Roadside-Style Grilled Chicken

Chicken, boneless, skinless thighs pictured here, marinated in a seasoned vinegar and oil mixture, then grilled. Saucing is completely optional!

Roadside Vinegar Grilled Chicken

Outside of private parties, special events and festivals, you generally won't find many food trucks around south Mississippi, and sadly, not in many other locations around the state either.

While I do recall back in my corporate career days, a truck that came around occasionally at lunchtime, it was really more like a traveling version of those breakroom vending machine lunches. You know the ones.

Cold sandwiches mostly, cheese snack packs and maybe some microwaveable meals. Nothing wrong with that! I've eaten a few of those sandwiches myself, for breakfast even, when I was in a rush to get out the door some mornings.

 

A skillet meal of smoked sausage with rotini pasta in a creamy, cheesy sauce and topped with French fried onions.

Cheesy Conecuh Skillet with Rotini

This southern heat seems to get harder and harder on this old body every summer and it has been unbearable some days, to the point where a minute outside is more than enough. When it's not hotter than hot, it's raining. Like bucket-loads kinds of rain. There were a few times I thought the Gulf Coast was gonna float away into the Gulf of Mexico!

My gardens that were so beautiful this spring, are now loaded with weeds, but with the heat index it's impossible to get out there long enough to make a difference. Doing it early in the morning or late in the afternoon just means getting carried away by gnats. It's just a no-win situation!

Gumbo Love Cookbook Review

Lucy Buffett's newest cookbook, Gumbo Love, is a love letter to the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, containing mouthwatering recipes, heartwarming stories, personal adventures and stunning Gulf Coast photography. If you love our Gulf Coast, you need this cookbook!

Ooooo y'all... have I got a good one for you! If you live along the central Gulf Coast, or frequently vacation in Gulf Shores, AL or Destin, FL, you've probably visited LuLu's Restaurant. It's owned by southern businesswoman, author, restaurateur, and sister of the famous singer and songwriter, Jimmy, Lucy Buffett - aka Crazy Sista... for being a lifetime rule breaker of the best kind and her livin' out loud personality.

 

Skillet fried potatoes, cooked with Italian, breakfast or turkey sausage, veggies, plenty of garlic and fresh or canned tomatoes.

Sausage and Garlic Potatoes

Okay, right up front, I reckon this isn't the prettiest picture, and I'm sure, due to the nature of the internet, somebody is gonna feel free to let me know that.

Truth is, you and I know that a lot of the best tasting foods aren't necessarily the most photogenic.

As a person with a blog of recipes, some are a little difficult to "style," and photography is not exactly my talent anyway. I'm a pretty decent cook, but not that great with food styling.

Have you seen my mandarin orange fruit salad, aka to many of you as ambrosia salad? There is no way to make that dish look good, but man is it delicious!

Skillet Pork Steaks and Onions - Pork steaks or chops, seasoned, pan seared and braised in caramelized onion broth on the stovetop.

Skillet Pork Steaks and Onions

Many of y'all already know and love my oven pork chops and onions recipe, and it's one of our favorites too. It's a bake though, and I don't know about you, but I've found it awfully hard to use the oven this summer.

Now, there are always exceptions of course, like when I have a craving for something like homemade buttermilk biscuits! Or a squash casserole with all the garden squash rolling in. For the most part though, we've been living on hamburgers and hot dogs, sandwiches, salads, basic grilled foods and quick skillet meals.

After the Boil Seafood Potato Salad

 

A potato salad, made with leftovers from a seafood boil, using highly seasoned red-skinned potatoes, shrimp, crawfish and crab. Shown here with fried catfish and collards If you didn't have a boil, no worries - you can still make it!

Seafood Potato Salad

What some areas of the country refer to as Frogmore Stew or "low country boils," are simply called seafood boils here in the Deep South, and they might involve shrimp, crawfish or crabs. With access to the best seafood, boils are actually a favorite addition to summer cookouts here along the Gulf Coast, and certainly one of my favorite parties to attend. If there's a boil-master manning a massive outdoor cooker that's loaded with Gulf seafood, I'm definitely in!

An unbaked, baked bean recipe, made with navy beans, onions, jalapeno, bacon, brown sugar, and prepared on the stovetop.

Stovetop Pork and Beans

It was just The Cajun and me for the 4th of July this year, so I kept things very simple. Smoked rib chops from Corky's, warmed on the grill, my classic potato salad, no husk microwave corn on the cob and these unbaked baked beans.

I call them that because it's essentially my baked beans recipe, without baking it, and using canned navy beans - sort of a semi-homemade, stovetop pork and beans, that I enjoy serving as a side dish anytime.

A fresh tomato pasta sauce, made with garden vegetables - peppers, squash, zucchini, corn, eggplant, okra, beans - whatever you have! For a protein boost, add leftover roasted chicken, seasoned and sauteed shrimp, cooked ground beef, sausage, or other meats.

Garden Fresh Vegetable Spaghetti

I have been up to my ears in garden fresh tomatoes the past few weeks... not that it's a bad thing, don't get me wrong! It's just that as fast as I process some into sauce, I'm plucking a near equal amount off of the plants.

The last picking right before the tropical storm and steady coming!

Snickerdoodles, a light, pillowy-soft and chewy sugar cookie, finished with a roll in cinnamon before baking, are a long held favorite.

Classic Snickerdoodles

Most of y'all who have followed this blog for awhile, know that I am not super huge on sweets and I am certainly not much of a baker. I do love to make all kinds of bread (because I am a bread addict), and I especially enjoy the quick and easy, sweet batter breads, because they aren't overly sweet like layer cakes tend to be. I do love a simple old school coffee cake, but overall, I'm one of those people who scrapes off the icing from most layer cakes. Yep. Blasphemous, I know.

The South's Best Butts Cookbook Review

The unofficial opening of summer BBQ season is on the books now, and it's the perfect time for the launch of this new cookbook by Matt Moore.

You may know him from his music, or you may remember him from my review of his previous cookbook, A Southern Gentleman's Kitchen. Now Matt has moved on to the next project, The South's Best Butts: Pitmaster Secrets for Southern Barbecue Perfection, offering up one of his favorite indulgences.