Paula Deen: It Ain’t All About the Cookin’

Paula Deen’s The Deen Family Cookbook
Nothing is more important to Paula Deen than her family, and nothing makes that big family happier than sitting down to a meal together. In Paula Deen’s The Deen Family Cookbook, Paula and the Deens, Hiers, Groovers, and Orts share their recipes and memories.
Paula’s beloved Aunt Peggy makes an Old-Fashioned Meat Loaf that’s as good in sandwiches the next day as it is for dinner. Baby brother Bubba Hiers brings his Beer and Onion Biscuits to the table, and his daughter, Corrie, makes a simple but luscious Lemony, Buttery Baked Fish that’s perfect for a weeknight dinner. (Her Carrot-Pecan Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are pretty tasty, too!) Son Jamie makes Huevos Rancheros, perfect for brunch, or try Bobby’s Whole Wheat and Honey Pancakes. Husband Michael Groover knows his way around a grill: try his Company’s Coming Grilled Steak and Veggie Supper for easy entertaining, and finish the evening with his Irish Coffee.
Of course, there was no way The Lady herself was going to let her relatives have all the fun: Paula is, after all, Paula. She shares her recipe for the Ham and Chutney Biscuit Fingers she puts on the table at every family party as well as the Eggplant and Sausage Lasagna that went a long way toward getting the boys to eat their vegetables. And while there’s plenty of butter, bacon, and mayonnaise in these pages, you’ll find some of the lighter recipes that Paula enjoys, too: Seared Scallops with Pineapple-Cucumber Salsa is her first choice for a healthful but romantic supper with Michael, and Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts with Honey-Yogurt Drizzle lets Paula indulge in her favorite foods without guilt and with room for dessert.
With more than 140 recipes and dozens of beautiful color photographs, there’s something here for everyone. So invite over all those aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends, and treat them to some home cooking, Deen family style.

The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook
In his enthusiastic introduction, John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, writes: “Authentic Southern food is not about pretension.” Sure enough, this book by the proprietor of The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga., doesn’t put on any airs. A great many recipes unabashedly list prepared foods among the ingredients. As an appetizer, Garlic Cheese Spread includes an eight-ounce package of cream cheese and an eight-ounce jar of Cheez-Whiz. Shrimp or Lobster Bisque contains, in addition to seafood, a can each of condensed tomato soup and condensed mushroom soup. The restaurant’s most popular dessert is Gooey Butter Cakes, which starts with a box of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix. Still, some of the recipes attain a high level of regional authenticity: Georgia Cracker Salad is made with crushed saltines, tomato, scallions, hard-boiled egg and mayonnaise; Southern Fried Chicken acquires its crispy coating with a batter of eggs and self-rising flour. Readers concerned about high fat content should skip this book. But those looking for some distinctively American comfort food?and in a mood for some decidedly anti-nouvelle regression?might want to take a peek.

The Lady & Sons, Too!: A Whole New Batch of Recipes from Savannah
For the first time in a gorgeous hardcover, more of the finest Southern recipes from the Food Network star, whose restaurant has been a Savannah staple for decades
In her first cookbook, Paula H. Deen hardly exhausted all of the best meals from her beloved Georgia restaurant, The Lady & Sons. In a sequel that’s just as delicious and brimming with color photographs, she serves up more of the surefire recipes that have kept customers coming back for more.
In her own life, Paula has turned hardship into hope. Losing both her parents by the age of twenty-three, she was left with two babies and a teenage brother to raise. Later, financial troubles in her marriage made her hide from the world. But surmounting her fear, surviving her divorce, and starting her own business with her sons jump-started her life–and created a favorite eating spot for Savannah natives and tourists alike.
Here are more than 315 of her purely Southern recipes, as simple as they are special: from appetizers, including Polynesian Chicken Wings and Tangy Marinated Shrimp, and such main courses as Brandied Prime Rib and Hurry-Up Chicken Pot Pie to desserts as good as Pecan Pudding Cake and Caramel Apple Cheesecake. And The Lady & Sons, Too! also features a weights-and-measures section and recipes from some of Paula’s friends, including author John Berendt’s mom.
In its gorgeous new edition, The Lady & Sons, Too! is more than an indispensable guide to good eating–it’s a lovely keepsake anyone would be delighted to own.

Paula Deen’s Kitchen Wisdom and Recipe Journal
ey there, y’all!
My favorite recipes came direct from my momma and grandmommas. I just love goin’ through all the recipe cards they passed on to me and readin’ their handwritten notes; it makes me remember our good times in the kitchen, gathered round the table. Sometimes, though, I need a little remindin’ when it comes to writin’ down my own recipes and recollections, so I’ve put together this darlin’ little journal to get me (and you) started recordin’. I know I never forget a meal, but I also know that Jamie and Bobby aren’t always listenin’ to what I’m tellin’ ‘em.
So for you and the boys, I’ve included some tried-and-true recipes and some of my hard-learned tricks for gettin’ out of culinary scrapes — and Lord, honey, have there been a few. Whether it is a real disaster — the boss and his wife are comin’ over and the kitchen is full of smoke (no shame in servin’ some takeout) — or just an everyday bump in the road — your husband didn’t hear the buzzer, and the cake got a little dry in the oven (let some sugar water soak into those layers, and no one will know the difference) — I’ve got your answer. Just get cookin’ and let loose: nothin’ makes memories like the smell of home-cooked meals. Jot down your ingredients and your musings, cut out a recipe card or two to share with friends, keep track of who came to dinner, who liked what, and who laughed the loudest; remember the good times and learn from the bad. Like I always say, there’s not much in life you can’t learn in the kitchen.

Christmas with Paula Deen: Recipes and Stories from My Favorite Holiday
“I’ve gone through all my books and put together this collection of my most treasured recipes and memories for the holiday season to share with you…You’ll find a few new dishes, a sprinkling of new holiday stories, and some family pictures you might not have seen before.”
There’s no holiday Paula Deen loves better than Christmas, when she opens her home to family and friends, and traditions old and new make the days merry and bright. Filled with Paula’s trademark Southern charm and happy reminiscences of Yuletide seasons past, Christmas with Paula Deen is a collection of beloved holiday recipes and stories interspersed with cherished family photographs. Included are Paula’s most requested homemade gifts of food; a collection of cookies sure to become your family’s favorites; easy dishes for a Christmas breakfast or brunch that will let you enjoy the food and your guests; impressive fare for Christmas dinner and holiday entertaining and, of course, spectacular cakes, puddings, pies, and other sweet things.
“So Merry Christmas, y’all, and best dishes and best wishes from me and my family to yours.”

Paula Deen Celebrates!: Best Dishes and Best Wishes for the Best Times of Your Life
Fans of Food Network star Paula Deen enjoy her unpretentious Southern-gal persona as much as her easy, what’s-not-to-like recipes. As a writer of four other cookbooks, including The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, restaurant owner, and purveyor of her own product line, she’s also something of an entrepreneur. In Paul Deen Celebrates! she offers 170-plus recipes arranged by menus for traditional holidays and other, sometimes whimsical celebrations like Elvis’s Birthday and Movie-Watching Pizza Party in Bed. The recipes, which are often Southern-rich, range from the more traditional, such as Shrimp Etouffé, Muffuletta Sandwiches, and Macaroni Salad, to the innovative, including Collard Green Wantons, Grilled Chicken Pita, and Scallop and Bacon Pizza. Her sweets include the likes of Old Fashioned Banana Pudding, Gooey Toffee Butter Cake and Margarita Mousse. Offered also are decorating tips, and “Paula’s Pearls of Wisdom” like “treasure today’s moment’s because they will tomorrow’s memories.”
Deen’s dishes couldn’t be more approachable and will doubtlessly inspire many holiday menus. Readers should know, however, that she regularly calls for convenience products like cake mixes and canned soups, whose use (by now something of an American tradition in itself) can do little to make homemade food taste as good as it otherwise might. Paula Deen Celebrates! should, however, excite Deen’s many fans, who, along with the attractive formulas, receive lots of “back-story” on the author’s own celebrations, life, and mostly good times.

The Lady & Sons Just Desserts: More Than 120 Sweet Temptations from Savannah’s Favorite Restaurant
Warmly effusive and dear yet gritty, Paula H. Deen seems mythically Southern. But this cooking luminary, proprietor of Savannah, Georgia’s Lady & Sons restaurant, is the real thing. The Lady & Sons Just Desserts, her all-sweets follow-up to The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook and The Lady & Sons, Too!, celebrates the Southern sweet tooth with 120 recipes, including traditional formulas for the likes of Brown Sugar Pound Cake and Lemon Chess Pie as well as best-loved restaurant innovations like Turtle Cake, Lemon Curd Pudding, and Gooey Butter Cake. (“These are very, very rich,” Deen advises, “and a little goes a long way–even for piggies like me!”) Lovers of the restaurant–which grew to prominence from $200 and lots of determination–as well as those seeking easy-to-fix temptations should put this book to happy use.
Among its wide-ranging recipes, Desserts offers Carolyn’s Jell-O Cheesecake, Lauren’s Chocolate Drizzle Pie, and Hidden Mint Cookies–recipes based on cake mixes and other convenience foods. These creditable sweets are of course work saving, but are perhaps better viewed as solidly characteristic of their time and place. Equally particular are candies like Mamma’s Divinity and Uncle Bubba’s Benne Candy, and “other sweet things,” as Deen dubs them, such as Banana Split Brownie Pizza, Easy Homemade Oreo Ice Cream, and Fresh Apples with Butterscotch Dip. With asides by Deen family members, including son Jamie’s “Food Is Love” (“I am right this minute 20 pounds over-loved,” he writes), useful tips (Deen provides an “emergency” recipe for sweetened condensed milk), and plenty of piquant anecdote (after Deen had rattled on endlessly to her grandmother about her intention to open a restaurant, the older woman paused and replied, “Paula, have you lost you damned mind?”), the spiral-bound book is not only full of delectable eating, it’s lots of fun.

This Asian Chicken and Orzo Salad Paula Deen recipe is from Paula’s Home Cooking, Garden Anniversary episode.

You can view and print this recipe or watch the video below.

Find other Paula Deen recipes.

This Paula Deen recipe is from Paula’s Home Cooking, Fridge Finds episode.

All of these easy crab cake recipes below are from our favorite chefs on TV. Did I miss one? If you have a favorite crab cakes recipe from your favorite TV chef, let me know and I’ll include it below.

Crab Cakes – a Paula Deen crab cake recipe from Paula’s Home Cooking, Paula Deens Wedding episode

Crab Cakes – A Emeril Lagasse crab cake recipe from Emeril Live, Shellfish episode

Blue Corn Crab Cakes with Black Olive-Red Pepper Relish and Basil Vinaigrette – Bobby Flay crab cakes recipe from Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Crab Cakes episode

Crab Cakes or Fritters – Alton Brown crab cake recipe from Good Eats, Crustacean Nation III episode.

Killer Crab Cakes and Bitter Salad with Sweet Red Pepper Dressing – Rachael Ray crab cake recipe from 30 Minute Meals, Hors D’Oeuvres Dinner episode.

Crab Cakes with Sassy Tartar – Sandra Lee crab cakes recipe from Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee, Fry Fest episode.

The Ultimate Crab Cakes – Tyler Florence crab cake recipe from Tyler’s Ultimate, Ultimate Crab Cakes episode.

Crab Cakes Chiarello with Shaved Fennel Salad – Michael Chiarello crab cakes recipe from Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello, It’s the Big One – Birthday Party episode.

Spicy Crab Cakes with Lemon Aioli Sauce – Patrick and Gina Neely crab cake recipe from The Neelys, Down Home with the Neelys, Ain’t All About the Pig episode.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A51RrmTYATg