Ziti pasta, layered with a mix of shredded off the block Monterey Jack and extra sharp Cheddar cheeses, salted butter, finished with egg with whole milk and topped with additional cheese and baked.

Baked Ziti with Cheese

A lot of folks enjoy a baked ziti, made with tiny beef and sausage meatballs in a tomato-based sauce with cheeses with ziti noodles. It's a bit of a labor of love because it's a little time consuming, so that I even made a quicker, easier stovetop, skillet version that provides a very similar taste. 

Most folks also enjoy a good homemade macaroni and cheese typically made with elbow macaroni and I've got several versions available on the website.

I took some of the basic aspects of my own mac and cheese recipes and used ziti noodles instead of classic elbows for a little bit of a change!

Social Media Roundup Seafood Favorites 1

Social Media Roundup - Seafood Favorites, What You Missed! Skillet Shrimp and Pasta with Asparagus, Classic Fried Shrimp on a Po'boy, Crabbie Melts, Tex-Mex Grilled Shrimp Tacos and Boudin Stuffed Shrimp.

Seafood Favorites 1

My husband, aka to y'all as The Cajun, loves his seafood.

Anytime I fix supper that is seafood based he talks about how blessed we are here along the Gulf Coast to have such great access to fresh seafood, and he's right!

The best deal of course is when you get out there on a boat and catch it fresh yourself. You can even pull in some good eating right off of a local pier, but buying it at the local fish monger is good too, though you do pay a bit of a premium because somebody else did the work!

But... what if you're landlocked?

An Italian chopped salad of lettuce, assorted Italian meats, black forest smoked ham, salami and provolone cheese, finished with olive salad and a homemade creamy Italian dressing, served on a hoagie or sub bun.

Italian Chopped Salad Sandwich

Y'all may remember this sandwich circulating on social media awhile back. I think it started as a TikTok Italian grinder sandwich with all of the meats layered up on a roll like you'd get at any good sandwich shop. From there, it appears that somebody thought to chop it all up together like a salad and then pile it on a bun.

Brilliant!

As always, multiple variations arose from whatever the original was as everybody put their own spin on it. Most of them actually do chop up the tomato with the rest of the ingredients but I really didn't want the juices of the tomatoes mixed it, so I opted for adding the tomatoes sliced to dress the final sandwich, if someone wanted them and then finished with a creamy dressing.

My Ultimate Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes, made with the ease of a slow cooker, using peeled russet potatoes cooked in chicken broth, then beat with butter, heavy cream or whole milk and cream cheese. Pictured here with trinity seasoned green peas, chicken fried chicken and milk gravy.

Slow Cooker Ultimate Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

I love mashed potatoes anytime, not just holidays!

While we may tone it down a bit when we make them on the regular, admittedly, holidays are when we usually break out the fancy potatoes. You know the ones. Cream cheese. Whole milk with heavy cream. Plenty of butter!

Those of y'all who have been around any length of time already know I'm not huge on the slow cooker, mostly because I am not a very good advance planner and generally speaking, slow cookers require that! I have some slow cooker recipes here and there because I know it's one more tool to make mealtime happen.

Cocktail smoked sausages, wrapped in puff pastry and topped with fresh Parmesan with bagel seasoning and black pepper and served with a homemade mustard sauce.

Puff Pastry Pigs in a Blanket with Mustard Sauce

I love pigs in a blanket for an appetizer and apparently I'm not alone! Guaranteed they will be one of the first platters to be cleared at your gathering.

Usually made with a biscuit dough, they are a delicious two bite appetizer for any time, but let me tell you what... make them with puff pastry and they are out of the park!

They are also usually made with hot dogs, and me, I love hot dogs, yes, even though I know how they're made and I know what's in them. I. Don't. Care!

Lent Favorites Roundup 2 - What You've Missed on Social Media! Tap on the photos below to visit each recipe.

Social Media Roundup - Lent Favorites 2

We're having a bit of a strange weather cycle around the country aren't we?

We seem to be cycling between winter and spring even here along the Gulf Coast from one day to the next and I've personally gone from having the heat on in the morning to having the air conditioner on by afternoon way too many days!

But... it is mighty nice to see things blooming up around here finally! My azalea is in full bloom and I had to grab a picture of it before the rain washed all the blooms off.

I call this my "Katrina Azalea" because it started from a clipping that came off of a huge azalea shrub from my previous home and one of the few surviving plants from the saltwater intrusion of that storm into my yard.

We've been sharing some Lent-friendly meal ideas on social media this season, though honestly, these are all recipes for anyone, anytime!

A quick skillet version of barbecue chicken made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts and shown here with my Green Bean Supreme Casserole and Fiesta Confetti Corn.

Skillet Barbecue Chicken

The inspiration for this began with the BBQ Glazed Chicken in Pioneer Woman's most recent cookbook Dinner's Ready (#ad).

As soon as I saw the picture, my mouth watered so I thought that I would try it with some boneless, skinless chicken breasts I had and my own rub.

I loved the way this turned out y'all!

Quick and easy individual pizzas made using Naan flatbread.

Naan Flatbread Pizza

Y'all. I am a nut for pizza!

I love them homemade the best of course, though I'll take a good fresh made grocery store deli pizza too. My husband has a favorite chain he likes and they are really good too!

But, pizza like everything else has become a bit expensive these days. We usually do a medium half pepperoni and half veggie, with a military discount to save a little money. The Cajun goes nowhere without asking for a military discount!

Oven roasted, well-seasoned jumbo shrimp tossed in a tomato-based pasta sauce and rotini pasta.

Roasted Shrimp and Pasta Sauce

Pasta, pasta sauce and shrimp. How can you go wrong with that?!

Some of y'all may know about one of my favorite pasta sauces that I typically make in the summer with those super delicious, fresh from the garden tomatoes. It's simple, light and so flavorful.

A delicious sandwich made with sweet bell peppers and onions caramelized in olive oil, topped with eggs and served on French bread or thick slices of sandwich bread.

Italian Peppers and Eggs Sandwich

Y'all. This sandwich has become one of my favorites anytime because it's filled with all the goodness that I love - eggs and lots of caramelized peppers and onion. The flavor is outstanding!

I don't know much about the origins of this recipe, except that it apparently was common during the Depression, since most folks baked bread from scratch, raised chickens and grew their own backyard vegetables, making eggs and peppers readily available.

Stuffing made with boudin sausage, wrapped with well-seasoned jumbo shrimp and served with an easy shortcut demi-glace drizzle.

Boudin Stuffed Shrimp

I based this recipe on a video that passed by me one day on Facebook from The Southern Weekend show, although, because it was a chef inspired recipe, it was rather involved. 

There are a couple of sauces that a chef would automatically have already made and on hand. A demi-glace would be one of those sauces.

Traditionally a French demi-glace, a word translated as half sauce, is made up of an espagnole - a very long simmered, brown meat stock and considered the traditional "mother" of brown sauces because of its many derivatives.

Lent Favorites - What you've missed on social media recently! Hushpuppy Breaded Fried Shrimp, Salmon Patties, Homemade Vegetable Soup, Mustard Fried Fish, Cheese Delights and Lenten Shrimp and Egg Gumbo.

Social Media Roundup - Lent Favorites

We're having a little peek of spring here in the Deep South, though we're still sharing some wintertime comfort foods over on our social media pages, along with recipe ideas for Lent-friendly meals going on there too!

Here's a roundup of some of the Lent-friendly recipes that we've shared most recently. If you need more ideas, be sure to bookmark our collection on the website too.

CWC'S Mighty Fine Cornbread, My Way

A tender cornbread made using self-rising cornmeal and flour with butter and buttermilk, based on Cooking with Cajun's famed cornbread.

Mighty Fine Cornbread

Just like everybody else, when I have a minute (or more like I'm trying to avoid work ssshh...) I get lost in shorts and reels on social media. For me, mostly that's videos of gorgeous strutting Maine Coon cats, rehabilitating horses and other rescued animals, goofy stunts people actually do, food videos and viral recipe hacks.

There is a fella with a page called Cooking with Cajun. Originally from South Central Louisiana around the Atchafalaya swamps, but a resident of the Ozark mountain region of North Arkansas since 2015, where he pretty much lives off the grid. He has an outdoor cooking set up where he cooks everything over open fire and he does an incredible job doing it too. You'll find him everywhere - Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube - check him out sometime!

An easy skillet meal, made with shrimp, sautéed peppers and onion, tossed with small shell pasta and finished with a cheesy cream sauce.

Seagrove Shrimp with Pasta and Peppers

I ran across a recipe for this Seagrove Shrimp in the cookbook Best of the Best from the Deep South (#ad), a compilation of regional recipes drawn from various cookbooks from Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. These are the same folks who published my cookbook actually! (#ad)

I don't know how the name Seagrove Shrimp came about, but if I was to venture a guess, I'd say it probably was named after a dish at a local restaurant in the Seagrove Beach, Florida area, or perhaps even invented in a beach condo by someone vacationing there.

I sure do love my Gulf Coast y'all and these beach communities along the Florida coast are my favorite get aways!

Here's the latest roundup of football food social media shares! Swipe down for more details on the individual recipes shown and visit any of the recipes by tapping or clicking on the recipe title or the photos and check it out, right here on the Deep South Dish website.

Social Media Roundup - The Big Game Eats!

Football is finally rounding down for the season with The Big Game around the corner, so we've been sharing a wide range of Super Bowl Eats over on social media lately, because, in my opinion, the food is the most important aspect of game day!

Join Deep South Dish on Facebook, X - Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

To check out other past social media round-up posts for great football foods on my Pinterest page by tapping or clicking here and for all topics and all seasons on the website by tapping or clicking here.

Shrimp Poppers with Pepper Jelly Glaze

Jumbo shrimp, stuffed with a jalapeno popper filling, wrapped in bacon and brushed with a pepper jelly barbecue glaze.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Poppers with Pepper Jelly Glaze

The Cajun's Dad always had an abundance of shrimp on hand. Nice ones too, many jumbos.

Back in the day, the family owned a small shrimp boat, so the boys would go out with Dad for a day of shrimping. When I was a kid, most young men and yes, even some gals around here too, would have experienced working on a shrimp boat at some point in their lives. Most families were involved in the industry and it was just part of the culture then.

When The Cajun went out, we would put up about 100 pounds of fresh from the Gulf shrimp that day. What a blessing!

My version of the famous spicy tomato, garlic and cream cheese based dip sold at Central Market grocery stores in Texas and well loved by many.

Texas Love Dip - My Way

I had never heard of Texas Love Dip before. 

But, I had been seeing it passed around on social media for awhile and finally gave it a try.

Apparently it originated from a Texas grocery chain, Central Market, H-E-B, or both, and is a popular party dip there.

A creamy chowder made with a light roux, bacon and the trinity of vegetables, in a chicken stock and milk base, with chicken, corn and potatoes.

Chicken and Corn Chowder

I've got another new soup to share with y'all for National Soup Month before we roll out of this crazy January. We warmed up a few days and are now heading back to a little bit of a chill down here along the Gulf Coast, but thankfully not nearly as crazy cold as it was recently!

Y'all. We came close to having snow here along the beaches in that round, but all we ended up with was some sleet. Snow always seems to just miss us.

Certainly it's the season for soups, stews, chili, gumbo and... chowders! Although a lot of us enjoy all of those year round, winter is a perfect time for a good soup and I love trying new ways to make it!

Social Media Roundup Soups and Stews 1 - What You Missed! Creamy Chicken Tortilla Soup, Cajun Cabbage Stew, Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, Cream of Chicken Soup with Rice, Old Fashioned Vegetable Cabbage Soup, Slow Cooker Potato Soup, Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup with Black-eyed Peas, Quick Fix Vegetable Beef Soup and Seafood Pan Roast.

Social Media Roundup Soups and Stews 1

Man has this been a crazy winter or what?

While we in the Deep South have had some extended freezes, as I watch footage shared across weather media, I wonder how some of y'all deal with that kind of weather in your day to day lives. Watching cars and trucks uncontrollably slipping and sliding on icy roads, slamming into buildings and each other like little matchbox cars, it scares me to death!

And then there's something some of us are experiencing that our elders never really prepared us for.

Social Media Roundup Comfort Food Favorites 3

Social Media Roundup Comfort Food Favorites 3 - What You Missed! Old Fashioned Homestyle Chicken and Noodles, Homemade Southern Beef Stew, Divine Casserole, Cajun Shrimp Stew, Cabbage Roll Bowl, No Peek Bacony Chicken and Rice Bake, Oven Roasted Beef Rump Roast, Seafood Pan Roast and Southern-Style Stewed Chicken.

Comfort Food Favorites 3

This sure has been a crazy month in the Deep South with all of these winter storms rolling through. We have readers from all across the country so I know that a lot of you have been affected by them too. Even here in the Deep South we've had multiple freezes lasting well into the day even, and that's highly unusual for us.

Be safe, stay warm and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.

We've been sharing some good comfort meals on social media lately, so we're continuing that and if you're looking for some belly warming foods, here's a summary of what we've shared recently.

Social Media Roundup of Comfort Food Favorites 2 that you may have missed! 'Easy Apple Pie Skillet Biscuits, Shipwreck Casserole, Old Fashioned Baked Custard, Chicken Pot Pie Soup with Pie Crust Crackers, Instant Pot Hot Roast Beef, Oven Braised Bone-in Chicken Breasts with Vegetables, Classic Southern Pinto Beans, Southern Style Meatloaf, Sausage, Peppers and Onions with Beans and BBQ Pork Brunswick Stew.

Social Media Roundup - Comfort Food Favorites 2

Y'all. I can't believe we are halfway through the month of January already!

As much as it seems that life stands still when you're young, I can assure you that when you hit "a certain age" it flies. Seems like my grandchildren were toddlers yesterday and here they are teens and preteens.

I know that a lot of you are on hiatus from your favorite cooking blogs - but don't forget about us!! We're still plugging along and with this crazy weather if you're looking for some great comfort food options to warm those bellies, we've been sharing some good stuff over on social media!

A quick skillet pasta meal of thin spaghetti noodles with chicken, diced tomatoes with green chilies, the trinity with garlic, shredded cheese and cream soup, prepared stovetop.

Stovetop Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

When we talk about spaghetti, most everyone first thinks about spaghetti noodles in a tomato-based sauce that has either a ground beef base or meatballs. Delish!

But, there is a whole world of spaghetti to be had out there y'all!

Down here along the Gulf Coast, shrimp spaghetti is a top favorite, as is a Creole daube made from a roast, along with an andouille based spaghetti but, there's also veggie spaghetti, cowboy bacon spaghetti and many others to be had also.

My almost famous Super Creamy Special Occasion Macaroni and Cheese downsized and adapted for the slow cooker, shown here on my plated Christmas dinner.

Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese

If you've been around here any length of time, you probably already know about my Big Batch, No Calories Left Behind, Special Occasion Macaroni and Cheese. It's become a holiday favorite for so many of you over the years.

The one thing though?

It really is a "big batch," and you don't always need that much, so I published a smaller version for those not so huge gatherings too and y'all loved that just as much.