My interpretation of Aglio e Olio, spaghetti, sauteed in olive oil and garlic, tossed with fresh herbs, red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese, and finished with melted tiny tomatoes.

Spaghetti with Olive Oil, Garlic and Melted Tiny Tomatoes

I cannot imagine living my life without pasta. I hope the day never comes that I have to!

I try not to go overboard with it, of course, and yes, like everybody else, I try to incorporate some of the healthier pastas into my diet here and there too. Some of it is quite good, like this Dreamfields brand (love!). Unfortunately, this brand has gotten difficult to find and I'm afraid they're out of business considering I can only find it now on ebay! There are many others (#ad) out there now though along with a wide variety of gluten free options (#ad) now too.

Melted tiny tomatoes - cherry and grape tomatoes, roasted with olive oil and a few seasonings, pictured here smeared on toasted bread, though they also serve as an excellent base when pureed for sauces, tossed with pasta, as a pizza topper or added to sandwiches and salads.

Melted Tiny Tomatoes

It's still hotter than hot down here in the Deep South, and I am already missing summer vegetables. Locally grown summer vegetables are pretty much out the door around here. Thankfully, veggies from other sources, in and outside of the country, can always be found thanks to free trade and all that, so that's some solace... I suppose. Truth is, I'm already starting to have cravings for the foods of fall anyway.

Southern Style Skillet Ratatouille

A simple stew of diced vegetables, made with bacon drippings, the Trinity of Southern Cooking, zucchini and summer squash, tomato, eggplant, okra and fresh herbs.

Southern Style Skillet Ratatouille

Most folks these days seem to associate ratatouille with the Disney movie of the same name, and many may only know it from that. It actually is a real Mediterranean dish, most closely associated with France and said to have originated in Nice. The word perhaps comes from "touiller" and translates to mean something akin to "toss or stir."

Traditionally ratatouille is simply zucchini and tomatoes, with peppers, garlic and onion, sometimes sliced, sometimes cut into chunks. Somewhere along the way, eggplant was included, and though it wasn't always a part of the traditional dish, it's pretty much expected these days.

I decided to make it with a dice of a variety of summer vegetables that we love in the south.

Pineapple Icebox Cake, made with layers of Nilla wafers, a blend of cream cheese, pudding and condensed milk with pineapple and whipped topping. I like to finish mine with a little coconut, maraschino cherries and a sprinkle of chopped nuts.

Pineapple Icebox Cake

Can y'all believe that summer is almost out the door? Well, it won't be temperature-wise around here for months yet, but kids around here have been back in school for weeks now and we're already coming up on Labor Day?

Well, are y'all sittin' down? Because last month I shared a Summer Berry Cobbler and today, I already have a dessert again!! I say that, because, if you've been around here any length of time, you know that I'm much more of a savory gal than I am a sweets lover.

Highly seasoned, sauteed shrimp, tossed in fettuccine noodles and a lighter alfredo sauce with a quality freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo

I don't know too many folks who don't like a rich alfredo sauce. I mean, let's face it. When you go out to a restaurant do you ask for your cream sauces to be made with skim milk? Um, nope.

Heavy cream is delicious, though I don't keep it in my fridge all the time, and it's not something I want to consume on a regular basis. I usually only buy it for a very specific recipe. Like holiday mashed potatoes. Custard ice cream. Rich, oyster stew. Or my spicy tomato cream sauce for pasta. Definitely my cream biscuits with the leftovers!

Fresh green beans, quickly blanched, then covered in a pickled brine, with fresh dill, garlic and hot peppers.

Refrigerator Dilly Beans

I have a love-love relationship with anything pickled - cucumber pickles, of course, my favorite being bread and butter - I can plow through a jar of those like nobody's looking, though frankly I really haven't met a pickle I didn't love.

I adore pickle relish.

Fresh or frozen baby lima beans or butter beans, slow simmered in a ham hock seasoned broth with onion, chicken base, salt and pepper, and finished with a nob of butter or bacon drippings - a definite summertime southern favorite.

Southern-Style Baby Lima Beans or Butterbeans

You can use this for both butterbeans or baby lima beans, both of which I love.

Southern Style Hissy Fit Warning... I love all kinds of butterbeans - big and small and speckled - and I don't understand for the life of me, why some southerners get all up in a tizzy about what they think a butter bean is, any more than what constitutes a "real" cornbread or whether a hoecake is flour or cornmeal based.

The internet has opened the south to all southerners and revealed that despite what we thought growing up, there is no one south. Truth is, how you cook in the south and what you call things in the south, depends on what part of the south you grew up in and how your mama did it, which is more likely than not to be different from how somebody else's mama did.

Corn on the cob, smeared with a garlic and herb butter blend, individually wrapped and baked or grilled.

Foil Packet Corn on the Cob

I'm hearing chatter here and there of back to school already and I'm not all that unhappy!

No, it's not for any of the reasons you're probably thinking. It's all because back to school means fall is near, and I am sincerely looking forward to fall this year. This summer has been miserable and it seems as if it gets harder and harder to handle as I get older.

I've become a near vampire in the summertime anymore to avoid the heat, so I'm ready for some soup and sweater weather!

Melissa's Southern Cookbook Book Review

Melissa's Southern Cookbook by Melissa Sperka, a labor of love, paying homage to those who instilled in her a love for cooking and baking Southern-style.

Wow is it hot y'all! I almost hate to say this because I know many of you are thrilled that summer is here, but it seems like it's been super hot here in the Deep South long enough now, that I'm actually looking forward to fall.

In the meantime, I've got a nice cold dessert recipe from Melissa Sperka, straight from her newly published, debut cookbook Melissa's Southern Cookbook - Tried and True Family Recipes. It's her Granma's Famous Blueberry Icebox Pie, a true delight and perfect for these hot summer days. First, however, I'd like to introduce you to Melissa and tell you a little bit about her new cookbook!

The best of summer berries in a comforting cobbler. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the perfect summer indulgence.

Summer Berry Cobbler

I guess cobblers are about as popular in the summer as anytime for us southerners. We just turn on the oven and crank down the air conditioning here in the humid deep south. I guess we contend with high summer electric bills like folks up north do with heating bills in the winter.

Could you imagine only ever having a winter cobbler made with canned peaches? Not that there's anything wrong with that - I love those too - but I sure love a cobbler made from fresh fruit when those fresh summer peaches arrive, as much as I do a cobbler made with the luscious fresh berries of summer we all love too.