This program is made possible in part by a generous contribution from A Friend of the College of Charleston.

(uplifting orchestral music) - As the College of Charleston now knows, President and Mrs. Sanders live out their lives at full speed and they are incapable of holding anything back.

Both of them are two of the finest cooks I've ever met in my life.

And I've eaten like a deposed Italian king when I found myself a lucky guest in their house.

Both know well, the pleasure and tenderness and satisfaction that a well-composed meal can bring to its happy guests.

- Welcome to the Bishop Robert Smith House at the College of Charleston.

I'm Zoe and this is Alex.

We've been together since 4-year-old kindergarten.

We've been married for 35 years, but we've never cooked a meal together.

Not because we didn't try.

We started out trying to cook a meal together.

He does everything so different.

I measure everything I put in.

That's why I wrote the cookbook.

He just throws things in the pot.

I clean up as I go along.

He waits till everything in the kitchen's dirty and then he (laughing) cleans it up.

That's the truth.

He denies it.

But he likes meat and potatoes.

I'm a vegetable, salad.

I set the table and I fix the flowers.

But I do have my own specialties.

And that's what I'm gonna fix for you today.

- This public television program, therefore, will contain a certain measure of suspense.

It remains to be seen whether a 35-year-old marriage can survive an hour together in the kitchen.

What do you think, Zoe?

You sure it's been 35 years?

- I'm positive, and we can make it.

- 4-year-old kindergarten?

- But I'm gonna- - I barely remember it.

- Well, I remember it and I'm gonna fix my mother's recipe.

It's quail, but now we call it College of Charleston Quail.

It can cooked.

You can use the same recipe for doves.

At the college we generally use chicken breasts, but these are pen-raised quail.

And it makes a fabulous meal.

And it can almost be a one course meal.

This olive oil, toss 'em in a little olive oil.

And I use my fingers, use my hands.

I cook with my hands a lot, as you'll see.

Then I generously sprinkle inside and out with salt.

- Notice how carefully she measures.

(Zoe giggling) She's the one that measures everything, right?

- [Zoe] And now I'm gonna do it with pepper.

And it doesn't matter how much.

Just make sure it's generously sprinkled.

- Right, as long as you precisely measure it.

- No.

And then the one thing that you do have to put in a lot of is oregano.

- [Alex] Right.

- And that gives this dish the real good flavor.

Now the next thing you do, and what I would do, is I put 'em in this flour and roll 'em around.

And then I'll put 'em in the butter to brown 'em.

Alex on the other hand, has his own method.

And so I'm gonna let him do his method today.

- It's not neat, but it's efficient.

Now let me say, if I had done it up until this point, I would've probably put the salt and pepper in the bag with the flour.

These obviously two paper bags.

- Don't put the oil in.

- We've put those little birds in the bag and now we gonna shake 'em up.

It's a double paper bag to keep it from exploding and flying all over the kitchen.

It's a real time saving device, however.

And here are.

Now, Zoe.

There's one for you.

- [Zoe] No.

You'll put it in the pan?

- You want me to put it in there?

I'll put it right in.

There we go.

Barely got a sizzle.

That's just what we need to start these little birds.

- Turn it up, turn it up.

- Alright, turn it up.

- It's up.

- It's up, good.

- [Zoe] There you go.

Alright.

- One got a little deficient in the flour.

- That's why it's so much easier just to put 'em in the bowl.

- Well it is but- (Zoe laughing) Doesn't have any drama connected with it that way, you know?

Zoe says, I never cooked anything the same way twice.

And that's true.

It's essentially boring to keep doing the same thing over and over again, don't you think?

- Mine's the same every time because I measure.

And his is always different every time, but his really is spectacular.

He's the best cook if you have to.

- Of course, sometimes it's a spectacular failure.

I know that.

- No.

He never has had a failure.

He just says that.

Okay.

- I say it to protect myself against what may be happening on camera.

- I'll finish doing these.

I'll finish doing these.

Oh you through.

- You through.

- Would you cut up an onion and a bell pepper for me now?

- I would be delighted to cut up an onion.

As a matter of fact- - Need a wet cloth?

- I got one.

Cutting up an onion is my specialty.

I'm a teacher.

And if I could only teach you one thing today, I would teach you something very important.

Something that would enhance the quality of your life.

Something almost nobody knows.

And that is how to cut up an onion.

The way you cut up an onion is contrary to what is intuitive about cutting one up, not across, not in rings, but from stem to stern.

Starting with the stem of the onion at the top and the root of the onion at the bottom and cutting the onion in half this way.

Now once onion is cut in half and you can lay the two halves down, they don't roll around.

Very neat.

Let me say this about cutting up an onion and cutting up other things.

You see these chefs on TV, professional guys who do it with a sort of a rocking motion, cut everything up with machine gun speed.

Well, I can do it that way.

But I'm not going to do it that way because you can't do it that way.

I'm going to do it more slowly, more deliberately, and indeed a little awkwardly because that's the way you would do it at home.

And that's the way I wanna teach you to do it.

This onion then, I'm going to begin by cutting a slice of the stem part off and throwing that away, and then peeling off the skin of the onion.

Now, if you peel a little bit too much like I just did, doesn't matter.

I mean it's just a little wasted layer of onion.

What's an onion?

It doesn't cost anything much.

And then after you do that, you cut the onion in slices.

But once again, not across the onion but from stem to stern.

You see how I did that?

It's easy.

And then holding your fingers carefully away from the blade so as to avoid not cutting off the tip of the finger.

Something I have done on several occasions.

You cut the onion into the pieces that automatically become chopped onion.

Now if you cut an onion up this way, once you learn to do it and it's important thing you know how to do, you will never, never, never need a food processor.

Isn't that something?

- Alex, you did such a good job on the vegetables.

You got the bell peppers and the onions done.

And now I'm going to pour the remaining olive oil and seasonings in the pan.

- I also cut up the mushrooms, but only the onion was a work of art.

(oil sizzling) - So now what I want you to do is to put the bell peppers and the onions in this pan.

- I'll do it.

That's where we really get some sizzle.

And you can't cook an onion without salt.

So full salt on there.

Now I'm gonna put the bell pepper in there too.

Actually, if I had done this with totally correct protocol, I'd have put the bell pepper in first 'cause it takes a little bit longer than the onion.

But nothing great that's lost by doing them both at the same time.

Let me say that these are being sauteed in the words of the French, in an iron frying pan.

That's very important.

An iron frying pan is something that every truly privileged family has.

And I hope that you are fortunate enough to have inherited an iron frying pan because proper seasoning is a matter of years, years of use.

I know families, I have known families that were so impoverished that they were only able to leave their children china and silver, money and trust funds.

Their estates did not include an iron frying pan.

And I've always felt sorry for families like that.

- I think these are almost done.

- [Alex] Should.

- Now lemme tell you what I'm gonna do.

I am going to take the...

I'm going to put the tomato paste, salt, already measured, pepper, already measured.

- She measured those.

- And then the best part, and I really don't measure this 'cause it's hard to get too much sherry, great sherry.

And don't ever use cooking sherry.

Always use the best sherry that you have.

- It is however possible to get too little sherry.

- Right.

- Just dump it on in.

- With a whisk, stir it all up.

This is pure water.

Three cups of water in here.

Salt, pepper, sherry and tomato paste.

Now I'm gonna pour that over your peppers and onions.

Stir it up.

And then, this is go cook down for just a little while, 10 minutes say.

And I'll sprinkle a little breadcrumbs over it.

And I want you to notice these breadcrumbs.

It's one piece of bread that I've just taken and put cut up in little pieces with my fingers.

Not the dried breadcrumbs that are fine.

And breadcrumbs make a wonderful thickener.

- [Alex] Just white bread, sort of fallen into disrepute lately.

It's not ethnically sensitive, but it's a great thickener.

- It's a great way to thicken anything, good gravy.

And it has a flavor.

It's almost like a garlic flavor, but it's good.

Then I'm gonna sprinkle, you see, while Alex was chopping the onions in the bell peppers, I've put the quail in this pan.

And now I'm gonna dump the mushrooms in, which he generously cut up for me.

And now I wanna show you just what that's gonna look like when it cooks down.

This is a great gravy that's cooked down and we're just gonna pick it up and pour it all over this.

- This is more than a gravy.

This is a fine sauce.

As a matter of fact, when we reach this stage of recipe, I'm often tempted- - Can I have the spatula?

- Just to stop and eat the sauce.

Forget about the recipe.

- It really is.

- [Alex] It is wonderful, truly wonderful.

- [Zoe] It's really good.

Okay.

- [Alex] It's got the quail flavor already.

- Now what I'm gonna do is put this in the oven, put the top on it.

Excuse me.

- Where is the top?

- Gotta get the top top.

We got it.

And I've already got a finished product in there, while this one's, you know, cooking.

- You know, that's what professional chefs always do.

They already have one already cooked.

And we did that.

We did that just to prove we could do it.

- There it is.

- Isn't that beautiful?

- [Zoe] And it is delicious.

- [Alex] Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Those little birds in there, mushrooms are cooked.

- Alex, you go tell 'em what you did with your- - Yeah.

Let me tell you the most successful time we ever did this.

We had a big supper (birds chirping) out at Dixie Plantation, a very elaborate supper.

And Zoe cooked, not a dozen quail like she usually cooked.

She cooked 500 quail for these people that came to this elaborate dinner.

And we had it under a tent.

(orchestral music) It was beautiful.

And when it was over, naturally, some were left over.

We had about 50 left over.

And so we decided not to do what we normally do with leftovers.

Normally we just feed them to the students in the cafeteria the next day.

But this was such an exquisite dish that we decided to freeze it for later occasions.

So we froze these 50 quail on a block of ice.

And then about six months went by and I said, "Zoe, you know, we better see about those quail.

They've been frozen in that block of ice for six months now."

And so we thawed 'em out and to our initial dismay, they just fell to pieces, they fell into shreds after they'd been frozen for six months and thawed.

But there they were in this rich sauce all fallin' to pieces.

So what we did, we reached in and we gently pulled out those little small quail bones, leaving nothing but the shredded quail and the rich sauce.

And then I changed the name of the dish to quail stew and I took it over to the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, which was then in process.

And I entered it in the contest in competition with great chefs from all over the western world.

I called it quail stew.

I served it on a generous bed of rice.

And that's what it looked like.

And just to sort of finish it off, I cut up a little parsley on it.

This is the way you cut parley, by the way.

Once again, no food processors required.

Just take a pair of scissors and cut it up like that.

And you know, I didn't decorate the plate like those guys on TV.

(gentle music) But this was enough for the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition to give me first prize, the blue ribbon.

Won the whole contest.

(gentle music continues) (uplifting orchestral music) - At the College of Charleston, we entertain all over the campus, not just here at 6 Glebe Street.

And biscuits are one of the favorite things that we serve.

Some people will eat three and ask for more.

I feel like people are afraid to make biscuits.

But it's one of the simplest things you can make.

But you have to watch somebody make 'em.

And that's what I wanna show you how to do today.

And the secret is a light touch.

Now, when I dip down in my bag of flour, I use this little dry measuring cup, which is a neat little thing.

You can level it off with a knife, but you don't.

You just dip down in, pull up about a cup.

If it goes a little over on the first one, it'll be a little lower on the second one maybe.

Then always add your dry ingredients and mix those first.

This is sugar, a teaspoon and a half of sugar.

Get this all mixed together.

At Randolph Hall for the Round Table, we'll serve 100 people, and we can never have enough biscuits.

I think we always run out.

Okay, now we're ready to add our Crisco, our butter flavored shortening.

It really helps a lot to have butter flavored shortening.

Now I cheat a little bit on this.

This is a rounded tablespoon of butter flavored shortening.

And I dot 'em all over the top.

I'll put four on here.

The original recipe says that this is really 3/4 of a cup.

But sometimes these biscuits are a little shorter than they are other times.

But the butter flavored shortening is the key.

Now you cut 'em in and if you want to, you can use two knives.

It's easy to cut in with two knives.

But to me, I have a dough blender, and I think that it's much to use that, if you have one of these.

But you don't have to have.

So you cut it in until it's the size of a pea.

A little pea or a big pea, doesn't make any difference.

You'll have good biscuits because the key to the biscuit is a light touch.

That's where it really comes in when what's important.

And we are almost down to that point where we'll begin to touch and you have to touch very lightly.

Okay, and they're almost pea size.

I'll say large pea size here for the sake of time.

Okay, then we're going to add our buttermilk.

Fresh buttermilk, old buttermilk, doesn't make much difference.

Makes it wonderful.

Stir that in with your spoon.

'Cause the next step, you're gonna start touching it.

And the more you stir it with this spoon, then the less you have to touch it.

Get it all blended in.

Just stir it until all your flour is blended with your Crisco and your sugar and your milk.

Okay, we almost got this.

It's so easy, just watch.

You'll be surprised and you'll make 'em every night.

The wonderful thing about these though, you can make 'em, bake 'em for five minutes, or until they just begin to turn brown, take 'em out, let 'em get room temperature, and freeze them.

And they are wonderful.

Take 'em out, let 'em get back to... After they're frozen, let 'em get room temperature and finish baking 'em for the last five minutes.

You'll be surprised how wonderful they'll be.

Now don't forget to lightly oil your pan with a vegetable spray.

What we're gonna do here is just lightly flour the board, lightly flour your hands, your rolling pin, and your biscuit cutter.

Now for cocktail biscuits, you might want to use a small little biscuit cutter.

For dinner biscuits, I like to use a little bit larger one.

Okay.

Dip down, take just half of this biscuit dough.

And really, do it with your fingers.

Don't do it with the palm of your hand, but make sure your fingers...

This is a little sticky.

That's okay.

Just put a little flour on your hands.

Okay, that's enough.

See I didn't mash it together.

Got a little too much here.

Give it one little pat.

Make sure this is nice and floured.

Roll it about... Move these so you can see what I'm doing.

Roll these about half inch, three quarters of an inch thick.

Very lightly, very lightly.

Let's see how this works.

If it comes out like that and sticks in the biscuit cutter, it's perfect dough.

And when you put 'em in your pan, make sure that you don't let 'em touch the sides.

Put 'em about a half an inch away from the sides and about a half an inch away from each other.

Wow, this is perfect dough when it comes out like that.

Okay, then take the little remaining dough that you've got, 'cause remember you don't wanna mix it with your hands, and you don't want to touch it much.

Take your spoon, go back and get the second half of your dough.

Try to get it all.

I'm going to move this.

Now.

Do it with your fingers.

Now remember this is your second and last half of your dough.

Put it down, give it a little pat.

Lightly roll it out.

It's fun to do.

You'll like it.

And not only is it fun, but they taste so good.

Oh, these are coming out great.

Okay.

Now I'll show you what you do with all of your little scraps.

You take 'em and just gently mash 'em together with your fingers.

This way the heat of your hand doesn't affect the dough.

I think that's what it is.

And you don't need any more flour 'cause you've put enough flour in both of these.

So you put it down, give it a little pat, and lightly roll it out.

I got a little sticky thing on there.

Roll it out of, whoo.

Can't mess it up.

I'm not gonna worry about it.

Now here we go.

Good dough again.

All right.

That's great.

Okay, now those are done.

Put 'em in the oven at 425 and they'll come out beautifully.

Now I'm gonna... Cheated.

I fixed a whole pan for you to see.

And these are delicious.

(gentle orchestral music) - Zoe has allowed me the unusual privilege of occupying the kitchen all by myself without adult supervision.

And I'm going to take advantage of that by teaching you how to make what I call an oyster pie.

Now I must say I feel Zoe's omnipresence nevertheless with me and I'm gonna be very careful to follow her instructions, to measure everything carefully and clean up as I go and so forth.

I also feel my mother's presence because my mother calls this dish scalloped oysters.

A more elegant term.

I call it the more basic and earthy term of oyster pie.

So when we go to Columbia at Thanksgiving and Christmas every year and we prepare this dish for our holiday meal, we call it scalloped oysters.

I would advise you to call it oyster pie unless you are east of the inland waterway and anywhere near my 92-year-old mother.

And then you'd probably be better off to call it scalloped oysters.

This is where we start.

We start with a measured quantity of saltine crackers called a sleeve of saltines.

Now as everybody knows, saltines are a staple of life.

And the modern practice of enclosing them in this container, which I call a sleeve, and most people call a sleeve is really one of the few modern developments in cooking that's worthwhile because not only does it measure out the quantity you need, it gives you the vehicle for crushing the saltines and making saltine crumbs.

And the way you do that is simply by taking a rolling pin, an old fashioned rolling pin, and whacking on those saltines until you reduce them to crumbles.

Then you can finish it off with your hands.

And it doesn't take very long as opposed to the old way.

And you end up with just what you need.

And that is somewhat of a mess, but saltine crumbs.

Then you dump those into a pan in which you have previously melted butter and mix it all together.

And produce those extra rich saltine crackers that you need to compliment the exquisite little oysters, the most delicate morsels consumable in life, that mollusk that has brought inspiration to people for generations.

Now having crushed up the saltines and the melted butter, we use a standard casserole pan and we put a few saltines on the bottom of the pan to make a sort of a thin first layer.

And then add those wonderful oysters to it.

Now, you'll notice that I handle an oyster as it should be handled.

And that is with a substantial amount of reverence.

I have great respect for the little mollusk.

An oyster, of course, lives a solitary life, a life of non-mobility, is able to make any progress only when churned up by the tides of which he has no control.

In that regard, an oyster is a lot like a judge, which is what I used to be.

I'm now adding some sliced up mushrooms as a sort of a third layer.

And then when I finish doing that, I'm gonna cover all of it with a generous quantity of carefully measured salt and pepper.

You need more salt for oysters than you would think you need.

Next comes another layer of the saltine crackers, just leaving a few for the top, and then some more of the little oysters.

As I say an oysters a lot like a judge, lives a solitary life, isn't really not allowed any forward momentum of his own or her own.

But let me tell you something, there's a great power in solitude.

Little tiny animal here, no bigger than your thumb.

And it takes a strong man and two hands and a sharp blade just to open up his door.

And that's a tribute to the power of living alone, I think.

And there's a lesson to be learned in that when you're dealing with such a person, particularly if that person happens to have the title of judge.

Now some more of the crackers, obviously, or the rest of the sleeve of crackers.

Even those that may have unfortunately fallen out on the table, no one will ever know.

I'm sure none of you will ever tell who are watching this program.

Now, a little more salt and pepper.

Now what I'm about to do next is the only real creative aspect of this dish.

And that is making up a concoction here, which consists of oyster juice, half oyster juice, and another half portion of milk.

A squirt of carefully measured sherry, and another squirt of the Worcestershire sauce.

We stir all that up and add it to our oyster pie.

Now how much are we going to add?

We're going to add an amount that results in puddles being formed in the pie.

That's how we can tell when we got enough.

Puddles being formed in the pie.

See the first puddle, we know we got enough.

And there's the first puddle and it's ready to go into the 350 degree oven.

Now, by the miracle of television communication, we are now ready to produce instantly, which would normally take almost an hour.

And that is a finished oyster pie.

And here it is.

Isn't that beautiful?

Isn't that beautiful?

Can conserve it right on the table, maybe add a little garnish of parsley, cut up thusly, so you never need a food processor.

(gentle orchestral music) And as the French say, voila.

(gentle orchestral music continues) - All over the campus at all times of the year, at parties large and small, you can sample the bounty of the Lowcountry.

Outdoors under the old oaks in the spring, banked in flowers, beside the slow rivers and green marshes in summer, spilling from picnic baskets, and high ceiling dining rooms in the fall.

Candlelight flickering on old silver and china fashioned in another century.

By firelight in the winter, the thousand lights of December dancing in every goblet.

For those of you who have dined at a college feast, this book and this program will be a chance both to remember and recreate some of the magic.

For those who have not, it's a way to share the special sorcery of a place that is like no other on earth.

- Now we're gonna fix the most elegant dessert that we serve on the campus.

It's Swedish cream with raspberry sauce.

But today I'm gonna fix a low fat version of that.

In the book, it's regular cream, half and half, a liqueur for the sauce.

All of that's been cut out and I've gotten it down to 57 calories and approximately one gram of fat.

And it's almost just as good, but it's certainly better than no dessert at all.

So those of you that can't eat sugar, it has no sugar in it.

I've used all NutraSweet.

So it's really kind of fun.

Start out with Knox gelatin.

And we'll mix this 2% milk and regular milk, whole milk.

Now you know, you don't have to go all the way with this.

You could do all whole milk.

I would not recommend all 2% milk because I don't think it would congeal.

I don't anything would happen.

I think you'd have a mess.

But this would be a really...

It's delicious, or diabetic, for anybody that can't eat fat or sugar.

First we'll put it on.

Heat it up.

Not to boiling.

You might as well throw it away then.

You just wanna scald it.

Just hot enough for that gelatin to dissolve.

Because if it gets too hot, it'll be tough.

And it still tastes good, but be rubbery.

You know how that tastes.

Pretty bad actually.

So while that's getting hot, and I'll have to watch it very carefully, we'll mix the fat-free sour cream.

I'll mix that with NutraSweet and get my...

I like to use my whisk and get it going.

Now you wouldn't believe that this much NutraSweet would be good.

But if you put it in here and you put it over the raspberries, it's wonderful.

The raspberries sweeten everything up.

Put a little vanilla in it.

I think that low fat, or no fat, sour cream is terrible.

But like this, it's delicious.

Okay.

See if this is hot over here.

It just about dissolved.

The gelatin's almost dissolved.

And take it off the stove.

Let it get cool.

Because if you don't let it cool, then the NutraSweet really tastes bad.

And you don't want that.

That's the one thing about it.

Turn my burner off.

You don't have to cool it long.

It might cool five minutes.

I'm gonna speed it up a little bit today.

Pour it in.

It's amazing thing to me how good this is.

You'll be very surprised.

And the good thing about this is, it's an all year round dessert 'cause it doesn't... Now I generally put the wonderful liqueur in it.

If I'm using strawberries.

If I'm using... Well with raspberries, I usually use Chambord.

And that's what's in the book.

But today I'm using orange juice and skipping all the sugar so that it makes a really good sugar-free dessert.

And that's ready.

Ready to put in the... Oh, I almost forgot to spray my molds.

Get little four ounce molds.

And just whatever four ounce molds you can find.

Spray 'em lightly with the vegetable spray so that they'll slip right out.

Make it easy for yourself.

Then you can fill 'em up.

And if you don't have a wonderful pot like this, you can dip 'em.

They'll dip.

And when you finish, whoop, I'm making a mess.

It might be easier for me to dip.

When you make...

When you get this done, you can put 'em in the refrigerator and they'll be wonderful.

In about two hours, they'll be ready for you to put your sauce on.

Now we're ready to make the raspberry sauce.

This is easy, so easy.

And once again, we have to remember that this is low fat.

But you put the fresh raspberries in your food processor.

And if you don't have a food processor, put 'em in a blender.

But I do think that, I guess you could mash 'em up by hand, but that'd be very difficult.

I think a blender would be what you need if you don't have a food...

This wonderful little miniature Cuisinart.

But the big ones work just as well.

Couldn't get 'em all in.

I can get 'em all in there, I think.

Well, it makes more sauce.

So good.

Okay.

(food processor whirring) And you need to blend them as much as you can because the purpose is to get all of the seeds out of 'em.

And we'll do that by straining 'em after we finish plenty of 'em.

(food processor whirring) Okay, that's plenty.

It's beautiful, beautiful.

All right.

Isn't that pretty?

It's so red.

This is what we serve at our graduation lunch a lot of times, which is around Christmas time.

Also, we use oranges.

And I'm gonna rinse this out because I wanna make sure that I get all the seeds out of this.

So I'll rinse it.

And also, I wanna rinse the blade because it's not very good to bite into a raspberry seed.

Okay.

Put this little trick back on here.

We'll be ready to go.

And I'm gonna mash this down in here and just strain it to try to get all the seeds out.

It's so simple.

Now in the summertime, you can use your peaches and blueberries.

In the springtime, you can use raspberries.

And in the wintertime, the oranges.

Grand Marnier sauce is so good with the oranges.

But you pick back up on your sugar and that's got alcohol in it.

But you can cook your alcohol out.

So that's no big deal.

And it really is better.

But it's hard, you can't get rid of the sugar.

I feel like raspberries can be used all year round.

So this day in time it's gotten... Keep stirring, I hate to waste any of it.

It's so good.

But truly this is one of the most popular desserts that we serve on the campus.

And we serve it more than any other dessert because it is all year round.

Peaches and blueberries are just wonderful.

Okay.

I'm gonna dump this.

And it's very important to rinse your strainer because if you let the seeds and the raspberries dry, you'll really have a mess, 'cause it's hard to get out.

So I always rinse my strainer time I finish using it so that those seeds in the fruit or whatever I have in here aren't stuck.

You can soak 'em out.

But I really think once it gets dirty, you never get it clean again.

I can't get mine clean anyway.

So that's a must.

Okay, let's see where we are.

Now.

Actually, I'll pour this back in.

Then we'll add, instead of the Chambord, we'll add a little orange juice, a little lemon juice.

And I put lemon juice in everything.

I think lemon juice is wonderful.

And I'll get my little orange extract, a teaspoon of orange extract.

And then add the NutraSweet.

Oh, this is so good.

Let's see, what'd I do with my top?

There it is.

Here we go.

(food processor whirring) Blend it.

Now it's wonderful.

It'll be perfect.

Get a clean bowl.

Let's pour these raspberries in here.

Then, huh.

Pour this wonderful sauce over it.

Toss 'em.

Really toss them in this good juice.

And as you see, then you can bring in, I already have a Swedish cream that I prepared earlier.

But you need to put this wonderful berries and juice in a pretty container just because it looks good and it's easier to get it on your Swedish cream.

Now let's go right.

See this?

Put on some berries.

Isn't that beautiful?

It's wonderful for Christmas time, but it's good all year round.

(gentle orchestral music) Now, pour a little extra juice on there.

Mm.

Delish.

(gentle orchestral music continues) We serve all over the campus at the college.

And probably this is the only thing that we serve everywhere.

We serve it at Randolph Hall, we serve it for receptions.

And it's cheese wafers with Benne seeds.

I'm gonna show you how to make 'em 'cause they're so easy to make.

(food processor whirring) Makes a little noise, but they're so simple and so good.

And this is the one thing that everybody loves, so.

(food processor whirring) - You know, just as the College of Charleston is both old and new, a Benne seed wafer in many ways represents the College of Charleston.

So it's a pretty good thing that it's universally served on our campus.

For example, the method that Zoe is using today is represented by the food processor, I suppose, that among the most modern creations of cooking skills.

I'm sure these Benne seed wafers were made in Charleston.

However, though, for at least two centuries before anybody ever invented a food processor.

But it saves a little effort.

Is that it, Zoe?

- Well, use a hand grater.

And it's just as good.

Just takes a little longer.

Now we'll mix a little salt, a little cayenne, a little paprika.

Mix this up.

Stir it so I'm gonna be ready.

But you put your hands in this, and mash the butter and the cheese.

This is extra sharp cheddar cheese.

And you mash it all up until it's as combined as you can get it.

And then you dump the... You pour in your flour.

- Just as the Benne seed wafer (gentle music) is quintessentially Charleston, and therefore the College of Charleston, the college is a historic place.

It was founded in 1770 by three men who signed the Declaration of Independence and three other men who signed the Constitution.

We are making these historic wafers in the house in which John Rutledge died, George Washington's Chief Justice.

And on Saturday morning when the tourists come through and our bed's not made up, we say, "That's the bed John Rutledge died in.

We leave it like that in his memory."

You know, tourists will believe anything, especially if they're Yankees.

Now Zoe is- (Zoe chuckles) - No.

- Zoe is completing these Benne seed wafers.

But, you know, she's doing it in a non-traditional way, in a way that doesn't just involve the food processor.

The typical Benne seed wafer in Charleston is made with sugar.

It's a kind of a cookie.

This is a much superior Benne seed wafer.

If you've ever tasted one of these, I promise you will become hopelessly addicted to 'em and your soul will cry out for this recipe.

This recipe ought to require a prescription to have it.

It's really something.

It really is, it's wonderful.

- You roll 'em out, in about a 12 inch roll.

And then the beauty of this is you can freeze 'em.

You can put 'em in a piece of wax paper, or today I'm gonna put 'em in a little piece of Saran wrap.

And roll 'em up, put 'em in the refrigerator, and then get 'em out.

When you're ready for 'em, cook 'em.

And bake 'em off and you'll have 'em.

But they'll keep in the refrigerator for a long time.

So I'm gonna put this over here.

Now I'll show you what I'm gonna do.

I've got one that's already done, so I'm going to cut these up.

It's so easy.

- Then she's gonna let me do something, other than lick the bowl, which is my favorite thing to do.

No, just as Zoe is making Benne seed wafers in a sort of a modern way today, the College of Charleston, in addition to being historic, is also modern.

We have students from all 50 states and 64 foreign countries.

And we like to think, while our curriculum is the old fashioned liberal arts, our thinking is as modern as tomorrow in the 21st century.

You gonna let me put the Benne seeds on 'em, Zoe?

- Mash the Benne seeds on 'em.

- Okay.

- And then I'm gonna put a little, he's gonna put a few with pecans.

That's sort of the Columbia way we do it.

His mother started me out doing that.

But the Benne seed wafers...

The cheese wafers with Benne seeds are strictly Charleston.

- Well, I like to think that pecans are typically southern and the Benne seeds are quintessentially Charleston.

So that's a pretty good combination.

We make a few of each, just to show you what they look like before they're cooked.

And then through the... Once again, through the miracle of modern television, we will cook them almost instantly, right Zoe?

- [Zoe] Yeah.

You're doing good.

- Am I getting it done?

- You're getting it done.

- Okay.

This historic campus is something.

And it's just a great privilege for us to live in and for our students from all over America and all over the world to attend.

- That's enough for the time being.

That's enough to show 'em how we did it.

Because now we got the ones in here that we've already done for you to see.

Ah, they're wonderful.

And the thing to do is take 'em off the plate while they're hot.

Can you put 'em in?

Ah.

Don't eat 'em all.

It's hard to make enough of these things.

But aren't they beautiful?

And you've browned the sesame seeds before you've put 'em on.

I don't know if I mentioned that or not.

Brown sesame seeds about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven, and they'll be perfect.

(uplifting orchestral music) So here we are.

- These things will truly- - So they can see 'em.

- Fly off of the plate.

(uplifting orchestral music) - No meal is complete without salad and vegetables.

So today we're gonna fix this grapefruit salad.

And I'll start out with a wonderful salad dressing that's got sugar... Apple cider vinegar is already in it.

Sugar, salt and pepper, paprika, dry mustard and curry powder.

So I'm gonna add, first I'm gonna blend that.

(blender whirs) And then I'll add a little onion, and a little poppy seeds, and a little vegetable oil.

And I'm gonna go add the vegetable oil very slowly.

(blender whirring) Now you see I did it slowly so that it would all mix.

It needs to mix.

This makes a great dressing for fresh pineapple.

Change it just a little bit.

I've changed it in the book.

And it's a wonderful marinade for grilled shrimp.

So you'll find all kind of good things you can do with this.

But today it's gonna be on our grapefruit salad.

And I hope that... Alex, can you start making this?

- Sure.

Adding that olive oil slowly is what the big shots on TV call emulsifying.

It makes it into kind of a mayonnaise.

And I'm laying out a little Boston lettuce.

Who know, Boston lettuce is a little bit prettier than iceberg lettuce, which you could use.

I think of iceberg lettuce as kind of the polyester of lettuce.

This is nice lettuce here, though.

And it's gonna make a pretty salad.

The beauty of this salad is second only to the spectacular beauty of a College of Charleston graduation.

Our graduation is an unusual one.

("Pomp and Circumstance" playing) Our graduates don't wear the traditional regalia of graduations.

The boys wear white coats and the girls wear white dresses and carry red roses.

And it takes place in that lovely setting, which is the College of Charleston.

The historic buildings, the live oak trees, the Spanish moss, the azaleas typically blooming.

It's just a beautiful thing.

But the prettiest thing about it is the graduates themselves because they radiate that proudest of life's accomplishments.

They have learned what teachers struggle most desperately to teach.

They have learned how to learn.

They've learned the lessons of character, how to lead moral lives, (audience applauding) and how to make as much of themselves as possible.

How to be good citizens.

(crowd cheering) And that's what we deliver at the College of Charleston.

And our graduates show it on graduation day.

But back to the salads though.

- (giggles) Okay.

If you noticed, I cut the grapefruit just almost like I cut an apple.

I peeled it.

And make sure you get all the white membrane off because it's very bitter and it'll ruin any salad or any grapefruit if you eat it.

But then cut your little segments in between each section of that white membrane.

And Alex, you can put 'em...

He's got the avocado on and now he can put the...

I'm sorry, I'll hand it to you better.

Make a pinwheel, pinwheel effect.

Okay.

One more to go.

As you see- - Two more.

- Two more, need two more.

Okay, we're almost there.

This one.

All right.

Now I've got a little salad dressing back here that I've put in a real pretty...

I put it in a real pretty little bowl.

Get it just right.

You did good.

Thank you.

Now this will be...

It's got just enough curry in it that you can barely tell it's there.

It's a wonderful salad.

- [Alex] Tell 'em about this kitchen, Zoe.

- Well, this kitchen was a parlor.

All the work that we've done in this kitchen was done in the backyard, in the kitchen house.

And that kept the entire house cooler because the kitchen was in the backyard.

And this was a parlor.

- Also kept it from burning down.

- And it kept it from burning down.

- Because this house was built in 1770, six years before the United States of America existed.

What a privilege it is for us to live here and have it the central focus of this historic campus.

- Now we've got the string beans that have been steaming.

I'm gonna go put 'em in the pan to saute 'em.

- [Alex] What are you sauteing 'em in, Zoe?

- I put a little garlic, there's a little garlic, a little melted butter, a little lemon juice.

And now I'm gonna sprinkle some sesame seeds over 'em.

And we've got the wild rice.

It's ready to go.

(gentle orchestral music) And now it's time for us to go upstairs to dress.

We'll see you in the dining room.

(gentle orchestral music continues) The dinner is complete.

And we've had a wonderful time in the kitchen together.

- Marriage has survived!

- And our guests will be arriving soon.

- As we are once again reminded that in this life we are all guests at the same table.

And what we have been given will be sufficient to feed us all, if we will only share.

- We're Zoe and Alex, "Entertaining at the College of Charleston."

(uplifting orchestral music) (uplifting orchestral music continues)