Commonly known as croquettes, salmon is combined with fresh parsley and seasonings, crushed saltine crackers and egg, shaped into patties and pan fried for an old southern favorite. Traditionally, I serve these with mashed potatoes and creamed peas.

Salmon Patties

My husband loves salmon patties, and while they are both delicious and a common Friday meal during Lent, I think his love of them comes mostly from the memories.

Every single time that I make them, he mentions his grandma and how she often made them for him. That's enough for me to make them for him anytime.

Speaking of Lent, can y'all believe that Easter is right around the corner? Geez. Time sure crawls when you're young and waiting for permission to wear makeup, or shave your legs, turn 16, 18 or 21, or go out with a guy, or get your license. Why does it fly as you get older? And, come to think of it, are any of those even milestones in a gal's life anymore these days?

Sugar macerated strawberries served over homemade cream biscuits with homemade whipped cream.

Cream Biscuit Strawberry Shortcake

Despite the sweltering summer heat and threat of hurricanes, I truly do love living in this area of the Deep South for many reasons, one of which is that we get an early taste of many seasonal veggies and fruits - and right now, that's strawberries.

 

Homemade biscuits made with heavy whipping cream and dipped in butter.

Butter Dip Whipping Cream Biscuits

These are the biscuits I made to go with my post for Cream Biscuit Strawberry Shortcakes, but they are such a lovely biscuit all on their own, that I wanted to plant them in a place of their own. The only difference is those have sugar and these do not.

Combine a pound of dried pinto or pink beans with a small pork loin roast for a delicious meal of pork and beans.

Slow Cooker Pork and Beans

One of the most favorite things that I really enjoy out of this blogging experience, is when I ask everybody "What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?'" over on the Facebook page. Readers share what's cooking in their kitchens, or what's planned, or sometimes just what they are craving, and very often, they share a recipe in those comments.

It was in one of those posts, that Natalie, one of our Facebook family members, mentioned making this bean dish, and I immediately put it on my list to try.

Mashed potatoes whipped with a green onion infused milk.

Irish Champ Potatoes

Unless Mama Nature intended they be green by her own hand, I'm not big on green colored food for St. Patrick's Day.

Don't get me wrong - I do think it's fun, especially if you have children who can appreciate a quirky green meal, or maybe even a spouse who won't mind the ribbing from their workmates. I love the color green, but I'm not generally too big on using green dye to color things green either.

Well... there might be an exception or two, but essentially my menu of St. Patrick's Day meal ideas is more a mix of traditional Irish food, with Irish-American food, and, well... just good ole regular food that might fit the theme.

Chocolate cupcakes, made with sour cream and pudding, topped with a peanut butter buttercream frosting, and garnished with chopped honey roasted peanuts and chocolate sprinkles.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

Because I am a bit of a night owl, I tend to do most of my blog work late into the night, and often into the early morning hours, whether it's writing, editing, recipe development, and sometimes, yes, even cooking!

That was the case this past Wednesday night when I decided to make cupcakes for my grandbabies. At 11:00 at night. Trouble is, I wanted to make them from scratch, and, considering I don't even have a single cupcake recipe on the site... I had to actually write a recipe!

 

Creamy mashed potatoes, prepared in the usual manner, then tossed with cheese, baked and topped with more cheese. That's some cheesy goodness there y'all!

Cheesy Baked Mashed Potatoes

It's been a gorgeous spring March week here in south Mississippi, just gorgeous. What? You say it's winter still? Well, not in the Deep South!

We never have much of a winter to speak of down here anyway. Basically, there are one or three quick overnight freezes, just about enough to brown over everything, but the next day it's likely to be in the 70s. I noticed in my Google reader one blogger disappointed about having too much snow and the very next blog, about having no snow. What's the winter been like your way?

A bowl of Deep South goodness, this gumbo is seasoned with small gumbo crabs and then topped off with crabmeat and shrimp.

Crab and Shrimp Gumbo

Like chili, I'm always piddling around with my seafood gumbo recipes, trying to reach that one perfect gumbo my mama used to make.

Piddling around. Yes. That's a legit phrase in the Deep South!

Think of it as such a leisurely, relaxed approach to preparing that next pot of gumbo that you're willing to try something different instead of being a stickler to the same old same old.

For this crab heavy version, I decided to use a little more onion, bump up the okra to a full pound, and not take my roux quite as dark. I thought for a sweet, crab-based gumbo, this more mellow roux would be a bit more fitting, than the richer, dark and more full bodied roux I often use.

Slow Cooker red beans & rice made with dried beans, and cooked with a ham bone, bacon and smoked sausage.

Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

Though it's a tradition in the Deep South, we don't have red beans and rice every single Monday of every week at my house, but, I admit that when we don't, things do seem to feel a little out of sorts for me!

It's just a routine that has been part of the culture down here for all of my life really. Even as a career woman working outside of the house, red beans and rice were the special of the day, every Monday, at local restaurants we frequented for lunch.

Oscar Menu Inspired by The Help

The 84th Annual Academy Awards are on Sunday, February 26th and while I'm not one to beat down the theater box office doors to catch every new movie on the big screen, I usually do watch the Oscars... very often without much knowledge about the films that have nominated. Not this year!

Y'all know that with The Help being up for Best Picture, Viola Davis for Best Actress in a Leading Role and both Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain up for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (and frankly I thought the film should have been up for Costume Design too, just sayin'), well... I'll sure be hanging around watching and rooting for my gals this Sunday! I loved The Help so much that I own not one, but three copies of the book - the original hardback, the paperback movie tie-in version, and the e-book on Kindle/iPad - and of course, as soon as it went on sale, I uploaded the movie on my Kindle too. What can I say? I loved everything about The Help.

Whether you're having a party or just want to honor The Help with a classic southern menu, here's a great collection of some of my favorite recipes from the site. Oh, and just in case you can't hang around a television on Sunday, of course, yes, there is an app for that too!