Fresh tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, fresh lime juice and cilantro make up this fresh salsa. Use it as a dip for tortilla chips, as a garnish for tacos, fajitas and quesadillas, or as a side condiment for grilled meats.

Pico de Gallo

Although we are nearing the end of backyard season, tomatoes, like most other once seasonally available vegetables, are actually now available year round.

Even still, you and I both know that winter tomatoes are picked early to survive their long travel path and just do not taste the same as our summer tomatoes, especially those backyard tomatoes, straight off the vine. Now is the perfect time to enjoy this fresh salsa as much as you can.

Thing is, with pico de gallo, there really is no "right" recipe. It's strictly personal.

A classic, southern-seasoned stewed chicken and gravy, made easy using the Instant Pot!

Instant Pot Stewed Chicken

I love my slow-stewed chicken, but it's just that - a bit of a timely process since the chicken slow simmers for awhile. Once I gave it a try in my Instant Pot, it was a game changer!

With whole chickens on sale regularly around here under $1 a pound, and a faster cooking process, it has become an easy, comfort meal to enjoy anytime.

A quick and easy skillet meal made with ground beef, fresh tomatoes, rice and summer squash and finished with shredded cheese.

Ground Beef and Squash Skillet

Y'all probably already know that I am into skillet meals. They're quicker than their more involved counterparts - like my skillet jambalaya, gumbolaya, skillet lasagna or ziti, and great for busy weeknights.

Like a lot of you, I also love summer squash, but mostly it gets pushed into being either a snack or a side, rather than a featured dish. This version makes it more main dish with the addition of ground beef and rice, though it's really a very versatile dish. Well drained canned or thawed frozen mixed vegetables or corn may also be added to expand it even further.

Chicken drumsticks, marinated with a dry rub, air fried and finished with a spicy glaze.

Air Fryer Spicy Drumsticks

While I know we're heading out of summer, I have sure been enjoying my air fryer in this summer heat!

It was an appliance I didn't really think I needed, so I was on the fence about getting one for quite awhile, but I sure am glad that I finally took the plunge. I literally use mine in some way almost every day, though I would say that if you are going to go beyond snack foods, french fries and frozen convenience foods, go for a larger oven style.

Wild American shrimp, seasoned and pan-seared, with a stir-fry of fresh vegetables and an Asian inspired orange sauce. Serve over hot, steamed rice.

Spicy Orange Pecan Shrimp Stir Fry

I actually adapted this recipe from one of my older Southern Living recipe books from a long time back, just in case somebody wants to give me some guff for posting an Asian recipe... because someone will.

Hey, the reality is that Southerners eat Asian food too! We love it actually, and, in fact, one of my favorites is Chap Chae, a dish my Korean neighbor used to share with me when she made it. We've got some pretty good pho around here too, thanks to our Vietnamese population.

Classic cornmeal-coated fried green tomatoes with a twist! Instead of slices, these are cut into chunks but breaded the same way, creating bite-sized fried green tomato nuggets with more of that surface crunch we love.

Fried Green Tomato Nuggets

First, a little housekeeping nugget before we move on to the recipe!

If you are already signed up to get notifications of new posts by email, the notification summary that you were receiving, has changed. The Feedburner service I was using is being discontinued, but no worries. I have found a Feedburner replacement in a service called follow.it. If you aren't yet signed up for notifications when I post a new recipe and you'd like to, click here to sign up. If you change your mind, no worries there either. It's easy to unsubscribe too.

So, the good news is you should have a seamless transition for your notifications whenever I publish a new recipe post - without doing a thing.

Quick Small Batch Refrigerator Corn Relish

Whether you serve as a condiment alongside grilled meats, or a simple snack with tortilla or corn chips, this small batch, quick refrigerator corn relish will be a refreshing addition to the menu.

Quick Refrigerator Corn Relish

I had a craving for some corn relish, but didn't want a huge batch made for canning. I wanted more of a snack-sized, easy version to enjoy right away!

A simple one pot chicken, sausage and rice dish, regional to South Carolina and one that dates back to the 1700s, using a whole chicken and made super easy with the Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Chicken Bog

I was a bit intrigued when I first heard about bog. It's not something that is known much around here as far as I know. It's more of a regional dish born in South Carolina.

Every region seems to have some sort of chicken and rice dish like this though, and of course in my area of the Deep South, it's all about jambalaya!

So... what is the base difference between a Deep South jambalaya and bog?

A hot corn dish, Veracruz Corn may be served as either a side dish, great alongside your barbecue, or as a hot corn appetizer with crisp tortilla chips. Filled with goodness of fresh, off the cob corn, marinated in a fiery blend of Southwestern seasonings, tossed with veggies and then dressed with a chipotle aïoli and cheese, and passed under the broiler.

Veracruz Hot Corn Dip

I based this corn dish off of one that I saw in Eva Longoria's cookbook, Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends. It sounded a little like maque choux, but with some spicy flair, which it most certainly has!

Veracruz corn was a popular dish on the menu at the now shuttered Beso Steakhouse in Hollywood, owned by Longoria, and though I believe it was considered a side dish on the menu, I really enjoyed it best as an appetizer, served hot with some crisp tortilla chips.

Piggy Mac Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese

Piggy Mac and Cheese made with leftover pulled pork, elbow noodles, a little onion, Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies and shredded cheese.

Piggy Mac and Cheese

Like everybody else, I love a slow-smoked pork butt that has been lovingly tended to and watched over for hours and hours... usually by somebody else in my case!

Let's face it. Most of us home cooks aren't going to be die hard Q'ers who spend all afternoon bent over a smoker for the perfection of slow-smoked meat, but we sure will enjoy it when somebody else does!

A fresh salsa of tomatoes, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro and lime, tossed with freshly poached wild American shrimp. Serve as a garnish to grilled foods, fish, on tacos, as a topping or as an appetizer with some sturdy tortilla chips.

Shrimp Salsa

You may have seen something like this around the net or social media referred to as shrimp ceviche. I guess that's okay, though a tad bit misleading, since ceviche is usually made using a raw fish marinated in heavy citrus juices.

This one, while it begins with raw shrimp, for this recipe, the shrimp is first poached, though it is an excellent salsa with roasted or grilled shrimp as well.

Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, these fried chicken livers get the classic southern fried chicken treatment, with a hot sauce enhanced buttermilk marinade, followed by a dredge in nicely seasoned flour and deep fried.

Southern-Style Fried Chicken Livers

I know that some of you ran the other way when you saw the title of this post, but y'all... just like a good beef liver and onions, I love fried chicken livers. But I do understand. The Cajun won't touch those either.

So let's just say that this post is only intended for the common lovers of fried chicken livers.

The rest of y'all, hang on!

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.