Aside from spending time with my family, there’s nothing I like to do better than talk to folks about cooking. Keep sending in your cookin’ questions and every couple of weeks, I’ll answer the ones that most people are asking about. Maybe you’ll even see your name here!

I enjoy your recipes so much. Just wondering if there is something else that I could use besides chicken broth, because it’s so high in sodium and I have to watch my sodium intake.
By Mabel Simmons

Paula’s Answer:
Hey Mabel! Girl, don’t we all have to watch the amount of salt in our diets these days. Chicken stock is the only way to go with this recipe. The way to cut out a lot of the sodium is to make your own stock. If you don’t add any salt to the roasted chicken before you break it down to make stock, you are eliminating most of the sodium. When you make your own stock, you can control the salt. Also Mabel, it’s really easy and you can make a lot at once and freeze it. Watch this how-to video my son Jamie did for making chicken stock. Just don’t add any salt!

What can be done about cast iron that has become rusty?
By Angela Salyers

Paula’s Answer:
Hey Angela! I think anyone who owns cast iron has this problem every now and again.  I still have my grandma’s cast iron hoecake pan. It sits on my stove and I use it nearly every day that I am home. Here’s what I do when I get rust on my cast iron.  I have Michael get me a piece of sandpaper (he says it’s 220 grit- whatever that means), and I sand the rust away. Then I re-season the pan by rubbing it with vegetable oil and placing it in a 250º F oven for about 4 hours. I remove it and rub it again with another coat of oil and place it back in the 250º F oven for another 4 hours. I never use soap to clean my cast iron. Grandma would have tanned my hide!

My Gooey Butter Cake did not set up at all. It is butter soup. Hmmmmmm. What happened? Has anyone had this problem?
By Nichelle Metcalfe

Paula’s Answer:
First of all Nichelle, I love your name! Your parents were so clever. So my guess is you used the wrong size pan. It’s usually always the problem when I talk to folks about the gooey butter cake. It must be baked in a 9X13 pan, and don’t over-beat the cream cheese. Give it another shot. I’m sure even as Gooey Butter Cake Soup it still tasted good. Hmmmm, that might be a new recipe!

Since the Red Velvet Cupcakes are frosted with cream cheese frosting, do these cupcakes have to be refrigerated?
By Gini Doss

Paula’s Answer:
Hey Gini! Yes! My red velvet cake and cupcakes need to be refrigerated. Here’s the tip though. Never eat them cold. You must pull them out of the refrigerator and let them come to room temperature, that’s when they taste the best.

I was wondering would your Blueberry Dumpling recipe work with strawberries?
By Paul Gaines

Paula’s Answer:
Hey Paul! I love when I get questions from male cooks! Yes, this recipe will work wonderfully with just about any berry you could find. I love it with a mix of berries too.

Paula, I’m getting ready for my gardening and want to can fire roasted tomatoes this year. How do I fire roast tomatoes? I’ve done canning for years, and would like to can fire roasted tomatoes this year. Thanks Paula!!!
By Conney Baker

Paula’s Answer:
Wow Conney you are gettin’ ahead of the game! I like your thinking. So, when I fire roast tomatoes for canning sauce, I usually do it in the oven because I have a real big oven and I can do a lot at a time. I just put them in a big roasting pan and put them in a 425º F oven until the skins start to blister and crack. It usually only takes about 20 minutes. This works great for sauce since you are going to puree them anyway, or cook them down. For tomatoes fire roasted on the grill, I blanch the tomatoes first and remove the skin, then place them on a hot grill to get the nice smokey flavor. Let me know how it all turns out and thank you for the inspiration to get my garden plan going.

I bought this bag of “self-rising” flour because I had a recipe that called for it and now I have all this leftover and don’t know what to do with it.
By Elizabeth Olstrander

Paula’s Answer:
Hey Elizabeth! As you can probably tell in my cooking I use self-rising flour a bunch, especially in my frying. I always keep self-rising flour around to coat my fried chicken. I just mix a little of my house seasoning into the flour, dredge my chicken in the flour, then into an egg wash mixture and back into the flour before slipping into 360ºF peanut oil. I just love how the baking powder already in the self-rising flour makes my fried chicken extra crispy!