Memphis-Style Southern Dry Rub Grilled Pork Spareribs

Pork ribs prepared Memphis style, with an overnight dry rub marinade, grilled over indirect heat for 1 hour, then brushed with a simple vinegar and mustard mop sauce and finished another hour.

Southern Style Dry Rub Pork Ribs

In many, if not most households, the husband is the master of the grill.

Not in this house. The Cajun cooks nothing, and I mean nothing. His Daddy cooked often, but apparently my guy didn't pick that up!

So, I'm the resident cook and griller, though I am certainly as amateur as it comes.

 

Fabulous southern sweet tea infused with fresh strawberries!

Southern Strawberry Sweet Iced Tea

This Southern Strawberry Sweet Iced Tea is a quick and delicious variation of my southern sweet iced tea that is a nice refreshing change from the usual.

You can certainly use your own usual tea recipe, or even make adjustments to mine in the strength of the tea, the sweetness, the tartness of the lemon and the level of strawberries to suit your own taste.

Make it your own, but I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do.

Homemade Strawberry Buttermilk Sherbet

A delicious and easy sherbet made with buttermilk and fresh or frozen strawberries. You will love this one.

Strawberry Buttermilk Sherbet

I first found this recipe in Southern Living magazine several years back, but have since revised it by adding more strawberries and less vanilla. It is a wonderful light and low fat dessert for spring or summer and perfect for right now when strawberries are so perfectly sweet and delicious. It could not be any easier, either.

A strawberry fan is such a pretty garnish and they are really much easier to make than you think!

How to Make a Strawberry Fan Garnish

Strawberries are in season now - these below were some from Dover, Florida that The Cajun recently brought home for me. Aren't they gorgeous? And they are so sweet and delicious this year.

The Grilled All-American Burger

The good ole classic All-American Burger to me means a good ground chuck beef burger, pickles, tomato, grilled onion, mayo, mustard and ketchup on a toasted bun & topped with bacon and cheese, if you like. 

Grilled All-American Burger

Saturday was a gardening day so supper had to be simple. Grilled burgers and southern style potato salad.  Grilled corn on the cob would be good too, but we just had that the night before {and yeah, I know, that's a lot of starches} so I settled on the burger and tater salad and it was plenty.

Oh, well, there might have been a bit of leftover banana pudding involved there too. 

A wonderful potato casserole featuring russet potatoes, cheese, sour cream, and Rotel diced tomatoes, plus optional garnishes of tomato, avocado, green onion, bacon and additional sour cream.

Velveeta Truck Stop Potato Casserole

Truck Stop Potatoes apparently originated at an Idaho truck stop as a breakfast side dish and was picked up at some point by a caterer who may have come up with the idea of the garnishes.

Mine is a little bit different from the traditional recipe which uses red potatoes (though you may substitute those here too of course), a combination of cheddar and monterey jack cheeses, plain diced tomatoes and garnishes with extra tomatoes, avocados, green onion and extra sour cream.

Old Fashioned Seven Layer Salad

Classic 7 Layer Salad topped with a mayonnaise dressing is a common salad for barbecues and cookouts, parties, potlucks, church suppers and holidays, but why not make one just because?

7 Layer Salad

Seven Layer Salad is a good old-fashioned salad that has been around for years. It's perfect for cookouts, potlucks, church socials, reunions, funerals, and of course, the holidays!!

A salad made with 7 layers, typically with lettuce, sometimes tomatoes, chopped and sliced boiled eggs, peas, celery, bacon and cheese, or really whatever your favorite tossed salad ingredients are. Then the salad is topped off with a thick layer of a mayonnaise-based dressing, often Ranch dressing, and tossed just before serving.

Seven Layer Salad was a very popular salad back in the 70s and 80s, and though it kind of went the wayside for awhile, it seems to be making a resurgence. Since I am determined to bring back some of those old classics, I, for one, am thrilled.

  Watergate salad is a well-loved fruit salad, made up of pistachio pudding with marshmallows, pineapple and Cool Whip and often other add-ins.

Original Watergate Salad

This original Watergate Salad is another one of those classic recipes that dates back to the 70s and that just about every southern cook has in their party file, though like everything else, with some variations. It's still a very common dish at baby showers, bridal showers, and even weddings down south, and I honestly cannot remember a single event that Mama catered where this wasn't expected on the table.

 

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.

Fresh jumbo shrimp stuffed with a mix made with buttery Ritz crackers, Old Bay, Cajun seasoning, fresh parsley and fresh crab.

Crab Stuffed Shrimp

I had thawed out two packages of shrimp thinking that I would either make gumbo or fry them, but when I realized these were some of the larger shrimp, I knew they were worthy of something just a bit better.

I thought very seriously about grilling them, but then remembered that I had not yet done a stuffed shrimp for the website. Besides. Once you get the image of a crab stuffed shrimp in your head, well, you're bound to have to go there!