Pig Candy - Candied Brown Sugar Bacon

Bacon, tossed in a spicy brown sugar seasoning, sprinkled with chopped pecans and baked.

Brown Sugar Bacon

When I first posted Pig Candy in the early stages of my original blog, nobody seemed to know anything about it. Now Candied Bacon, Brown Sugar Bacon, or as Ms. Jill Conner Browne, Head Queen of THE Sweet Potato Queens calls it, Pig Candy, seems to be all over the place, with a wide range of variations.

She's from Mississippi, ya know.

Cinnamon Honey Baked Apples with Walnuts and Raisins

Apples stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon, apple pie spice, butter, walnuts and raisins or dried cranberries, drizzled with honey and baked.

Cinnamon Honey Baked Apples

In December, I purchased a Holiday Mixed Fruit gift box special that had 44 pieces of beautiful, juicy and delicious fruit - anjou pears, ruby red grapefruit, juice & navel oranges, tangerines & tangelos, and 16 apples, 4 different varieties.

I thought that it was an amazing value!

Fresh chicken wings, done up Buffalo-style, are given a quick deep fry, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then tossed in a buttery hot sauce. Serve this with a homemade sour cream, mayonnaise and blue cheese dipping sauce.

Buffalo-Style Hot Wings with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

The Cajun and I are kinda tiring of all the holiday leftovers now, so most everything went into the freezer today and I decided to make some hot wings to go along with the football watchin' since we only really wanted a snack. Now, I have never been to Buffalo, so I won't even begin to pretend that these are authentic Buffalo Wings, but let's just safely say they are chicken wings done Buffalo "style."

Seafood and Okra Gumbo with Shrimp, Crab and Oysters

A seafood gumbo made with a dark roux, a rich shrimp stock, the Trinity of vegetables, tomatoes, andouille and shrimp, crab and oysters.

Seafood and Okra Gumbo

Seafood gumbo, made with shrimp, lots of crab, and usually oysters is definitely a Deep South tradition for Christmas. Mama always made her seafood gumbo on Christmas Eve and that was a tradition at our house. We had this yesterday (and of course it only gets better the day after) and oh my gosh... this is so dang good (if I don't say so myself), I can't begin to tell y'all!

 

Perfectly simple and delicious oven braised brisket.

Slow Braised Oven Brisket

An oven braised beef brisket is a great way to get a lot of meat for little effort.

Of course, you don't necessarily need to buy a 10 pound brisket like I did, but if you do, you'll have plenty of meat to put up in the freezer for other meals. This method works on any size brisket and you'll need about one hour per pound.

Southern Style Shortcut Corned Beef and Cabbage

My favorite way to do corned beef and cabbage is a shortcut, using canned corned beef with a basic braised cabbage recipe.

Shortcut Corned Beef and Cabbage

I've done my corned beef with cabbage this way for as long as I can remember. Frankly, it's pretty darned near perfect for my culinary appetite, plus it's easy, it's fast and it's good. Works for me! (and yeah, yeah, I know... the stuff in the can is not "technically" real corned beef, and that's just fine with me!)

New Years Southern Style Black-Eyed Peas

Black-eyed peas, cooked down with the Trinity, some bacon, jalapeno, a ham bone or ham hock and a few seasonings, makes for a traditional southern meal.

Southern-Style Black-Eyed Peas

Unlike my red beans and rice and my butter beans, I don't find it necessary to pre-boil and soak most southern peas like black-eyed peas. They cook up good and tender without that step in my little ole opinion.

Course you go right ahead and do that if ya want. Cooking to me is all about individualizing recipes to suit your fancy, not somebody else's and everybody - even here in The South - cooks things a little bit different from one another anyway.

How to Make Perfect Pasta

Does your pasta often come out tasteless and bland? Is your pasta often gummy and sticky? Well, here are my best tips for perfect pasta.

• You need to use a large pot and a lot of water - at least 6 quarts of water for a full pound of pasta! Many people use saucepans or pots that are too small for the pasta that they are making and not nearly enough water. Big mistake. The pasta really needs a lot of room to move around or you end up with sticky, gummy pasta, so use a very large stockpot or pasta pot. For a one pound package of pasta, you really need at least 6 quarts of water. Do that and you will not have to rinse the starch off of your pasta and it will hold onto the sauce much better.

• Season the pot with a very generous amount of salt!  Many people use very little salt, or none at all. Really, this is the only time you'll be able to put any seasoning into the pasta.  I use kosher salt in my kitchen - the "pinching" salt - so I grab two very large and generous pinches - maybe even three for a big pot.  You need a lot of salt.

• Bring the unseasoned pot of water up to a boil first, then add the salt. If you add salt to a cool pot of water, it will delay the water reaching the boiling point. 

• Cover the pot while you bring it up to a boil. It will come to a boil much faster. Once you add the pasta, do not re-cover the pot.

Perfect pasta!

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Cooking Tip - Prepare Ingredients Before You Start

Prep for Success!

I was about to get started with making my seafood gumbo and thought about this important element involved with gumbo makin' that really translate to just about every recipe.

If you are pretty new to venturing into the kitchen, I have to say that even as long as I have been cooking, I am still a big advocate of prepping all of your ingredients ahead of time. You know how when you watch a chef on television they have everything premeasured, chopped and ready to go? Well, that's not just for television folks.

Yes, this might mean that you create more dishes to wash, but it will ensure better end results with your culinary creations because it allows you to transition smoothly from stage to stage of a recipe with no bumps in the road. There is nothing worse than to be in the midst of cooking only to find out that you needed to have something prepped that you didn't realize needed to be, while at the same time you are having to also be stirring constantly on something altogether different! Yikes! So follow these guidelines and you'll make your venture into cooking much more pleasant and successful!

1. Always, always, always read through the entire recipe before even beginning to think about starting to cook anything. You may even find that you have to read between the lines a bit. Some recipe authors do a great job of explaining things step by step and telling you exactly what you need to do and when. Others, well ... not so much. So read through the recipe from start to finish, even before you start to prep the ingredients.

2. Measure out all of your ingredients in advance. Sometimes you can even combine them - for instance, flour, baking powder and salt are often combined and then whisked to "sift." So you can combine those ahead of time and have it at the ready. I still do this when I bake.

3. Try to keep the prepped ingredients at hand in the order of use. It really just makes it easier because you are not reaching over other things and risking knocking things over and spilling them, and if you use them in order and sort of put them altogether after you use them, there's less of a chance that you won't be able to remember whether or not you've already put that one ingredient in! Believe me, even seasoned cooks go through that "did I add the [fill-in-the-blank] already???" So it helps if you sort of lay things out where you need them in order of use, then scoot them to the side all together after you have used them.

4. Chop EVERYTHING in advance and have it all ready to go. Sometimes recipes call for sauteeing things one at a time, so make note of that and be sure to keep those ingredients separated as you chop. Other times you can chop and combine the raw veggies because they will be cooked together. For instance, with my gumbo, first I have to saute the okra, by itself. So when I chop that up before I start, it'll go in its own little bowl. But when I chop the onion, celery and bell pepper, I know it will all saute together at the same time, so it can all go in one bowl as I chop it. The garlic, which can burn and get bitter if overcooked, will be chopped separately and set aside on the cutting board to be added once the all the veggies are cooked and tender.

5. Once you think that you have everything ready to go, before you get started do a quick run-through, reading over the recipe once more and checking your ingredients as you mentally prepare the dish. You will often find that you've missed something crucial!

Believe it or not, as long as I've been cooking, I still follow these basic rules of cooking. It really makes for a much more pleasant cooking experience and in my opinion, successful results!

~

New Year Appetizers and Party Food Menu Ideas

Everything you need for your New Year's Eve party from beverages to dips, appetizers to seafood dishes and all the traditional New Year's Day eats, all in one place from Deep South Dish!

NEW YEAR'S EVE
MENU IDEAS and PARTY FOODS

Boiled Drinking Custard

Beverages

Holiday Sangria
Southern Mimosas
Pomegranate Cosmos
Party Punch (Alcohol Free)
Milk Punch
Hair of the Dog Classic Bloody Mary
Spiked and Spiced Hot Chocolate
Homemade Eggnog

More Beverages and Cocktails