A simple soup, made from tiny butter beans, lightly seasoned with onion and celery, thickened with a puree and finished with a sprinkle of sliced green onions. Easy and delicious!

Butter Bean Soup

Among the varieties of southern beans and peas, butter beans are right at the top. In addition to their creamy buttery texture and taste, they are a powerhouse source of low fat, high protein fiber, rich in iron and B vitamins too.

They're certainly popular in the south and a lot of folks start planting them in the early spring for a plentiful summer crop. I hope that you put some up in the freezer, because this soup is fantastic! No worries if you didn't though, because they're widely available year round in both dried and frozen forms too.

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A bone-in turkey breast, oven-braised in chicken stock with aromatics, in a covered pot and pictured here with a baked sweet potato and my Super Creamy Macaroni and Cheese.

Braised Turkey Breast

It's rare that I will cook a turkey or chicken without brining it first. Although I use an in oven thermometer {affil link} these days, there has been many a time that I thought I had that timing down perfect, only to result in an overcooked, tasteless and dry bird. It's not hard to do given how poultry is bred today. Those thermometers are a godsend, especially with roasting any meat.

A brine gives a little extra insurance against that, whether you're using a thermometer or not, as well as infusing some salty goodness into the meat. That said, since this turkey breast was going to be cooked with a braising method, I decided to give it a try without either. The braising process does wonders to meat and I was delighted with the result!

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A super easy dip, made with cream cheese, Monterey Jack cheese and mayonnaise with green onions, finished with a bacon and Ritz cracker topping and warmed in the microwave. Simple and divine!

Heaven on a Cracker - Bacon Cream Cheese Dip

New Year's Day food is just about played out in the house. I made both my black-eyed peas and the cabbage with sausage and tomatoes, plus the rice of course, in my Instant Pot! Well, Instant Pots because I had three of them going!

Yesterday though, The Cajun and I were enjoying the opening of NFL playoffs (quite exciting they were), so I thought I would make a dip I've been wanting to try forever and kept forgetting about. It's a variation of a recipe from one of the Sweet Potato Queen's books {affil link}, that she calls Heaven on a Cracker, and it is rich and delicious.

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Perfect as an appetizer for entertaining, these fluffy, gooey, cheesy, Green Chile Cheese Squares also fit well for a brunch or buffet, and they're good at room temperature or served warm.

Green Chile Cheese Squares

These little cheesy squares are a favorite around the holidays down here. Always have been. There are so many iterations of them now, that no two are alike either. Some of them are flatter, more cheesy and gooey, others are more cakey, and yet others very souffle-like made with many eggs. Heck somebody even turned it into a casserole, so it can be served either way, as a finger food or as a side dish for those nice brunches.

One thing I can tell you is that they are rich and addictive, so try to share them because, you know... there's lots of cheese and well, you know all about that whole cheese thing, right? They are delicious! My preference is to eat them warm or at room temperature, though they're pretty good cold too.

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Cheeseballs make great party appetizers and the chipped beef version is exceptional. Made with dried beef, green onions, horseradish, Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire and parsley, then rolled in more dried beef and parsley.

Chipped Beef Cheese Ball

Okay y'all... we're going old school today, in the name of cheese balls and this cheese ball in particular! Along with the pineapple one, this has always been one of my favorites in the family of cheeseballs. I don't know why I got away from making them really, but I'm glad I got back to it. They make great party food!

Typically these were made with all of the chipped beef in the cheese ball, and finished with a roll in fresh chopped parsley, but I think that it looks nicer with some of the beef on the outside as well, and it's a pretty good indicator of what kind of cheese ball it is to your guests too. Just remember, all cheese balls are best made 1 to 2 days in advance to allow the flavors to all meld together, but they are also best when allowed to come to room temperature before serving too.

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A vegetable casserole, made with whole and creamed corn and a mixture of vegetables in a custard-style milk and egg sauce.

Scalloped Corn Casserole

Just like corn casseroles, there are a lot of variations on scalloped corn. Some automatically add cheese, some eggs. Others don't. I can't tell you which is more "authentic" than the other, so let's just say that this one is likely more of a Deep South version and a happy medium!

Not quite a standard corn casserole, creamed corn, corn pudding, or a corn spoonbread, but I guess that it falls somewhere in between all of those.

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Unbundled Green Beans with Brown Sugar Sauce

Fresh green beans, blanched, tossed with bacon and onion, then baked in a brown sugar sauce.

Unbundled Green Beans

No doubt at some point you have seen or made bacon wrapped green bean or asparagus bundles. Marinated with either a brown sugar sauce or a seasoned olive oil vinaigrette, then wrapped in bacon and broiled, baked or grilled, they are indeed delicious, but pretty time intensive to make. This recipe gives you the flavor, in a casserole form, without so much work.

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Buttery biscuits baked in apple pie filling with brown sugar, cinnamon and extra apple pie spices, finished with a powdered sugar glaze, makes for a delicious belly-warming sweet treat.

Easy Apple Pie Skillet Biscuits

I have seen a variation of these apple pie skillet biscuits across social media for so long, that you know I had to eventually try them too, right?!

Made with biscuits and pie filling, they are a sweet treat that's easy to throw together on those cold nights when you want a little something for that sweet tooth.

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Oven roasted chunks of carrots, tossed with olive oil, seasonings, cayenne, balsamic vinegar and honey.

Honey Roasted Carrots

One of the best ways to bring out the flavors of vegetables is to roast them and carrots really shine. Bring them beyond the typical oil, salt and pepper with a few special enhancements and you've got a dish that is fit for your holiday dinner table.

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Chicken Cacciatore, an Italian-American comfort food meal, also known as Hunter's Chicken, is made from a whole, cut up chicken, lightly dusted in flour and browned in hot oil, then slow braised in a light tomato sauce with onion, sweet bell pepper and mushrooms.

Chicken Cacciatore

Also known as Hunter's Chicken - or chicken in the style of the hunter - and said to have typically been a dish made using whatever wild game had come from the day's hunt - though today chicken is king.

There is no doubt that Chicken Cacciatore, or Pollo alla Cacciatora, is an authentic Italian dish, though in my Italian cookbook, The Silver Spoon {affil link}, it contains plain unfloured chicken, seared in butter and oil, includes onion, celery, carrots and tomatoes, and is finished with a toss of some fresh parsley. It also states that in some regions of Italy it is heavier in celery and carrots than their recipe, in others white wine is added and in others yet, sliced mushrooms.

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Slow Cooker Corn and Potato Chowder from Deep South Dish website - A mix of chicken stock, tomatoes, corn and potatoes with herbs and seasonings and finished with a splash of cream.

Slow Cooker Corn and Potato Chowder

I've never really been a huge fan of crockpot cooking, although like everyone else, I do have a few favorites. Since the introduction of Instant Pots, and electronic pressure cookers overall really, I rarely use a slow cooker. They still have their place of course, especially for recipes like this where you can pretty much dump things in and go about your business for 8 hours.

I ran across this recipe in the book Southern Living's Big Book of Slow Cooking {affil link} and it sounded pretty good, so thought I'd give it a try with a few changes.

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A quick, small batch, stovetop version of creamy rice pudding with raisins, made using leftover cooked rice.

Stovetop Rice Pudding

We eat a lot of rice here in the Deep South, more so than potatoes I'd say, although we do eat our fair share of those too. Since rice is grown all over the south though, including Arkansas, here in the Delta regions of Mississippi and over in Louisiana, chances are there is always some leftover rice around.

Storing rice can be a challenge because even rice that is tightly sealed tends to harden in the refrigerator. This is off-putting to some folks so they don't even save leftover rice. They pitch it. Don't do that!

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A pork roast, rubbed with garlic, salt, cumin and oregano, marinated in a sour orange mojo with onions and then slow roasted. Serve Cuban-style, sliced and with a side of rice and black beans for your first meal - use leftovers to make a traditional Sandwich Cubano.

Cuban Pork Roast - Lechón Asado

For years I was deprived of a true Cuban-style sandwich. I wasn't even aware they existed, until I started developing and writing my own recipes for my website, Deep South Dish, but once I did, I was insatiably curious about them! There wasn't anyplace around here to buy one to try though - still isn't as far as I know.

From what I had seen around the net, the sandwich was very simple - a basic sandwich made with ham, cheese and pork roast - often just simply whatever pork roast was leftover from dinner. But, could that be right? Not so much.

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Tortilla chips, covered in shredded beef, seasoned pinto beans and white cheese, and finished with your favorite garnishes.

Cowboy Nachos

I love nachos pretty much any way you can fix them. I mean who doesn't like piles of tortilla chips, topped with loads of cheese and all kinds of goodness? It's a great game day or movie night snack too and pretty darn easy to throw together.

This one uses some leftover beef roast that you've reserved from that Sunday dinner, along with some seasoned pinto beans, and then finished with some Pico de Gallo or all those delicious individual garnishes we all love - chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped purple onion, sliced green onion, chopped cilantro, sliced or chopped pickled jalapeno, sour cream, guacamole or chopped avocado.

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A combination Italian style salad made of romaine lettuce, shrimp, boiled egg, fresh tomatoes, olives, loads of veggies and dressed with a spicy tomato and garlic dressing.

Combination Chopped Salad with Shrimp

Yessireebob... that there is what you call a main dish salad! I know it's supposed to be fall but it's still pretty hot here in the Deep South, so I haven't moved away from summertime eating quite yet, and what a beautiful salad for one of the last salutes to summer!

This is a salad, that at least back in the day, was well known in the New Orleans and coastal Mississippi areas, when it had a rather colorful, totally inappropriate and not very politically correct name, which if you're from around here you know exactly what I am talking about. I'll just leave it at that. It's what the Friendship House referred to as a combination salad, with lettuce, tomatoes, olives,  shrimp, boiled eggs, loads of veggies and a garlicky tomato based dressing.

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