Southern Staples

Y'all, I'm so excited because today two of my favorite girls are coming by for a little Dean family reunion

Amy and Suzette, y'all are. My oldest best friend's daughters, and I just adore them

I just love you too. Better than a bad kid loves cake. They're like the sisters that Jamie and I never had

So it's going to be like the good old days with great food, like my skillet chicken with rhubarb

and Amy and Suzanne's Louisiana-style crawfish bread and my chocolate volcano cake

I couldn't hardly wait to get through with the cooking because we're going to be taking a little trip down memory lane

A wee, buddy. And a little dip in the pool. Watch out

Amy and Suzette, I just love you little dumplings. We love you too

You know, I can't believe that you and Jamie are fixing to be 44 years old

Their mother and I became friends at 19. We were both pregnant with our first children

And so all four of these kids grew up together like brothers and sisters

It's hard for me to remember everything that you two did to me and your mother

I know. Let's go break it up. They were wild as bucks, honey, as teenagers

You remember one summer we went down to Panama City, and Bobby was like three or four years old

and Bobby just jumped in the pool. Oh, God, and you jumped in with your clothes

Honey, I was fully clothed, had on my phone sign language. Yes

And I looked at my baby go under once. I looked at him go under twice

Honey, I dove into that pool. shoes, clothes, eyelashes, everything. Y'all have

grown into the most beautiful, responsible young women and I just love y'all to pieces

Well, we just love you too. And better than a fat kid loves cake

Well, speaking of cake, Sue Ann, I'm gonna show y'all a volcano cake

It's so delicious. It's so easy. Let's get going, girls. Amy, now you're gonna start building the bottom

of the cake. Mix me a cup of chopped pecans, a cup of coconut

and spray that 13 by 9 by 2 pan real quick. I remember how she taught us to make sure

it's level. I know, level it off. Yes. Alright. Now, to make the cake

we are gonna take our German chocolate box cake, but I wanna tell y'all how

to, and you probably know this, but I'm gonna tell you anyway

just in case you don't. I'm sure you will. All right. I never go directly by the instructions on a box cake

Where it tells you to add three eggs, I add four. Okay

Okay. So you want to get four eggs ready. All right. And dump it in there. You want me to mix the pecans and the coconut in here

or just go ahead and do it? Yeah, you can put them right in here and then just spread them evenly, Amy, on the bottom

You said a cup of each? Yes. The second change is it tells you to add water

I never put water in my cakes. I always add milk. So measure us out one and a fourth cups of milk

Another thing I always add is vanilla flavoring. I'll add about a teaspoon of that

I like to show people what they can do with a cake mix

You can bump it up some. Some will tell you to use oil

Some will tell you to use butter. Well, of course. I'm going to do a little of both

Oh. Because that oil is going to make sure my cake is good and moist

Oh, God, that's why your cakes are moist. You can really take it to another level

And we're just going to beat this for a couple of minutes. And you want to make sure that your butter is at room temperature

See how nice and soft that is? There you go. All right, let's see

Now we're cooking. All right, Itchy. Now let's get started on the cream cheese filling

So we've got an eight-ounce package of cream cheese, a stick of butter

and now we're going to add two cups of confectionate sugar. Okay

All right, now, Suette. Yes, ma'am. We are going to take these wonderful candy bars

which might be one of my favorite kinds. So what we're going to do is we're going to just rough chop these. Okay

And we're going to toss them into that cake batter. Yum. Paula, do you have a knife

Yes. Because I got in trouble last time for knocking. Yeah. We got scolded last time

They have a catering business together. And Amy said, out of the two, she's the best cook

But Suzette's a great cook, too. Amy do you remember that time making a mess I had taken y to the uniform shop in Leesburg Georgia You were running around there Amy and you fell on your face

Amy, as a little girl, fell and knocked her two front teeth out, and I was the one that put them back in

And your mama almost went into the vapors. Not mama. Um, that was my fondest memory

What I want you to do is just cream that together. Okay

All right, and we are getting very rich. This is going to be the show now

I'm telling you. Very rich. Yes. So now what we're going to do, Suzette, is just pour that batter evenly on top of this

Now once that's done, we're going to dollop the cream cheese on top

This is going to be so stinking good. Stinking. All right, now what you want to do

Oh, Michael. Is you want to drop a dollop. A dollop. Yes, so every piece that you cut will have a mound of cream cheese

My mouth's watering. Now, when this bakes up, girlies, it's going to have craters

Craters! When it's hot, I'm going to cover it with a chocolate frosting

It will make you go home and hit your mama. I was so sorry she couldn't

All right, girls, so get that in the oven. 350, about 45 to 50 minutes

Y'all get your butt to cleaning up this kitchen. Yes, ma'am. I think I might have an idea

Coming up, the girls are sharing their recipe for Cajun crawfish bread

It's so good. And I've got a couple of surprises up my sleeve for them

Can you run over for LaWong? She's going to, I think, pull a prank on us

I don't know. She's going to get us. I'm going to get her. All right, tell me what we..

All right, we're going to make some crawfish bread. I've never had crawfish bread

You showed us how to do the mayonnaise, the cheese, and the garlic and spread it on the bread

Yes. Yeah, like the beach bread? Yes. Yeah. So we just added crawfish to it

But you can add anything. Yeah, we put olives, artichokes. Let's get going

Paula, if you'll cut two or three tomatoes. Chop them or slice them

Chop them. Okay. Now the recipe calls for... Peeling and everything. No

Oh, no, you don't have to peel them. No. Okay, good. The recipe calls for half a stick of butter, but I know I'm with you, so should we use the whole stick or three-fourths

Well, it depends on how big your loaf of bread is. We're using those

Well, don't be stingy. All right, we got our butter mounting. Sister's chopping up the garlic

Paula, you chopping up the... And what? What are you doing? I'm overseeing

Well, you can get the crawfish out and I'll go ahead and chop those up. You gotta just chop them up just a little bit

A rough chop. Their father is full Cajun. These girls came into this world, I think, with a love of Cajun cooking

She said we're gonna add about a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning. And they took that recipe and took it straight to Louisiana style

You ready for these? I'm ready. All right, I'm going to kind of just give them a squeeze

Bring it on. This looks like it's going to be delish. It's fitting

Go get your phone and call Bobby. Okay. He needs to stop by. Do you need some parsley

Oh, yes, ma'am, I do. A couple of tablespoons of parsley. Okay

And then we're going to grate some Monterey Jack and some Parmesan

Okay. And then add mayonnaise, because we do love us some mayonnaise

We do love us some mayo. I'm going to give Bobby a call

Smells righteous. I'm telling you it does. What? Hey, Bobby. Hey, Mom

Suzette and Amy's over here in the kitchen with me. Oh, great

What are you doing? I'm just hanging out. Well, listen, Sonny boy, can you run over for a little while

Sure. Yeah, hey, come on. I've been thinking about something. What are you up to

Don't you worry about it. Well, that makes me nervous. Me too, Bobby

Don't get nervous. Don't get nervous. So all day, she's got something

I don't know what it is. Love you, bye. Love you, bye. She's going to, I think, pull a prank on us

I don't know. But she ain't going to get us. I'm going to get her. All right, half a cup of mayonnaise

And then you want the parsley in there? Mm-hmm. Mm. Okay. All right, Suzette, bring on the cheese

I can't believe y'all have never had a volcano cake. I have never

I am so glad. Why do you call it a volcano cake? Because that cream cheese melts down into the batter, and it's all lumpy and got like craters in it. Okay

Okay. Paula, will you cut that bread? Yes. Now, you want it cut horizontal

Yeah. All right, pour it in there. That's some goodness. That savory Oh We just have always used the word savory Savory is good Oh my good Mm And you want to use a splotted

A splotted. Yeah, because there is a lot of pizza. A splotted, yeah. I should have squeezed those tomatoes

That was four. It's going to be real good. How can it not be mayonnaise and butter and cheese and crawfish

It's good just like that. Oops, I'll clean up. All right. Mm

Well, you know, because you're the daughters of a Cajun, y'all have no choice but to be..

He's a good cook. Good old Cajun. He's a real good cook. Your daddy taught me how to make the best pork stew

Yes, and he's still making it. And he has the turnip roots. Yes, with the turnip roots in it

It is my favorite. Those turnip roots, I'm telling you, it's out of this world

And I used to, every time we'd go, I... I'd serve it at the restaurant. Do you

Lots of times I'd put it on the buffet. All right. Get this in the oven

All right. All right, now what are you going to do? You're going to bake it for how long? For about 10 to 15 minutes, and then I have to put the broiler on it just to bubble it up afterwards. Okay

We're going to put it on 350. Coming up, we're sharing some skillet chicken with rhubarb and onions

And some fond memories also. I thought, I'm going to get these four kids back together near a pool

And we'll chicken fight. Black, black, black, black. All right

Hey, you did, baby. What's up? Hey, hey. Hey, we're all in

How are you? I'm good. How you doing? I'm good. You're bringing a little bit of Albany to Savannah

A little bit. All right. Sue, I'm so glad you came. Come over here

I'm so glad I came, too. Growing up with Amy and Suzette was lots and lots of fun

We don't get to see each other very often, and I love it when we do see them, because

it's just like stepping back in time. Bobby Dean, somebody. Don't tell me, I get to chop an onion

Yes, slice that onion real thin. I'm making a skillet chicken with rhubarb and onions

Y'all's daddy is one of the funniest people unintentionally that I've ever met in my life

But he took us to our first college football game. It was in Auburn, Alabama

Yeah, I remember that, and it was LSU, Auburn. Of course it was LSU, because your daddy is a Cajun, and it's raining

We go to Kmart to buy some orange ponchos. Do y'all remember this? Yes

And we're there to see the LSU Tigers play the Auburn Tigers

Both are Tigers. And y'all's Cajun daddy, at the top of his lungs

I'm sure that Lord Calvert was involved. Your daddy is walking through Kmart going

Go Tigers! Go Tigers! All of a sudden he goes, I'm talking about LSU now

You've never heard a place go more silent than that. I can't believe we didn't get killed

I remember that game, and I remember Jamie mooning somebody on the way home

It was Jamie. Listen, I think Jamie had gotten in the car with y'all

Yeah. And we passed y'all, and I looked over there, and Jamie's butt was pressed against the window

That sounds about right. He had mooned his daddy. That sounds about right. I got a surprise

One second. That game also has some significance for me because I got hit in the face with a football

before the game started. Do y'all remember that? They were out there practicing. The LSU kicker was out there practicing field goals

and we were in the end zone. And there's no nets at this time behind the... They were just kicking them right up into the stands

Oh, that looks good. And I'm standing there, and I see one coming

and I just know I'm gonna catch it. And it's smashing. And I reached out, and that ball hit the seat right in front of me

and kicked up and hit me in the nose and just about knocked me unconscious

They were getting real tickled about those memories. It usually involves somebody kind of..

Getting hurt. What you doing here? All right, you know, rhubarb is right trendy

Very solid. It is. It's in season. Very tart. Right. It's in season right now

So I took my seared chicken breast out of the pan, and I added one sliced onion and two stalks of diced rhubarb

I'm going to add about a cup of wine. How much more of these onions do you need, Mama? That's it, son. Good

I got enough. I'll take these. Good. Y'all just stand there and reminisce

All right. All right, we got a little something we want to show you. Okay

It's an album. They brought me a photo album from the time that Jamie and Suzette were a month old through their teen years

I mean, we got some priceless pictures. Hope we ain't burning anything

Oh, no. Oh, God, you all forgot about cooking. We'll look at it

We'll look. And chop some parsley, is that what you said? Yes, please, son

How much wine? I'm going to put about a cup. Suzette, where did you get that album

Made it. Oh, God. I love this. You got to look through

I was in Panama City just a couple of weeks ago. I could not. I couldn think about anything except for the first 18 years of my life while we were in Panama City Bobby we spent nine of our life when we were with the Dupuis family in the water Yes Yeah we did Sometimes I wonder how y all survived

Well, it's a wonder. And how your mom and daddy and how we all survived

Together, that's how we did it. Oh, yeah, stick a little. I'm going to add just a little butter in there

Oh, my God. Oh, the bread. Oh, yeah, check on the bread. Oh, it's looking good

All right, y'all, I put our chicken back in our pot. Oh, that looks savory

It does, doesn't it? That's a good word, Suzette. Yeah. We're the sweet and savory sisters

The sweet and savory sisters. Which one's which? I'm savory. And what we do is we just laugh

Sometimes we laugh till we cry. Wow, that's good. Mm-hmm. Is that crawfish

Mm-hmm. I'm getting my belly good. Time of day. Now, let me tell you girls something

You like her? What'd you say? It was so good. This is all this world

It was such a Louisiana flavor to it. I guess it's just in they blood

All right, now, y'all tell me what you think. I'll tell you the truth. I know you will

Do you want me to tell you the truth? Of course. Butt chicken is the bomb

Good! Mm-mm. Let me taste the rhubarb. All right, well, I tell y'all what, now I'm ready to pull that volcano kick out

Yeah, let's get it on. Coming up, just like old times. It's lots and lots of fun

Is it cold? Ah! I cannot believe this cake

Bobby, you know what? It's a volcano. I love it. You know how it's supposed to have those craters

Mm-hmm. It almost does not. It doesn't have them. It looks so good

It does look good. That is weird. Can I help you make this? Yeah. I'm going to make us a chocolate pecan frosting

I don't like my chocolate frosting real dark. So I'm only going to put a couple of tablespoons of cocoa

A stick of butter. A stick of butter. All right, Bobby, open that milk, please, son

All right, I'm going to use just drops at the time, son. Just drops at the time, son

A little bit more. And I'm adding a teaspoon of vanilla and a cup and a half of powdered sugar

All right, I'm going to beat the cheese out of this. You are

All right, Bobby, pour your nuts over here. Oh, no, Mama. I guess I'll do it then

Not in mixed company. All right, I'm going to put about a cup of pecans

All right, now that cake is hot, right? It's a little H-O-T

All right, look-a-here. Oh, man. Look-a-here, look-a-here. I'm looking. It's like over-the-moon girls

I just love when I'm standing here with y'all and you say, girls. There you go, precious

All right, Mar. All right, look, look, look. Look inside. Oh, the cake

It was the ball. Fabulous. It was side-free. It was good. It was real good

I could eat the whole freaking cake. Anyway, call your brother. Get him on the phone

See if he'll meet us. See if he'll meet us out back at the pool

She just started kind of looking at me funny like she had something up her sleeve. What are we going to do at the pool

We're going to sit around and reminisce. I don't know what this has in store. Oh my God

Oh my God. Are you ready? Ready. Four. Oh, wow. You going down the slide, kid

He's going to go down the slide on his belly, and we'll chicken fight

Black! Black! I thought, I'm going to get these four kids back together near a pool

Y'all follow me! Go, Jack! Come on! You're going down the slide! I had them line up against the pool so they could see Jack up close

Jack, baby, you and I are going on the slide. You're going down head first

I'm going down head first. You know, before I knew it. Watch out

Is it cold? Yeah! Oh, gosh, we had so much fun in the pool

Come on, Scott! Come on, do me! Bye, Abby

Marco! Marco! Polo! It's lots and lots of fun

Good job, Michael! Come on