Paula Dean just made fried cranberry sauce.

[Franzia]

I think she fries everything. :crazy:

[texanwitch]

1. No butter.

How do you fry cranberry sauce.

Paula Dean would fry jello.

[Franzia]

2. Get a can of cranberry sauce, (carefully) slice it, freeze the slices for 3 hours,

dip frozen slices in flour, fry.

I think she once fried a stick of butter.

[texanwitch]

3. I think I will pass on fried cranberry sauce.

I agree Paula would fry butter.

I often wonder if she is doing all this frying just for fun, she can't be serious.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Honey, she is from the land of fry.

I always tell people that Southern food is generally monochromatic.
Everything is fried.
Even creamed corn.
Or maybe it was frozen corn niblets.
Whatever, yech.

They fry turkeys on Thanksgiving. In very deep fat fryers.

I've been told I "just ain't lived till you have had fried turkey".
I am afraid I will not live after I have had it.

Basic ingredients are flour, grease, butter and sugar. ( brown or white, don't matter),
in the basic food group: chicken/pork, yellow squash, cornbread, and turnip greens.
( boiled )

What isn't fried is baked, with lots of butter. Pound cakes are the major dessert.
With Cool Whip.

And we just love Paula Dean to death. We truly do.

[JVS]

16. The deep fried turkey is good.

And not nearly as greasy as one would imagine.

[texanwitch]

17. I used to watch Paula, enjoyed her cooking shows.

I do fry turkeys, have for the past few years.

I like my fried foods but not everything fried.

Paula is one of a kind.

Just watching her shows can make you fat.

Pound cakes are easy to make, just a pound of this and pound of that.

I remember her brownie show, where she used a one pound of butter to make them.

[susanna]

21. I need to ask you a question.

Since you are from Alabama, land of my people. :hi:

I am the first generation of my family born in the north, somewhere around 30-40 years ago (vagueness intentional LOL). I grew up learning food from grandma and ma, and I have turned inveterate southern food haters into believers up my way. Ask me about my biscuits, cornbread and beans. :-)

That said, southern food has always used fat in unusual ways for flavoring (bacon drippings, etc.), but I have to say when I watch Paula's show it is so far from my grandma's cooking that I know something has happened since my family left the south fifty-some years ago. It does not surprise me, but I think anthropologists would be interested in the "old" southern cooking I learned vs. the "new."

I guess my question is whether I learned an outdated form of cooking (quite possible). Or, am I just the descendant of women who cooked differently from their peers? Because Paula kind of seems over the top to me.

I do fry. I love fried okra, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, fried potatoes, etc., but fried cranberry sauce? Four sticks of butter when two will do? Two cups of sugar when a half cup works? Seriously, part of me thinks she just overdoes everything a bit. I can't see any of it actually tasting good. Her sweet stuff would make my teeth fall out!

Am I a holdover from another era, or what? ;-)

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. I can give you a sorta answer.

First, I have lived in the South off and on since 1963, and natives will never accept me as a "true" Southerner. Esp. since I like sugar in my cornbread recipe and am not crazy about the New year field peas dish.
Love hams, tho.

Second, my comments about southern food are meant to be exaggerated humor, based on reality. There is and as far as I know always has been a lot of frying. There is also
red beans and rice and oxtail soup and noodles...and southern biscuits, sweet tea, red velvet cake, and peach pie as great ways to introduce people to good southern cooking.

Paula Dean is from Georgia.We think that is a big difference..boy howdy, is there a difference.
Bless her heart, she fries Twinkies! Look her up in Wikipedia.

Our parents cooked differently, and I agree Paula Deen is over the top, adorably so. She is big on what we call "comfort food". Me, I like to hear her laugh and watch her "diva" act.
She's like her food, a wonderful aside to traditional Southern cooking.

[susanna]

24. OK; that is exactly what I was wondering about. Thanks for helping me out!

I worried that my southern heritage was slipping away, with me decades removed in the north. I hope you understand? I wasn't trying to be difficult, just wanted some feedback. :-)

I love Paula, actually. She cracks me up. I love divas! I just watch her sometimes and think, whoa - that's a lot of (sugar, butter) and think to myself that my ancestors were just, well, "different." Which would not surprise me, LOL, 'cuz I sure am.

I actually ate deep-fried Oreos up here in Detroit at the Michigan State Fair last year. Yum. I ate half of one and practically went into a sugar coma. So I would never do fried Oreos for myself. But it's fun to test out others' theories and move on. Oh, and earlier the same day I ate a fried bologna sandwich. Utterly yum. :-)

on edit: bad grammar

[Tom Kitten]

4. Can we aim a few raspberries her way?

Let's see her fry them and make a nice saucy sauce...

[Critters2]

5. How much butter did she melt down to fry it in? nt

[SurfinBetty]

6. Just use half the fat and 1/8th the sugar in her recipes

Seriously. That's it.

[kentauros]

7. I only know about Paula Dean second-hand from places like this

and family members talking about her. It sounds like she would do "Chicken-fried Chicken-frying Batter" and make a meal that people would supposedly eat and like. What is this? Redneck fine-dining? :P

Now this is a cooking show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBQD3aSZ9R4

[texanwitch]

8. Ever see the SNL version of Julia's cooking show.

I can't remember who played her but it was during the first few years of the show.

It was so funny.

[AlCzervik]

9. Dan Akroyd.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. It was Dan Ackroyd..

[kentauros]

11. Yes, it was Akroyd

:)

And as I recall in interviews with Julia, she and her husband loved that skit and would watch it periodically :D

[texanwitch]

12. Thanks, I couldn't remember who played her.

I do remember Julia cutting her hand and bleeding everywhere and still trying to do her show.

[kentauros]

13. Yeah, it was pretty funny!

:rofl:

I tried to find a youtube video, but it's not there. However, here is a transcript of the skit and a couple of photos:

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/78/78hchef.phtml

[texanwitch]

14. Thanks,

Always save the liver.

Those early shows were so funny.

[Danger Mouse]

18. She's like some sort of culinary Lovecraftian Horror.

From the stygian abyss, the dreaded Yog-Deannoth conjures horrible abominations that should not be.
:puke:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. You should write a book about it...

"The Culinary Lovecraftian Horror"

[Danger Mouse]

20. I would but...I think it'd be too scary.

[kentauros]

23. The Deanwich Horror?

:P

[TreasonousBastard]

25. Years ago I actually cooked up one of her "recipes"...

for some kind of bean thing. Black-eyed peas, I think. Looked like it would be really good.

Damn thing like ta killt me! Smelled like ass and tasted worse. Dogs wouldn't eat it. Threw it in the yard and the crows and possums wouldn't eat it. Flies wouldn't lay their eggs in it. It didn't even rot.

So, tried it again thinking maybe it was my fault and I did something stupid. Nope. Stupid thing was to try it in the first place.

[Bertha Venation]

26. I swear to god, she is a one-woman campaign for heart disease. n/t

[KG]

27. having lived in the rural south, i can confirm that most cooking involves frying something to an

unrecognizable lump. i mean, they fried salmon for god sake! :eyes:

[philosophie_en_rose]

28. "Paula Deen's Fried Butter Balls"

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/paulas-fried-butter-balls-recipe/index.html

* 2 sticks butter
* 2 ounces cream cheese
* Salt and pepper
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
* Peanut oil, for frying

Cream the butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper together with an electric mixer until smooth. Using a very small ice cream scoop, or melon baller, form 1-inch balls of butter mixture and arrange them on a parchment or waxed paper lined sheet pan. Freeze until solid. Coat the frozen balls in flour, egg, and then bread crumbs and freeze again until solid.

When ready to fry, preheat oil in a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F.

Fry balls for 10 to 15 seconds until just light golden. Drain on paper towels before serving.