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Paula Deen's Grape-Nuts Pudding

Compiled by Vicki McClure Davidson

Sassy Paula Deen, a popular Southern cook on cable TV's Food Network, emphasizes easy-to-make comfort foods. Her success on a cable television cooking show was never planned. Both her parents had died by the time she was 23, and the grief this caused for her prompted a gripping fear of death that developed into chronic agoraphobia, keeping her virtually house-bound for more than a decade.

She was good at Southern-style cooking, so used her talents in the kitchen to help cope with her condition. In 1986, Paula had improved enough from the phobia to accept a job as a bank teller. However, she was robbed at gunpoint the following year, and that frightening experience was traumatic for her. However, it was a blessing in disguise, because she decided to stop being a victim and deal with her agoraphobia head-on.

In 1989, after the family moved to Savannah and she and her husband divorced, she desperately needed to earn an income and had to fight her phobia so that she could support herself and her two little boys, Jamie and Bobby. Paula decided to employ her strong cooking skills and started up a clandestine catering service, The Bag Lady. She made sandwiches and other meals, and her young sons delivered them. Paula was later hired by a Best Western Hotel in Savannah to cook. She worked there five years before opening her own restaurant, The Lady and Sons, in downtown Savannah. Paula was able to overcome her agoraphobia with her constant contact with guests. The restaurant was a success and later moved into a larger building in Savannah’s Historic District.

Paula later successfully published a cookbook, and began her relationship with the Food Network in 1999 when a friend introduced her to executive producer Gordon Elliot. She appeared on the show Doorknock Dinners, where several episodes were filmed in Savannah. Paula also appeared on Ready, Set, Cook! and finally got her own show in 2003, Paula's Home Cooking. An appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show, where she shared her inspirational life story, solidified her name across the country with millions of women viewers. Paula Deen cookbooks became sizzling hot sellers, and then in 2004, Paula was happily remarried to Michael Groover, a tugboat pilot in the port of Savannah.

Note of humor: Paula, always bubbly, natural, and outspoken, was the first cooking host ever to have her language censored by the Food Network for a colorful word that she let slip while making hot wings.

Here's Paula's recipe for soothing and easy Grape-Nuts pudding. Explaining the recipe's origin, Deen writes:

This recipe was given to my friend Marge Maddox by an elderly little nurse in her seventies who never married. She would occasionally baby-sit for Marge's two young sons. One day, she brought this most wonderful dessert, a Maine specialty. You'll find this recipe to be not only yummy but easy.

This pudding recipe is from The Lady & Sons Just Desserts: More Than 120 Sweet Temptations from Savannah's Favorite Restaurant, Simon & Schuster, NY, NY, 2002.

Paula Deen's Grape-Nuts Pudding

2 c. milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Dash of salt
1 c. Grape-Nuts cereal
Whipped cream or ice cream, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Butter a 1-1/2-quart baking dish.

Blend together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt, using a handheld electric mixer. Pour into prepared dish. Sprinkle Grape-Nuts over top of custard and bake for 10 minutes. Give custard a couple of stirs to prevent cereal from sinking to bottom. Continue to bake for about 20 more minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve hot or cold with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream or ice cream.

Serves 4 to 6.

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Sources:
About.com: Gourmet Food website, (http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/chefbiographie1/p/pauladeenbio.htm).
Deen, Paula H., The Lady & Sons Just Desserts: More Than 120 Sweet Temptations from Savannah's Favorite Restaurant, Simon & Schuster, NY, NY, 2002.
Food Network website, "Paula Deen," (www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/dutch-oven-peach-cobbler-recipe/index.html).
Internet Movie Database, "Paula Deen", (www.imdb.com).

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Paula Deen's Grape-Nuts Pudding