A mixed garden salad made with romaine and iceberg lettuces, fresh parsley, Romano and bleu cheeses, lot of freshly cracked black pepper and a tangy, lemon-garlic vinaigrette.

Sensation Salad

This salad is a slight revision of the well-loved salad found in the Junior League of Baton Rouge's River Roads Recipes II cookbook.

While it became more widely known across Louisiana and her sister states from the cookbook, it actually originated as a creation of a now closed, Baton Rouge restaurant called Bob and Jake's, and soon took on a viral life of its own among other local area restaurants.

A quick skillet version of white beans and rice with ham, made with canned beans, the Trinity of vegetables and rice.

Ham and White Bean Skillet

Beans and rice are a big deal in the south, always have been really. Back in the day, they were an important part of the dietary needs of the people, because families were large and relatively poor, so any kind of bean was an inexpensive, nutritious and filling dish.

Mostly our beans are slow cooked from dried beans, on the top of the stove, and that's really the way I still love them best to this day. Don't get me wrong. Electronic pressure cookers like the Instant Pot do an excellent job and makes a great pot of beans from dried, but slow-stewed still rules in my book. Fresh frozen sometimes fill in, and though faster, still take a little care to make.  

A tender, fluffy and light classic buttermilk biscuit, made with the addition of an egg.

Egg Biscuits

So, as if I needed yet another entertainment source to distract me, I subscribed to Discovery+ and I have to say, I really enjoy the channel.

One of the first things that I did, was to binge watch one of the new featured shows, Magnolia Table, after which I felt compelled to pick up Joanna Gaines cookbooks. Now, a confession.

Potato salad, made with red and green onions, celery, jalapeno, cilantro and boiled eggs, tossed with a sour cream and avocado dressing.

Sour Cream Avocado Potato Salad

I am a big fan of potato salad, and while I make the more classic, southern-style potato salad most often, I love all different kinds, and I love experimenting too.

Well, except mustard potato salad.

And when I say mustard I mean like heavy mustard based, and not the little dab of mustard that I do like to include in mine. For some reason, that heavy mustard just doesn't appeal to my taste buds at all, though I know some folks absolutely love it.

A skillet meal of seasoned, sautéed chicken breasts, in a tomato basil pasta sauce with bow tie pasta and finished with Italian cheese.

Chicken in Tomato Basil Sauce with Bow Tie Pasta

When I don't know what I want to eat, much less cook, pasta always comes to the rescue! With some pantry basics and some good seasoning, you can whip up a delicious meal in short time. This is one of those meals.

A sweet potato salad, made with roasted sweet potatoes and marinated in an olive oil, apple cider and honey vinaigrette dressing.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad

So, I ran across this book called The Sweet Magnolias Cookbook written by New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods, from one of those suggested previews on Amazon... which, of course, sent me down a huge rabbit hole.

I soon found out that it was a cookbook based on a book series, of which a Netflix original video series was also created, so of course, you know what was next, right?

Buttermilk drop biscuits, made with bacon drippings and cooked, crumbled bacon bits, baked in a cast iron pan.

Bacon Drop Biscuits

What's not to love about biscuits? I sure love them and probably a little too much, as I love a wide variety of them. Sometimes, I just get a craving for biscuits y'all. That's it. Biscuits. Just biscuits!

Yes, I understand that when you are new to biscuit making, they can be frustrating and a challenge to perfect, and frankly, there really is only one solution to that. Keep making biscuits! The old rule of practice makes perfect really does apply here.

From scratch, chicken and dumplings, made in a slow cooker and using a whole chicken for a homemade stock, a creamy roux base and drop dumplings.

Slow Cooker Chicken with Drop Dumplings

I love chicken and dumplings. Love it! It's one of my favorite dishes and that goes for any time of the year, not just winter.

While I do tend to follow the same basic guidelines, even with a variety of methods, I'm not married to any one of them. So many folks make chicken and dumplings one way all of their life, but I love playing around with it!

Fresh, wild caught shrimp, cooked in a buttery, well-seasoned sauce with mushrooms and served over pasta.

Shrimp Diane

I have no idea the origin of the name of Shrimp Diane, but what I can say, is that it is both super easy to make and mighty delicious!

It's really not anything like Steak Diane in comparison, so who knows how the name came about, though it appears to have been created by Chef Paul Prudhomme, who wrote this for only two servings, though you could absolutely stretch that out a number of ways.

Fresh asparagus, oven-roasted with an olive oil and lemon vinaigrette. Top with cheese and buttered bread crumbs for a gratin.

Oven-Roasted Asparagus

Asparagus is my number one spring veggie. Yes, I know that it's available year round these days, but out of season it's not the best in my little ole humble opinion. The spears are often tiny and tough, and not nearly as flavorful as when they are at peak and in season in April and May.

It's very easy to cook also, with my number one favorite being a butter-steamed skillet method, followed by oven roasted. Air frying is really good too!

A smoked bone-in half ham, baked and finished with a glaze patterned on our Southern Jezebel Sauce, made with apple jelly, pineapple preserves and pepper jelly mixed with lemon-lime soda.

Apple and Pineapple "Jezebel" Glazed Ham

I love cooking a baked ham all year round, so it's not just a holiday thing for me. I cook them for a planned meal, then put up freezer bags of vacuum-sealed ham chunks and the ham bone for later.

I wanted to give y'all another ham and had in mind the old school, traditional pineapple ham made with 7-up, Sprite or ginger ale, but decided to step it up a little bit by incorporating elements from my jezebel sauce, which is often used as a side condiment with baked ham, but using it here instead as a glaze.

South Mississippi-Style John Wayne Casserole

A Tex-Mex style casserole with seasoned ground beef, layered between a biscuit crust, with tomatoes, topped with a sour cream and cheese sauce and finished with a cornbread topping, perfect for potlucks, church suppers, or just dinner at home!

Mississippi-Style John Wayne Casserole

So, it seems lots of folks around the country and in my own home state of Mississippi seem to love this casserole, and I went all my life without knowing that!

How it came by the name John Wayne Casserole is uncertain, though some say it appeared as a contribution in a 1979 cookbook of celebrity recipes, as a favorite recipe of Wayne's. I can see why. It's super tasty!

A simple bean soup, made with navy beans, ham hocks, onion, celery and a few dried herbs. Simple. Easy. Tasty!

Simple Navy Bean Soup

Beans, along with their cousins, Southern peas, are a very common meal in the Deep South. They're filling, easy to stretch and tasty! What more could you want to feed a family?

There are lots of ways to make them and I've got quite a few of them here on the website myself! 

A quick and easy, one pot spaghetti and meat sauce, finished with shredded Italian style cheese.

One-Pot Skillet Spaghetti

Spaghetti is such an easy meal that it's pretty much one of the first meals that everybody learns how to make.

Sometimes it starts as simply as boiling some noodles and topping it with a quality commercial sauce. Then it might graduate to adding beef, pork, or even a mix, chicken or seafood, using a mix of canned tomatoes instead (Cento San Marzano highly recommended) - and even better if they are home canned!

Hands down my personal favorite is a spaghetti made in the heat of the summer, from fresh, homegrown, backyard tomatoes.  You just can't get that flavor any other way. Yum y'all.

Couche Couche - Cajun Breakfast Cereal

This Cajun Breakfast Cereal, known as Couche Couche, Cush Cush or Coush Coush, is made from a cornbread batter, poured into a hot, cast iron skillet, crusted and turned several times, then covered and steam cooked to finish and served with milk or cream.

Couche Couche

Unless you live down in this part of the Deep South, you've probably never heard of this dish. Often referred to as a Cajun breakfast, cornmeal cereal, though it's enjoyed just about any time of the day. It comes under a few different names, including  Cush Cush, Couche Couche or Coush Coush, all pronounced "coosh-coosh."

Although some folks will want to compare this to a cornmeal mush, it's actually quite different.