Pork, greens and blackeye peas - in a convenient soup, with a slow-stewed and concentrated, vitamin-enriched potlikker base. Serve with skillet cornbread to complete the meal.

Slow Cooker Greens and Potlikker Soup

Even though this is a good soup anytime, with New Year's around the corner, I wanted to prepare a true potlikker soup, meaning not a shortcut version like my Beans and Greens or Swamp Soup, both of which could technically qualify as a potlikker soup.

Instead, I wanted to prepare a more genuine homemade version using a long, slow stewing of the greens to form a solid potlikker from the greens. What better way to do that than with a slow cooker?

This is actually my first slow cooker recipe in awhile!

A tender brown sugar and pecan cookie widely known in South Louisiana as cocoons and very popular around the holidays. Pictured here with Pecan Crispies and Sugar and Spice Cookies.

Brown Sugar Cocoons

I'm sure you'll recognize these cookies as they are a holiday favorite, for sure!

These wonderful cookies are known by many names, mostly depending on how they are shaped. Some of the more familiar ones being fingers, ladyfingers, crescents, sand tarts, sand dabs, Mexican wedding cookies, Russian teacakes, Chinese tea cookies, butterfingers, petticoat tails, pecan dreams, snowballs, moon cookies, sandies and Italian wedding cookies, they are well-loved. I'm sure there are many other names they are known by around the world!

A traditional noodle pudding made with wide egg noodles in a sweetened egg custard sauce with cottage cheese and sour cream and finished with a buttery, brown sugar cornflake topping.

Sweet Noodle Pudding

I just want to first start this off by saying I am not Jewish.

I don't know a thing about traditional Jewish holiday meals or traditions.

I don't know what foods are most appropriate for certain occasions or when.

When I ran across this recipe for noodle pudding in the cookbook by Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat called Bite Me, I was fully skeptical, but I decided to give it a try,

A classic sugar cookie with the inclusion of spices, perfect for the holiday cookie tray.

Sugar and Spice Cookies

Certain spices just speak to the holidays don't they?

They make their way into a lot of baked goods during the season and just the aroma can stir up some memories of holidays past - those days we all seem to miss and long for in today's trying times.

Most spiced cookies use molasses though, and the flavor of molasses can be a bit overwhelming. I didn't really want that depth of flavor in these cookies. I was searching for a lighter sugar cookie with just a hint of the flavors of the holiday.

A quick small batch turkey or chicken soup with corn and noodles.

Turkey or Chicken and Corn Soup

Tis the season for soup!

Even though the weather has been pretty consistently inconsistent here in the Deep South.

We've been flip-flopping between freezing to humid and warm down here along the beach - and mostly warm and humid lately. But you know what they say... just wait a day or three and that's subject to change of course!

Pumpkin Crunch Dessert with Frosting

A cross between gooey butter cake, dump cake and pumpkin pie, this dessert is a fall favorite and perfect for the holidays or to carry to a church supper, family gathering or potluck.

Pumpkin Crunch Dessert

Apple and pumpkin recipes are definitely fall favorites, though I lean more toward the apple recipes than the pumpkin. Unless we're talking about pumpkin pie, of course, or... this Pumpkin Crunch!

This recipe has been a personal favorite for way too many years than I care to admit! Though you'll find variations around the internet today, and in older church and community cookbooks, this is the one that I love dating back to sometime in the 70s.

A classic Southern Thanksgiving meal in my family - roasted turkey with from scratch gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, baked ham, chicken and dressing, sweet potato casserole, spinach Madeline, corn spoonbread, hashbrown casserole and glazed carrots.

Southern Thanksgiving Dinner Classics

I have a huge collection of Thanksgiving appropriate recipes that covers everything from beverages, to appetizers, to salads, main dish meats, side dishes and desserts, and everything in between.

It's a perfect resource for those who are not committed to any set menu and for adventurous souls who just want to do something a little different every year.

A collection of baked hams from the classic southern favorite glazed with brown sugar and mustard with cola, to old school pineapple, apple cider, whisky glazed and more, all from Deep South Dish!

Baked Ham Collection

I'm not one to be married to one ham recipe, though my favorite for many years and still today is the old school cola with brown sugar and mustard. My version has also become a favorite of many of you!

Truth is, I've even played around with that one over the years too.

One thing for certain is that a baked ham is not limited to the holidays for me. Truth is, I bake one every couple of months, rather than to buy sliced deli ham and for one, I want that ham bone for some beans!

Wild American shrimp are butterflied, highly seasoned, dipped in flour, then blended milk and egg and last in panko breadcrumbs, then deep-fried.

Deep-Fried Butterflied Panko Shrimp

Even though I love fried shrimp all kinds of ways, my number one way to make them is the classic version.

It's the one I crave and make the most.

I also love them batter-dipped or tempura style and if I'm baking them like an oven fry, panko breadcrumbs are likely to be my top choice of breading, just for the added crunch.

This time I thought I'd try the panko breadcrumbs in a deep fry instead, and I'm glad I did. They turned out fantastic!

Seasoned ground beef patties, dredged lightly in flour, then pan fried, onions caramelized in the drippings in which a tomato-based gravy is created, and the patties returned to finish.

Hamburger Steaks in Tomato Gravy

Hamburger Steaks and Gravy is a go to for me and a favorite meal for my meat and potatoes hubby. 

It's super easy to make, tastes great and is a filling, belly warmin', delicious meal. 

As much as we love tomato gravy here in the South, trading the classic brown gravy for a tomato-based version is a natural transition.