This will be my first in a series devoted to celebrity cookbooks. This idea came to me the other night while watching clips of the Conan O’Brien show and caught an episode featuring Isaac Hayes and his book promotion. Isaac Hayes seduced the audience with his iconic sexy voice as he performed one of those, always awkward, celebrity cooking segments. I ordered his book right then and there. When the book arrived I feverishly paged through it to find what I was looking for. The holy grail. The recipe for Chocolate Salty Balls. I found it.

The Introduction

This book is amazing. It is equal part memoir as much as it is a cookbook and its brilliant. Isaac Hayes has honestly lived an incredible life. Being born in rural Tennessee to share croppers, you can see that he cherished his childhood even through the tragedy of losing both of his parents. Living with his grandparents in the country, food was abundant thanks to a mix of community sharing and home farms with gardens and animals. When he was 7 they moved to Memphis where life was a stark contrast to what he was used to. There was struggle, heart break, and eventually Stax Records and fame. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here and just say that this book was clearly a passion project and I love it.

The Food

Isaac Hayes has such a wide range of recipes in here, from southern soul food, to healthy health nut, to celebrity recipes (two lemon meringue pie recipes; one from Natalie Portman and one from Jenna Elfman) and he even adapted an actual recipe for Chocolate Salty Balls, because the lyrics in the song are not a real recipe.

The menu is:Marinated Boston Butt, Corn Pudding, Sautéed Spinach, Lisa Marie Presley’s Banana Pudding, and Chocolate Salty Balls.

Marinated Boston Butt: I chose this recipe because in the description he says “I used to make this back when I was just starting out in the world[…] I loved cooking this dish for my wife and her family.” It’s a sweet glance at his past. The marinade for this smelled soooooooo gooooooooooooood. It was one can of frozen apple juice, apple cider vinegar and pickling spices (I just dumped in a whole bottle of it). I let the butt (heh) marinate (heh heh) for about a day and a half and then roasted it in the over for about 4 hours.

Do it taste good? Yes! I probably could have let it go longer in the oven to make it more of a shredded pork situation, but it was delightful sliced. I loved the aroma while it was baking. You could smell it throughout the whole neighborhood. Some of the tougher pickling spices got stuck to the meat and weren’t great to chew on, so perhaps if I were to do this marinade again I would strain it before adding it to the baking pan. Also, the instructions did not include salting the meat and I think that doing that step would vastly improve an already great meat marinade.

Corn Pudding: I love corn pudding and I was excited to make this. Isaac says “This is the kind of corn pudding I loved when I was a child. Creamy and full of corn flavor.”

Do it taste good? Yes times 1,000. I loved that it has pimentos, green peppers and bacon on top. It had whipped egg whites added to make it a little puffy, and of course sweet creamed corn and some frozen corn. It was so good I may have had 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths.

Sauteed Spinach: This was a quick and easy side, just bagged spinach, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Do it taste good? It was great! It’s as simple as it sounds but sometimes a dish that highlights the flavor of the vegetable is all you need.

Lisa Marie Presley’s Banana Pudding: I love banana pudding, but I have never actually made it before. I kept it easy with instant pudding, and instead of Vanilla Wafers I went with Pepperidge Farms Chessmen butter cookies. This was a baked pudding where I had to make a meringue. I’m kind of in a love hate relationship with meringue at the moment and this recipe hasn’t help the relationship. It’s on the rocks. It’s on life support. Meringue may or may not be talking to lawyers.

What does Lisa Marie have to say about this recipe? “This recipe means to me a good 10 pounds gained instantly if you eat it three times a week. When it hits your palate, first you see Jesus, then you meet the digestion devil, then you get the blues faster than you can say ‘Damn, Baby.'”

I’d have to agree with her that eating banana pudding 3 times a week could lead to digestion devils.

Do it taste good? We all saw Jesus

Finally, Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You): I owned the South Park Chef Aid album and I memorized a lot of the songs from that record. I can guarantee that I have heard the Cartman version of Sailin Away more times than I have heard the Styx version. The song Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You) was humor at its finest, and I was happy to sing that song in front of my parent’s friends. In the lyrics is a recipe for Chocolate Salty Balls, but they aren’t a real recipe and probably would not create anything remotely ball-shaped. The balls in this book however, are a simple mix of Graham Cracker crumbs, Corn Syrup, melted chocolate and salt.

Do it Taste Good? They’re packed full of goodness, high in fiber! But for real though, they tasted great, would suck on again.

Final Thoughts

Guys it’s been like 5 years since I posted in this blog, and holy hell have I lived a lot of life in those years. I’m not here to gripe on all that. I will say, that I love doing this! I love reading cookbooks and I love inviting people over and having a little dinner party. I love that I am in the point of my life where I can be myself, not worry about perfection and just have fun.

We had our friends Libby and Raul over, and we had a really beautiful night eating on our porch and listening to Isaac Hayes. Libby gifted me her mother’s avocado green Kitchen Aid mixer from the 70s and I can’t wait to try it out!

Isaac Hayes is truly an icon and a treasure. In his Chocolate Salty Balls recipe he writes “When I was asked to play the character of Chef in South Park, I had no idea where the story might be heading – or that some day I would be singing about this recipe on Chef Aid: The South Park Album. People have asked me how I kept a straight face while singing it, and I can tell you, it wasn’t easy. I had to laugh a lot before I could compose myself and really do it. If you’re wondering whether Chef is anything like me – well, Chef loves music, women, and sex. And I do too!”