Poor man's steak, made with bottom round steak and slow simmered in a cream soup mushroom gravy with caramelized onion.

Steak and Gravy with Onion

The first cookbook I ever received, was the 1973 red, ring-bound Betty Crocker's Cookbook, given to me by my mama. I still have it. Anybody else?

Round steak and gravy is one of the first dishes that I learned to cook from Betty Crocker as a young bride, what seems now 100 years ago, though the dish has gone through a bit of transition since back then. In fact, I'd say that the School of Betty Crocker was the beginning of my book learnin' culinary education!

Gift Giving from Hickory Farms!

As a young gal, I worked several retail jobs in our local mall over the years, and one of the things that always signaled the approach of Christmas was to see the opening of the Hickory Farms store.  I would head in there and marvel at the assortment of goodies, and every year I made a purchase for my hard to shop for dad. And usually, a little something for myself too. Daddy's gone now, but I still like to treat myself to Hickory Farms.

Even if you think you don't like fruitcake, I'll bet you'll love this heirloom recipe. It can be made into mini loaves as pictured, bar or drop cookies or even as a bundt cake!

Old Fashioned Mini Fruitcakes

This None Such Old-Fashioned Fruitcake recipe dates back to at least the 1960s, and maybe even before that, since None Such Brand has actually been around since 1885. This was based on an old label recipe from the None Such Mincemeat product, and it's the recipe that my mother-in-law used year after year when she baked up her holiday fruitcakes.

Let me tell all of you fruitcake haters. You've not had fruitcake until you taste a homemade fruitcake!

Cookware Winner!

What a fun giveaway! It was so cool to see that while many of you were already members and big fans of Sam's Club itself, quite a few of you rarely, if ever, really used the website, and were unaware of the holiday resources available there. They really do have a great collection of resources, so if you haven't checked it out, click on over!

Now on to the important stuff! The winner of the 18-piece Wolfgang Puck cookware set is

Thena!!

...who said: WOW! They have an awesome website. I like the gift guide section very easy to jump around and look for gifts for everyone. Also the entertainment section saw an idea for a Childrens Christmas Party I'm helping to host in a week. Now off to see what else there is didn't want to get lost and forget to enter such a great giveaway.

Congratulations Thena!! I hope that you enjoy the cookware.

Please send an email to mary@deepsouthdish.com within 72 hours. Include your full name, a street mailing address and a telephone number so that we can get that set out to you and you can get cooking with it as soon as possible!

Thanks everybody for participating. Happy Holidays!!

.

Southern Fried Hand Pies

Little fried hand pies made with fresh fruit or dried, your choice of pastry and either pan fried, deep fried or baked. No matter how you prepare them, they are a true Southern Classic!

Southern Fried Hand Pies

A reader over on the Facebook page asked about these little southern delicacies and we started chatting about everybody's favorites, and of course, impressionable me, decided I had to make some right away! I get cravings thrown on me like that all the time.

Jazzmen Rice

Since that first waft of aromatic perfume I have loved Jasmine rice. The flavor, the texture, and the aroma as it cooks are just amazing, and its certainly a nice switch from regular white rice.

Typically an Asian product, and most often from Thailand, I recently learned, however, that we are growing our very own exclusive version of aromatic rice, right here in the Deep South U.S.A.! Anytime that I can purchase an American made product over an imported one, makes me happy.

Sam's Club for the Holidays!

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED! CONGRATS TO THE WINNER!

We spent Thanksgiving this year with my mama's side of the family up in "the country" and as we were waiting for the arrival of the turkey {always the task of my cousin Donna, and always tender and delicious}, my other cousin's wife, who was hosting this gathering, pulled out yet more desserts from her refrigerator.

As soon as I saw the box I start to salivate.  Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes from Sam's Club. Swoon.

Red Velvet cheesecake. It was delicious.

And pumpkin cheesecake. So pretty. Didn't have a stitch of room in my belly to try this one, but it was beautiful and I heard, also delicious.

A classic southern side, slices of apples are fried in a mixture of bacon fat or butter and brown sugar then tossed in a dusting of traditional apple pie spices.

Southern Skillet Fried Apples

Skillet fried apples aren't deep fried y'all! As I've mentioned before, in the South we refer to frying things a lot, even though it often has nothing to do with submerging a food item in deep boiling oil.

So many folks outside of the South associate our recipes titled fried cabbage and fried corn the same as they do our fried chicken, which of course, we love, but the truth is, very often, the term "fried" simply refers to the cooking of something in what we call a frying pan aka skillet. Yep. Simple as that!

BlogHer Food 2010 - Day 1: The Sessions

The InterContinental San Francisco

Finally, with all of the holiday posting over with - back to the conference! So let me tell you... despite only having the one small glass of wine {or was it two?}, did I sleep hard the night after the Deen Brothers event!  My flight the morning of my arrival day before had been at 6:00 a.m. which means I had to leave the house around 4ish for the airport, which means basically I tossed and turned all night and didn't sleep but maybe 2 hours max. Once I hit the bed at the hotel, I crashed.  By the way, I use one of those sleep machines at night and yes, it travels with me.  If you are bothered by extraneous noises from noisy hotel guests and slamming doors when you travel, you might want to check this baby out - I love it!

Iceberg wedge salad with Homemade Comeback Thousand Island Dressing and garnished with thin slices of red onion, sliced grape tomatoes, chopped pimentos and crumbled bacon.

Wedge Salad with Homemade Comeback Thousand Island Dressing

I'm guessing that just about every southerner has a recipe in their recipe box for Thousand Island Dressing - and every one of them just a little bit different.  It's a pretty simple dressing really - just a mix of mayonnaise, add in some ketchup or chili sauce, throw in some chopped sweet pickles or pickle relish and a bit of chopped egg and you'll have a perfectly fine Thousand Island dressing.