Blast From the Past: Paula’s Best Dishes (Farmer’s Market, 2009)

We all like takin’ a stroll down memory lane, and I just enjoy thinkin’ back on the friends that I’ve made in my kitchen. I had so many wonderful people stop by for episodes of Paula’s Best Dishes, and in 2009, the absolutely stunning swimsuit model, Melissa Keller, dropped in and made quite a meal with me. We had a walnut-praline Brie appetizer, an entrée of pork chops with cranberry-mustard sauce and Brussels sprouts, and the two-layer pineapple upside-down cake that Melissa and I are makin’ in this very video.

I hope y’all enjoy this blast from the past as much as I do, and I hope you’ll try to make this beautiful pineapple-upside-down cake at home, too! Melissa was right—it’s so easy to make, and your friends and family are going to love it.

Paula Deen - As a young girl growing up in Albany, Georgia, Paula Deen never dreamed she would become an American icon. As a young mother, Paula was living the American dream — married to her high school sweetheart and raising two adorable boys — when tragedy struck. Her parents died, her marriage failed and she began a prolonged battle with agoraphobia. With her boys in their teens and her family near homelessness, Paula took her last $200, reached deep inside her soul and started The Bag Lady, a home-based catering company that marked the start of Deen's professional cooking career. With sons Jamie and Bobby delivering lunch-and-love-in-a-bag, beginning in June 1989, Paula turned her life around by sharing what she knew best, traditional Southern cooking.