Southwest Flair

Today, y'all, Bobby and I are cooking up a Southwestern meal that will make you want to say

Olé! Did I say that right? I think you did. First, we're taking our breakfast south of the border with huevos rancheros

Yum. That's really, really good. Then, I'm showing Bobby how I lighten things up with my grilled Southwestern salad

So, how do you like it? It's great. It's fresh and delicious. Mmm. Mmm

And Bobby teaches me some new tricks with his quinoa stuffed poblano peppers

Ooh, I think I like quinoa. And y'all, we're topping this meal off with a light but delicious avocado cream

You're not going to want to miss it when Bobby and I show off our Southwestern flair. Ah

Ah! Gonna need a bigger skillet

Ah! Look who I found. Where did you find her? Outside. Say, no, we're not cooking milk, Bobby

Oh, I'm so glad you found her, because guess what, y'all? I am so happy to introduce the newest member of our family

Mm-hmm. We lost our little Otis a few months ago, and Otis was such a big part of our family, y'all

Otis single-handedly changed my life. So now I'm waiting to see how you change my life

Y'all want to see her do her tricks? She's great. You want a treat? Roll over

Oh, that's a good girl. Yes, it is. So what were you in the middle of cooking when I walked in

I thought you and I could have a Mexican breakfast this morning. And guess what, y'all

I can't pronounce it. That Herbos Quodos stuff. Huevos Rancheros. So come on in

I'm going to make a guacamole. You can say guacamole, can't you

I can say guacamole. All right, well, I will make a salsa. You're going to need it

Great idea. You want me to dice some of this onion? Yes, darling, I need like half of that onion, please

I've been telling people for a long time that you can do a whole lot more than Southern. But when we were growing up, Mama did

I can do it. I just can't pronounce it, y'all. You did really great Chinese, really great Mexican, but a lot of people think that you don't do nothing but fried chicken

What, thank you. And I'm just going to add the juice of one lime to one ripe avocado

So I've got my corn tortilla shells here now. I've sprayed my pan, and I'm going to spray them lightly and dust them with just a little salt and pepper

And we're going to cook those like five minutes per side, Bobby. Okay, I got your onion pretty well diced whenever you're ready for something

I'm going to flip these over after three minutes at 400 degrees

We're cooking them pretty hot. All right, so a tablespoon of sour cream

Yum. All right, so I'm going to get my onion. You be careful cutting that jalapeno because I don't know how hot it is

Do you want a little hot sauce in yours? I do. I love hot sauce

Okay, well, I'm not going to put too, too much. And that's a very easy thing to control

All right, Mama. All right, so our guacamole is ready. Let me cut up some tomatoes while you don't have anything going on

All right, so how many tomatoes? Two pounds of tomatoes. Two pounds

Well, this looks like about two pounds, doesn't it? Bobby, would you flip our tortillas for me, darling

I'm putting this whole jalapeno in because I like it spicy. Okay

All right, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. The only thing missing is garlic. Oh, yeah. Whoo

They are quite toasty, Bobby. Yeah, those are toasty. But they'll be delicious

I think they'll be fine. You know what? I'm going to go ahead and pull them off so they won't keep cooking

I like mine crispy. All right. I'm going to be heating us up a little black bean, and I'm going to add a little water to it, Bobby, just so it'll be easier to heat

You know, not much, but just a little bit. Refried beans. Yes

Good for you. You are not going to like your mother after breakfast

After eating refried beans. Golly, I don't even know what to say

All right, I'm going to use two cloves of garlic for our salsa, okay

Okay. I've probably got a couple of tablespoons of cilantro. So we got our tomatoes, lots of onions, cilantro, salt, pepper, fresh garlic

I'm about to have you one more clove. Let's zest some lime and put some juice in there if you haven't already

That would be great. No, I hadn't. That zest really brightens it up

Oh, yeah. So I'm going to go ahead and just put the lime juice

This one feels like real juicy. Some of them are, oh, yeah

Look at that, Bobby. Oh, yeah. Loaded. It just such a clean earthy taste you know Mm Sure do Yum I don know if you do this but I put these down my disposal and it makes the kitchen smell good Absolutely

Oh. All right, I'm turning those off. Now I'm gonna fry our egg

Okay. To go in here. That is just wonderful right there. Yeah, it looks good

You can take a picture of that. Nothing like, you know, fresh, fresh, fresh stuff, is it

Absolutely. You know, Mom, I live by kind of an 80-20 rule

Like 80% of the time, I'm really careful about what I eat. This must be the other 20%

This might be life-changing. Would you like some enchilada sauce? Sure. I'll have a little

How do you eat this? This ain't gonna fold We're gonna eat this very, very carefully

I think you should keep the plate Really close to your face on this You know what, I think you might be right, Bobby

Mmm, yum That's really, really good Not all that fattening, is it

Please This is 20% You know, this may be your 20% But what I'm gonna fix for you next

Probably be your 80% Think so? I'm going to do you a grilled corn salad

Is it all over me? Coming up, Bobby and I are grilling up some veggies for our sizzling southwestern salad

It's fresh and delicious. Mmm. Mmm. Then Bobby's spicing things up with his stuffed poblano peppers

And later, we're topping off these peppers with a delicious avocado cream

That's really, really good. Do you like it? Oh, my gosh. Ooh, I think I like quinoa

All right. So I'm so glad to see that y'all are back with us

Today's kind of a Mexican day. Cha-cha-cha-cha. Cha-cha. Or you could say Southwestern

Southwestern. That's what I was trying to say. So, Bobby, I know that you like lighter things, and to me, this was..

I like light and fresh. The next thing I decided to make you is a Southwestern grilled corn and black bean salad

So I'm going to grill our corn. I'm going to grill that maybe 10 minutes

You know, we're going to keep turning it. I've got you some red peppers. We're going to grill our red pepper

And I've got a poblano. We got all kind of words. It's hard for this southern tongue today

A poblano. Did I say that right? I think you did. Is that hot

It can be. Okay. We're going to grill these maybe three or four minutes per side

Okay. And I'm going to gently try to cut these seeds out

Go ahead and start with our dressing. Okay. And you can open the black beans, drain those. Okay

Jamie was over here the other day, and we were doing something with jalapenos

And I said, son, now be careful, be careful, be careful. I tried to get him some gloves

He didn't listen. You know he's not the smart one, right? Anyway

So what'd he do? He turned down the gloves, and then he went to the bathroom

And he came back, and he had like almost tears in his eyes

Well, I guess he didn't learn, because I've heard that he's done that more than once

Oh, my God. He came out of the bathroom in tears. Just on fire

On fire. All right, I'm going to juice for this dressing. I'm going to juice a lime

Yes, you need about five tablespoons of lime juice. Okay. We're going to use a little bit of cumin, about a half a teaspoon of cumin, and chili powder

Chili powder. Yes. Half a teaspoon of each. Yes. Now, I'm going to chop two tablespoons of cilantro, and you'll need two tablespoons of olive oil, son

This weekend, I have a restaurant in Harris Casino in Cherokee, North Carolina

It was so much fun. So I drug all the kids with me, and the kids went to visit Santa Land

Santa Land. You missed it, too. Let's see. I took some pictures. Oh, that's so good

There is a ride there called the Rudolph Coaster. It's a reindeer coaster or something

In fact, I got a picture of my brother on it. This is Jamie on the Rudy Coaster. Ah! Ah

Ah! How funny is he? It was awesome. Jamie's hilarious. And here is the best picture

Oh. Jack was so upset. The whole time leading up to us going to Santa's land

I was saying, Jack, now what are we going to do when we see Santa Claus and you've got to go tell him the truth

And we went in and I explained to Santa Claus. I said, Santa, Jack is really upset because I've been playing, teasing him

telling him that we were going to have to come tell the truth about what kind of kid he'd been. Oh and he the best little kid He the best kid But I said Santa he knows that you know the truth that he been a good boy all year long and I think that we patched everything up with Santa Claus Sometimes Jack doesn understand your sense of humor

He gets it now. I think I'm gonna hunt for my, um, bunt pan

Do you want me to get it for you? Yeah, if you would. You got so many drawers, I don't even know where to start

I know it, son, but Mama's got a lot of junk. Trash can

You have me luck? Dishwasher. These drawers can mess you up, can't they

I found it. It was next door. No. I just went over to the neighbor's house and I said..

It just seemed like it was next door. Can I please borrow a book, man? Please

What am I doing with this? I'm going to show you a trick to get the corn off the cob

All right, if you'd pass me that bowl of black beans, please

Can I do something? Oh, yes. You can put all this in here

Okay. And I will go ahead and put the cilantro in. You got a bench scraper

You know, I do, but only God would know where that is. Well, God didn't know where your bun pan was

Yes, he did. I asked him. So, Bobby, you did real good, son. Okay

You think this is a butt cake pan, don't you? It's what it looks like to me

Well, you used to be wrong. This is what you roast your chickens in

You stand your chickens up in it. Okay. I need a regular cake bunt pan, not a chicken roaster

Well, I'll be back. Okay. Look in the other side. Yay. Bunt pan

Thank you. Now, see, this is what you cook a cake in. You got it. So here we go

All right, so I'm just going to come in here. Careful with your fingers. So Bobby, we'll just add our corn and our dressing and give it a stir

There you go, baby. Course and control? Moderation. We're going to go light on the vegetables

Yes. Oh, that's good. Mm. Mm-mm. So how do you like it

It's great. It's fresh and delicious. Mm. In fact, I've got a recipe that this would go great with

What is it? Quinoa stuffed peppers. You remember you used to do peppers when we were kids

I don't know anything about any quinoa, though, being in it. It's nice and light. I eat quinoa all the time

It's not hard to find. It's not exotic. How did you find out about that? I told you I was the smart one

Coming up, Bobby's teaching me a thing or two with his quinoa stuffed peppers

Ooh, I think I like quinoa. And later, our low-fat avocado cream

sends this southwestern meal over the top. Oh, boy, howdy. Good? Delicious

All right, Mama, let's move on to the stuffed poblano peppers. OK

Are you ready? I'm turning it over to Bobby on this one. Quinoa

I don't know what a quinoa is. Quinoa. It is grown for its edible seeds, which is what we're actually eating

Oh, okay. It's loaded with protein, and it's got a lot of zinc and magnesium

There's lots of stuff in it that's good for you. And this is cooked, so I think I'll try some

You know, if you've got a craving for rice or something, you could eat it in place of that. It might be a little better for you

Oh, I love the way it pops in your mouth. You like it? You know, Bobby, it doesn't have a whole lot of taste to it, but it's all about the texture popping in your mouth

It's kind of neutral, and you would find it on the same aisle as, like, your couscous and your rice

It would be right there with it. It's not hard to find. Okay. Well, put me to work. Tell me what we're going to do

Start with the, we've got a can of peeled tomatoes there. Okay. And we're going to use peeled whole tomatoes

Okay. And this is going to be for the filling and sauce for our peppers

So do these go into your blender? Okay. And to your tomatoes, add, I've got you some chipotle peppers there

Just use one. Okay. Because if you use more than one, it's going to be real, real, real hot

Okay. And I'm going to use a little olive oil and get our tomatoes going and a red pepper going

Like, is that considered one, Bobby? Yes, ma'am, that's one. And now just those three cloves of garlic

So just smash them and drop them in there. All right, so let's see

The only thing I see is, like, a few tomato seeds, and I think that's all right

So we're going to put it in this pot. Right, for about 15 minutes, and that's going to get kind of nice and thick

for us. Yeah, your stuffed peppers when I was a kid, that's

one of my favorite food memories. Really? I love them. They were

so good. They were stuffed with what was it? I mean, it was usually like there was

a Spanish rice. I remember rice, tomatoes, ground beef. Tomatoes. You know, just very, very simple

And now what I've done, Mama, is I've got one purple onion. I've used half a purple onion and half

of a red pepper and I getting those going Okay And I going to add to that one room of tomato as well Okay Yeah if you stir that for me

Now, Mama, I meant to do this just a second ago, but I'm going to add some pinto beans to that

Pinto beans. Okay. Drained and rinsed. You love stuffed peppers as a

kid, Bobby. And whenever I make them, I can't help but think of our

Albany days. You remember the time we had an alligator tail in Albany? You know, we got a lot

of gators in Albany, Georgia. And Bobby and a friend of his, they were fishing

and all of a sudden, Bobby runs in the house very, very excited

He said, Mama. Mama, a gator bit me, and of course, you know, being a mama, I almost had a heart attack

He said, all he got was my shoe. All he got was my shoe

He said, but we got that gator. You want to cook him for us

And so I said, shoot, yeah, son. So I had a whole group of men over to the house that night

And I fried gator tails and potatoes. And oh, my goodness. Just so you know, I did not set out to go get this alligator

No, they were fishing. We were fishing. All right, Mama. A teaspoon of chili powder we'll add

Okay. And our quinoa. Okay, all of it. Please. What do I do now

Now we're going to stuff our peppers. First, though, I'm going to take half of our mixture here and pour it into our casserole dish

Okay. You know what that needs

Cheese? Yes. All right. Add it, add it. And this is just a pepper jack cheese

All right, Mama, let's cover it. Okay. We'll cook this at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes

So for 30 minutes, we'll have it covered. And for that last five minutes, we'll pull it out, uncover it, and let it roll so it can be nice and bubbly. Okay

Y'all do not go anywhere because we're fixing to eat some quinoa or something like that

Coming up, our avocado cream is the perfect topping for our Southwestern feast

It's delicious, isn't it, son? You ready, Mama

I am ready, son. Okay, let's check out the peppers. They smell wonderful

They do smell wonderful. All right, I'm getting your avocado ready for your avocado cream

Look at those. Ooh, Bobby. Mm-hmm. Those look delicious. Yes, they do

Now let's make a nice little avocado cream sauce to go with it. Okey-doke. This is really simple and light, too

This is nothing but the avocado, some low-fat Greek yogurt, the juice of one lime, a little bit of salt and pepper

Okay. Not much to it. And that's just a half a cup of Greek yogurt

Yum. All right, I'm going to turn this off, son, and I'm just going to scrape down the sides

Because there's still some chunks in there. Yep. Got him. Oh, boy, howdy

Good? Delicious. A little of our corn salad is going to go perfectly

Yes, right on top. And the chips are baked. How about that? Yes

Oh my gosh, I'm swallowing hard, Bobby. I know, I am too

I'm swallowing hard, a little garnish. So, I hope that we find that this poblano is not real, real hot

We're about to find out. Well, Bobby, I have had such a wonderful time going southwestern with you today

I have too, mama. You know what's funny? Why? I have been this way for the longest

I can just think about something that's hot, and I'll begin to sweat. You are starting to sweat

On the top of my head. No. I'm starting to sweat just thinking about this being spicy hot

Ooh, I think I like quinoa. Pepper's mild, too. No, it's not real hot

Oh, man, that's good. This may have a few more calories because I put a little bit more cheese on it

You did. That's all right. It's loaded with beans, protein, quinoa protein

Quinoa. You gotta try quinoa, y'all. It's delicious, isn't it, son? Fresh and delicious

Well, you come back anytime and I'll go out to the southwest with you

Okay? Let's go to the northeast next time. Okay, and have some lobster

Lobster. Lobster. I was gonna say, yes, lobster rolls. Are y'all in

Next time. Next time