Cookbookaholic

Paula Deen Live: After-Hours Party

A few weeks before the Paula Deen Live event, I got an email asking if I wanted to attend a meet and greet that would be held after the show was over.  How awesome would that be? If the crowd is too large, I may not get to meet her—but maybe I can at least see Paula Deen up close.

The after-hours event would be about an hour after the show ended, so I’d definitely be in for a long night. I’d be home well past my bedtime. But, I responded “yes” to the invite. Let’s see what happens.

When I checked in at Will Call, I was given my ticket to the show and a special pass for the “After-Hours Social.”

As I wrote in an earlier post, the live event was very energetic and you could feel the excitement in the theater. Paula is back and the fans have been ready for her return.

After the show was over, I sat around in some comfy chairs in the theater lobby. There were several other people hanging out as well. To pass the time, I took out my tablet and did some quick Bing searches.

One search on Lee Greenwood showed that he and I shared the same birthdate: October 27th. Now that’s interesting!

At some point, all those people disappeared and I found myself alone. I could hear music upstairs on the Mezzanine level—and that’s where the party was starting. One table was set up serving flutes of champagne and another table was serving sweets. And there were a lot of people waiting on Paula!

Lee Greenwood and his wife made and appearance. A few people gathered around and took some photos with him. When it was my turn, I told him that I had just discovered that we had the same birthday. “I think I’m a little older than you!,” was his response.

Then, you begin to notice others are starting to trickle in. Graham Elliott is here:

I snag a moment with him long enough to tell him that I remembered watching him on Good Day New York when I briefly lived in NYC.  “You must’ve been an infant!” What a charmer…

If I’m not mistaken, I’m seeing the Deen Brothers walking around. Jamie and Bobby are chatting and posing for pictures with the crowd.

There’s no way Bobby would remember talking to me during his book signing a year or so back. But when I get my chance, I say, “Dude! I blogged about you then you wrote another cookbook and didn’t tell me when you came back to Charlotte!” He laughed and gave me a big hug. We took a photo together and he noticed the picture came out very dark. He took my phone and started to see how he could adjust the brightness. Not much luck, but here’s the photo…

And then, I spotted his brother, Jamie. I mentioned that I had been live tweeting during the show. He said, “Did you mention me in one of them? Because I thought I saw someone had tagged me in a tweet about the show.” How awesome is that?

We talked about his recent cookbook and I now I've got to find a copy for my collection. Not to mention that second cookbook that Bobby just put out as well.

And then she arrived!

The elevator opened and you could see her husband, Michael Groover, first and then you see the hair. Paula Deen has arrived to the party. The room we’re in is circular and she starts on the less crowded side and makes her way, person to person, until she reaches the crowd. Her security guard, Hollis, announces that she’ll take selfies with individuals very briefly, but it’s gotta be quick.

I’m not inclined to jump into that crowd. For the moment, I’m happy to stand back and watch the madness.

I’m near the bar and when I turn to left, I see Michael Groover. “Hey, you held your own up there on stage!” He was very nice and I was able to grab a picture with him.

Now, I’m just watching Paula Deen work the crowd. She’s great at it. Big smile, big laugh and happy to see every single person. It’s quite an amazing feat to see how she gives attention to each person.

It takes a while, but she gets closer to me. And when she’s right in front of me, I say, “I logged on the website this afternoon and it looked great.”

She threw her hands up in the air and shouted, “Hallelujah!”

I then told her that I had live tweeted throughout the show. “I’ll read them all while we drive up to New York City!”  Really? I’d be thrilled if she did. But I think she’s got bigger things to do. Her new digital network is now officially launched and she’s on her way to reclaim her empire.

But before she left, I snagged this photo…

The Bag Lady is Back: Paula Deen Live

A few weeks back, I was given an opportunity to get a free ticket to attend the Paula Deen Live show in Charlotte. I decided to accept the offer so this is full disclosure that this post about the live show was made possible by a free ticket.

Now, as date for the event got closer, I noticed that it was the same day for the launch of her new, fully online Paula Deen Network. Wouldn’t she want to make a big deal about the launch day in a bigtime town? Perhaps one of her live events—surrounded by the warmth and admiration of her fans—is exactly where she needed to be. And maybe, Charlotte is earning its way as a bigtime place?

At any rate, I made it to my seat on the mezzanine level and had a pretty good view of the stage.

In each chair throughout the 2,100 seat theater was a branded Paula Deen Network tote bag, 9 inch round cake pan, one copy of a Paula Deen magazine and what’s this? An autographed copy of The Lady & Sons, Too! cookbook. Oh hell yeah….

I must admit, I’m interested in how the show and the rest of the evening will go. The Paula Deen brand has spent the better part of this past year in rebuild mode. An investment, to the reported tune of $75 million, by a venture capitalist has given the Deen team some deep pockets. This new digital channel is a bold move. I’m looking around the Belk Theater and seeing a lot of older people—is her fanbase tech savvy enough to make it work? Or, will getting the Deen branded cookware and other products back out on the market help get that ship moving in the right direction?

As we’re waiting for the Queen of Southern Cuisine to start her show, a band comes out and plays a few tunes. The lead singer addresses the audience in between songs with tales of meeting and getting to know Paula. He speaks about “who her heart is” and I’m beginning to feel some spin. It’s pretty obvious that the auditorium is filled with supporters and admirers. I’m not sure that any spin is necessary—especially not so early on.

As she takes the stage with her husband, Michael, she’s met with thunderous applause and quite a few give her a standing ovation. There’s an uber-fan sitting right behind me shouting, screaming and whistling. My right ear won’t be able to hear as well for a few hours. When the crowd settles and takes their seats, a few shout out, “We love you, Paula!” and “We missed you!” She responds in kind, but you can tell from the quiver in her voice that she’s already getting misty.

She starts the show off talking about the new digital Paula Deen Network and says that her team wanted to be in Charlotte to officially launch it. The website will offer all of her old shows (she recently purchased the rights to them from Food Network), newly filmed cooking segments as well as game shows and other lifestyle pieces. We get to view a video up on the big screen—the first of many. Then, she gets down to what she knows best: cooking. But first, she announces that she’ll need help in the kitchen and brings out her sons, Jamie and Bobby.

You would’ve thought all those women in that theater had lost…their…minds.

So now we have all four on stage. And just when I started to wonder if her producer, Gordon Elliott, was along for the ride…there he is.

Now, we’re on to the cooking. She’s making a Peach Trifle with custard (Bobby’s making one without the custard) and talking about life (“We’re ordinary women doing extraordinary things.”) and coming through her recent storm (“I realized everything is going to be okay”). Another cooking segment only using five ingredients and prepared in ten minutes. On her digital network, it’s a feature called “5 & Dime.” Then, we get a game show featuring Bobby “Chewbanks” (Bobby in a bad wig) called “What Did Paula Deen Just Put in My Mouth.” Here’s a hint—whatever it is, it’s not good.

Tonight’s show is, essentially, a live version of the digital network’s offerings. Look for regular versions of her cooking, side by side with a lighter version. And even though she’s prepared a very light, grilled chicken and arugula salad, she’s still got plenty of room for the fare that made her famous. “The butter’s down there darlin’! I didn’t come here without no butter!”

Country music star Lee Greenwood makes a brief appearance. He talks about his work with Helping A Hero, a charity that works to provide homes for wounded soldiers. He introduces a soldier in the audience, who will soon receive a home, and he gets a standing ovation from the entire theater. It’s a deeply moving and Paula announces that her home furnishings line will help upfit the kitchens and some additional rooms in several of the donated homes.

As the evening comes to a close, there is no doubt that the audience is happy to have Paula Deen back. You can tell that she has been missed, the energy in the theater is almost palpable. Plus, she’s in the unique position of being able to refill the void that was left during her time away from the spotlight. And there’s no wondering why. She has always seemed accessible and genuine. Her meals have always seemed to be more practical than those with the buffed-to-perfection Southern Living sheen. And now, she’s ready to give us more.

And let’s face it. She has weathered a storm that would’ve had other personalities closing up shop and retiring under a rock. But not her. She has had to, once again, reach deep down and grab hold of the resolve and pluck that originally pulled her out of the house and on the road to success. And now she emerges, hopeful, stronger and wiser, leading her brand into the digital realm and answering to no one but her investors and subscribers.      

She is ready to get back to her waiting fans and up for the challenge of winning more over. With her digital network now up and running, she declares to the world, “The Bag Lady is getting back on her feet! Her toes were stubbed for a bit.”

My Two Cents

Once again, the Marconi Award for Network/Syndication Personality of the Year went home with someone else. While not surprising, it is very disappointing.

God bless Bob & Sheri for getting so many nominations. Goodness knows they deserve it…every single time. Their show is (and always has been) the most amazing morning radio program. And I’m not saying that because I spent the better part of seven years with them (and wrote several of their Marconi Award submissions).

They’re incredible people with a great show that engages you and gets your mind going in the morning. I don’t know about you, but I need some Sheri every morning to say something intelligent and hilarious. She inspires me to get on with it…with a laugh.

Here’s a little industry background for you: NAB members can submit a show for a Marconi Award. If your submission gets selected by the group as one of the final nominees, great! But here’s the catch, you can’t campaign for the award. So the big group selects the nominees, but a smaller committee decides who gets the award.

This year’s award ceremony was a missed opportunity to finally thank two professional broadcasters for bringing and keeping affluent, educated female listeners glued to their morning radio for the past fifteen or so years.

Let’s also remember that Bob lost his beloved son, John, last December. I went to that funeral on Christmas Eve and saw a deeply wounded man get up and speak so eloquently and movingly about his son. And then he did the bravest thing in the world…he came back to the microphone.

Other nominees have been in trouble with the law and then showered with praise and awards. Where’s the respect for someone who lost someone so precious and then returned to the show? Finally winning that Marconi would’ve been a just and respectful thing for the industry to do.

Don’t think I have sour grapes. In fact, I’ll go ahead and make a prediction now that this year’s winner will be lauded for his tenacity and contribution to the industry many times over. I’ll bet he even gets a lifetime achievement award and heck, even a Kennedy Center Honor before it’s all said and done. Does this year’s winner deserve a Marconi? Yes, absolutely—someday. Just not this year. 

Luncheon!

Earlier this week, I attended a local Charlotte PRSA luncheon over at Byron’s South End. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to attend a PRSA meeting and I was thrilled to be there. The luncheon featured a presentation from a noted social media guru (which was awesome and informative)—but let’s talk about the luncheon part!

Feast your eyes on this!

I had the pecan-crusted chicken breast. It was so tender and amazing…very delicious, all brown and buttery! I was in awe of how much of the pecan crust stayed intact. (I could never pull that off in a million years) It was topped with a nice dijon mustard sauce--not overpowering, just creamy with a little zing. The green beans were fresh and crisp; and the potatoes were very creamy. For dessert, I chose a slice from a gorgeous chocolate layer cake with a rich chocolate frosting. Wow! Very nice….I could get used to lunches like this. 

Even better than the lunch? Finally meeting my Facebook friend Nan Gray! Nan and I have been FB buddies for a while now and she actually confesses to reading this blog. God bless her!  Nan let me snap this super cute picture along with her colleague Erin.

Great lunch, great people.

 

Club "Out of My Range"

Going through my emails tonight, I found one stuck in my spam filter from Williams-Sonoma. It was called “Williams-Sonoma Cookbook Club at Your Local Store.” Well, hellllloooooo. There’s a club?

I opened up the email and read this: 

“Love collecting cookbooks?” Why, yes I do. In fact, I write a blog called “Cookbookaholic.”

“Enjoy trying new recipes?” Yeah…when I can but I’m slightly lazy as well.

“Join us for the next Williams-Sonoma Cookbook Club class!” Okay! Sounds like it’s right up my alley! Tell me more about this please, targeted email!

The next paragraph talks about this cookbook club where you attend a class, watch the chef prepare a few recipes in the featured Williams-Sonoma cookbook—and here’s the best part: you keep the cookbook! That sounds so great!

And then they lower the boom: it is $75 bucks! Yikes! I guess they don’t realize that I hit Saturday morning garage sales to get cookbooks for my collection at about a dollar?

Is the cookbook autographed? That’s a lot of cash to invest in one cookbook. And then I look down the list of scheduled classes. Guess what they’re doing next month? A cookbook called Breakfast Comforts. A whole cookbook on breakfast! Oh mercy….

 

Let Them Eat Cake...Squares

Dewey’s Bakery up in Winston-Salem was up to something on Monday, March 14. I could tell by the activity on the blog. The stats section showed lots of image searches on Dewey’s Pink Lemonade Cake Squares. 

I clicked through my email and sure enough, Dewey’s was giving away free samples of the pink lemonade cake squares on that day. Nice! Now that would’ve been worth taking a quick ride up to Winston-Salem!

No worries, I’ll be up there soon enough and will swing by the Dewey’s at Thruway for a few squares of my own!

 

Family Style Fat Tuesday

For Mardi Gras, the family and I did something really fun for dinner. In keeping with my favorite “breakfast for dinner” theme, a nearby church did a Fat Tuesday Pancake Dinner. For eight bucks per plate, you got unlimited pancakes, sausage and orange juice. Since it was a church, all proceeds went to their mission projects.

Plus, this was the church were both boys attended preschool.

By the time we arrived, a ton of people were already there!

 

The boys got chocolate chip pancakes and said they were quite delicious.

I got the regular pancakes and actually went back for seconds. Even the sausage links were remarkably scrumptious! Great way for the family to spend Mardi Gras!

 

My Red Carpet Appearance

Yeah, this is as close to the Academy Awards Red Carpet that I’ll ever get!

 

The local Chick-Fil-A at Northlake Mall had a Red Carpet event complete with red carpet, red velvet rope and a “paparazzi” with flashing strobe! Dunc and I went to grab dinner for the family and I snapped a picture of the set-up. How fun!

Little known fact: I have actually held an Oscar. Yup! Back in the day when I lived in New York, I worked on a Russian film called Burnt by the Sun. It was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category and won! The director, Nikita Mikhalkov, flew back to NYC and did a press tour.

I got to pick him up at his hotel and take him through the day of interviews. He wanted to take the Oscar to the Sony Pictures Classics offices—only we didn’t have any “secure” way to transport it. So I emptied out my burgundy bookbag (the same one I’d used in college a few months before!) and stashed Oscar in the back section. And then we walked all the way from the hotel to the Sony building!

I couldn’t believe that I was walking around secretly transporting an Oscar! I just wanted to run up to someone—anyone—and say, “Holy Crap! Look at what I’ve got in here!” Wow—and that sucker started to get heavy after a couple of blocks. It really is heavier than it looks!

 

p.s. I also worked on a Spanish film called Belle Epoque which also won the Best Foreign Language Oscar the previous year—but that director hightailed it back to Spain and didn’t come back to NYC. 

 

Chili Cook Off!

This past Saturday, my church had its first annual Chili Bowl Cook Off! How smart is this? Make a huge batch of chili on Saturday, and then you’ve already got your main course for Super Bowl Sunday done!

Fellow cookbookhalic Janet along with Paul and Sara put the whole thing together and it was amazingly fun! Very professional as well, I might add. We had a total of 15 entries and believe me, that’s a lot of sampling!

I don’t have a chili recipe that is from scratch. I open up a package of French’s Chili-O and I’m good with that. I can’t handle too much fire and spice. But the hubby found a recipe that he loves and he entered “Scott’s Awesome Chili” into the cook off.

Once we got to the fellowship hall, we put the crockpot onto a table. Each batch of chili was assigned a letter (hubby’s was “B”) with a stack of small plastic sample bowls with the letter written on the bottom. Everyone took turns and got a small batch of chili for every entry. 

That tray was looking pretty full by the time we reached the last crockpot.

We had to pick our top three choices and write them down on a form. Each place was weighted with a different score. 

I noticed that a stack of napkins near me was a bright green. I chose to make that green napkin my palette of champions. If I liked a chili, I immediately moved it over to the green mat. Others were put off to the other side.

Here are the top 6!

Let me tell you, sampling 15 tiny bowls of chili is pretty hard work! I had to take a break or two along the way. I was especially proud of my youngest, he was brave enough to give the taste testing a try.

After my final break, I had to narrow the choices down to the final 3. And here they are…

After all that sampling, there was no room for going back and getting a full bowl of my favorite. Just wasn’t happening. Too stuffed! But what fun! 

The awards were handed out for first through third places. Hubby didn’t win, but the boys made a special award called “The Vince Lombeani Trophy” and Pastor Chris bestowed it upon the contest’s Honorable Mention. So here’s a picture of Joe with his trophy for his entry “Jesus’ Favorite Hunting Lodge Chili”!!

This was a really fun event and I can’t wait for next year’s Chili Cook Off! Hubby might make a few tweaks to the recipe and have at it again for 2012!

Tough Week

As you probably already know, we had a tough week right before Christmas. I had a ton of things I wanted to post but just couldn't find enough willpower to write. It's just so heartbreaking. Christmas Eve was really tough. I was teary-eyed all day long.

Losing someone unexpectedly is so incredibly awful. I remember when we lost my dad. While it was the most devastating thing I've ever gone through, the idea of Heaven evolved from some mystical idea into something more tangible. My dad wasn't a man of many words, but I knew I now had a staunch supporter rooting for me to get there.

Now that the year is ending. I've got to say, with all honesty, this has been one year I'm really glad to see come to a close. I've learned a lot about the people around me: some good, some not so good and some I'm glad have moved on. I'm hoping this new year will be a huge improvement in many, many ways. Cross your fingers for me. 

I'll get some posts up soon. Promise.