Garden fresh corn, sweet bell peppers, tomatoes and some red onion, combine with a sweet and sour vinegar and oil dressing for a wonderful summer salad!

Marinated Corn Salad with Tomatoes

As far as fresh veggies go, I've sure been enjoying my garden tomatoes This is the first year that I've not had an abundance of fresh green beans and fresh peppers though.

The peppers are way behind thanks to those pesky aphids, and while a couple of them do have some blossoms, the heat is pretty rough on them here lately. Maybe now that July is here we'll start getting some more regular rain to help with that. I guess the tradeoff is that this year, unlike last year, I have had a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers, so I'm happy about that! Right now, is the perfect time of the year to find some great super sweet corn at the farmer's market, or at the very least, in the grocery store, so by all means, although canned works great, use fresh if you've got it!

All controversy aside on preferred ingredients for cornbread, in my mind there really is only one thing that truly sets southern cornbread apart. It's always best cooked in a screaming hot, cast iron skillet.

Southern Skillet Cornbread

Skillet cornbread is a southern staple. Baked in a preheated, sizzling hot oiled cast iron skillet, it produces a beautiful crunchy crust on the bottom, and that is what makes it so unique. But cornbread in The South can certainly be cause for debate, that's for sure.

The Great Southern Cornbread Debate

A Southern Born and Bred Southerner's Take on the Cornbread Debate

The truth is ... in my little ole humble opinion, the two things that make cornbread Southern is 1) using a cast iron skillet to make it, and 2) pouring the batter into a very hot cast iron skillet that has been coated in some kind of fat. That's the secret that makes cornbread Southern - that yummy, crunchy bottom. Believe it or not, it's less about the recipe than the method itself. Gasp! Did she really just say that??

Why yes, I did.

And listen, don't you go lettin' people tell you that it's not Authentic Southern Cornbread if it's got sugar or flour in it. That's a myth and you know what I say about that?

Summer squash is mixed with the Trinity of vegetables, cream soup, eggs and fresh bread, for a squash dressing.

Summer Squash Dressing

Here's another recipe you might want to consider for your squash bounty! It's really a basic run of the mill squash dressing that we all pretty much have, this one using toasted bread crumbs. I decided to add in a bit of Trinity and some Cajun seasoning, just to bump up the flavor a bit.

Weekend Cocktails - Whiskey Sour

I've always loved a whiskey sour - the combination of the sweet simple syrup with the tartness of the lemon juice is just so darned tasty - and just one does me fine.

Seeing as I'm not much of a drinker, most of the liquor I have is well, pretty old. I have cathedral ceilings in my family room that extends into the kitchen, so way up on top of the kitchen cabinets in the top of the ceiling is where whatever liquor we have lives. Most of that stuff has been up there since the early 2000s; some even longer. But the whiskey I used in this is found whiskey, so yep ... there's a story here!

Basic simple syrup mixture for beverages, cocktails and glazes.

How to Make Simple Syrup

This is for a medium thick simple syrup with a 2:1 ratio, which will cover most of your beverage needs - such as lemonade, iced tea, cocktails and coffee. You can also do a 1:1 ratio and a 3:1 ratio, depending on the thickness needed. A thicker ratio would be used in baking for glazes. A thinner ratio might be used for some cold drinks.

Braised steak with vegetables - a meal in one casserole!

Meal-in-One Cajun Steak Casserole

I don't know about y'all, but The Cajun still expects MEALS around this house no matter whether it's hot as Hades or not. He is just not a cold salad, sandwich, wrap, fruit soup, cool food for supper kinda guy.

I remembered this steak casserole recipe from another time I made it, sans the veggies. It's from one of my many cookbooks called Cooking with Cajun Women {affil link} by Nicole Fontenot of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

French bread stuffed with gooey cheese and smeared with a garlicky, parsley butter blend. An indulgence for sure, but so worth it!

Hasselback Cheesy Garlic Bread

Now, when I make this Cheesy Garlic Bread, I don't generally do the whole loaf, because, well... it's just me and The Cajun, and I would definitely eat the whole loaf! Besides being a book addict, I am also a lover of bread. All kinds. Especially freshly baked bread. And freshly baked French bread, most especially. And let me tell you. This bread is some kinda good. So if you're feedin' your family, or having a party, go right ahead and make the whole loaf. Since you have other folks to share it with and all.

Stuffed (Deviled) Crab

Stuffed crab, made with fresh lump crabmeat, onion, and bell pepper, seasoned with Old Bay and Cajun seasoning and bound with egg and toasted bread crumbs and baked.

Deviled Stuffed Crab

I so love stuffed crabs! My Mama almost always made these from freshly picked crabs and then stuffed the cleaned and sterilized crab shells as I have here, but most folks would just make these into patties, or put them in those aluminum crab shells, which is perfectly acceptable!

The First Tomato of the Season

While I confess, I have plucked a couple of the small Romas to toss in a salad here and there, and I did have a few Fried Green Tomatoes too, and I considered having a salad or sandwich with the first of the bigger tomatoes. But ... I could really think of no better way to honor the very first big tomato to ripen from my garden than to eat it, straight up, unadulterated, but for kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper and a dab of real mayo on the side.

Homegrown tomatoes simply put grocery store tomatoes to shame. The aroma and flavor is just amazing... so juicy, so tasty. There just ain't nothin' like it. Mm Mm Mmmmm. I sure hope y'all planted some this year!!


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