Paula With Oprah - Two Glorious Divas In The House, Plus Paula Shows A Young One How it’s Done

Paula has been all over the place lately, promoting her new gorgeous design book. She vis’ted (that’s how Paula says it) with Oprah today and we got to see her back at her first job as a bank teller.

I’m surprised there was any money left in the bank. It seemed as if the whole town came out to have Paula handle their transactions. She was sooo delightful and kibitzed with every single person. She admitted to one lady, who was getting money for a trip to Vegas, that she herself was a ‘Slot Slut”.

She gave out cookies, hugs and her homespun homilies. WHO doesn’t love Paula? She’s completely irresistible.

She also made a Hash Brown Casserole with Oprah. It was a lot of fun to WATCH, despite its undeniable effect on our overall health.

Paula’s Best Dishes with Paula Deen

Gone Brunchin’

Breakfast Pizza

Sweet Potato Home Fries

Orange Coffee Cake

Grilled Peach Salad

I also caught a recent show of Paula’s, which was wonderfully homey. She tells us she’s having a “little vistor” coming in - ”a little girl”, who she’s going to show some cooking stuff to. Too cute. She’s Krystal DaSilva and when she sends Paula an email about a cooking problem, Paula invites her right over.

Do you think that Ina would do that if I asked her to show me how to do the tablecloth fold that was so hard to figure out?

Paula’s planning to have a little something ready for Krystal when she arrives, so she makes this luxurious, incredibly delicious-looking orange coffee cake. AND it’s “so simple, y’all”.

Sorry to sound like Pollyanna, but if you’re ever in a bad mood, just watch Paula. You can’t help but smile.

Wait, hold on! Paula’s talking and doing stuff and all of a sudden she grabs a cylinder looking thing and pulls the tab and it explodes in her hands.

Oh! That amazing looking coffee cake is made from those canned biscuits thingies. Darn!!! I will NEVER buy those. But maybe she’ll be making a good glaze and I can use that on a regular coffee cake dough.

Paula uses those a lot. She has a Monkey Bread recipe AND a Gorilla Bread recipe that call for refrigerator biscuits, or whatever the technical term is for that poison. I admit, because it’s Paula, I’m not going to get all bothered about it.

She fits one biscuit in the center of a cake pan and surrounds it with others cut in half to make a flower shape. Paula has to rearrange a bit when she doesn’t use all the biscuits. Her credo? “No biscuit shall be left behind.”

She brushes on a boatload of melted butter to “hep” the coffee cake get crispy. She tops it with ¼ cup of chopped nuts, which she’s mixed with 1/3 cup of sugar and some orange zest. She bakes it for 20 minutes at 350º F. until golden brown.

She mixes up the glaze – 2 ounces of cream cheese (but who’s counting, she says), ½ cup of confectioner’s sugar and some fresh orange juice. Isn’t cream cheese unusual in a glaze?

Paula is going to “drop” it on top of the biscuit things, when they come out of the oven.

OH! A knock at the door. It’s Krystal!

It’s lucky for Paula that Krystal turned out to be, not a stalker and not exactly a little girl either, but a sweet young woman, who had just become engaged.

Krystal likes to make breakfast pizzas, but hers are always blah. Paula says she’ll kick up the flavor and use a giant pancake as a base.

Wow, cream cheese in a glaze and pancakes as a base for pizza. Interesting.

Krystal charms Paula with the story of her engagement (her fiancé brings over a cake that says “Will you marry me?”). They mix up a pancake batter with Paula reminding Krystal not to overbeat. I think she IS overbeating, but Paula says nothing. (No wonder people love cooking with her.)

Krystal ladles out the batter to make two HUGE pancakes - the size of individual pizzas. That’s so neat, but won’t they get soggy with a bunch of stuff on them?

They move on to the Sweet Potato Home Fries. They boil the peeled chunks of sweet potatoes for 10 minutes and then drain them well. Paula continues to make more pancakes. Paula drops the potatoes into TWO deep fry baskets in the deep fryer right in Paula’s counter. (Of course, she has a double deep-fat fryer.)

She instructs Krystal to scramble some eggs (which have been mixed with a dollop of sour cream).

Paula makes a simple sauce of drained, flavored diced tomatoes, mixed with room temperature cream cheese. She “squishes” it all together to mix.

Paula turns around and grabs some bacon from the stove behind her. I feel pretty sure that whatever time of day it is, there’s always bacon in Paula’s kitchen ready to be grabbed.

Krystal chops the bacon and Paula starts assembling the pizzas. She tops the pancakes with the cream cheese and tomato mixture. Krystal mixes the bacon into the cooked eggs and puts THAT on top of the pizza pancake.

The sweet potato fries are ready to be served. Krystal asks Paula if she seasons them. Paula says you can use salt OR sugar. Huh? I never thought of sugar. Paula seasons one half with salt and one half with sugar, so K can taste them both.

They finish off the pizzas with fresh basil and some pre-shredded mozzarella. They go into a 400º F. oven until hot.

Meanwhile, they make a little salad with GRILLED peaches. Yum! Krystal slices 3 peaches and coats them with olive oil and salt. Paula makes a dressing with Dijon, rice wine vinegar, salt and olive oil.

Paula mixes mesclun greens with chopped pecans and some crumbled feta. Krystal grills the peaches until they have beautiful grill marks. Paula tosses everything together with the dressing. It’s so fresh and good looking.

Paula reveals the coffee cake to a suitably thrilled Krystal. Paula drizzles the top with confectioner’s sugar and orange juice.

Paula serves everything up. Krystal loves the salad and the coffee cake. They taste the pizzas. Paula says it’s out of this world. She lets Krystal say, “Love and best dishes from our kitchen to yours”.

I don’t necessarily think the people of the world would be better off if we ate Paula Deen’s recipes everyday; but I do think if we all adapted, even an ounce of her good will, charm and ever-present humor, we’d all be in a better place.

COULD You Skip Going Out To Eat For One Month? And WOULD You?

I don't know how you feel about Oprah or her even more lightening-rod-for-criticism buddy, Suze Orman (do you think she was actually born with that spelling of her name?), but something Suze (let's pronounce it Sooooooze, just for fun) said got me to thinking. 

She was shilling her latest book on Oprah yesterday, and, at the end of the show, she presented an "action plan" for getting one's finances in order. She wanted folks to try this:

For one day, spend NO money

For one week, don't use a credit card

For one month, don't go to restaurants

The audience seemed to have no problem with the first two. Me neither. But the third idea was an almost shocking suggestion to them...and that's just the way I felt too. Not that I go out THAT much, but I want to be able to, if I want. And let's face it, in many places, eating out is a town's major entertainment, plus it's available at every price point. 

Have you EVER gone a month without going to a restaurant? And would you consider it as a cost-saving measure? How many restaurants DO you frequent in a month...on average?

I'm sure when I had little kids, there might have been a month where we didn't go out, but I can't remember one specifically. I probably eat out an average of 6 to 8 times a month (closer to 6), and of course, I'm not counting if we're away. Plus does takeout count out as a restaurant meal? I guess it should. 

This made me feel better about the state of restaurants and food service in general. I know that raising food and fuel prices have given restaurants a double whammy. But if people have such a visceral reaction to the idea of not eating out, maybe that sector of the economy, at least, isn't doing as badly as all the rest. 

Three Chefs And One Oprah

Oprah did a good job with the three chefs she had on the other day, showing three families how to cook better, cheaper and healthier than their usual diet of takeout or frozen foods.

Cat Cora, Tyler Florence and Curtis Stone (he’s hot – here’s his diary…his TRAVEL diary, sadly) all came up with good strategies and recipes for seven days worth of meals for the different families.

I was appalled at the husband of the family that Curtis visited. After the wife said she was tired of cooking things that people didn’t eat, the husband snarled that her food wasn't good. They looked as if they could use a session with Dr. Phil. My feeling is if someone isn’t happy with the food being served, then he can cook it himself or eat what he brought with him!

Tyler was absolutely adorable. Oprah LOVED it when he called his wife “babe” when he spoke to her in the audience. He talked about the first meal he cooked for her. Unbeknownst to him, she hated duck and was feeding it to his dog under the table. Tyler is really all about his wife and family. He seems genuinely lovely.

All three chefs had one of their dishes ready for Oprah to taste. Tyler’s Barbecue Pork Shoulder with The Ultimate Barbecue Sauce was made in a crockpot. The politically correct term is now slow cooker. I love this idea for a broccoli slaw made with the STEMS of the broccoli. I often stir fry them, but I never thought to make a cole slaw type thing with them.

Curtis had a yummy pizza that O scarfed down.

Cat’s Greek Cinnamon Stewed Chicken was really cost effective, coming in at under 8 dollars.

This was a do-good, feel-good hour of Oprah…except for the surly husband.

Election Day Special - Oprah's Vote For The Perfect Roast Chicken

With Election Day upon us, I finally had to chance to try this roast chicken recipe from Oprah's good friend Cristina Ferrare - sometime television host, author, actress, model, and, apparently, occasional cook for Oprah. Oprah has pronounced it the best roast chicken in the universe. I have always found Cristina very delightful and genuine, so why wouldn’t her chicken be good?

She mixes together Dijon, soy sauce and lemon juice and pours it over the chicken. You throw in some pepper and herbs on it too. Here is the recipe. It looks a little like a caramel or butterscotch sauce. (I guess that’s not such a stretch, since some folks cook bacon as if it were candy.)



Cristina’s recipe says to roast the chicken, covered with foil for 1 1/2 hours, at 425°F and then uncover it until done. My general philosophy is NOT to cover stuff with foil. I would rather get it to the right color and temperature and THEN cover it with foil, if it needs more cooking time. But I decided to play by her rules.

I tried to do as instructed, but after about an hour and 10 minutes in, I couldn’t help myself. I had to look at the chicken’s progress. It was a good thing I did. The pan was on its way to becoming completely burned, so I quickly poured some water in to loosen things up. I removed the foil and left it in only 5 minutes longer, because I thought things were happening more quickly than prescribed in the recipe.

It looked nice with a good color. There were drippings in the pan, so I decided to deglaze it and add some stock for a sauce. Even with a cup or two of stock, the sauce was way too salty, which was a shame.

I think that Cristina is relying on a trick that is used in almost every restaurant on the planet (or in one’s kitchen, when you want to impress), which is to add much more salt (or salty ingredients) than you would normally, so that the food “tastes” especially good.

Obviously, the drippings are not designed for a sauce and Cristina’s recipe never said that they were. But I feel that it’s a waste not to use all that wonderfulness in the pan. The mustard and soy sauce were okay as flavoring agents for the chicken, but if they render the drippings unusable, then that recipe is not for me.

It’s the same way I feel about brining a turkey. You can’t stuff it and you can’t use the drippings. No way is that going down in MY kitchen.

When I’m roasting poultry, I expect more from it than just the meat. I need sauce and occasionally stuffing. Sorry, Oprah, Cristina’s chicken does not get my vote.

Note: Some of her other recipes, which used the cooked chicken, looked okay.

Cute Curtis, Adorable Tyler,

Oh, And Ingrid Was There Too

Why can't Top Chef truncate their challenges to less than half an hour, like Oprah did on her latest show? The last half of her show was dedicated to a Sandwich Showdown. 3 viewers competed to come up with winning sandwich entries.

This competition was the aftermath to a feature with Gayle going around the country tasting great sandwiches everywich (get it?) where. I must say she does wrap her mouth (and teeth) around a sandwich in a not at all unattractive way. And that can't be easy.

During the Sandwich Showdown, the 3 contestants were surprised when their favorite celebrity chefs - Curtis, Tyler and Ingrid - came out to help them. They were all warm and wonderful. Yes, Ingrid too.

Curtis was flirtatious, Tyler was a big hugging machine and Ingrid was genuinely enthusiastic with her gal. One of the provisos, which was kind of pointless, was that they had to make a sandwich that they had never made before. Who was going to be the judge of that?

They showed some funny stuff as the teams went shopping at Whole Foods. Ingrid was about to punch out the fish guy for giving all the lobster to Curtis. Curtis was more interested in playing with the melons and dropping things than shopping. Tyler was pretty much on task.

The judges were Oprah, Gayle and Padma. And they only wasted a little time with Gayle doing some very short interviews with the participants as they finished their tasks.

The best part was the chowing-down. Oprah tasted the first sandwich and was starting to rave about how marvelous it was. Then she remembered she was supposed to have a poker face. With her cheeks full of pot roast, she stopped smiling and tried to look serious. It happened with each sandwich.

The actual sandwiches all looked good. It seemed pretty clear it was all up to the chefs and the ladies were just there for the fabulous prize. The winner was to win tons of Kenmore appliances and pots and stuff.

They gave the win to Tyler. (I wasn’t surprised. His WAS awesome.) But then they gave the prize (worth $7000) to EACH of them. There was jubilation all around.

Oprah had Padma explain in technical terms why Tyler won – lots of different flavors in the same sandwich. Oprah and Gayle said they just liked it A LOT.

I like a food show with lots of hugging and mugging. And, Gayle, keep up those jaw stretching exercises. They’re obviously serving you well.

Jamie, Dave, Oprah and Hillary

What do these names have in common? They were all involved or invoked on David Letterman last night.

Dave did repeated bits with Hillary, including one in which she entreated us to check out her website for a Snickerdoodle recipe. I did and there it was. Even if it was Cat Cora’s recipe, I thought that was funny. (It’s not on Hill’s home page anymore.)

Jamie was a guest and talked about Oprah. I didn’t realize Jamie
is on Oprah’s new good works reality show. I am a bit sick of hearing how this show is the first reality show “that’s about what you give instead of what you get”. Of course it is. This is Oprah we’re talking about. I think it’s a great idea, but I just wish that the folks involved didn’t use the exact same words to describe the show. It sounds a little bit like they’ve all drunk the Kool-Aid.

Jamie did cook on The Late Show and he and Dave together were like a modern-day Laurel and Hardy. Jamie was the oh-so-cute straight guy to Dave’s Jerry Lewis-like antics. Jamie cooked away (the recipe is near the bottom of this link), pouring and stirring and tossy-tossing his ingredients, while Dave waded wrist deep in crab lungs. It was funny.

Jamie was also on Oprah today, talking about Big Give. He demonstrated a pizza recipe and some strange cocktail, but at least he didn’t kill anything on the stage. I really didn’t know that Miss Winfrey (Jamie called her Mrs. Winfrey and she corrected him) knew so little about cooking and food. It is kind of amazing. Now if he would just allow the Food Network to publish EVERY recipe he does on his show (only two recipes from each Jamie at Home episode appear online), I’d be happy. That to me would be a Big Give.

Paula Feeds Oprah

The big news of yesterday's Oprah show was that Stedman has a daughter! Who knew? Oprah took her along on a trip to Macon, Georgia where she taped last week's Favorite Things Show. Oprah bought her a pair of earrings at a local store. And, by the way, Macon was chosen because 45 % of its TVs are tuned to Oprah's show.

During Paula's appearance, they showed a clip from her previous hilarious visit. (It looked as funny as when she was on Ellen). "Get out your helmet and your goggles and we'll make a cheese ball." After removing their shoes, they begin.

Paula whips a bunch of ingredients together in the stunning KitchenAid, which was the point of the entire recipe. That mixer was one of Oprah's Favorite Things. Oprah is so thrilled at the addition of bacon to the cheese ball that they do a little dance. Hmmm, I wonder if that would have helped Giada's chocolate and brie paninis. Prob'ly not.

They pass the cheese ball back and forth and then roll it in more bacon and nuts and parsley. THEN Oprah gives every member of the audience the gorgeous Artisan KitchenAid that Paula was using. Wow, the mixer AND samples of that cheese ball...They really scored big.

Giada Underwhelms Oprah

Well, that was my impression anyway about Giada's appearance on Oprah yesterday. And I thought Giada did fine with the great Pooh-Bah herself. But Oprah definitely didn't have the same chemistry with Giada as with RR. After all, she gave Rachael her very own show.

Oprah WAS ever-gracious, though, complimenting Giada on her first dish - an "easy" appetizer to show Nate that even HE could cook. I don't think fiddling with coating food and frying it in lots of oil is necessarily the easiest thing she could have done, but Ms. Winfrey was impressed with the results, which was the important thing.

Giada moved on to a quick little appetizer with blue cheese - crostini with honey drizzled over. Oprah seemed a bit forlorn that the blue cheese didn't get melted over the bread. She was sure it looked like it had been cooked. Giada had to explain that O's hot lights made it look like that. Luckily, Oprah's a grownup and got over it.

But, oh my, this next thing WAS kinda bad. Giada made (WHY didn't she read my blog on this topic?!) her panini with brie, chocolate chips AND BASIL.

Giada, honey, I could have told you that the O-Mighty wasn't going to like it.

Oprah took a bite and her face froze, as she thought of something to say. She came out with "In-TER-Resss-Ting". And then, and THEN they brought out tastes for the audience and the ENTIRE audience was unmoved and silent.

Oprah asked if they had ever had anything like it before. The whole audience said NO collectively, signalling, I think, their intention NEVER to have anything like that again.

I understand that Giada was trying to bring something different to the table and Oprah even thanked her for allowing her to try something she would otherwise never have tried before. (Goodness knows, there was really nothing else to thank her for. I was impressed that Oprah thought of THAT.)

Anyway, I get that she wanted to do something interesting, but Giada's very first consideration should have been making something that TASTED fantastic! Because when Oprah tastes something she likes, SHE REALLY GOES TO TOWN TALKING ABOUT IT. Remember the restaurant she backed, because of the amazing sandwich she had?

I'm not sure what it says about Giada or what it says about Oprah or even us, for that matter, that Rachael Ray has had more success on Oprah than Giada. And, maybe, for all I know, no one else noticed that Oprah was a bit off. (And, NO, it had nothing to do with her thyroid condition. She simply didn't care for what Giada made and, so, was less than her usual enthusiastic self.)

I love Giada, but I hate brie with basil and chocolate chips. One thing I know for sure...don't bring a truckload of something iffy to the Queen of Talk and expect her and her audience to embrace you. They just want something GOOD...LIP-SMACKING GOOD.

Gayle King Told Anthony Bourdain She Thought Rachael Ray Was A WHAT???!!!

Today, Gayle King, caring girlfriend to many, talked to Anthony Bourdain, riotous antagonist to most, on her XM radio show.

Unfortunately, I only caught a little of it, but it was fascinating. I liked the counterpoint between sunny and funny Gayle and surly and sarcastic Tony. In the understatement of the century, Gayle said it seemed that there were quite a few Food Network chefs that he didn't like.

He went into a long explanation of what a chef was...Still Gayle was clueless. And THEN Gayle said, "I thought if they were on the Food Network, they were CHEFS, like Rachael Ray." I almost spit my teeth out of my head.

To Tony's credit or perhaps DIScredit, he calmly said even Rachael Ray doesn't consider herself a chef. And Gayle repeated that she had always thought of RR as a chef, BECAUSE she appeared on the Food Network. Back to Tony talking (correctly) about how a CHEF is the leader of a troop of cooks in a professional kitchen. That IS the correct understanding of the French word CHEF. It means leader, head or chief. The only thing RR leads is a gross adulteration of the culinary arts.

Anyway, I guess Anthony Bourdain is capable of civilised conversation (darn!), when the situation (talking to the best friend of the most powerful woman in media today) requires it. But who would have thunk that Tony could have held his tongue? But hold it he did, even though Gayle's naiveté should have driven him wild.

Rachael Ray, The Daytime Emmys and That Dress

I was watching the Daytime Emmys rather halfheartedly, when I heard a voice (a rather piercing one) coming from the audience. OMG it was Rach in an unbelievably revealing gown. At first I was shocked and then I thought, good for her - she's not in Kansas anymore, or even Albany.

And I have to admit it did make me wait around to get another look at her to see if she could hold her own amongst all those soap opera sirens. She lost Best Talk Show Host to Ellen DeGeneres. No one gives an acceptance speech like Ellen and Rachael didn't look too disappointed. She's just happy her show isn't on opposite Oprah, like Ellen's is in New York.

I have to say the best moment was when Elmo won. Oscar watched intently from the audience and then he, too, won a second Emmy in this category. That's good stuff. Elmo made another appearance with Tyra Banks later to help her introduce a clip of the children's programming awards presented last night. Elmo really is too cute.

Ellen won her 4th Emmy for Best Talk Show, even beating out the, now Rosie-less, controversial The View.

And next is Rachael Ray presenting the Emmy for Best Drama Series???!!! I'm trying to figure out a connection between RR and Drama and I'm just lost. Is she the highest status person there tonight? And I must say her dress looked less provocative and more potato sack-like than when she was seated in the audience.

But she did do a good job of corralling two large casts of folks who won in a tied award. Don't ask me who won, I was just waiting to see what would happen with her dress. Everything stayed where it should and, thankfully, the show ended on time. Anyhoo...

These were the foodie winners at the Creative Craft Daytime Emmy Awards, given on Thursday. -

Lifestyle host: Paula Deen, "Paula's Home Cooking," Food Network

Lifestyle program: "Paula's Home Cooking," Food Network

Technical direction/electronic camera/video control: "Rachael Ray," syndicated