Soon afterward, she began starring in her own show, frying chicken and baking cakes and cooking up all kinds of good Southern food.  I was so glad to see the food I grew up with being given the attention it deserved, in a time when, as Paula states, “health-food diet mania” was consuming America.

The rest is history, and Paula Deen is now a household name.  In her autobiography, It Ain’t All About the Cookin’, however, Paula proves that everybody seems normal until you get to know them.  I guess I just assumed that she was always a success, but she reveals in her book how she spent many years of her life just struggling to make it through the day.

Growing up in Georgia, Paula says she had an idyllic childhood, with her family, grandparents, aunts and uncles all close together running a resort.  Her teen years were spent being cute, having fun, and cheering.  But at eighteen she met a boy she couldn’t resist, and wanted nothing more than to get married and be a wife and mother.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Paula to realize that marriage wasn’t all smooth sailing all the time, and she began struggling with the fact that she couldn’t make it all better.  As is often the case, I think, being sheltered and loved by her family, and possessing the gift of “Southern charm”, that niceness that girls in the South are brought up with, caused an inner struggle for Paula.  She felt that “if being protected and cherished by my parents was being spoiled, then I guess I was.”

Then as a result of tragically loosing both her parents within four years of each other, while Paula was still in her early twenties she really began to struggle to keep her sanity.  Suffering from panic attacks and agoraphobia while raising two small children tested her every day, until she finally discovered what exactly she suffered from and began to slowly overcome it,  and eventually end her marriage.

As a single mother Paula returned to what she knew best, good Southern food.  Beginning with a catering company and expanding to a full restaurant, she kept up the traditions of the South.  She knew that “the South is all about tradition, and most of those traditions have their origins in the cooking pots and the recipes we pass down from generation to generation” and that “Southern cooking is nothing but Southern – we don’t fly in our ingredients or menus from distant parts of the world. What’s in our pots and on our plates is all home-grown.”  And keeping true to this philosophy has meant nothing but success for Paula Deen.

This book is full of Southern charm and wit, and had me laughing one minute and crying the next.  If you are from the South, you’ll find yourself nodding along with it, and if you aren’t, you’ll hopefully learn a little about what drives a Southern woman.  As Paula says, “Some people call Southern women steel magnolias to show our unfailing survival instinct. Well, if we got dimples of steel, so what. Things have to be right.”

I whipped up this Ham Salad recipe found in Paula’s autobiography, and it turned out to be just right, too.

My Best Ham Salad (Sandwich)

adapted from It Ain’t All About the Cookin’ by Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 2 cups leftover ham, chopped in a food processor
• 1 cup celery, finely diced
• 1/4 cup sweet onion, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
• 1/4 cup hot pickle relish, drained
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise

Directions

1. Mix all the ingredients until well blended.
2. Spread on white bread to make a sandwich, or serve with crackers.

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Speaking of New Year’s resolutions, was one of mine last year to stop procrastinating?  If so, I did not achieve it.  Most obviously not when I was sitting through twenty hours of continuing education classes in one weekend of December.  I should probably put that on the list for 2010.

One good thing about that weekend, however, was that I was staying near a ton of outlet stores.  I happened to wander into a bargain bookstore and scored big on some cheap-as-heck cookbooks.  Of course, right in the middle of my cookbook choosing frenzy one of my children had to make an urgent trip to the restroom – not located anywhere near the bookstore but coincidentally close to the Disney Store.

I made it back though, and one of my scores was nancy silverton’s sandwich book.  She was one of the founders of La Brea Bakery, a name you’ve probably seen in the bakery aisle of your grocery store.  The book is filled with fabulous ideas for sandwiches, and I’m well on my way to trying them all.  This was the first one that caught my eye, an open-faced prosciutto, arugula, and egg creation she calls Breakfast Sandwich.  But I made it not only for breakfast, but for lunch and for dinner – until I used up all the prosciutto.  Trust me, you’ll want to, too.

Breakfast Sandwich

adapted from nancy silverton’s sandwich book

serves 2

Ingredients

• 3 scallions, green parts only, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white-wine or white vinegar
• pinch of salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 slices white or whole-wheat sourdough bread
• 1 ounce prosciutto, thinly sliced into 4 pieces
• 1 cup arugula, loosely packed
• sea salt or kosher salt, to taste

Directions

1. Make the scallion oil:  Pulse the scallions and parsley in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the olive oil and process another few seconds to combine.
2. Poach the eggs:  Bring a medium saucepan filled with water to a boil. Turn the heat to a low simmer and add the vinegar and salt. Crack the eggs into a small bowl (make sure the yolks aren’t broken). Stir the water in a slow circle, then carefully add eggs one at a time. Poach for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes until whites are set and yolks are runny. Remove eggs with slotted spoon and rest on a paper towel or bread heel.
3. Grill the bread slices in a panini press or toast them.
4. Assemble sandwiches:  Spoon a tablespoon of scallion oil over the bread. Drape 2 slices of prosciutto over it, and cover with the arugula. Center a poached egg over each one, and drizzle a teaspoon of scallion oil over the egg. Sprinkle with salt.

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I have to admit that even though I am an avid home cook and baker, I still carry a soft spot in my heart for fast food.  Of course I couldn’t eat it every day, but I do occasionally indulge my soft spot with a Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich, a Whopper Jr. with cheese, or my very favorite – McDonald’s french fries.

And how could you look at that picture and not think of McDonald’s (love their hash browns, too).  Luckily, this version of an Egg McMuffin is easy to make at home and tastes even better, especially after making my own English Muffins.

Here’s the real trick, though:  Egg Fry Rings from Williams-Sonoma.  In order to get that thick round of fried egg just the perfect size for an English Muffin, these are the answer.  Here’s what you do:  Spray the insides of the rings and a non-stick skillet with cooking spray (VERY important).  Place the ring in the skillet and crack an egg into it (you can also add a tiny pat of butter before putting in the egg if you like).  Cook to your liking on one side, then remove the ring by sliding a knife around the edges and flip the egg.  Then just toss a piece of Canadian bacon in the pan while your egg finishes cooking to brown it on each side.  Toast the English Muffin if you care to, and then fill with the meat, egg, and your  favorite cheese and voila, you’ve got an awesome homemade English Muffin Egg Sandwich.