 Hey, what's good, everybody? Hey, look, I'ma go ahead and just address what you see right here. I'm out here in VA with my nephew, Matt, from Mr. Make It Happen, and guess what, folks? We about to get it. Okay, folks, look, I'ma get right into it. Now listen, this is what we gon' do. Matt and I, we come up with like an epic dinner, you know? So I'ma let Matt explain to you what he's doing, and then we'll come back to myself. All right, so I'm helping out with the sides. I got mashed potatoes from the cookbook. That's on sale right now. Link in the description box below. First pro tip of the episode is use chicken broth for your mashed potatoes. So we're gonna boil our potatoes and chicken broth. This is low sodium, and I got a little water in there, so I'm gonna cheat and throw a little chicken bouillon powder in there as well. Little flavor enhancer. Get the flavor going in the potatoes right out the gate. All right, look, meanwhile, why you getting that going? I'ma go ahead. Look, I've already put some heat underneath my pan. And if you guys wanna know if this standalone recipe by itself just passed, just came out this past Sunday, listen, this is just smothered, okra, and shrimp. Listen, you talkin' about an epic gravy. This is fire right here. Now, I'm gettin' my heat underneath the bottom. Hey, you know what, speaking of Matt, hey, I'ma go ahead and just tell you guys this right here. I want you guys to give him a shout out down in the comment section below. This man just passed over a million followers. You know how hard that is to do? Hey, nephew, that's right. That's what's happening. We're gonna celebrate with this dinner. Oh, that's what's happening. So we dropped this in here in the inside. Now I'm out here with my nephew. You know what I mean? I'm tryin' to preach this part about it. Look, get me my soapy water, man, so I can do my dishes, you know, as we cook. Hey, Matt, what you got goin'? I'm more of a dishwasher guy, but I will try to do better next time. Okay. So right now you're cooking the shrimp. Those look like extra large shrimp to me. They're needle-de-veined. For the folks in the comments gonna say we didn't clean the shrimp, they are clean. Wegmans is kind enough to needle-de-vein them for us. Shout out to Wegmans. While he's workin' on that, I'm gonna go ahead and begin seasoning the chicken because shrimp's not enough protein for us. I'm gonna add some chicken breast to the party. I'm gonna season it with my all-purpose seasoning and lemon bay. Basically, a plate on like a lemon, pepper, Cajun blend. So we're gonna go ahead and cover all our bases with those two flavors. Gonna add some nice color and flavor to this chicken breast. We're gonna season this about 15 to 20 minutes before we cook it, so we have time for that seasoning to really penetrate the meat. Okay, so look, now we're just gonna go ahead and take them out. You can take a look at them right here. You see the way they started curling up? And I don't wanna overcook them because listen, we gotta put them back inside. You'll see, man, we try to make something effortful. All right, nephew. Look, now I'm getting ready to go in there. You see this down here? Look, that's nothing really sticking to it. But look, you know what that is. I like when you see it. What's that right down there? Fond. That's right, man. Hey, you get right to it. So I'll just put this in here. I'm gonna give this a little bit of a head start. All right. And after this, I'll just say, I usually let this go for about one minute. With that there, now I'm gonna ask you to go ahead and just put that okra in there. And then I'm gonna work on this and then I'm gonna turn it over to you. We've got fresh okra here to AB already prepped. We'll get that in the skillet as well. I'm gonna clean as I go, so my wife don't yell at me when she gets home. Uh-huh. Now while he works on that, I'm gonna get started on the cream sauce that I use for my mashed potatoes. Again, this recipe is in our best of both worlds cookbook. Fantastic recipes for the holidays, game day. We got a little bit of everything in there all the way from breakfast, lunch, dinner. You name it, it's in there. All right, so this episode is not already packed with tons of pro tips. You get another one. Boars and garlic and herb cheese in your mashed potatoes. It's a thing of beauty, folks. You guys gotta try it. We're going in with five ounces of that right on into that butter and cream mixture. Tons of flavor in here. Nice garlic and herb flavor as the name says. We're gonna give that a mix. We're gonna finish up these potatoes. I'm going in with a tablespoon of sour cream. Then we're gonna season it to taste. A little all-purpose seasoning, just to cover your bases or some salt and pepper if you wanna keep it simple. And then one of my other secret ingredients I like to always keep on deck in the refrigerator is a little fresh roasted garlic. Good tablespoon of that. Roasted garlic, well, you know what? Go ahead and put a tablespoon of that over here on this side. How many your way? Right, there we go. So look, I'm gonna start adding my cumin, just about a teaspoon of that. My parsley, we're gonna go with a little ginger. That ginger smells good. Yes, it does. And here's where everybody liked. You know what I mean? When you're doing them Crayon Cajun, you gotta have a little pop, right? So we put a little bit of that red, you know, chili flakes in there. All right, now we got some seasoning in here. Look, I'm finna add two tablespoons of tomato paste. All right, Matt, I want you to take a look at this right here. Come on here and get in here. We still build them flavor, right? So now we come with them, that fresh tomato, right? Yeah. You see what I'm doing here? That paste give it just a little bit of a different flavor. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? But we almost like, almost like roasting it a little bit. You know what I mean? The fresh tomato, but we cook it down and that's it. But that water come out of the tomato a little bit. Right, right, right. And here's where we level it up right here. Just that Crayon seeds now. All right, once it's broken down like that, oh yeah, this is it right here. Now we're going to add four cups of chicken broth, right? Meanwhile, while he works on that, I can go ahead and prep the asparagus because we got to have a little bit more veggies, right? Got to undig our backs a little bit, as the kids say. So with the asparagus, what we're going to do is blanch them. So basically, boil them in some water, hit them on the ice bath and then saute them in some garlic and butter. Perfect side for this recipe right here. Okay, so if you guys come here and look inside of here right now, you see that? Look, I've already adjusted it. I'm trying to get this down to a simmer. You know what I mean? I'm going to bring it down just a little bit more, right? So the okra that you guys see on the top right here, after about 25 minutes, it's going to get nice and soft and some of it is going to dissipate. But before I do that, we're going to add this bay leaf. All right, it's time for the potatoes. You're going to get your assistance here. I'm laughing right now though, look. I'm right here with my spoon. I'm ready to taste that though. Get in there and tell me what you think. Ooh, look at that. Coat the back of a spoon. Good consistency right there. All right, nephew. You can't say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But that right there, that's nice, man. Thank you, man. So I recommend to always warm your butter and cream mixture before you go throwing it in there because I feel like it messes up the consistency of the potatoes when people pour cold milk in there. So if you don't mind if I'm going to get an extra hand from you to go ahead and pour some of that in here for me. We're hand mashing these like grandma used to do. Big mom, you want me to put it all just right there, all right? We might need the rest of it, but a little bit at a time. Once it's in there, you can't take it out, but you always add more. That's right. All right. Sounded like he was listening to Big Mama. Had to. Y'all can see it coming together right now. Yep. All right, so we got our skillet heated over medium-high. I'm going to add about a tablespoon or so of avocado oil because it has a high smoke point perfect for searing in high temperatures. We got our perfectly seasoned chicken breast going right on into that pan. Always lay the meat away from you and then press down for maximum surface area contact so you get that beautiful crust. All right, so after you got some beautiful color on your chicken, we're going to go ahead and flip it over. And since chicken breast is so lean, we're going to add some butter or some fat to the party for additional flavor. Because why the hell not? Get that butter in there. Once that melts, we're going to baste the chicken, finish it in a 400 degree oven until the breast reaches 165 degrees internal temperature. All right, if you guys come on in here, look at this. Now we're getting that gravy consistency, right? Look at the good color on there. Yes, remember the shrimp? If you guys come in here and take a look, look, we're just going to reheat, right? Move this around. It's going to thicken up just a little bit more. Now it's up to you guys. Once everything is heated up as far as the shrimp, how thick do you want your gravy to be? All right, guys, now it's time for my favorite part of the job, which is almost time for the taste test where we get this plated up. We got these creamy mashed potatoes going down first. I see. Good amount of that right in the middle. Now, you know what? I love doing the plating thing, but I love to see how you get down to do yours too. Me, I do it traditionally. I would have my mashed potatoes off to the side. I like the way you start right there. All right, so now we bring the asparagus. Yep. We're going to go. Oh, you're going to go. Okay, come on. Chicken right on top of the potatoes. Right on top of the potatoes. I got you. Like that. Fan it out a little bit. That's right. Then on the back end, we're going to have our green veggies, nice and garlicky asparagus. And then, you know, we can sell this plate. Yeah, right. Just that high end steakhouse. There we go. And all we need is that deliciousness you got right there. All right, let me go ahead and get this ready. Oh, look at this gravy right here. Now tell me how you want to nephew. I would go right over the chicken and then spit it right here and that's a little indention. Over the chicken? Over the chicken and then come around. That way we can make sure the potatoes get a little bit of that gravy. Okay. I'm going to come back over here and make sure we get some of that okra and that over there. Sir. Now you know we got to bring that green to the party. Not that green, but just, yeah, that green. I got that green too. Okay. There we go. That's a plate right there. That's that million dollar. Hey, we'll check it out nephew. Hey, I'll see you get ready to do your thing, man. I just need to keep this short and sweet. Yeah, you know what? Amen. Right, right, right. We got chicken. We got potatoes here. And we can go shrimp. Nephew. If just don't say high end restaurant, I don't know what does. You know what truly when, you know, my nephew and I, we get together as we create something, you know, epic, right? Now he's on the East Coast. You know, I'm out there out West. So listen, it's really truly the best of both worlds. Speaking of the best of both worlds, you guys can grab our cookbook title best of both worlds and get 10% off and free shipping right now with the code fall 23. Everything is down below in the description box for you. I'm not gonna over talk it. Hey, I love that, man. Hey, so with that being said, you know how we leave all of these videos. Check it out folks. We out. Peace.