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 favorite dish of pasta with ground beef, tomatoes and chili seasonings, made easy using the Instant Pot!

Instant Pot Chili Mac

I love sauce and pasta dishes like this chili mac. It's so easy to throw together and gives you such a tasty dish that really most everyone loves and it's good any time of the year.

Besides a multitude of variations within the recipe itself that you can make by increasing and decreasing the chili seasonings and yes, even the cheese (or even leaving the cheese out), there are other ways to vary it too, just to give it a different flavor. Taco seasoned comes to mind as does a more mildly seasoned ground beef "helper" style of pasta and everything in between.

Corn tortillas cut into wedges and tossed with seasoned ground beef, enchilada sauce, green chilies, black beans and cheese and baked.

Sheet Pan Beef Enchilada Casserole

One day I ran across this recipe while browsing through Instagram - something that I like to do when I'm avoiding doing something else I should be doing. That can happen a lot these days and social media can be really good for that!

Anyway, this fella Kevin Ashton (@oldscoolkevmo) is a chef for a sorority house and he makes a lot of good eats that he cooks for himself at home and those gals and shares them on his social media. I'm sure they must really enjoy the things he comes up with because it's a wide variety of cuisines and it all looks good!

By the way, he's also battling stage 4 cancer (but seems to be beating it), so go and give him some love on one of his platforms y'all!

Chile Cheese Tex-Mex Cornbread

Easy to make, this tender and moist Mexican Cornbread brings a sweet heat to those Tex-Mex and Mexican meals, soups, stews and chili dishes. 

Mexican Cornbread

I know for a southerner it's likely to sound a little sacrilegious, but we aren't super huge on cornbread down here along the Gulf Coast. 

Sure, we eat it and we enjoy it, but French bread and yeast rolls are much more prevalent down here. Because of that, we don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that there is only one way to make cornbread, and, we don't even mind, if occasionally, it's got a little sweetness to it. I know. I can hear the gasps.

Perfect as an appetizer for entertaining, these fluffy, gooey, cheesy, Green Chile Cheese Squares also fit well for a brunch or buffet, and they're good at room temperature or served warm.

Green Chile Cheese Squares

These little cheesy squares are a favorite around the holidays down here. Always have been.

There are so many iterations of them now, that no two are alike either, so if mine don't look the same as your recipe, that's why. Some of them are flatter, more cheesy and gooey, others are more cakey, and yet others very souffle-like made with many eggs. Heck it's even been turned it into a casserole, so it can be served either way, as a finger food or as a side dish for those nice brunches. How many squares you get, depends completely on how you cut them!

One thing I can tell you is that they are rich and addictive, so try to share them because, you know... there's lots of cheese and well, you know all about that whole cheese thing, right? They are delicious! My preference is to eat them warm or at room temperature, though they're pretty good cold too.

Skillet Chili Mac - a quick skillet meal of ground beef, tomatoes, chili seasonings, beans, cheese and medium shell pasta.

Skillet Chili Mac

It's been a crazy couple of months around here and this Skillet Chili Mac is the kind of meal that's right up my alley when that craziness happens!