The Laura/Paula Project?

I love Paula Deen.

If you've read this blog, you should be well aware of that.  I watch her show just about every day after work, and everything she makes looks like buttery, creamy, thigh-expanding heaven.

It dawned on me the other day that Paula Deen is, in some senses, the Julia Child of our day.  She really loves food and the comfort and joy behind it, and is never one to skimp on the ingredients that truly make it soar.

I've realized more and more just how much I love this style of cooking.  I buy only whole milk for my baking, and often switch to cream if I think it'll make the recipe tastier.  I'm the exact opposite of "light" recipes.  And yes, my stomach, thighs, and hips are proof of this.  For the most part, I'm okay with that.

I wish I could've counted the sticks of butter I've used in this pie project, because it's the ingredient I buy the most of.  With pie, there's just no way around it.  There's no such thing as a light pie... or there shouldn't be.  Every single pie recipe calls for butter!  And I love it!

So anyway, this Paula/Julia comparison got me thinking.  My pie project ends in September, and I've been thinking about what next year's project will be.  Crazy, I know.  This project has been expensive enough... I don't know why I want to tack another year onto it!  For the most part, my consensus has been to spend the next year improving on my favorite pies from this year.  It wouldn't be as intensive as this project has been, and I won't have to make one a week if I don't want to, but I think it would be great to really get good at this.

But then a crazy idea popped into my head the other day, inspired by my reading of Julie and Julia.  What if I started the Laura/Paula project?  I could call it something else, of course (Operation Butter?), but what if I got one of Paula's cookbooks and tried to cook my way through it?  Is that 100% insane?

Granted, Julia wrote one of the greatest cookbooks of all time.  It's been revered for years as one of the classics, along with the Joy of Cooking.  Paula, on the other hand, has numerous cookbooks with significantly fewer recipes.  It would be a different sort of project.

But if I picked the right one, it could be kinda cool.  Yes?  No?  Thoughts?

Anyway, I bring up Paula Deen because I made one of her pies.  I saw it on her show and I'd been looking forward to it for weeks.

However, it was a downright fail.

:(

I couldn't even finish my slice!  So I guess that's a pretty bad omen to Operation Butter, but I won't be daunted.  Because this was PAULA'S fault!  Not mine AT ALL!

Here's the scoop.

I decided to bake Paula's Key Lime Mousse Pie, which sounds absolutely devine, were it perfectly executed.  It was full of my favorite things: cream cheese (3 sticks of it), key lime juice, white chocolate, and cream.  Lots of cream.

I melted cream, key lime juice, and the white chocolate on the stove, and then added unflavored gelatin.  I thought it was weird, but whatever.  Paula knows best! 

Except she didn't.

Here's where the pie went wrong.  I'm copying this line from the recpie verbatum: Add 1 1/4 ounces (1 envelope) package unflavored gelatin.  Okay, unflavored gelatin comes in 1/4 ounce packages.  So even though the recipe said 1 envelope, it CLEARLY also stated 1 1/4 ounces.  NOT one 1/4 ounce package.  So I added 4 envelopes (the box only had 4... I didn't feel like buying more).  FOUR.

Anyway, I finished the recipe and it was tasty and creamy and looked perfect.  I poured it into the crust and froze it for 24 hours, as instructed.  However, when I went to slice into the pie, it was hard as rock.  Virtually impossible to cut, no matter how much I ran the knife through warm water.

I finally got a few slices plated, and holy cow, was it awful!  It wasn't at all creamy like it was supposed to be... in fact, each bite kind of separated in my mouth and crumbled.  It's hard to describe, but as Brianne put it, "My tongue doesn't want to touch it!" 

Blech.

The lime flavor was barely there too... it basically tasted like curdled, frozen cream cheese.  Horrible.  We all threw our slices out and I began to investigate.  I learned something from this... always read the comments on recipe sites!  Not only do you get tips on how to improve recipes, you get comments on HOW THE RECIPE WAS WRONG AND IT'S TOTALLY NOT YOUR FAULT!!!

Apparently, Paula did in fact mean one 1/4 ounce (no "s") package.  But she worded it so terribly, I didn't feel at all bad about screwing it up.  And I wasn't the only one... quite a few people did the same thing.

Kristine tried to be optimistic and thought perhaps it would taste better if it were thawed a bit in the fridge.  Wishful thinking.  It's still awful.

3/4 of a pie was thrown out.

Tragic.

So anyway, now what do you think of Operation Butter?