Dolly Parton and her sister Rachel Parton George team up to answer fan mail, sharing personal stories and family traditions. From favorite recipes to childhood memories of singing gospel songs with their mother, the sisters discuss their unique bond growing up in a house full of siblings. They also reveal their must-have kitchen items and wardrobe staples, with Rachel recommending a little black dress and Dolly humorously suggesting “a couple of skeletons.”
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00:00Iron skillet, you can cook in it, you can bake in it.
00:03And you can use it as a weapon if your husband says he don't like to cook.
00:13Hello, I'm Dolly.
00:15And I'm Rachel.
00:15And we're here with In Style.
00:18What are we doing here?
00:19Well, we're going to open up some fan mail.
00:21Yay!
00:22Let's get after it.
00:24All right, you go first.
00:25Okay.
00:26You always say you get first.
00:28Okay, question is, your new cookbook is called Good Looking Cooking.
00:33What is your favorite recipe in your new cookbook?
00:36What's yours?
00:37Well, I don't really have a favorite recipe.
00:40I do have a favorite menu, and that's Valentine's.
00:44Oh, Valentine's Day is always good.
00:46I personally like everything in our cookbook,
00:49and it's really hard when people ask us those questions.
00:52What's your favorite?
00:53Because we love all the stuff, and I think you will, too.
00:56You got a question?
00:57I do.
00:57Let me see what I have.
00:58Okay.
00:59Let's see here.
01:01What was unique about your experience growing up as sisters?
01:06Was that unique, having 12 kids?
01:09I'd say it was.
01:10I'd say it was.
01:12I think for me, having you as my best friend and my sister,
01:17for me, it was so special.
01:19But I could see where someone would think unique.
01:23Yeah.
01:23Well, I think it's unique for a mama like ours to have a house full of kids.
01:27There's actually six girls and six boys,
01:30and my sisters are some of the best friends that I have in the whole wide world.
01:34Mine, too.
01:34And my sister was the baby, so I'm very close to her, because I feel like I raised her.
01:40Now she's raising me.
01:41I'm in my second childhood.
01:43Okay, so I know both of you have a connection to 9 to 5.
01:49As the song says, tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition.
01:55What do you like to pour yourself a cup of when you cook in the kitchen?
02:01Well, we still like a cup of ambition, but ambition comes in all flavors, doesn't it?
02:06Yes, it does, and it depends on what.
02:07Some alcohol, sometimes?
02:08Yeah, in the evenings, maybe a cup of wine.
02:13Well, we're supposed to be cooking with the wine, but we usually drink it.
02:18Who takes longer in hair and makeup?
02:21Good God.
02:22We both take all day.
02:24It takes a lot of paint.
02:28Well, actually, I think I'm quicker, only because Rachel doesn't stay as done up as I do all the time.
02:36Rachel's a natural beauty, but actually, I think...
02:39Okay, I take longer in hair and makeup.
02:42I think you do, only because I'm so used to doing it, is what I was going to say.
02:46Plus, I wear wigs, and that's a handicap, but it's a real handicap.
02:51It's real handy.
02:52I love that.
02:53So do I.
02:56Okay, my time.
02:57You don't get to hog the show.
02:59Does Dollywood feature any home recipes, or have y'all featured any Dollywood recipes in your cookbook?
03:06You have some recipes at Dollywood.
03:08We do.
03:09Actually, I had a little cookbook of my own for years up there.
03:13We do feature some of those recipes.
03:15All Southern people cook about the same thing.
03:18So we cook the meatloaf.
03:20We cook the chicken and dumplings.
03:21We cook all the stuff, the green beans and all.
03:24We have that at Aunt Granny's restaurant at Dollywood.
03:27So yeah, we do feature a lot of the stuff.
03:31What is one item everyone should have in their closet?
03:36Why?
03:37A little black dress.
03:38A couple of skeletons.
03:40A little black dress.
03:41A little black dress.
03:42A little black dress.
03:43A little black dress.
03:44And an apron.
03:47Maybe we'll never stick there cooking.
03:50Maybe we're better cooking.
03:52I think the little black dress is a good idea.
03:55And an apron.
03:56You've got to have an apron.
03:57I'm usually wearing my husband's boxer shorts and my high heels.
04:00What are you wearing?
04:02Question.
04:03Did you sing any songs together in the kitchen when cooking with your mom as kids?
04:09Well, yeah.
04:09Our mama was always singing, and she sang all those old mountain songs, those old songs brought
04:17over from the old world, and we knew every song mama knew.
04:20Yes.
04:20A lot of gospel songs.
04:22Yeah.
04:22Well, our grandpa was a preacher, so we grew up in the church, and mama, she insisted we'd
04:28sing them.
04:29Yeah.
04:29Yeah, so that's all good.
04:31Okay.
04:32Look what it's made us today.
04:34Well, are we?
04:36Jezebel.
04:36You are so bad.
04:40Okay, what's your question?
04:41Okay, question.
04:42What is one item everyone should have in their kitchen?
04:47Why?
04:49Iron skillet.
04:51You can cook in it.
04:52You can bake in it.
04:53You can roast in it.
04:54It is all in one iron skillet.
04:57And you can use it as a weapon if your husband says he don't like to cook it.
05:02Good looking or not.
05:03What was your favorite meal that you cooked for each other while growing up?
05:10I used to make chicken and dumplings, and one of the recipes, the creme brulee, now.
05:16I know, and she makes a good sugar-free creme brulee.
05:19I can do it.
05:20Maybe one of these days we'll have a sugar-free cookbook, too.
05:23It would be good, but healthier, I guess.
05:26But we're not going there now, because I'm still going to have your creme brulee.
05:29So, anyway, we like to cook.
05:32I don't remember us necessarily cooking anything for each other growing up.
05:36We just always cooked the same things.
05:39Mama cooked taters and beans, beans and taters, cornbread.
05:44I cooked the beans and taters.
05:46I cooked the taters and beans.
05:47What was your favorite meal that your mom made for you when you were children?
05:55Everyone has, like, a favorite recipe.
05:57Like, if you don't feel well, your mom will make you chicken noodle soup.
06:03Or our mom would make us.
06:05It was a tomato and macaroni, elbow macaroni.
06:10And somehow, how she would make that, and that was always our feel-good food.
06:17And we will do it for each other to this day.
06:20If somebody isn't feeling well, that's the first thing we do, that and potato soup.
06:24There are always the meals that we prepare for each other.
06:27And it's like, I love you, and I hope you feel better soon.
06:31I know.
06:31And that elbow macaroni was good, even when it was just your knees that was hurting.
06:36Did we fake it just so you could get that special?
06:39No, I just thought of that.
06:41I think, ain't I a funny rascal?
06:45What is unique about Southern country style?
06:52Well, I don't know.
06:54Probably we use more grease and butter.
06:57Some say it's not always the healthiest way to eat,
07:01because you do use a lot of butter, sometimes even bacon grease.
07:05But, you know, everything in moderation, as they say.
07:09But I just think Southern food is just the way it's prepared and the love that goes in it, too, I think.
07:16We don't hold back on good seasoning.
07:18That's correct.
07:20Do you like to get dressed up or dressed down for big family gatherings?
07:27Well, both.
07:28Yeah, I think I know you and me like to get all dressed up if we're going to have company coming,
07:33but we don't really tell everybody to come dress.
07:37No.
07:37Some do.
07:38Some don't.
07:38Most times, if it's real special, some will at least take a bath.
07:42For Christmas, I love your way that you dress and how you entertain our kids,
07:52and you have for years and years, and I think that's one of the highlights of our Christmas.
07:57I'm Granny Claus.
07:59The kids always call me Granny, Aunt Granny,
08:01because when Rachel and them were growing up, my husband and I kept them a lot,
08:06and so they were like our kids.
08:08And so when they started having kids, we were more like grandparents.
08:14So they called me Aunt Granny, and they called Carl Uncle Peepaw.
08:17So I come down the elevator in my Santa suit with their bag of toys,
08:22and they're all at the bottom waiting for that.
08:25So everybody laughs at me.
08:27You'd think I'd get too old for it, but I don't.
08:30And the kids don't either.
08:31No, they don't.
08:32Even the big ones still want me to be Granny Claus.
08:34Rachel, I heard you collect cookbooks and recipes.
08:40What is one of each you cherish the most?
08:45Ooh.
08:46Now that's...
08:46Say good-looking cookin'.
08:48Okay.
08:48Good-looking cookin'.
08:50I love all my recipes and all my books that I have.
08:57I'm just so grateful that I have all this in my kitchen,
09:02and I have all these recipes, and it connects me back to each person that gave me a recipe
09:07and everything that means so much.
09:09So that's a tough one.
09:11I really...
09:12I can't just pick one.
09:13I'm sorry.
09:14I love them all.
09:15Well, that's a good answer.
09:17Good answer.
09:18Okay.
09:19Mine says,
09:20How did you develop this confidence in your style, and what advice would you give to people
09:26on how to embrace and develop their own personal style?
09:30Well, that's just it right there.
09:32Develop your own personal style.
09:34I never thought of myself as fashionable, and I kind of laugh still when people say that
09:39about me being, you know, set in trends and all that, because I just wear what I'm comfortable
09:45with.
09:45I think everybody knows their own body, their good points and their bad points, and you
09:50dress accordingly and according to your personality, and I just feel like you should be comfortable
09:55in your own skin and in your own clothes.
09:58So, whatever makes you feel good and how you think you look the best is what you should
10:03do.
10:04We want to thank you for joining us today on In Style.
10:07And remember, you can get our books anywhere books are sold.