Meatloaf mix, shaped into thin, bun-sized, oval patties, pan fried and sandwiched on soft hoagie rolls with caramelized onions, cheese and a meatloaf glaze, wrapped and baked in the oven.

Meatloaf Patty Melt

I am a big fan of meatloaf. Always have been! And let's be frank here, who out there doesn't enjoy that next day meatloaf sandwich?

For some folks it's actually their favorite part of meatloaf, so how about we make those sandwiches intentionally to begin with, and,.. how about we make them in the form of one of my favorite hamburger sandwiches? A patty melt, yes indeed!

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Stovetop Smothered Turkey Wings

Turkey wings, slow stewed with onion and bell pepper and finished with gravy.

Smothered Turkey Wings

You may see those packs of turkey wings in the meat case at the market and think back to those dried up Thanksgiving turkey wings, asking yourself why anybody would want those! When they're attached to a whole turkey, that's often the case. Overcooked, dried up wings that nobody wants to eat. If you're not from the south, you may never have even considered stewing them on their own. It really makes a big difference and they are delicious!

When turkey wings are slow stewed, they are fall off the bone tender and though wings are the most traditional - because they are inexpensive - with time adjustments other cuts work well with this method too.

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Thick-cut brined and seasoned pork loin chops, topped with skillet fried apples, or a homemade or canned apple pie filling, and baked in the oven.

Apple Pie Pork Chops

I can't recall where I first saw this idea to combine pork chops and apple pie filling, but I thought it sounded great and turns out I had a can of apple pie filling in the pantry I needed to use up!

I'm sure that I bought it for a very specific reason, now long forgotten. I'm terrible about that, to the point that now, when I buy supplies for the pantry to use for a specific purpose later, I tape a sticky note to it! Now I have notes all over the outside of my deep freeze and a bunch of them stuck on top of canned goods in my pantry. Hilarious, I know, but hey... I ain't gettin' any younger y'all!

Anyway, I was right. Apple Pie Pork Chops are pretty yummy!

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Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin, dipped in an egg and hot sauce blend, dredged in a seasoned buttery Ritz cracker mix, pan-fried or baked, and topped with a buttery pan gravy before serving.

Ritzy Butter Cream Chicken

Here's one of those tasty things to do with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Y'all know I'm not the biggest fan of those, but after a dip in some egg and hot sauce, a pass through a nicely seasoned blend of buttery crackers, and a quick pan fry or oven bake, these are some kinda good!

I love using regular saltines as a coating for chicken, instead of the typical flour or bread crumbs, but there's a world of texture difference between saltine crackers and those soft, delicious, buttery round crackers, most of us know as "Ritz" brand. Where saltines are crisp and jagged, Ritz crackers are tender - kind of like the difference in the texture of soft bread crumbs and dried.

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The classic Rotel Queso Dip, but made with sausage and shrimp!

Shrimp Rotel Dip

This is a variation of the classic and ever-popular Rotel Queso Dip, with the addition of shrimp and often ground beef, though ground turkey, pork or sausage or even a combination works well too. I personally love it with breakfast sausage the most, over them all!

Most recipes use a larger shrimp, sometimes whole, sometimes chopped up, but I find the small salad sized shrimp to be a perfect choice. There are lots of them in a pound and they're just the right chip size.

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A crisp cookie, made with butter and shortening, brown sugar and pecans.

Pecan Crispies

No time for chat, Christmas is here and I wanted to sneak in one more recipe! Some of you who scroll past the chatty stuff will probably be happy to hear that! No worries. It's all good.

Y'all already know I'm not super crazy about sweet stuff - oh I enjoy something sweet occasionally, and I do love a good cookie - I mean who doesn't love a handful of freshly baked cookies, right?

Every year I try to add at least one sweet to the big Christmas list. This year I made a couple of new things, well new to the blog at least, because all are old standbys, including these Pecan Crispies, a favorite blast from the past, straight from The Point of Biloxi where my Mama grew up. They're a very simple cookie and something you can pretty much whip up quickly and with things you likely already have on hand!

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Jumbo Shrimp with Homemade Cocktail Sauce

Shrimp Cocktail from Deep South Dish blog. Jumbo shrimp, poached, boiled or oven-roasted and served with a zesty homemade cocktail sauce.

Shrimp Cocktail

Don't you just feel fancy when you're at a restaurant where they still have a shrimp cocktail on the menu? I tend to order one when they are, but even when I don't, I kinda light up when I see somebody else get one delivered to their table. It's a little luxurious to me! Hey, what can I say. Those little small things make me happy! I had a bag of jumbo shrimp in the freezer that I needed to use so thought that it would be a good time to get a shrimp cocktail recipe up.

Sure, there's always basic cocktail sauce, simple lazy man sauce, or even super-flavorful Comeback Sauce, that we whip up in a hurry for our boils, and any one of those works just fine for dipping boiled shrimp. Yes, you can even buy it all bottled up for you at the grocery store, but when we have these nice, beautiful jumbo shrimp that we want to use for an appetizer - like for a holiday menu - well, they deserve a little step up, if you ask me!

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Baked Ham, basted with an apple cider, honey, brown sugar, pepper jelly and mustard glaze.

Apple Cider Ham

The Cajun loves baked ham, and I mean he loves it, so much so, that I don't wait for a holiday to cook them - I cook them all year-round! It's pretty good stuff, gotta admit, and it's good hot from the oven, at room temperature, or even cold, right out of the fridge.

There's so many things you can do with ham too, from sandwich fillings to beans to casseroles, that it makes sense to buy a big one for planned leftovers. I also prefer a bone-in ham, just to have the bone, but take into consideration the fact that it can often take up a substantial percentage of the weight of the ham. All the more reason to buy a larger one. I mean you just can't beat the flavor of a pot of ham bone beans!

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Green Bean Étouffée - Smothered Green Beans

Green beans with onions and tasso or andouille, smothered in a light roux gravy.

Green Bean Étouffée

Give us the opportunity to smother something in gravy in the south, and we'll sure do it - seafood certainly, but yes, even green beans and peas y'all! Hey, what can I say? Gravy is good stuff.

If you've ever had the opportunity to eat the green bean side dish from Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen - my favorite place for fried chicken when I have a craving for it and don't want to deal with the mess - then you're already familiar with smothered green beans. A simple side dish made from a light roux, sauteed onion, chopped tasso and green beans simmered in the gravy. It's absolutely delicious!

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A quicker prep version of meat lasagna, using ground beef, commercial pasta sauce and oven-ready lasagna noodles.

Shortcut Lasagna

There is nothing that can touch a homemade lasagna. Nothing. And let me tell you, when it's made with a sauce made from homegrown, backyard summer tomatoes, it is out of this world. But, like a good classic ziti, it's a labor of love from beginning to end and takes hours. Is it worth it? You bet it is! But the time factor pretty much relegates it to being a day off or weekend kind of meal.

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