The Brunch Club

You know, instead of the older I get, my life kind of slowing down and taking it easy, it seems that my life gets more hectic, that I'm on the go more than ever

So, you know, that really leaves me not a lot of time for my girlfriends

And, of course, my girlfriends mean a lot to me. So sometimes I just have to say, listen, let's just have the girls over for brunch

We're gonna start by making chocolate chip pancakes with a rich cinnamon cream

Next, y'all, my friend Kim and I are fixing up a burger that's over the top, even for me

It's the Ladies' Brunch Burger. Then, a Southern Breakfast Classic, y'all, baked garlic cheese grits

And later, something light and sweet, a fruit yogurt parfait. So grab your plate, because today

I'm hoping you'll be a part of Paula's Brunch Club. I'm going to start out today by making a chocolate chip pancake

with a cinnamon cream. Now, I'm going to start by mixing up my dry ingredients

and I'm going to measure out one and a fourth cup of flour

and that's all-purpose flour. And then I'm going to come in and add three tablespoons of sugar, because we want our pancakes sweet

I'm going to measure out two teaspoons of baking powder, because we want our pancakes like mama here, fluffy

And then I'm going to add a fourth of a teaspoon of salt

And then I'm just going to mix those ingredients together. All right, now we've got to have our wet ingredients, so I'm going to separate two eggs

I need the yolks in this bowl. All right. Okay, so into my bowl goes my two egg yolks

Now I'm going to measure out one cup of milk. Bodine, what are you doing

Bodine's here in the kitchen looking for crumbs on the floor. He's eating something

All right, I'm going to beat that cup of milk into our two yolks

So all we have to do now is put our wet ingredients into our flour

And I have three tablespoons of melted butter. I'm going to pour in there

And then we're just going to whisk this together. Now, you don't have to worry about making your batter completely smooth

A few lumps are not going to hurt these pancakes at all

All right, now let's move down here. I have some egg whites that I've already beaten

until they form kind of stiff peaks. Now we're just going to take these and fold them into our batter

And this is going to make them even fluffier. Let me see if I can find a spatula

And we're just, like I said, going to gently fold that in

and that's over, under, over, under. You know, I love brunch because you can incorporate so many different foods

There's no rules. You can really get out there with your brunch menu

All right, now the last ingredient I want to add is some chocolate chips

because that's the kind of pancakes we're cooking this morning. and I'm going to add a fourth of a cup of little mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

So just fold that in. Now I've got my griddle nice and hot over here

And you want to start your pancakes on a nice hot griddle

because you want them to form their shape very, very quickly. So by starting with a hot griddle, that'll help

Now I'm just going to put a little bit of butter on my griddle, just like that

Now I'm going to take my batter, and I'm probably going to use about a fourth of a cup for each pancake

Looks pretty good, doesn't it? Now while those are cooking, I'm gonna move down here

and I gonna make a cinnamon cream to go on top of our pancakes And it real easy to make I going to use a cup of heavy cream

a fourth of a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a fourth of a cup of confectionate sugar

So I can have this made just like that. All right

It looks like our pancakes are ready to turn. And you'll know this because little bubbles are going to form on your pancakes

And that'll let you know that it's saying, flip me, flip me, flip me

So let's flip those pancakes. Let's get those flipped. Look at that

I see those chocolate chips in there. and they look mighty mighty good let's take a quick break and when we come back these are

going to be ready and hopefully kim one of my girlfriends that's coming early will be here to

help me next the most outrageous burger y'all have ever seen it's the ladies brunch burger

and later baked garlic cheese grits and a fruit yogurt parfait. Welcome back, y'all

That's delicious. While we won't break, my buddy Kim did get here

And Kim volunteered to come early today to help me pull everything together

You may recognize her because if you saw Monty Michael's wedding, she sang at our wedding

and it was so beautiful. Not only are you beautiful and kind and single

Taking off vacation. You can sing like a bird, honey. And she can cook

I love to cook. Isn't it fun? It's like therapy. Well, let's get going, girl

I'm ready. Because the rest of the girls are going to be coming soon. And let's move on to something a little savory

Okay, sounds good. You want to? I do. How about a hamburger with an egg on top

I love the fact that we can, like, mix breakfast foods, you know, with more lunch foods

That sounds good. There's really no rules when it comes to brunches

And do you feel good? Are you rested? I'm rested. I feel good

Honey, we're going to catch up on the gossip today. Ready. Now, I tell you what, while I'm chopping this parsley

If you'd grate me maybe like two tablespoons of onions. All right

I can't wait for the girls to get here. You know, I think this is a great idea

You know, rather than us getting together at night when we're so stinking tired

It's perfect. Yeah. It's perfect. And I'm just looking forward to seeing everybody

Ooh, that onion is strong, girlfriend. Strong. So, Kim, how are all the kids

The kids are great. I can't believe they're grown up now. I know it

You know, it just seems like yesterday that that sweet little Richard was this little gangly boy

I know, eating three plates of your buckling food. Kim's son, Richard, is now in the military

Yes, he's in the airport. He's a man now. He's a man. All right, my parsley's ready

How about the onions? You got enough? I got enough. We've got about a pound and a half of 85% lean ground beef here

And I've got a little salt and pepper there. Okay. If you want to just salt that, yeah

Okay. And ooh, that onion. Did it get you, Paula? It's strong, honey

It didn't make you cry, did it? It's going to be worth crying for. All right

I'm just going to mix that up. It's looking good. It already looks good, doesn't it

When he started cooking it. I know. How do you like your hamburgers

You like fat burgers? Semi-fat. Semi-fat? Sort of like if they'd been on Weight Watchers and weren't doing so good

I know exactly the kind. You know what I'm talking about. I actually kind of like mine thin

You do? I do. Doesn't that sound weird? Because I love my steaks, you know, nice and thick

And it's funny. You know, I love steaks, medium rare. But ground beef

How do you like it well? I kind of like it medium well. I'm kind of funny about that

Now, y'all don't have to worry about these burgers sticking because I've already sprayed the griddle with a little nonstick spray

All right. I need to wash my hands. Yeah? Because it got yoofy

Oh, it smells good. Doesn't it smell good? So much you've been doing

I've been singing. I've been having fun with my grandbaby. Oh, I know

Isn't it great being a granny? I love it. How's yours now

15 months old. Oh my gosh. And mine going to be a year old I can believe it I can either I can either So where have you been singing I been singing in Atlanta And I getting ready to go to California and see Richard

No. He does. Richard is one of the sweetest young men. I'm telling you, you got three good kids

But that Richard, he's my baby boy. He's our favorite. We won't tell Kimberly and Melanie

He's my favorite of your boys. That's good. I have one boy. All right

Kim, what was that wonderful song you sang at our wedding? They didn't believe me

They didn't believe me. They didn't believe me. Wasn't that pretty? Oh, gosh

I loved it. Because you know what? When I told everybody. They didn't believe you

They didn't believe me. When I told them how wonderful Michael was, my family went

That song said it all, Paul. That song said it all, and you sang it so beautifully

Sing just one little sentence for me. Just one little sentence? Uh-huh, just one little sentence

And when I told them how beautiful you are

they didn't believe me. They didn't believe me

I may lose the old girl to singing instead of cooking. We'll be right back

Maybe we're going to finish up these burgers and fry those eggs. Next, we're finishing up the most decadent burger you ever laid your eyes on, y'all

Then, you can't have a southern brunch without my baked garlic cheese grits

and later a light and refreshing fruit yogurt parfait. Well, welcome back, y'all

I pried the microphone out of Kim's hand, and I got her down there working on the burgers

because time is drawing near, honey. I'm going to make us some wonderful baked garlic cheese grits

I've got six cups of chicken broth in here, two cups of quick-cooking grits

That broth is gonna make it so much richer. And you got the hamburgers covered down there

don't you, girl? I have them covered, Paula. They're looking great. Good

I'll go ahead and get them off this griddle. Those burgers are gonna be so good

with the eggs and some bacon on them. Yum. Now, you want to make sure

when you're cooking your grits that you keep them stirred. these grits are looking great y'all now I'm about ready to get my other ingredients to go in here

and I'm gonna add like a half a stick of butter and I'm gonna add a half a cup of milk our milk

is gonna make them even more creamier and more rich hey Paul you want me to start on these eggs

yeah go ahead and start on them okay it's not gonna take me but a minute now I've got four eggs

here that I'm going to crack. And, uh, oops, I got another little piece of shell

All right, I've cracked my four eggs. I'm going to just beat them up, and I'm going to temper my eggs

Because, you know, I don't want to just dump these four eggs, y'all, into my grits because it could, like, wind up like scrambled eggs

and I don't want that. So I'm just going to slowly bring them up to heat

and our eggs are going to make our grits kind of souffle-like

Ooh, those eggs look good. Don't they look good? I'm just going to stir that egg mixture in my grits

Now, over here, I've got three six-ounce rolls of garlic cheese, and you can find this in the dairy section

And like I said, they're garlic-flavored, and it's going to be, like, just absolutely perfect in those grits

Oh, that looks so good. Yeah. So I'm just going to stir that around until my cheese melts, y'all

Beautiful. Mm, mm. I love cheese grits. I just love them. Now, I've got a casserole dish here that I've greased up

and that's probably like a four-quart serving dish. Now, I'm just going to pick up my grits and pour them in

Eggs are good. Yeah, they look great. Great. Okay

So there we go. Look at those clumps. So that garlic, too

The clumpier, the better. There. I'll give you your microphone back. Microphone back

All right. Now I got some sharp cheddar cheese here just in case they not cheesy enough OK I just gonna put these on top of our casserole

Perfect. And we're gonna put this in the oven at like 350

And we're gonna let them bake for about 30 or 45 minutes. Mo cheese, honey

All right, let's get these in the oven. Kim, you wanna open that oven door

I should. For me, honey, and I'll slip these in. Yeah. In they go

Yes. So let's come down here and put our sandwiches together. You want to

I do. We've got English muffins, buns, and look here what I got

No, you don't. Yes, I do. Oh, yes, I do. You're brilliant

So what do you think? I think we should go supreme with the donuts

I'm game if you are. Are you game or lame? I'm game, honey

All right, so we got our burger. We got our egg. We got a couple of pieces of bacon

We're going to have our sweet and our savory. The girls are probably going to see this and say

y'all are out of your crazy minds. You ready? Yes, have a taste

What does it taste like? A slice of heaven. I've never done this before, y'all, in my entire life

Hmm. We're gonna be arrested. That is thinking wonderful. We'll be right back

And coming up, a fruit yogurt parfait, sure to delight your brunch bunch

I'm in here in the kitchen with my friend, Kim Palote, and we're getting ready for the girls, our girlfriends to come over

because we're having like a brunch club get-together here at our house today

ready to chew the food and chew the fat. Let's toast. All right, we're fixing to sample our good old garlic cheese grits

All right. Oh. I just pulled those out of the oven. They're so good

The girls are going to love these. But, Kim, we're getting down to the short rows now, honey

We've got to kind of hurry. Okay. So let's move down here because I want to put the girls together some yogurt parfaits

If you would finish slicing the strawberries, and then I'm going to be talking about our granola

I've taken four cups of old-fashioned oats, just like oatmeal that you cook

two cups of grated coconut, a cup of sliced almonds. I mixed together a fourth of a cup of honey and three-fourths a cup of vegetable oil

All I did was toss that together, put it on a baking sheet, and I baked it for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees

And I've got it back here. It's cooled on our cookie sheet

Just that easy. We have homemade granola. Yummy. Doesn't that look yummy

It looks yummy. Well, let's just start by layering this. Okay. And let's put a layer of granola. Okay

And I'm using strawberry yogurt, y'all, because strawberry yogurt is, like, my favorite

Doesn't that look good? There are little blueberries. And you can put a little strawberries

Yes. Another layer of granola. Yeah, more yogurt. More blueberries. That's blueberries

More blueberries and then strawberries. Okay. These strawberries are so pretty. Aren't they beautiful

They look so good. All right, so just a little more sprinkle of that

Looks like a sundae, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to take our strawberries and I'm just going to kind of fan them

You know, slice them like that, not all the way through. But just see so they'll make a fan

Yeah. We'll put one of those on there. Maybe a couple of just blueberries

And a little fresh mint. Kim, I think we pulled it off

I think we did, and I think that they should be here any minute. Oh, Paula, that looks good

Look at that. I love the colors. I do, too. Yummy. Love it

So good. I think they're going to love these recipes. They're going to love them

You know, and as always, I send you love and best dishes. From my kitchen to yours, bring up your girlfriend

Don't forget her. Cheers