Chicken salad, made with green onion, celery, roasted pecans and bacon and dressed with blend of a mayonnaise and avocado. Serve as a sandwich filling or line individual plates or serving tray with lettuce leaves and scoop chicken salad on top, garnishing with tomato wedges.

Bacon, Pecan and Avocado Chicken Salad

C'mon now y'all... what's not to love about a chicken salad with avocado, bacon and pecan?

Well, I for one can attest - it is delicious!

I've noticed when engaging on social media that a lot of folks favor and have one signature chicken salad that they make all of the time and that most everybody knows them for. It's the one that they always bring to events.

I guess in that case, mine would be what I call my deli-style version, a very basic but delicious version, though I've made multiple variations of that one over the years, this being one of them!

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 shortcut sweet potato casserole with the unusual addition of banana and finished with rows of marshmallows and brown sugar sweetened cornflake cereal crumbs.

Sweet Potato Banana Crunch

I am all for being about tradition when it comes to holiday meals. Keep the dishes that you know and love on the menu, because everyone will be expecting them, every, single year!

My Mama's holiday table was the same every year, with very little variation between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I miss those times so much, and while we now share our holidays with my son, our daughter-in-law and grandkids, I still find myself missing my Mama tremendously this time of year.

Soft and chewy oatmeal cookies with coconut and pecans.

Coconut Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

I'm not much of a baker. Never have been, and that's perfectly okay because there are plenty of bakeries around town that have very talented people making gorgeous and tasty creations that I can't, and frankly worth every penny spent.

Just like any other gal though, I do enjoy desserts occasionally though, and of them all, freshly baked cookies are right at the top of the list.

Chewy oatmeal cookies, with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips scattered throughout!

Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal cookies are my number one favorite cookie.

Although I do enjoy all kinds of cookies from shortbread to tea cakes, to chocolate chip to classic snickerdoodles, oatmeal has always topped the list.

Little bite sized pecan desserts, made with a cream cheese pastry crust baked with a brown sugar based pecan filling.

Southern Pecan Tassies

These little bite-sized treats are popular on the Christmas tray because they are easy to make and, even better, delicious to eat!

Internet bloggers often confuse them as mini pecan tarts or pies, though us southerners know them as pecan tassies. They're similar, of course, to pecan pie, although most pecan pies have a syrup base - most often corn, cane or sorghum are used - but tassies always have a brown sugar based filling.

Homemade Sour Cream Coffeecake

Homemade from scratch Sour Cream Coffeecake, a dense and rich, great tasting cake that is at its peak flavor when served the next day, once the sugars and flavors have settled a bit. Make it ahead whenever you can!

Sour Cream Coffeecake

Many of us are familiar with the classic Duncan Hines sour cream 'Sock it to Me' bundt cake, or at least with some family-adapted version of it. It's an enhanced cake mix cake, made with a swirl of brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts in the center, a recipe that's held its own for years and is still well-loved.

I have nothing against cake mixes at all, although, depending on the brand, I often find them overly sweet to my taste buds, but like most everybody else, I certainly use them from time to time. In fact, some of my favorite cakes start with one!

Santa Claus Whiskers Cookies - a slice and bake butter cookie, filled with chopped candied cherries and pecans, and rolled in coconut before baking.

Santa Claus Whiskers Cookies

I have the tried and true favorites that I like to make every Christmas, but sometimes I like to add something new to the cookie tray and this was one that I kept running into when browsing my cookbook collection. It's a slice and bake log cookie, so it needs an overnight rest once you roll it up, but it comes together easy enough.

Rich and decadent, dense and fudge-like, Mississippi Mud Cake is made with cocoa, topped with marshmallows, a buttery cocoa icing and salted, toasted pecans.

Mississippi Mud Cake

While there is some slight variation in recipes for Mississippi Mud Cake among us Southerners, they all contain flour, sugar, eggs, cocoa, butter, pecans, a layer of marshmallow and a buttery, powdered sugar and cocoa icing.

Some folks use large fluffy marshmallows, some minis, and some use marshmallow creme. I've used all of those!

Some put all of the pecans in the cake, others of us put them on top, others divide them between.

Some even add coconut.

Fresh green beans, blanched then seasoned with onion, garlic and herbs, and tossed with bacon and pecans and a browned butter pan sauce.

Browned Butter Green Beans with Bacon and Pecans

When I'm putting a meal on my table, Mrs. George's voice still rings in my conscience when it comes to menu planning.

She was my Occupational Home Economics teacher at Biloxi High School and I truly loved her.

The term "Occupational Home Ec" probably sounds odd, but it was the way that the Future Homemakers of America were addressing the fact that women had transitioned from being full time homemakers to working women - who happened to still run the home too.

 

Divinity, made a little easier by using marshmallow creme.

Never Fail Divinity

First things first. {pulls out hissy fit soapbox} Calling a recipe "no fail," or "never fail" is bound to be risky because without fail, somebody is gonna come along who doesn't follow the directions and yet, will blame the recipe, or even me, for their failure.

The truth is, this never fail version of divinity has been around at least as long as, or maybe even longer, than me, and it truly is no fail - if you follow directions. Thousands of folks have been making it successfully for many years, but like any divinity, shortcut or not, you must beat the hot sugar.

Classic Southern pecan pie bars with a touch of cocoa in the crust, a layer of melted chocolate, salted and roasted pecans, and a splash of bourbon in the filling... if you like.

Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Most Southerners certainly have a pecan pie recipe in their recipe box, and really, these bars are simply an extension of that pie, made into convenient little bite-sized squares. Add a little chocolate to the mix, and, a splash of bourbon if you dare, and you've got some fantastic pecan pie bars.

Old Fashioned Martha Washington Candy

Another old fashioned heritage confection, Martha Washington Candy is a rich mixture of buttery coconut and condensed milk with pecans, rolled into a tight ball and dipped in chocolate.

Martha Washington Candy

These little scrumptious bite-sized confections have been a beloved Christmas favorite in families for years, often passed down for generations. People remember their mothers making them, and their grandmothers before them.

I don't know how they officially got their name, except perhaps for their namesake, who I've read was quite a good cook. Maybe they came from her own recipe collection - that's one cookbook I don't happen to own!

 

It's been called the Ultimate Coffee Cake, Butterscotch Bubbleloaf, Monkey Bread and Pullapart Bread, but whatever you call it, it's pretty darned delicious!

Butterscotch Pull Apart Bread

I'm sure everybody has a recipe like this, made with frozen bread rolls and butterscotch pudding. Even Paula Deen makes it and calls it the Ultimate Coffee Cake, and I made it too, so here it is! Mine is an adaptation of the Rhodes Famous Butterscotch Bubbleloaf, but it's virtually the same recipe that Paula uses too. Nothing could be easier either since you pretty much just dump very convenient Rhodes frozen dinner rolls into a bundt pan and sprinkle the top with butterscotch pudding the night before you want to have this for breakfast.

Old Fashioned Coffee Cake. A very simple, but classic and tender old fashioned coffee cake, made with brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans, comes together quick and easy. Serve with a drizzle of cream, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream & a piping hot cup of coffee.

Old Fashioned Coffee Cake

To me, this is what represents a true, old-fashioned coffee cake.

Nothing fancy, very basic, just a perfectly simple sweet batter that produces a light cake, topped with a crunchy trio crumble of brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans that pleasantly invades your senses. Perfect served at the kitchen table still warm from the oven, piping hot coffee in hand, over gossip with your best friend.

Classic Old Fashioned Southern Pecan Pie

It is no secret that we love our pecans down south and we use them everywhere, but the king of pecans is found in the simple, classic, unadulterated southern pecan pie. Follow these tips for the perfect pecan pie!

Perfect Southern Pecan Pie

Ah, southern pecan pie - a classic no doubt.

It is no secret that we love our pecans down south. We use them on top of pies, in the crusts of pies and of course, in pies.  We use them as a topping, in cookies, and even in cookies you might not expect them in. We make glazes with them, put them in cranberries, and even add them to pasta! Heck, we even put 'em on bacon.

I could go on. All I can say is thank goodness they are plentiful down here!

Chocolate and Pecan Dixie Pie

A classic southern pie, made with chocolate and pecans and affectionately known in the south as Dixie Pie is sure to please!

Dixie Pie

This is another one of those classic southern pies that's been around forever - and one that everybody has a slightly different version of; some use corn syrup making it similar to pecan pie, some use more eggs and make it more of a custard pie. Some use coconut, or raisins, or walnuts, or some combination of any or all of the above! And some, well, they add a nip of bourbon too.

Pan seared chicken breast in a buttery cream sauce tossed in fettuccine noodles with Parmesan cheese and toasted pecans.

Chicken Pecan Fettuccine

During the Christmas holidays last year, a popular food blogger posted a cranberry sauce recipe that very often, at least down south, has pecans in it, though this midwestern blogger could not understand why anybody would want to do that! Why everybody down south knows why... it's because pecans are good of course! And generally speaking, plentiful around here, though it seems less so these days.

Creamy southern pralines are a simple candy confection, made from boiled sugar and nuts, and are a holiday tradition.

Southern Pralines

The Cajun came home the other day with a handful of pralines that his Mama has sent him home with when he stopped by for a visit with her on his way to a meeting.

Now I don't honestly know how many he started off with between his Mama's and his meeting, but trouble is, see, me.

I got into them that evening by mindlessly munching on them while I was busy putting a recipe into the blog. Well, before I knew it, those few that did make their way to the house, well... they were gone!

Pusharatas, Prsurate, Purshunate a/k/a Croatian Deep Fried Pastries

Pusharatas - a Croatian doughnut that is fruit and citrus based, and is a traditional recipe included on the Christmas cookie trays for many Mississippi Gulf Coast families.

Pusharatas

Pusharatas were a Christmas standard around my house and if you've never had a pusharata, well, you just don't know what you're missing! Similar to a doughnut fritter, but so much better because they are stuffed with fruit and nuts and cinnamon and nutmeg (and a little whiskey, if you're so inclined). They are a tradition amongst the local community of Slovenian women in Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.