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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Favorite Cabbage Recipes

A round-up of favorite Deep South Dish cabbage recipes.

If you make any of these or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!

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I do love cabbage. The way I eat it the most is fried, which unless you're a southerner, probably isn't anything like what you're thinking right now. (No we don't deep fry our cabbage... although I'm sure that somebody has tried it.)

It's really almost a cross between a braise and a pan fry, and while some people do like to let all of the liquid cook out and continue cooking it until it caramelizes, I'm not one of them. I prefer it braised.

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Big, fluffy and tender yeast rolls, reminiscent of those old school cafeteria rolls so many of us loved.

Old School Cafeteria-Style Yeast Rolls

If you're a parent or grandparent who has had the occasion to attend a child's elementary school lunch in recent years, you know that kid's school lunches are nothing like the ones we used to enjoy as children. Back in the dark ages when I was in elementary school, lunches were home-cooked meals, and many my age have fond memories of cafeteria favorites - brownies, goulash, even sloppy joes seem to top the list, but the one I find most often mentioned are those homemade yeast rolls.

Many of us have been on a quest for a roll that is as close to those amazing homemade yeast rolls from our elementary school memories, but in more reasonable batches. Fresh baked in the morning, you could smell those rolls all over the school, getting a symphony of tummy rumbling going.

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A quicker, off-season version of Crawfish Bisque made using frozen pureed and whole Louisiana crawfish tails, commercial seafood or chicken stock, the trinity (onion, bell pepper and celery), tomatoes, corn and Cajun seasonings.

Shortcut Crawfish Corn Bisque

Bisque is a soup. A fairly thick, generally smooth and creamy soup, made from seafood, though often fully pureed to intensify the flavors, leaving no recognized ingredients behind, except perhaps of a garnish. Seafood is precious, even down here on the Gulf Coast where it is abundant, so I prefer not to puree all of it, but rather to use a fairly rough puree to add body to the soup, but also keep some pieces whole, along with the trinity (onion, bell pepper and celery) for texture and appearance.

For a classic Cajun-style Louisiana crawfish bisque, you would first have a big crawfish boil, then pick enough meat from those freshly boiled crawfish, reserving the crawfish shells and claws to prepare a simple stock. The bodies would be cleaned well and then stuffed with a seafood bread stuffing that will be added to the bisque before serving.

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Cake Recipe Roundup

A collection of cake recipes from Deep South Dish blog!

If you make these or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!

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Typically southern food blogs and recipe books will provide you with lots of dessert recipes. Sometimes more sweets than anything else and even cookbooks dedicated solely to them. We do love our sweets in the south!

Personally, I am not a huge sweets person. Oh, don't get me wrong! I love something sweet on occasion as much as the next person, but you may have noticed there is a lot more savory than there is sweet in the pages of this blog.

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An easy, snack-sized chocolate cake, made with cocoa and chocolate chips and a smear of caramel sauce, poked into the warm cake, then finished with a powdered sugar icing drizzle.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Caramel Poke Cake

I'm not a huge sweets person. You've probably noticed that since there's a lot more savory, salty things on this recipe blog than there are sweets. Just like anybody else though, I love something sweet once in awhile and pretty much any kind of cake is right at the top of my list.

Although I do have a few layer cakes I've done over the years, I'm really not a baker. Mostly they're not very pretty, though they're certainly tasty! The cakes I make most often are simple pan cakes, bundt cakes, or smaller, snack-sized versions, rather than tall, multi-layered cakes. I'm not a big fan of super sweet icings on any cake either, and the truth is, I usually scrape it off! I know. Kind of cake blasphemy isn't it? Most frostings are just too sweet to me.

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Roasted Shrimp

Jumbo shrimp, tossed in a seasoned olive oil mix and oven roasted.

Well, now... we had a tad bit chilly start to the day here in the Deep South this morning and today temperatures were in the low 70s, instead of the 90s - finally! Perfect opportunity to turn on the oven to try some roasted shrimp.

Just as with vegetables, roasting really intensifies and brings out the natural flavor in shrimp and they're perfect to use anywhere you would use a pan-sauteed shrimp, or even to just eat as is, with a nice side salad, or a veggie and some bread.

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Nicely seasoned, thin cut, bone-in breakfast pork chops, and simply pan fried. Great for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Homestyle Breakfast Pork Chops

While chicken and seafood are pretty common on our table, I have to say, pork is one of my favorite meats, and you can't beat a good thin cut pork chop for a quick meal.

They're referred to as breakfast chops because they are super thin, taking only a very short cooking time. This means they can get on the table fast, even faster than most typical pork sides like ham steaks, sausage and bacon. I would venture to say that they're likely just as often served for supper. Great either way!

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A simple and easy side dish casserole made with diced yellow squash, bacon, small shrimp and corn.

Squash Casserole with Shrimp and Corn

Yeah, yeah, I know... everybody is all about pumpkins, soups, stews and fall dishes right now, but I'm still working on end of summer amid these nearly 100 degree days we're still having along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. That hasn't stopped me from making fall favorites like chicken and dumplings, shortcut shrimp etouffee and Cajun-style chicken and andouille gumbo, because I've fixed all of those the last couple of weeks!

This recipe involves the use of yellow straightneck or crookneck squash, a veggie once relegated strictly to the summer months, but now available slap dab in the middle of winter these days. I admit, it's nice but I can't quite get used to that, although you still can't beat the flavor of one that's plucked right out of your backyard.

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