Homemade Southern Beef Stew

A savory southern-style beef stew, made from chunks of seasoned chuck roast, a mixture of beef stock and water, loads of herbs, potatoes, celery and carrots, rich and loaded with flavor.

Classic Homemade Beef Stew with Vegetables

Like creamy butter beans, Homemade Southern Beef Stew is another one of those belly warmin', budget stretchin' meals that's pretty popular this time of year. The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect for it too.

This is an old standby beef stew recipe that I've used since the late 70s and have made very few changes to the basic recipe since then. It's a wonderfully savory stew, with loads of herbs (use fresh if you have them), rich and just full of flavor.

 

Rocky Road Candy Squares, made from chocolate chips, condensed milk, chopped peanuts and marshmallows.

Rocky Road Candy Squares

I settled on this recipe while doing a review of the cookbook Da Cajn Critter {affil link}, and while there were loads of great Cajun recipes I could have chosen, since we were rolling on closer to the holidays and I need some more candy recipes, I thought these candy squares would be a great addition to the Christmas sweets tray.

The version below is a slightly adapted version of Janet's Rocky Road Squares found in the cookbook, substituting butter for margarine and also changing the pan technique a bit. This results in a delicious rocky road candy of chocolate, marshmallows and crunchy peanuts that would be a fine addition to your holiday sweets table. I hope that you enjoy it!

Cookie Mix in a Jar is a great holiday gift and this recipe for Butterscotch Pecan Cookies is a delicious choice.

Butterscotch Pecan Cookie Mix in a Jar

Butterscotch. Pecan. Cookies. Seriously. Now y'all know reading the title of this recipe that this was right up my little ole southern ally didn't ya?

Southern Creamy Butter Beans (Large Lima Beans)

Large lima beans, or butter beans as we refer to them in my part of the Deep South, have a lovely creamy texture, and with this mix of seasonings, are just pure comfort food.

Creamy Butter Beans

Good old-fashioned, creamy butter beans, are a southern favorite for sure!

Not to be too confusing, Southerners refer to both large and small lima beans as butterbeans, although there is also butter peas to consider too, a smaller pea-shaped cousin, and a pea that is actually a bean and not a pea, akin to other Southern peas, such as lady cream and zipper, and that some Southerners also call butter beans ... but not to be confused with buttered peas which is a whole 'nother thing - just to confuse the rest of the world, as we Southerners love to do.

Whew! You just gotta love The South.

Sweet Dreams Chocolate Fudge {Classic Fantasy Fudge}

Sweet Dreams Chocolate Fudge - Classic Fantasy Fudge becomes a magical story that you can share with your children or grandchildren as you make this old-fashioned favorite together!

Sweet Dreams Chocolate Fudge

I've said many times that I'm not much of a candy maker, and while I have tried multiple times over my long life span on this earth, I still have not conquered the perfect old-fashioned fudge that I love.

You know the one.

Eggplant Josephine, a popular dish at the old White Pillars restaurant, made from slices of eggplant, dredged in breadcrumbs and fried, topped with crabmeat, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese, then baked.

Eggplant Josephine

Eggplant Josephine, sort of a Deep South coastal seafood take on Eggplant Parmesan, was a pretty famous dish when I was growing up. It was a signature dish at the White Pillars, a very popular local restaurant owned by the Mladinich family of Biloxi. Housed in an old 1919 white mansion located at the foot of Rodenburg Avenue right on the beach at Highway 90, owned originally by Dr. and Mrs. H. M. Folkes, and then called Gunston Hall, the restaurant was a beautiful and elegant structure.

Photo Credit

Blender Hollandaise Sauce

Blender Hollandaise Sauce
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of boiling water
1/2 pound of butter, melted
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt, to taste

Melt the butter. Have the lemon juice, cayenne and salt at the ready.

Separate the eggs, saving the whites for an omelet. Drop the yolks into a blender and turn on low. Drizzle in very slowly the boiling water and then the butter, adding in a slow stream. Add in the lemon juice, cayenne and salt; taste and correct the seasonings as needed. Serve immediately.

A chicken stock based soup made with a mirepoix of carrot, onion and celery, and cooked with sliced leeks, cabbage, potatoes, seasonings and spicy andouille sausage.

Leek and Cabbage Soup with Andouille Sausage

Who knew that the combination of cabbage with leeks made such a great soup?! Throw in some andouille sausage and the flavor just really pops.

I had a head of cabbage in the fridge and was in the grocery store the other day when I decided to grab a bunch of leeks, knowing they would make their way into some kind of soup with the cabbage. Once I got started with a basic mirepoix of carrot, onion, celery - and of course the leeks - I thought smoked sausage would make a nice compliment to it. Despite the simplicity of this soup, this was a highly flavorful and just simply delicious soup.

How to Clean Leeks

With leeks it's very important to get them cleaned well, since there are so many nooks and crannies for grit and dirt to hide in. We're using mostly only the white part of the leek and just about two inches of the green part just above there.

Split the leek down the entire length ...

A crab quiche with a creamy Swiss cheese filling, simply seasoned to allow the sweet lump blue crabmeat to shine.

Crabmeat Quiche

I was in the mood for a quiche today and just so happened to have pouches of crab in the freezer. Nothing better than fresh lump crab for sure, and that's what I use the most, but I like cooking on the fly sometimes straight out of the pantry, so I always try to keep a couple of these pouches around.

They freeze well, are perfect for this very reason and they work much better than canned crab in many recipes, including this quiche, although if you can't find containers of crab in the fresh or frozen seafood section of your store, shelf stable canned is fine to use too - just drain it well.