Homemade kettle style popcorn, popped stovetop in a sugared oil and butter blend and tossed with Cajun seasoning, mixed with seasoned salt and cinnamon.

Homemade Cajun Kettle Corn

I am not a big fan of microwave kettle corn - it's either not very flavorful, or just too overly sweet for me. But Homemade Kettle Corn with spicy Cajun seasoning?

Count me in!

I was watching Food Network once when Melissa d'Arabian's show came on and she happened to be making some kettle corn.

When I noticed she added in cinnamon, I was intrigued!

A moist meatloaf made with lean ground beef, onion, bell pepper, garlic and a crushed saltine binder, cooked in the crockpot. Served here with everyday mashed potatoes and southern green beans.

Slow Cooker Meatloaf

I know that meatloaf sometimes gets a bad rap, mostly I would venture a guess that it's usually based on past experiences with a dry, tasteless glob of meat. On the other hand, I actually enjoy a good meatloaf myself and so does The Cajun, and I've discovered that using the slow cooker is a great way to get it on the table, when you've got a busy day.

Mashed potatoes whipped with a green onion infused milk.

Irish Champ Potatoes

Unless Mama Nature intended they be green by her own hand, I'm not big on green colored food for St. Patrick's Day.

Don't get me wrong - I do think it's fun, especially if you have children who can appreciate a quirky green meal, or maybe even a spouse who won't mind the ribbing from their workmates. I love the color green, but I'm not generally too big on using green dye to color things green either.

Well... there might be an exception or two, but essentially my menu of St. Patrick's Day meal ideas is more a mix of traditional Irish food, with Irish-American food, and, well... just good ole regular food that might fit the theme.

Picnic chicken, prepared similar to our classic, southern fried chicken, is lightly dusted in a highly seasoned flour then oven fried in butter and set aside to cool completely, before packing for the picnic.

Picnic Oven Fried Chicken

When you see recipes for oven fried chicken it's most often a low fat attempt to recreate deep fried chicken, often using cornflakes as a coating. This is not that.

When you see the term "picnic" fried chicken, it's generally referring to a fried chicken that has been prepped for skillet frying, but is done mostly, if not completely, in the oven. Left to cool, it's delicious at room temperature or straight from the fridge, making it the perfect picnic chicken. This is that.

Shipwreck casserole is a super easy to put together, layered casserole, made with ground beef, onions,  potatoes, and veggies - here I used carrots, bell pepper and celery - and added a layer of rice.

Shipwreck Casserole

There is not a single thing particularly unique to me about this Shipwreck Casserole. It's just one of those meat and potatoes, family-pleasing casseroles with a funny name that's been around a long time. It's actually known by a couple of other names too, like Dinner in a Dish, 7-Layer Casserole or Meal in One Supper, but there are at least two stories of lore that are attached to how the name shipwreck came about.

Peanut butter paired with chocolate and bananas makes a great pie for any day. Inspired by The Fat Elvis Pie at Hoosier Mama Pie Company - don't forget the milk!

Elvis Pie

Y'all, this pie is so easy to throw together that you could whip it up in the evening before bed and have a company-worthy dessert the next day. Here's how to make it.

Sliced potatoes are tossed with onion in seasoned flour, then fried in a bit of hot oil, covered and smothered with milk for a slow simmer. Simple, delicious comfort food.

Smothered Stewed Potatoes

This is one of my favorite potato side dishes, though I've also been known to make a pot just because I wanted some too!

It's very simple, classic country cooking - nothing particularly extraordinary about it or anything, but potatoes prepared this way are just so delicious and comforting. Simply sliced thin, then tossed with a tiny mixture of flour, salt and pepper, first cooked in a bit of hot oil and then covered in milk to low simmer until smothered down and tender.

They are as at home as a side dish with that nice Sunday pot roast, as they are with your everyday chicken, or if you're like me, as a meal all on their own.

Crockpot Coca-Cola Peach Barbecue Pork Chops

Bone-in pork chops, slow cooked in a Coca-cola and peach infused barbecue sauce.

Barbecue Pork Chops

While the idea of a peachy or Coca-cola barbecue sauce is certainly not unique to me, this mixture is one that came to me one day when trying to think of something to do with pork chops and utilize the slow cooker, since so many of y'all are fans of the crockpot. I opened the fridge, saw a can of Coca-Cola Classic and this peach butter and voila, sounded good to me!

A classic, old fashioned macaroni salad, made with elbow macaroni, sweet onion, celery, chopped pickles, and pimento - simple, the kind that grandma used to make.

Classic Old Fashioned Macaroni Salad

Before there were pasta salads filled with all sorts of yummy goodies, there was the humble macaroni salad. Usually a very simple concoction containing elbow macaroni, a little celery, most always pickles and pimentos here in the south, and sometimes onion, it's dressed usually with a very classic mayonnaise dressing.

Jumbo shrimp, marinated in a spicy Buffalo sauce then grilled and served on a bed of Cajun Rice Pilaf.

Buffalo Grilled Shrimp

Most people think of Frank's RedHot with wings, or maybe chicken, but I thought that I'd give it a run on some grilled shrimp for a change of pace.

The next time that The Cajun headed out to shrimp with Dad, I put out my request for some proper grilling jumbos. To grill shrimp, you really need colossal or jumbo sized. Anything smaller will overcook too quickly on the grill unless you are quick on the draw and stand over them.

Right off the boat, caught in our Gulf in the mornin', cooked that same day - now that's as fresh as it gets y'all!

A garden fresh casserole featuring sweet summer corn and tomatoes, onion, sweet bell pepper and garden fresh herbs.

Fresh Corn Casserole

I don't watch QVC as much as I'd like to, well except during Christmas time, not because I don't love it, but because I do. I would be flat broke is all! At any rate, Terresa Ray was recently filling in as on-air host for two of my favorite Mississippi "Cookbook Ladies" Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley of the Best of the Best cookbook series fame and the company that published my own cookbook!

She was on the 'In the Kitchen with David' segment to do a pre-sell on their upcoming and QVC exclusive August release, Recipe Hall of Fame Fresh from the Farmers Market cookbook. They sold out thousands of cookbooks on that show very quickly.

 

An old-fashioned southern salad of thinly sliced cucumbers and sweet Vidalia onions, dressed in a sweet and sour mayonnaise dressing.

Creamed Cucumbers and Onion

I've been eating my share of cucumbers here lately that's for sure.

First, I was gifted with a bag of them.

Then, finally after replanting seeds multiple times because the heat was literally melting my poor plants, the last four that I planted finally started producing for me.

The Cajun doesn't eat cucumbers at all, but I love garden cucumbers, so that's just all the more for me. I've made cucumber cream cheese sandwiches and every single cucumber salad I have here on the site more than a few times the last few months and realized I hadn't posted this creamed version yet.

A refreshing summer drink of sour cherries and lemonade.

Sour Cherry Lemonade

It's kinda hard being a blogger of food this time of the year, and especially when it's primarily classic and favorite southern recipes you write about. People are cutting back on calories and passing over comfort foods, for swimsuits and vacation time. On top of that, it's just so darned hot down in this part of the world, that it's pretty hard to think about cooking, much less eating, especially if you've spent any of the day outside. On the rare occasion that we want to stand over the stove or turn on the oven in the summer, it has to be for something special, or to satisfy a particular craving.

This is the time of year that I like to try a variety of cold, fruity drinks. I was recently flipping through the July 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, and saw a recipe for sour cherry lemonade. It sounded refreshing, and a little different, so I thought it'd be a great time to add another lemonade to the mix. Of course Martha's recipe was made with fresh cherries and fresh lemons, neither of which I had on hand. I did know however, that I had a couple cans of Oregon tart cherries in the pantry and a can of lemonade concentrate in the freezer, and so, I wasn't troubled in the least! Fresh cherries would have been nice, although much more work, and canned cherries by Oregon contain nothing but fruit and water and are a great substitute and a winner in my book anytime!

Summertime Peach Cobbler - super easy cobbler made with fresh peaches, cinnamon sugar and a simple buttery batter.

Summertime Easy Fresh Peach Cobbler

Cobbler has to be just about the one easiest dessert in existence, yet in its simplicity, it is both heart and belly warming. It's hard to see one without throwing a craving on yourself to make one!

Apart from an old fashioned dumpling style cobbler, this is based on a very basic, old school batter that many of us, including me, have used for years, and it works well with a wide variety of fruit.

It is often referred to as cuppa cuppa cuppa cobbler, or 1-1-1 cobbler because it used one cup of butter, one cup of flour and one cup of sugar, though I've revised mine a bit from the original, reducing the butter and, because I like it a little more cakey, I use a method that is just a tad bit different. It's a very simple recipe and it works.

No Bake Frozen Yogurt Strawberry Pie

A little cool slice of heaven is found in Rose Mary's Frozen Yogurt Strawberry Pie. It's perfect for your next gathering!

Frozen Yogurt Strawberry Pie

Today I'm excited to bring you not only a Featured Reader Recipe, but a Featured Guest Post from a lovely lady I have been corresponding with for several months now.  Rose Mary found herself un-expectantly retired by disability, after a long held career in the retail food industry. Not one to be hampered by that, she turned a passion for food and a love of cooking for others, into a self-published cookbook project to help make ends meet. You can find out more about her cookbook at the bottom of this post.

Coming from a background built upon firm parenting under strong Christian values and humble beginnings, Rose Mary is part of a large and accomplished family. She is truly a delight and joy, and the kind of person who can't help but brighten your day. I know you'll enjoy getting to know her, as much as you will enjoy the delicious recipe she is sharing with us. Please welcome and say hello to our special guest.

Summer squash - zucchini, crookneck or a mixture of the two will work - is briefly stewed in onion, garlic and cream, mixed with leftover cooked rice, topped with a Parmesan breadcrumb and baked to a crispy golden brown delicious.

Summer Squash and Rice Gratin

As I watched The veggie hating Cajun shovel this in with our meal, y'all know I had to grin, but he caught me peeking at him! "I know," he says, "what is it?" "It's food," I say, grinning. "Just eat it."  He did! Every, single, speck of it. That says a lot y'all, coming from a non-veggie eating man.

This was a delicious side dish that I adapted from Real Cajun, a cookbook that you may recall I recently reviewed. The photography in this cookbook is simply incredible, so much so that as the book lay by my chair on the floor, my youngest cat was convinced that the crab claw poking out of the gumbo on the cover was a real crab. I wish you could have seen him inching and backing off from the book, and finally reaching out and carefully patting at it multiple times with his paw, only then convinced it was just a photo!  If you're a cat owner, this behavior makes complete sense to you.

A nice tender quick bread, seasoned with cinnamon and studded with walnuts, made using some of that garden bounty of zucchini.

Zucchini Nut Bread

I suppose just about anybody that grows zucchini has a collection of recipes for their abundant bounty, including one for a sweet quick bread.

On the other hand, those of us who are lucky enough to be the recipient of bags of that bounty, sometimes just don't know what all to do with them!

This recipe is for the latter of us.

Pot Roasted Chicken - Chicken in a Pot with Bacon, Onion and Potatoes

Whole chicken, slow-roasted in a covered Dutch oven, with bacon, onion & potatoes. Add a nice garden salad & a loaf of warmed French bread for sopping up those marvelous pan juices.

Chicken in a Pot

I happened to catch whole chickens on sale for 67 cents a pound recently, so of course I stocked up on a few and had in mind one of them would land as another form of roasted chicken for the Sunday Supper series for sure.  But, as I do sometimes, about mid-stream of beginning to prep the chicken for roasting, I decided to pull down Julia Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking {affil link} and do something different.

Southern Strawberry Cake with Coconut and Pecan

Take our well-loved, made from a mix strawberry cake, add the usual strawberries and strawberry gelatin, but bump it up a level with toasted pecans and coconut, and you've got one delicious dessert y'all!

Strawberry Coconut Pecan Cake

I think the heat wave across the country, and especially the drought we're experiencing here in the Coastal South, is making it pretty difficult for most of us to get in the mood for cooking, much less baking. I can't even seem to get focused for recipe development, and that's not like me! I mean you need only look here to see it's been a week between my posts.

A hearty casserole of ground beef, seasoned with onion and bell pepper, some beans and corn, a little mixture of chili seasonings and topped off with rustic, cornmeal dusted biscuits.

Chuckwagon Casserole

It's no secret that I love casseroles - and yes, I love them any time of the year because they generally take little prep work and then go into the oven freeing up your time to do other things. They are an easy way to get a filling and tasty meal on the table with not a lot of effort too.

I know a lot of people want to switch over to no-cook meals, main dish salads, sandwiches, and cooking outside when the summer heat kicks in, but my husband still likes a meal, no matter the season, and cooking outside is pretty rough on me with the heat. Thank goodness for the modern convenience of air conditioning is all I can say!