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Gina Neely: Welcome to the White House Easter Egg Roll with Pat and
Gina Neely.
Patrick Neely: Hey, I told, I told her about 20 years ago, I said, babe,
I'm gonna get you to the White House one of these days.
(laughter)
Gina Neely: Don't laugh at that.
Do not laugh at that.
I came to see Ms. Michelle, honey.
I came to see that diva.
Patrick Neely: So I got her here, we're so glad to be here, we wouldn't miss it.
Gina and I have terrible busy schedules,
but this was a "could not miss."
And so we want to prepare a couple of dishes that are both
healthy and kid friendly.
Gina Neely: But we were also thinking about the fact how Ms. Obama was all
into being healthy, she started a garden,
which I thought was an amazing idea.
It would be great if we all could do that.
So we're gonna start off with a shake 'em up salad.
Now kids, this is very, very easy.
If there's something in here you don't like,
you can always substitute it.
But we're going to start with some iceberg and romaine
lettuce, which Pat's gonna put in a bowl.
Patrick Neely: So you just take some iceberg lettuce,
and I like to just buy it fresh and give it a good cut.
Gina Neely: But you can always grow it.
Patrick Neely: My mother has started growing, she's got a garden now at home.
And she's gotten to the point to where she has nothing better to
do but to go and get oregano out of her back yard, right?
Gina Neely: And harass me.
So we can keep her in the oregano.
Patrick Neely: So she, I was over there the other day and she says look at
my oregano, it grew like crazy.
I said, Mom, we didn't have a winter in Memphis.
So did the weeds that's growing up through there.
Gina Neely: Exactly.
Patrick Neely: So I like when I'm doing my salads,
like if you notice I put a little iceberg in,
then I've got some romaine, and I'm going with a little of that.
Then I'll take this --
Gina Neely: Hold on, let me add something to this,
because it's always good to add in some romaine in your salad
because basically iceberg lettuce is nothing but water.
So you want to get some romaine in there to get some extra
nutrients in there for you.
I know kids might not like it, but if you mix it all up
together they'll never know the difference.
And if they don't like iceberg or romaine lettuce you can
always use spinach.
Spinach is a great substitute, it's very healthy,
and it's very good for the kids.
It's all about the babies, keeping them healthy.
Patrick Neely: And I have to tell you, you know,
Gina and I have Spenser and Shelbi, our daughters,
who are 17 and 23 now, and one of the things that we did when
they were very young, like we see a lot of these kids,
is we started serving them salads at a young age.
And if you start when they're young,
kids will adapt to healthy eating.
But you've got to do it young.
You grown folks can't be coming home with a bucket of fried
chicken every night.
Gina Neely: Uh-uhh, coming home tired, been working all day.
Patrick Neely: Feeding the kids, and then thinking that that's gonna work.
So I put a few cherry tomatoes in,
then I come with a little carrots,
and radishes is something that I like, but they're optional.
You know, when you're making a great salad,
you can do so many things.
I'm not using cucumbers today, but you could add cucumbers.
Whatever you like that's healthy.
As Gina alluded to earlier, spinach and baby spinach
always works.
So I've layered it once, and in a pretty glass bowl sitting on
the table -- Chef William didn't give me no glass bowl,
I don't know where Chef William at.
Gina Neely: You want a glass bowl?
Patrick Neely: Chef William is hiding.
No, this is okay.
They can see up here, babe.
So then I come back with some more iceberg.
What you doing, mama?
Gina Neely: I'm gonna make a quick dressing.
All I've added in is just some buttermilk and sour cream,
salt and pepper, and a little basil.
That's all you need.
Stop buying that dressing at the grocery store, make it at home.
And that way you can monitor your salt intake,
you can monitor what you're putting inside your body and
know exactly what you're getting.
Oh, they didn't even open this.
Patrick Neely: No, they ain't -- the chef --
Gina Neely: I'm taking this home.
No.
(laughter)
Patrick Neely: Chef William over there, he was in there eating a wrap earlier.
He ain't paying no attention to us.
Gina Neely: I'm taking this home, Pat.
Let me see your knife.
Patrick Neely: This is -- this is our first year here, and I must tell you,
it's incredible.
Gina Neely: It is.
Patrick Neely: It's absolutely incredible.
Gina Neely: It's so beautiful.
Hats off to the First Lady and the President.
Patrick Neely: And the President for inviting us.
Gina Neely: I'm just girl power.
You have to watch me with that.
It's always about the woman, you know, for me.
You know, we hold up the world.
Sorry.
Audience Member: Absolutely.
Gina Neely: Listen to y'all!
Audience Member: Power to the girls.
Gina Neely: Power!
Patrick Neely: President Obama, he in the house.
Gina Neely: He can't hear me.
I ain't coming back next year.
(laughter)
Patrick Neely: He like me, you know -- I got two daughters, too.
At least he got Bo.
Ain't Bo a male?
The dog is a male?
Well, we've got Zoey, a *** Tzu, and she's a female.
I ain't running nothing in my house.
(laughter)
Gina Neely: No.
Patrick Neely: The dog even tell what we watching on TV.
Gina Neely: So all you -- just tear up the basil,
you don't have to cut it or anything.
And you can let the kids do this.
I wanted something that was something easy for kids to do to
get the kids in the kitchen more.
I can't hardly do my demo without wanting to --
Gina Neely: Look.
(singing) ♪ Let me hear my throat -- a ha, a ha ♪
Patrick Neely: Okay, baby.
So I got my salad, you got my dressing?
Gina Neely: Almost.
I'm sorry.
I'm running behind.
Patrick Neely: She gonna treat y'all with the dressing.
Gina Neely: Then you take your dressing, I generally use like a mason jar,
any kind of thing with a lid on top.
Just put it on top, and all you do is just shake it.
It's a shake 'em salad.
And you shake it.
And you shake it, shake it, shake it, and you shake it.
(laughter)
Patrick Neely: Look at him shaking, he's shaking.
Gina Neely: And you shake it, and you shake it, and you make it, shake it,
shake it, shake it, shake it shake it!
There you go.
That's it.
Now look at that.
Look at this salad.
Patrick Neely: Oh, yeah.
Gina Neely: Nice, beautiful, and healthy.
Patrick Neely: Let me taste.
Gina Neely: You want to taste it?
Does it need anything?
Patrick Neely: Girl, it don't need to be done.
Nothing but dumped on to that salad.
Dump it, dump it, mama.
Gina Neely: That's it.
Pour it right on.
That's a quick, healthy meal when you get home from work,
a nice salad.
See how simple that is?
Toss it up --
Patrick Neely: And you've got to toss it.
Gina Neely: Need some more?
Patrick Neely: You said, oh, they shouldn't have let the Neelys get on stage
with no music.
Because we done cooking.
Go get it, mama, go get it, mama.
Aaah!
We got to make a dessert.
Gina Neely: Okay, all right, now.
Patrick Neely: You know, they told us we couldn't be up here long.
Gina Neely: All right.
Now that's just a quick shake 'em up salad.
Patrick Neely: So it looks delicious, as you can see.
Gina Neely: Very pretty.
Patrick Neely: Very pretty, light.
Gina Neely: And healthy.
Patrick Neely: And good.
Gina Neely: See it?
Can y'all see it?
Patrick Neely: They're looking up here, baby.
They have --
Gina Neely: All right.
Now for something sweet.
Patrick Neely: So we've got to have something sweet,
and I always say Gina's sweet enough,
but I like to add a little -- have to have a little something
I can eat.
So we're gonna do --
Gina Neely: You want some brown sugar?
Patrick Neely: Yeah.
Don't you start that, mama, you be all right, all right?
Gina Neely: I'm just saying, I'm just saying.
Patrick Neely: So this is a triple berry parfait.
You can use any berries you want,
but since so many great berries in season right now,
we're gonna start with some strawberries.
Gina Neely: And if you can't get strawberries fresh,
you can always get them frozen.
Try not to buy the canned so much,
because it's a lot of sugar in it.
If you do buy the can, pour the extra syrup off and just put the
fruit right in the bowl.
Patrick Neely: Then we got some blueberries going in and blackberries.
Here, baby.
There's a cutting board.
Gina Neely: Oh, you know, I'm just some home schooler, look.
Look.
Patrick Neely: So we're gonna drop in some blueberries and blackberries,
then can you open that for me, honey?
We've got some raspberries.
I told you, it's a triple berry parfait.
Gina Neely: You're gonna put me to work.
Look.
I thought this was a fun trip.
(laughter)
Let's take that off, pour it in.
Patrick Neely: Pour it right on in there.
Gina Neely: Pour it in.
Patrick Neely: Oh, yeah.
Now, if you ever know old school strawberry shortcut --
strawberry cake with the strawberries,
my mama used to always take strawberries and she would put
sugar in them.
Do you remember that?
Gina Neely: Just to make it more syrupy.
Patrick Neely: And that would make the syrup, so --
Gina Neely: Yeah.
Patrick Neely: We gonna do like my mama used to do.
Gina Neely: Where y'all put our sugar at?
Patrick Neely: Right here.
They got everything in a bag.
They would last five minutes on Food Network,
with all these bags to hold food.
Gina Neely: I'm like, where's the sugar?
It's in a bag.
Patrick Neely: They got, all these bags with names on it,
Food Network would be having a fit.
Gina Neely: But it does say organic, so that's a plus.
That's a plus.
It is saying organic.
That's enough sugar.
Patrick Neely: So we put in a nice little old half a cup of sugar.
Gina Neely: Because it's already naturally sweet.
Patrick Neely: All right, baby, give me some lemon.
Gina Neely: Give you some lemon, and this is what's gonna open the flavors.
Patrick Neely: And this is one of those things that really --
Gina Neely: Get that little seed out.
Sorry.
Patrick Neely: If you do it the day before and just let this sit,
it's even better.
So --
Gina Neely: And what Pat is doing is mulling with the back of the spoon.
Okay?
Patrick Neely: So I'm actually extracting all of the juices from our fruit.
Gina Neely: All righty.
Patrick Neely: And this is a nice little treat for kids like now that it's
getting ready to get hot in the summer,
whether it's dessert or whether it's in the afternoon --
Gina Neely: I was gonna look for my granola.
The good thing about this is you can build it any way
you want to.
You take the prettiest glasses that you have,
which is -- this is what we have.
I'm gonna open this up, and I guess I have to use my little
knife, old school.
Patrick Neely: So I just was wondering earlier, how did y'all get invited?
What made y'all so special that y'all got invited?
How did you get invited, ma'am?
You entered the lottery?
Gina Neely: Greek yogurt.
Patrick Neely: So that wasn't a money lottery, that was a White House lottery.
You didn't win no money but you got a ticket to get in, right?
Audience member: (inaudible)
Patrick Neely: It is.
Gina Neely: That's right, isn't it?
Isn't it good to come together every now and then?
That's what I just love about it.
We just all up in the lawn, no one even has a barbecue pit.
(laughter)
Patrick Neely: We tried to bring a grill up in here.
Gina Neely: Music on the hill, prep that barbecue pit, y'all come out.
Patrick Neely: The Secret Service say don't you come with none of that
charcoal and fire.
Secret Service said, nuh-uh.
Nuh-uh, Brother Neely, you gonna have to invite them to your
house or something.
Gina Neely: All right, the rest what we've got to do now is build
a parfait.
I'm gonna use granola, but if you want,
you can also use crumbled up -- your child's favorite crumbled
up cookie, you can use that.
We're just gonna use granola, because granola is healthy.
That.
(baby crying)
Hey, who getting mad out there?
Patrick Neely: He think it's his show, babe.
(laughter)
Gina Neely: We're gonna just add in a type of Greek yogurt.
If you don't want to use Greek yogurt,
Greek yogurt is much more healthier for you,
you can use whipped topping or vanilla.
But let's try to stick with the Greek.
We really need to encourage our kids to eat much more healthier,
get more energy, help them perform better in school.
It makes such a big difference all around.
Patrick Neely: I have to tell you, Gina and I always cooked a lot at home when
our kids were younger.
And we've got a 23-year-old now and she's moved out.
And I have to tell you, every single Sunday that
we're in town --
Gina Neely: I need a spoon.
Patrick Neely: Sometimes she start to call me like early in the week,
what you cooking Sunday?
You grilling?
You want -- I want a steak.
Here's one.
Gina Neely: Thank you.
Patrick Neely: I want a steak or I want this, or what you cooking?
And so it's become habit-forming for them because we always
cooked and we always made healthy dishes for them.
So I always say, people tell me, they said well I can't get my
kid to eat asparagus.
I said how often do you cook asparagus?
And what are you doing with a asparagus?
And if they won't eat asparagus will they eat broccoli?
Or our kids wasn't big fans of green beans but they loved
potatoes, so we started taking red potatoes,
cutting them in squares, boiling them,
and then we'd cook our green beans,
and then we would add our green beans into the potatoes so you'd
have a dish of green beans and potatoes,
and so your kids now would eat vegetables because they liked
the potatoes.
So I always tell people it's really cool to make sure that
you make your kids eat healthier,
and the way to do that is by cooking things that they like
and then integrating healthier things as well.
All right, so we've got a parfait deal going on here,
so I want to jump in here and help mama a little bit.
So she's layered it, then we're gonna layer it again with some
more granola.
Gina Neely: It's just granola, vanilla, fruit.
However you want do to it, fruit, granola, vanilla,
you can just mix it up any way you want to.
Patrick Neely: So we're just layering that right in there like that.
Then comes some more Greek yogurt.
Gina Neely: You have to use that smaller spoon.
There.
This is going to be a good, healthy one.
And it's so quick to make, really.
And even for you, if you just want like a sweet treat,
if you have a great day or a bad day at work,
instead of using that Greek yogurt,
put some ice cream on it.
Put your favorite cookie and put your favorite fruit on there,
and you'll have a good day, too.
It's all about moderation.
I tell people all the time, you don't have to eat healthy
every day.
You know, pick a day out of the week that you can have
a cheat day.
Have pizza, margaritas, sangria, you know, look.
Pizza, beer, whatever.
That way you can enjoy it better.
♪♪(music playing in the background)♪♪
Oh, okay.
What?
What?
What?
What?
Patrick Neely: You got to have a little music.
Gina Neely: Go Pat.
Patrick Neely: Slide it in like that.
Roll it in, just like that.
They all know, we all know we could have been back,
we could have been music folks, right?
Gina Neely: Just top that off.
Patrick Neely: So you gonna top, you gonna top it off?
Top mine off first.
Gina Neely: You know what?
Let me top yours off.
Patrick Neely: So then you come back, and we just coming with a little yogurt
across the top.
Gina Neely: That.
Patrick Neely: They got these champagne glasses.
Did you order these glasses?
Gina Neely: No.
I ain't saying nothing --
Patrick Neely: Chef William.
Gina Neely: I ain't saying nothing in this White House.
Patrick Neely: Chef William?
Gina Neely: Hon, I ain't saying nothing in this White House.
Whatever they got, they can have.
We're at the White House.
Patrick Neely: We're just glad to be here, right?
Gina Neely: Yes.
See?
Patrick Neely: And just like that.
Gina Neely: Just like that.
Patrick Neely: You got a healthy, fresh dessert.
Gina Neely: That's a nice treat.
Patrick Neely: You got a delicious salad, all you need now is some baked
chicken or baked fish.
Gina Neely: All we need now are some tasters.
Patrick Neely: Or a grill.
Gina Neely: Do we have some little plastic spoons?
Patrick Neely: No tasting.
Gina Neely: What I tell you, they said no.
Patrick Neely: They won't let us taste.
They won't let you taste.
Gina Neely: And you should just see your face.
Patrick Neely: It's like that on most demos.
They afraid.
Gina Neely: No, Miss Gina, girl.
Patrick Neely: They afraid you gonna go home and get sick and say the Neelys
made me sick at the White House.
No, I bet you I be sleeping there tomorrow night.
Gina Neely: But really, this was less than 20 minutes.
You got a great salad, you got a great parfait.
And like I said, you don't have to use strawberries,
you can use raspberries, blueberries, strawberries,
whatever your favorite berry is.
You can put bananas in there.
Whatever works for you.
But always try to use a Greek yogurt, like I said,
for something a little more healthier,
because really what it's kind of all about now,
is we just need to be -- I used to could fit through there.
I guess I ain't been eating my Greek yogurt, huh?
(laughter)
But basically we just want to be healthy.
We want our kids to enjoy our foods.
If they don't like something, try to mix it up a little bit,
anything you can then do to encourage them to eat
more healthier.
And, when you eat it's got to get them moving.
Patrick Neely: Now, you know, y'all, we're a little bit different than any
other chefs you see on stage because we'll allow five
questions if anyone has any questions about us,
want to ask anything about our cooking, the show, cookbook,
our New York restaurant that we just opened, wahoo,
we're super happy about.
Gina Neely: Ooh, ooh.
Patrick Neely: Just fire away.
Yes, ma'am.
Audience Member: (inaudible)
Speaker: You say what, baby?
Gina Neely: There are new shows -- there are new shows airing, they're at 11
-- I'm sorry.
Patrick Neely: Yeah, new shows are airing every Saturday.
Gina Neely: So bossy.
Patrick Neely: But we also have a big surprise coming up on Food Network soon.
Gina Neely: Don't tell them.
Audience Member: You look like you want to tell us.
Gina Neely: He can't hold -- they say women gossip, he can't hold a --
Patrick Neely: I have to tell you what she said,
she says she got our new cookbook,
the Neelys' Celebration Cookbook.
Gina Neely: Wahoo!
Patrick Neely: Just released in November.
So we --
Gina Neely: Yeah, we working on a third one.
So if you want to send me some recipes,
sends them right on to me.
(laughter)
Patrick Neely: Yes, ma'am.
Audience Member: (inaudible)
Patrick Neely: Recipe for --
Audience Member: The healthy way?
Patrick Neely: Yes.
Gina Neely: Yes.
Patrick Neely: Go ahead, mama.
Gina Neely: You go.
You go.
Patrick Neely: No, no, no.
We've got a real healthy, she has a healthy way for
fried chicken.
Gina Neely: To fry chicken instead of frying it in grease.
Patrick Neely: So we marinate it in buttermilk, and onions and hot sauce,
so just a dab of hot sauce, all right,
because you've got to make it a little spice.
Then we season Panko breading.
Gina Neely: Cornflakes.
Patrick Neely: Which is --
Gina Neely: No, cornflakes.
Patrick Neely: Cornflakes.
It is cornflakes.
We take cornflakes.
Gina Neely: Take cornflakes and crumble them up in a Ziploc bag,
just take a rolling pin and roll them out.
And that's gonna give you the texture of fried chicken,
but it's not gonna be fried chicken.
You can't imagine how many guests are fooled thinking
they're eating fried chicken and they're eating cornflakes.
Patrick Neely: And we bake it in the oven.
So we put it on a baking sheet.
Gina Neely: It's really good.
Patrick Neely: 350 degrees for about an hour, hour and 20 minutes,
and bake it, depending on if you're cooking *** or wings
or whatever.
And we actually had some guests over and they said, oh,
this is the best fried chicken.
I said and guess what, you ain't even having no cholesterol
problem because we baked this in the oven.
Gina Neely: See?
So all you do is take alternatives.
Yes, ma'am.
Audience Member: (inaudible)
Gina Neely: Our restaurant in New York is at 62nd and 1st in Upper
East Manhattan.
It's called Neely's Barbecue Parlor.
Wanted to give it a southern style.
Patrick Neely: And anybody, and you guys live close enough if you here in the
D.C. area to get to New York.
Gina Neely: Do it, I'm telling you, tell them you want the VIP.
Patrick Neely: I'm telling you, we tearing it up there in East Side Manhattan.
They ain't never seen macaroni and cheese,
and Gina's collard greens and, you know,
mashed potatoes with brown gravy, you know.
We tearing it up up there.
We got shrimp and grits.
We got so sick of going to New York all the time and never
being able to get a good meal, so I said let's just open up our
own place, and that's what we did.
Gina Neely: And it's at 62nd and 1st, Upper East Manhattan.
Right.
Exactly.
Patrick Neely: And, of course, it's great barbecue.
We got our barbecue recipes there as well.
Gina Neely: Any other questions before we roll on?
Because once we roll, we gonna roll.
Patrick Neely: We got two more.
Gina Neely: Yes.
Audience Member: (inaudible)
Gina Neely: Keep your mouth closed -- no!
(laughter)
I couldn't resist.
(laughter)
Look at you.
Patrick Neely: Keep your mouth closed.
(laughter)
Do like mama say.
Gina Neely: No, just have them balanced, you know,
Pat and I been together for over 30 years now.
We were married at 17, high school sweethearts.
Got back together at our ten-year reunion,
but we worked together in a restaurant,
which I think started a great foundation, but, you know,
anything that you start to build you want to make it sustainable,
have that foundation.
Believe in yourself, believe that God has it for you,
work on it.
When you say "I do," I do mean "I work."
You can't just say "I do" and kick back.
"I do" mean "I work."
So that's all you got to do.
That's the best formula I can give you, baby.
Audience Member: That's a great formula.
Gina Neely: Thank you.
Yes, ma'am.
Audience Member: I just want to say you -- my favorite --
(inaudible) we love you.
Gina Neely: Thank you.
Patrick Neely: Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Gina Neely: And you not going to be calling me, you so pretty in person,
you so skinny in person, you look so fat on TV,
you don't look like -- we're not gonna do all that.
(laughter)
Patrick Neely: Thank you so very much.
Gina Neely: Thank you, guys.
Patrick Neely: Yes, ma'am.
Gina Neely: Oh, sorry, little mama.
Patrick Neely: Let's get this little one.
Yeah, baby, I'll come around and get that on my way out.
Thank you, guys, so much.
Gina Neely: Thank you!
Woo!
Patrick Neely: We really appreciate it.
Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you for having us.
We really appreciate it.
Gina Neely: Enjoy the White House Easter Egg Hunt and vote for Obama in 2013!
Woo!
Patrick Neely: Thank you.