Paula Potato Party

One of my goals for this year was to cook through one of Paula Deen’s cookbooks. Yes, I was inspired by the Julie/Julia book and movie phenomenon. It has been a lot of fun and I am a good ¾ of the way through the book. There have been a lot of delicious recipes, some average ones, and just a whole lot of calories in general. She in no kidding about the butter, my friends. I am such a fan of hers and it was such a treat to have her sign the actual cookbook that I have been cooking through when I was in Savannah for the Real Women of Philadelphia!




The cookbook is Paula Deen Celebrates! and it is a year’s worth of celebration menus- New Years, Valentines, Mardi Gras, Fourth of July, Christmas- and also lesser known holidays/events- Elvis’ birthday, May Day, Football party, etc.- you get the idea. The menu that I recently did was the “Graduation Potato Bar” which was meant to be a buffet of baked potatoes and various delicious topping to be served after a high school or college graduation- perhaps open house style. I changed it up just a smidge- I was only having a few people over and I wanted everyone to be able to try everything, which would be difficult with full baked potatoes, so I made mashed potatoes so we could all try a nibble of everything.



The recipes in this menu (other than the mashed potatoes) were: Chicken A La King Topping, Steak and Mushroom Topping, Creamed Seafood Topping, Spinach Salad with Homemade Dressing, Savannah Sheet Cake and Chocolate Chip-Coffee Cookies. Yummy!