Catch me on Paula's Best Dishes today!!

After a little schedule snafu a couple of months ago .... it looks like today is the day!!! Catch me and Paula Deen on Paula's Best Dishes!! I visited the beauty that is Savannah last year and chronicled the trip here on the blog in a post called "Just Got Back from Savannah"

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had. I often tell the story of when she asked me to come on the show with her. Said it was going to be an episode completely to do with butter ... LOL. I was like, uhhhhh, isn't that every episode?!? LOL and then, I got clarity, not only was it gonna be butter laden, but we were gonna discuss it and make it the star. Again, that's not every episode?!? Teeheehee, just kidding. Let me tell you, I look up to Paula and when we hung out, she felt like an extra grandma. I do believe, she'd fit right into my North Carolina family. Such a spitfire and such a cook! Can't wait for you to see us together!!! A special thanks to her production team as well, they are hard at work producing The Chew!!

Paula's Best Dishes ... "Butterlicious" ... yes "Butterlicious" ... Today, Saturday @ 1030AM and Monday at 5PM!!!

Paula's Butter Braised Shrimp

Paula's Buttery Stone-Ground Grits

Paula's Sour Cream Butter Biscuits

My Compound Butter and Radishes (can't find a link or the recipe, but it's on the show)

My Butter Pecan Ice Cream

My Buttery Bananas

Tell a friend, enjoy the fun!!!

Just got back from Savannah!!

Hey hey hey! I just got back from Savannah, GA! You know what that means ... Paula Deen! Remember how I told you she invited me to be on her show? Well, it's all said and done and I took some pics to share. Check us out!
That's after we taped the last segment of her show. She felt like family and many of the things she said and did reminded me of my relatives in the Carolinas. Boy did she make me miss home.

First, I have to tell you, the city of Savannah is just beautiful. If you've never been and like stateside vacations, I'd say give it a go. I'm kind of corny so before the trip I read up a bit and the infrastructure and architecture there is significantly historical. So I took a walk around when I checked into the hotel and just as promised from my reading, it was pretty amazing. The city squares are a sight to see, there are so many I lost count and all within walking distance. Fountains and monuments and history at your feet. Antique hunters, I mean really. Boutique shoppers, it's crazy! Tour takers, I saw plenty of trollies, horse carriages, etc. Movie buffs, the Forrest Gump bench is there and so much more. I walked into CVS and everyone behind the check-out counter happily said "Welcome to CVS, it's nice to have you here today!", it caught me off guard so much that I replied "I'm happy to be here in Savannah!". I know, corny, but that's how happy the city and it's people make you feel. Talk about southern hospitality. Savannah has it all right and if you are a golfer, Hilton Head is right around the corner. I can go on and on, really Savannah is great.

Another great thing about Savannah? It's a southern foodie heaven. On my flight about half of the plane was filled with people planning a trip to Paula Deen's family restaurant The Lady & Son's. That's just the people I could hear in the terminal or on the flight there. Then, walking through the airport, I took a pic of the Paula Deen wall at the magazine store.Crazy right!? There was also a section with just her books and magazines. I scooted off to my hotel and did all the sight seeing I could in a few hours as I mentioned above, amazingly beautiful city. I had dinner that night at her restaurant with her producers to catch up and chat about the next day's show. First of all I didn't know how big her place was, it's three stories high and each level was packed. Plus, there was an elevator, love that everyone can get to every floor, wether on foot or wheels. The service was great and you know how some places give you chips and salsa or bread and butter to start? Well, at The Lady & Son's you get hoe cakes and biscuits...That biscuit was so springy and light and creamy. The insides just kind of melted on my tongue and the top was crisp and buttery. I didn't feel the need to butter it, jelly it or anything. Very good. Then my hoe cake was soooo good! I drizzled some syrup on it and finished it off pretty fast. It reminded me of my mom's. Her edges were crispy just like that. What a nice surprise. Here's my plate from the buffet ...I know, right when I'm talking restraint, I make a 3-piece plate with all the fixin's. I took this right after I realized I dove in like a beast before taking a picture of my spread. That's my sweet tea on the right. The chicken was seasoned to the bone and crunchy. The greens were just how I like em and everything else was so good. I love that I had a big ol' piece of pork in the scoop of black eyed peas I plated for myself. It was like getting the golden egg. Totally a score! I know you can see the fried green tomatoes just above my plate. We got it for the table, I was nice and ate just one, but if I were by myself, I would've polished them all off. It's amazing what restraint I can have. Luckily, my hotel was just a few blocks away from her restaurant so I tricked myself into thinking the walk to my room would make up for the calories in the meal. Teeheehee. Ok, down to biz ...
That's me in front of Paula's place just as I arrived to tape. She tapes in this house, but lives in another. Smart cookie, because taping at home can really rip your place up. The weather was warm, but at least there was a breeze. Just outside the house is the prep kitchen. I poked my head in to say hi and everyone was busy at work!
They had a breakfast spread out of scrambled eggs and bacon and granola and stuff, but I didn't have much of an apetite, I was still full from the night before and I wanted to eat like crazy on set. I knew what the menu was for the show and was excited to eat my way through it! I haven't shared the menu with you yet, huh? Well, the entire episode is about ... take a guess ... BUTTER! When I found out from her producer a few weeks back that they wanted to do a whole show focussed on butter, I felt a bit honored. I mean it is what she's known for. So I knew I had to "bring it" with my recipe submissions. I won't tell you what we made, but I will say there's butter all over the place. I made two dishes and she made two as well. We chatted and laughed and had such a great time. I can't wait for you to see it! She tapes her shows far in advance so this one may not run until next year, but I'll be sure to let you know beforehand if you are interested.

Wait, it isn't over ... As I'm sitting in a back room chatting with Brandon, Paula's right hand man and creative director, Paula's son, Jamie came by with his wife and son to say hi right before he taped the second show of the day with his mom. The whole family is nice and everyone was so sweet. He scooted off to the kitchen and we all sat in the back room chatting and watching the show on a small monitor.
That's a click to zoom if you need detail in the photo. Speaking of Brandon, just a few weeks back I caught him on the morning news talking about his new book he co-authored with Paula, take a look ...
I got a copy and love it! Especially since I'm in spring cleaning and redecorating mode at home. If you are interested, click here and head to the page for it on Amazon.com.

Ok, that's all I have. I'm headed to Rhode Island this weekend for a charity event, I'll let you know how it goes, I hope we raise plenty of $$$. I'm taking the train up because I love that route, can't wait for my fave train meal. Take a look ... ... any suggestions for lunch in Providence anyone?

SoBe it! 2010 - Final Shots II

Hey there! Well, it's taken me a bit to post the final shots from the SoBe Food and Wine festival because I took a few extra days in Miami to relax. I ate out, hibernated in my room a bit and went out to clubs with friends. If you are in Miami, Club Louis at the Gansevoort South is perfect on a Tuesday night for a good party! I went out with some friends and didn't even get to sleep before my 7AM flight. That's good for chef/restaurateur Donatella Arpaia, because I sat next to her on my flight home and slept the whole way. If I weren't so tired, I may have talked her ear off or at least gushed to tell her how proud I am as a business woman. I did get a chance to edit it down to just a few minutes while we landed. Turns out she watches Cooking for Real and she's very, very nice! I'm not saying it because she watches though, you can just tell from chatting with some people that it's all about the passion and not the ego of the whole thing. She's such a hard worker and has great things on the horizon. Nice to get a seat next to her and spread some smiles. Now I'm home and back to work! Tomorrow, I leave for a quick tour of Publix grocery stores in Florida and Georgia for some cooking classes I'm hosting. Yep, right back to Florida and I can't wait! Gonna see if I can get people Cooking for Real on the road! In the meantime, here are the rest of my pics ...

Back stage in the green room for the cooking demonstrations I caught a show being taped for Food Network. Can you guess which one??
I know you see Pat Neely in the background, but the crew is there to tape Ace of Cakes! Looks like they'll have an episode following the team to the festival and watching what happens when they take the stage for the cooking demonstration. After they cleared out and went on stage, look who got off stage and made their first stop the green room to relax ...
That's actually my first time chatting with Paula Deen! We've met very briefly, but she is always so busy and surrounded by friends and family that it's hard to chat. She is just as sweet as you can imagine though and after I told her about specific shows of hers I loved and how I can be brought to tears just by her tearing up over food ... she invited me on her show! I immediately said yes and I look forward to pulling all the loose ends together now that I'm home. If you would have told me a few years ago Paula would ask me to be on the her show, I would've exploded lol. It's neat to me that she comes on right before me on Saturdays too. A great lead-in as the TV people say! I just totally respect her path in life and it wasn't an easy path to where she is now, I'm happy all her efforts payed off. Ok, then I went back out to the fairway area and chatted it up with some more people at the Viva Towels Booth ...

The camera man behind me is shooting video for an internal Food Network video they'll use to showcase at the cable network up fronts. Ever hear of those? More on that later ... back to Miami! You can tell by looking at the different outfits in the pictures that it wasn't super warm down on South Beach, but it wasn't cold either. A very nice middle ground around the mid-70s all weekend was perfect for sipping wine. Last year it was about 20 degrees warmer and there were surely more people stumbling out than walking out. Heat just magnifies everything. Take a look at the tents on Saturday ...
I have to tell ya, it seems impossible to power through all of the vendors in one day and because of that many people bought tickets for the entire weekend. Wanna know the price of that?? Check Jacob's blog ... the saving grace for the ticket prices is the charity attached. Young culinary students get grants for school in exchange for working at the events. Pretty cool and each student I spoke with was super excited to not only get the grant, but to work side by side with people in an industry they plan to join. Here's someone I worked with side by side before I got on Food Network ...
Back then I was a radio DJ that catered for music industry even and he was ... well, Emeril Lagasse! Nuff said! He gave me my start here on Food Network when I cooked with him on Emeril Live back in 05 and every time I get to give him a hug ... I take it. He has a new cooking show on the way he told me about and I can't wait to see it. After I said hi to him, I let him get back to work. He was signing cookbooks and taking pictures for what seems like forever. I made that the last stop for the day and headed back to my hotel. Just as I was walking up to my room I caught a store in the lobby I didn't remember seeing last year. I think I'd remember seeing these huuuuuuuuge cupcakes. Or are they mini cakes???!!!
Well, it's not all about cupcakes ... the place is called SoBe Scoops and I tasted the purple flavor in the top right. It was raspberry chocolate and then I tried the cookies and cream, the peanut butter and then settled on not ice cream, but a 100 Grand bar, a Kit Kat and a bag of Poppycock popcorn - Pecan lovers.
Here's store manager Gianna and coworker Ebonique. Thanks for letting me sample waaaay too much ice cream ladies!

Here's a wide shot of the store ...
Colorful and inviting, eh? They've only been open a few months and I think it's a smart store for a hotel lobby. I always need a sweet note at the end of a meal and how many Key Lime pie slices can you eat? :-) Well, I could actually eat many so that's a bad example, but you feel me. Ok .... that was Saturday.

The next day, I started the same ... at the Viva Booth. Only this time I met the winner of the Viva sweepstakes! Take a look!
That's Randy and his wife. they both entered to win and Randy was the lucky one. They got a year's supply of Viva Towels and a trip down to the festival to hang out. I actually met them Friday night at the Bubbles&Q party so by time we took this picture ...we were old friends :-). I kept telling everyone they were the winners because don't you always wonder IF there are winners of those things?? We had a good time chatting and hanging out. Right after we took this we both had to head back to the hotel so we hopped in golf carts and sped off. Randy and his wife were headed home and I was checking into another hotel to lengthen my stay in Miami. My first order of biz was a quick birthday hello to one of the reader's of this blog ...
That's Heather, aka "Dolphinfanhq" on blog comments. I put the call out for bloggers that wanted to meet up while I was in town and she replied, so we met and hung out for a few minutes before I headed off to a meeting. I also met "reyna" that Sunday night at Guy's party. What a nice surprise that was!! The weekend was almost over and I hadn't really hung out with my bloggin buddy Jacob so I invited him over for a Monday brunch on my patio along with a couple other friends. Here he is right before he headed off for the airport ...
We're smiling cuz we made it through the weekend with out a hitch and we are full. Just look at my plate ...
Well, that's it! All my stuff to share from the weekend! Catch me tomorrow night on Best Thing I Ever Ate - Guilty Pleasures @10 pm ET. I won't ruin it, but mine is from New Orleans ... home of the guilty pleasure if you ask me :-).