Caramel. Yes, it does. Now, if you'll kind of take over that whisk, I'm going to come in here, and I'm going to measure out one cup of powdered sugar

And we're just going to eyeball a cup and a half of pecans

All right. Hit it, Jack. Okay, that's perfect. Now you can add your vanilla

How much? About a teaspoonful. You want to pull out the brownies

Yes, yes, yes. All right, so Michael, a piece for you and a piece for me

Yum. Wish we had some ice cream to cool it down a little

Yes. Hey, you're getting my bite. I was getting it for you

You liar, liar, pencil. Fire. I'm getting my own bite. How's that

Delicious. Oh, I heard you swallowing. It's always a good sign, y'all, when you can hear your man swallowing hard

Mmm. I may hold off on altering my clothes for a little while

Y'all, this was so good. We had our pretzel chicken. We had our rice pilaf

We had our carrots. And now we're having dessert. This is what it's all about

Love and best dishes. Until next time