Thick cut, bone-in pork chops, marinated in a seasoned oil and vinegar mix and grilled. Pictured here with green peas and sweet potato casserole.

Marinated Grilled Pork Chops

I had these two beautiful bone-in pork chops in the freezer just waiting to do something with!

There were four in the pack originally but since since there are only two of us at home, I used them two at a time. First, to make those fabulous stuffed chops again and I just froze the remaining two for another time.

I thought that I'd do a simple marinade and grill the remaining two.

Pasta salad, made with tiny shell pasta, tossed with a dressing made with mayonnaise, sour cream and Creole mustard with grilled salmon folded in.

Grilled Salmon Pasta Salad

I love fish! Some of my favorites include Mississippi farm raised catfish, of course, as well as the bounty from our beloved Mississippi Sound and Gulf of Mexico. 

White trout, speckled trout, redfish, mackerel, snapper, red drum, grouper, even good ole ground mullet and Biloxi Bacon aka striped popeye mullet or jumping mullet, are just some of the fish that are found here, and frankly most of us from here were just about weaned on it all from birth!

A general-purpose marinade with a base of oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and mustard with additional seasonings, great on chicken, beef, pork, shrimp and even vegetables.

General-Purpose Grilling Marinade

It's still summer y'all! 

I'm plugging along with the heat advisories down here on the Gulf Coast, so no pumpkin or apple or fall-themed recipes here quite yet, much as I'm looking forward to it all after this hot, hot summer.

So... let's talk marinades!

Garlic and Herb Grilled Ribeyes - Ninja Foodi Grill

Beef ribeye steaks, marinated in an olive oil, garlic and herb blend and grilled, shown here with my air-fryer roasted potatoes and quick fix green beans.

Garlic and Herb Grilled Ribeyes

If you've been around this website for any length of time, you know I don't post a lot of steak "recipes," because, well, I prefer ribeyes and while I may change up methods, I really just don't fool around with those much!

Usually just a quick 30-minute marinade in some Dale's, Country Bob's, maybe a little Hoover sauce from The Mississippi Delta, when I have it or most often, just plain ole Worcestershire sauce, and that's about it.

Bone-in chicken breasts, marinated overnight or up to 24 hours, in a brown sugar and apple juice or cider-based brine, then flame grilled.

Apple Brined Grilled Chicken

Y'all. Summer is coming to an end soon and I am not unhappy about it.

While I know many of you, including some of my very good friends who also live down south, and those of you who live in cold climates especially, y'all do love the heat of summer. I don't. And, it gets HOT in the Deep South. Fall can't come quick enough!

Large shrimp, tossed with olive oil and seasonings and quickly grilled with a Ninja Foodi or other electric, countertop grill.

Grilled Spicy Shrimp (Ninja Foodi)

I really enjoy grilled foods, though when I talk about "grilling" these days, it's less often on my outside, open-flame grill anymore, and much more often on my indoor countertop grill.

The heat and humidity outside in the summertime here along the central Gulf Coast is just too much for me!

It's not quite the same as that open flame flavor of course, so yeah, it loses a little in the translation on a tabletop grill, but it sure does still taste good! It's also easier, more convenient and faster, especially when you purchase your shrimp already peeled and deveined from the freezer section.

Bone-in chicken thighs and legs, rub marinated, then grilled over indirect heat or smoke cooked, brushed with Alabama white sauce and served with additional sauce on the side.

Smoked Chicken with Alabama White Sauce

I have to admit, I don't cook outside as much these days. The heat is just too hard on me as I've gotten older, and it gets hot as a match in the summertime here! I mean, I was filling bird feeders yesterday and just in that short time I thought I was gonna die!

Though I haven't let go of my stack smoker, Weber, Lodge Sportsman, or my gas grill, of all of the cookout tools I have, I still love my Traeger pellet cooker {affil link} the most.

Thickly cut slices of summer squash, tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and a mixture of dried herbs, then grilled.

Grilled Squash with Herbs

I hesitated to share this "recipe" at first but then I thought hey, the first time I ever wanted to grill squash, I had to look up "how to grill squash" because I wanted to do it right, so hopefully it will be helpful. There is always somebody, somewhere just learning to cook.

Besides y'all. Doesn't that just look scrumptious? It's really quite simple, but along the way I've discovered a couple of helpful tips.

Boneless chicken breasts, soaked in a southwestern seasoned, brown sugar brine, tossed in fajita seasonings, grilled over indirect heat and served with a southwestern seasoned rice.

Grilled Fajita Chicken and Rice

This is a main dish take on those well loved chicken fajitas, putting that bold fajita flavor on those ever popular, full-sized boneless, skinless chicken breast and using the classic peppers and onions to flavor a side dish of rice. Just something with familiar flavors. but a little different!

As always, the full recipe with instructions are further down the page, past the step by step photographs. Scroll or swipe down to the bottom of this post to go straight to the recipe.

The flavors of a New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp, made with brined and marinated, peeled and deveined grilled shrimp, making it much less messy to eat. Serve with plenty of French bread to sop up the sauce though!

Grilled New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp

Most of you know by now about New Orleans style BBQ shrimp and that it has nothing to do with anything remotely linked to smoke cooking or even barbecue sauce.

It is thought that the recipe originated with Pascal's Manale Restaurant - a nearly 100 year old eatery located on Napoleon Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana. The name likely comes from the smokey flavor that the shrimp gets from the spicy, heavy on the butter, yummy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and the spicy, peppery seasonings.

There is no doubt that we love our shrimp in this country - we eat more than a billion pounds of shrimp alone every year! Unfortunately, 90% percentage of the shrimp we are consuming is imported - and frankly many of us who live outside of the coastal regions, don't even realize it.

A beef broth, marinated flank steak, with Creole mustard, balsamic vinegar and herbs, prepared in the classic London Broil method, with a quick sear on a hot grill and sliced at an angle, against the grain, for a full-flavored tender steak.

Marinated Flank Steak - London Broil

If you set out to research it, over and over again, you will read that London Broil is not a cut of beef, but instead is a method of grilling and carving. Yet... like this chunk of meat I cooked here, there it sat in the meat case with a label calling it simply, "London Broil" and nothing else.

Really?

Roadside-Style Grilled Chicken

Chicken, boneless, skinless thighs pictured here, marinated in a seasoned vinegar and oil mixture, then grilled. Saucing is completely optional!

Roadside Vinegar Grilled Chicken

Outside of private parties, special events and festivals, you generally won't find many food trucks around south Mississippi, and sadly, not in many other locations around the state either.

While I do recall back in my corporate career days, a truck that came around occasionally at lunchtime, it was really more like a traveling version of those breakroom vending machine lunches. You know the ones.

Cold sandwiches mostly, cheese snack packs and maybe some microwaveable meals. Nothing wrong with that! I've eaten a few of those sandwiches myself, for breakfast even, when I was in a rush to get out the door some mornings.

Chargrilled Oysters on the Half Shell

Freshly shucked Gulf oysters, grilled in the shell, with a lemon and garlic butter sauce, and served on an ice or rock salt covered platter with cocktail sauce, horseradish, lemon wedges and hot sauce and French bread on the side.

Chargrilled Oysters

Oysters are so common along the Gulf Coast, most folks who grew up here, eat them in some form. Most of us buy them already shucked, by the pint, quart or gallon, from our favorite seafood or grocery market. Many others, like my father in law, and like my daddy did, buy them by the sack and shuck them fresh. Sweet and salty, fresh from the Gulf - those are the absolute best oysters you will ever put in your mouth, y'all!

Bone-in pork loin chops, first marinated in a brown sugar, vinegar and soy marinade, then grilled and brushed with a pepper jelly glaze to finish. Shown here with my chargrilled corn and grilled veggies.

Grilled Pork Chop with Pepper Jelly Glaze

Everybody around the country who gets snow in the winter waits for the summer ritual of opening up their patio grill, but we grill all year round in the Deep South and honestly, summers here are really our least favorite time for grilling. Oh we do it, but it's hotter than hot, and not super pleasant.

Now that I have a nice, shady covered patio with a ceiling fan though, it's made a huge difference, and I have sure been working my grills around here! I think I've grilled more this last year than I did in years at my old house. Grilling is fast, easy and doesn't heat up the kitchen - which is a bonus in this summer heat. I've even baked on my Traeger pellet grill {affil link} instead of using my oven! But... for me, there is one issue.

Chicken, marinated in beer, oil, vinegar and seasonings, then grilled and brushed with French dressing. Shown here with roasted green beans and sour cream, cucumber and onion salad. Fabulous.

Beer-B-Q Marinated Grilled Chicken   

I can't believe we've been in our new/old house over a year now. Wow, time is a flyin' y'all! This house is an older home... 20 years older even than the one that we left. It's had a few makeovers over the years though, and besides being close to the grandkids, there were so many features to the house that I loved, that even though we had looked at a lot of newer houses, I knew this was the one, as soon as I saw it.

 

Bratwurst sausage, braised on the grill in a hot tub of beer, onions and butter, then seared and returned to the tub. Serve on hard rolls, with mustard, onions and pickles.

Grilled "Hot Tub" Beer Brats

Now, yes, right off the bat before some of y'all insist on thinking I don't already know, bratwurst ain't exactly a Deep South dish.

I do realize that!

Once upon a time, you would have been hard-pressed to even find a bratwurst sausage anywhere in The South to save your life. But now that they are everywhere, we Southerners sure do enjoy our share of them.

Grilled Huli Huli Chicken, a popular Hawaiian-style barbecued chicken, basted with a honey and brown sugar sweetened, soy and pineapple barbecue sauce.

Grilled Huli Huli Chicken

I don't know about y'all, but the last couple of months I have been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs! Between buying a new house, moving, renovating the old house for sale and now that summer's rolled around, spending a lot more time with the grandkid's on summer vacation too... I truly don't know if I'm coming or going anymore. I sure could use a vacation of my own - Florida beaches here I come!

If you've ever been on a Florida vacation and done the luau show and dinner somewhere, you have likely had some form of this Hawaiian-style barbecued chicken. I've never been to Disney where we didn't go to one either at the Polynesian Hotel or up the road at the Wantilan Luau at Universal Orlando.

Luau shots from one of our Orlando vacations!

Yes, I know they are touristy and to some degree a bit cheesy, but I just love those shows and I really feel like I'm on vacation when I go to one.

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!

Thinly sliced or pounded pieces of boneless chicken breast are grilled, then topped with barbecue sauce, bacon and shredded cheeses, and finished with a garnish of fresh chopped tomatoes and sliced green onion.

Grilled Cheesy Barbecue Chicken

This is a such a quick, easy and super tasty meal that's really perfect for any weeknight. Known across the net as a copycat of Chili's Monterey Chicken, it's really nothing more than a simple boneless, skinless chicken breast that is brushed with barbecue sauce, topped with bacon, a little shredded cheese and finished with a garnish of fresh chopped tomato and sliced green onion. Cheesy, smothered and covered y'all. Not a thing wrong with that!

Baking potatoes, halved, toss with olive oil, salt & pepper & cooked on a hot grill.

Grilled Baked Potatoes

One of the easiest ways to grill baked potatoes is to simply wrap them in foil and cook them over direct heat until tender. You can unwrap them the last few minutes to crisp them up, but to me, it still tastes more like a steamed potato, which is good, but is missing that "baked" flavor. I don't wrap my potatoes when I bake them in the oven either - just wash, prick a few times with a fork or knife, and bake directly on the rack.  Course you can also cook them on the grill without wrapping but, either way, it takes about as long as it would in the oven.

Instead, treat them basically as you do other veggies on the grill, by slicing them lengthwise and then grilling them right over direct heat.  You get that baked flavor you want with a smaller time investment and the bonus of grilling so you don't have to heat up the oven. Simple. Delicious!