A salsa made with the best flavors of summer - bell pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, chilies, zucchini and corn - nicely seasoned and tossed with a quality creamy Italian dressing.

Summer Vegetable Salsa

Okay. Question.

Is this a salsa? You know, like meant to be eaten with chips? Or as a condiment for grilled or pan seared proteins?

Or, is it a dip, solely meant to be scooped up on a chip?

Or, is it a salad? Meant to be eaten on its own?

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.

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!

The best of late summer and early fall vegetables - eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and sweet bell pepper - tossed with an olive oil, vinegar and herb-based dressing, diced tomatoes, garlic, chunks of red onion and sliced smoked sausage, then baked.

Ratatouille and Sausage Bake

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love a vegetable dish like this. The Cajun?

Not so much.

So, when I cook something like this it's all for me!

This sheet pan mix of roasted potatoes with loads of vegetables and smoked sausage is an easy meal that's packed with flavor.

Roasted Potatoes with Sausage and Vegetables

You may remember a near viral recipe for a simple sheet pan roasted potatoes with onions and sweet peppers flashing across social media platforms the past year or so.

I'm old enough to remember when people just made these kinds of things with little to no fanfare, but hey, if social media can drum up some interest in cooking, well, anything... I'm happy about it!

Food, after all, isn't just about nourishment, although some would have you think so.

Ribeye steak, lightly marinated, then air-fried, combined with a mix of air-fried sweet peppers and onions and served over rice.

Air-Fryer Marinated Ribeye Steak and Peppers

Okay. I'm not gonna lie. When I first thought to do a ribeye steak, my favorite cut of steak, in an air fryer, boy was I leery about it.

I mean a good ribeye steak, besides being my favorite, is not cheap, and I was so fearful of ruining it! When I cook steaks, they are grilled most of the time, whether it's outside or inside on a countertop grill. (I love my Ninja Foodie grill and use it multiple times a week!)

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.

A sausage and peppers dish, using spicy Cajun sausage, pan seared cabbage wedges, sweet onion and diced tomatoes with green chilies, served over rice.

Cajun Sausage and Peppers with Cabbage

This is just a little different take on the old Italian sausage and peppers dish, adding a mix of colorful peppers, spicy Cajun sausage and pan-seared cabbage wedges.

Instead of a sauce that's typically used with sausage and peppers, I'm using diced tomatoes with green chilies in order to allow the individual elements all shine on their own and not be buried in sauce. For the sausage, I'm using smoked instead of a raw, encased sausage.

A fresh tomato pasta sauce, made with garden vegetables - peppers, squash, zucchini, corn, eggplant, okra, beans - whatever you have! For a protein boost, add leftover roasted chicken, seasoned and sauteed shrimp, cooked ground beef, sausage, or other meats.

Garden Fresh Vegetable Spaghetti

I have been up to my ears in garden fresh tomatoes the past few weeks... not that it's a bad thing, don't get me wrong! It's just that as fast as I process some into sauce, I'm plucking a near equal amount off of the plants.

The last picking right before the tropical storm and steady coming!

Oven roasting intensifies the flavor of many vegetables, giving a browned and often crisped exterior, against a creamy, soft feel inside. It's one of my favorite ways to cook them, and they're a perfect addition to your table any time of the year.

Roasted Zucchini, Onions, Peppers and Tomatoes

It's mid-October and that means that we just finished up with "America's Largest Block Party" down here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. If you have a classic car, or even if you just love them, but you've never been, I don't know why! Put it on your calendar and get on down here next year and check it out. It's quite an event, there are beautiful cars everywhere, and it always starts the first weekend in October every year, continuing on through the next Sunday.

The weather has been perfect for it too, as it usually is for this event. By October, things have usually cooled off a tad here in the Deep South finally - mid-80s during the day and low to mid-60s at night. There was one night there on the ball field with No. 1 Grandson that I was literally shivering in a t-shirt and jeans! Humidity has not been too bad either and frankly that's really the biggest factor around here because even when the temperature is up, if the humidity is down it's pleasant, and that it has been. Really gorgeous weather.

A skillet meal made from the best of summer veggies - squash, zucchini, bell pepper, green beans, Vidalia onions and tomatoes, with red potatoes and fresh garden herbs and the addition of some pan-seared fresh wild-caught Gulf shrimp.

Garden Vegetable Skillet with Shrimp

I get strange cravings, and most times, they're not at all what you'd expect in the way of a craving.

I get very strong cravings out of the blue for beef. For McDonald's french fries. Or their iced coffee. Homemade chicken noodle soup and creamy Chicken and Noodles. Egg drop soup from the local Chinese restaurant. And vegetables, in general. It was that way in my pregnancy - I didn't crave sweets, or odd combinations. I craved a meat and three dinner!

 

Tri-color rotini pasta is paired with some of my favorite pizza toppings, purple onion, green and red bell pepper, black olives, pepperoni, bacon, mushrooms, grape tomatoes and mozzarella and dressed with a spicy tomato dressing.

Pizza Pasta Salad

Hey, y'all should be very proud of me!! I have managed to post more than two recipes in August so far. Seems Grandma Mary needed to get her back-to-school routine going too I guess. :) Just in time too, because fall is right around the corner now, and I've still got some summer left to share yet!

I love a good pasta salad in the summer and I sure can make a meal of this one.

Sausage and Peppers Stew with Onions with Beans

A quick skillet stew of sausage with peppers and onions, tomatoes, barbecue sauce, and beans.

Sausage and Peppers Stew

I love this quick take on classic sausage and peppers with onions, adding in beans, making it much more filling and satisfying. It's kinda like if you took beanie weenies and sausage and peppers and married them.

I've used Italian sausage here, but you can use any kind of Italian-style sausage like chicken or turkey, or even a good andouille sausage, and I've also used those gourmet hot dogs that come with the steak packages you get as a gift at Christmas.

Nutritional Factoid: Did you know that while most canned beans are very high in sodium, draining and rinsing them gets rid of nearly half of the sodium level? And, just so you know, it also helps to reduce some of those gas-causing sugars too.

A fresh peach jam made with peaches, sweet red bell peppers and jalapeno.

Peach and Pepper Jam

Like cornbread, whether a hoecake is make from flour or cornmeal, what is the so-called "right" way to make southern chicken and dumplings and how we all make other regional foods, the title of who can claim the top peach in the country is one of those things that can create an argument quickly among several Southern states. Truth is, I figure whatever peach is local to you is probably the winner.

Garden Fresh Salsa, made with juicy tomatoes, sweet Vidalia onions, crisp sweet garden bell peppers, spicy fresh jalapeno, sweet corn on the cob and fragrant garden cilantro.

Garden Fresh Salsa

Here it is running up on mid-August already and I realize that I've got quite a few summer posts like this one to catch up on! So don't go fussin' at me for posting a series of non-traditional recipes that may not necessarily fit into the "Southern" recipe box. Besides our southern favorites and classic southern recipes, like everybody else, we also enjoy a wide variety of other foods too, like this.

O'Brien Style Cast Iron Skillet Fried Potatoes

Red skin potatoes are fried up in a cast iron skillet with sweet Vidalia onion and bell pepper and nicely seasoned for a take on Potatoes O'Brien. Great for any meal - add bacon, ham, sausage, fresh herbs and mushrooms if you like!

Potatoes O'Brien - Skillet Fried Potatoes

Skillet fried potatoes, also known as home fries and cottage fries in the north, are such an easy side dish, that goes well with breakfast, but also as a dinner side dish. For my classic skillet potatoes I use peeled russets, some onion and that's about it other than the delicious fat used to cook them in - for me, I love using bacon drippings for the extra richness it provides - and the very specific method.

For this version of skillet potato, I prefer to use the smaller, unpeeled red-skinned or new potatoes. The skin is tender, and to me tasty, and they cook up nicely without the steaming process that is necessary for our beloved fried taters and onion. If you prefer to use a russet, rather than a red skinned potato, you certainly can, though I'd click over to that other recipe, because I think that method works best with russets.

Summer squash, stuffed with bell pepper, onion, tomatoes and pepper jack cheese, and topped with a sprinkle of panko bread crumbs.

Cheesy Stuffed Summer Squash

This is another great recipe to use those prolific summer squash, garden fresh tomatoes and even some of those bell peppers too. I just had to show the image below, which shows the pre-breaded squash because the stuffing is just so fresh looking.

Basic lima bean and corn succotash gets a boost from summer bounty with the addition of sweet Vidalia onions, fresh tomatoes, bell pepper, okra and some smoked meat.

Southern Summer Succotash

Hope everybody had a wonderful holiday weekend with friends and family, and an extra day off today to recover. All the carbs and meat of late have me in the mood for some veggies and what a great time to introduce some summer succotash!

To be honest, I love a simple succotash mixture of baby butter beans and corn, maybe with a bit of onion and garlic, always some butter, and sometimes just a splash of cream. You can make succotash using fresh, frozen or even canned vegetables, so it's pretty much a year round dish you can serve anytime.

Sweet bell peppers stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, Italian sausage, rice & a Creole tomato sauce, topped with cheddar cheese, slices of Velveeta or your favorite.

Creole Stuffed Bell Peppers

I absolutely adore stuffed bell peppers. The Cajun? Not so much.

Remember his aversion to veggies?

Well, the poor bell pepper falls right into that category of any other whole veggie that is stuffed - even though most often the very veggie he is rejecting whole, is mixed in the stuffing anyway! So, as with any stuffed vegetable, he will just eat the stuffing from a stuffed bell pepper, and throw away the pepper.

Silly man. I mean, he eats green bell pepper a lot. How many recipes do y'all see here that contain The Trinity - onion, celery, and ... hello ... green bell pepper? Lots. Sigh.