Back to the Kitchen

I haven't gotten around to visiting much lately, so in case you've happened to missed my absence along the way, it is because I had the incredible opportunity to travel to California, not once, but twice, in the last 10 days.

It was a whirlwind trip both times and days filled with a high energy, and very structured schedule, something that being a work from home full time blogger now, well... I'm not exactly used to!

A basic garlic and lemon roasted chicken with root vegetables cooked alongside.

Garlic Roasted Chicken with Vegetables

There is just something so heart-warming about a roasted chicken, isn't there? It's one of my favorite kitchen aromas.

The fragrance drifts throughout the house and just smells so wonderful, that sometimes I wonder if it's mostly because it invokes memories associated more with holidays past, than the present situation.

Thank goodness a nice roast chicken is easy enough to have much more often than the full-blown holiday spread!

Cold cooked shrimp are dressed up with a tangy remoulade sauce and served over a bed of lettuce.

Shrimp Remoulade

A popular appetizer, shrimp remoulade is simply cold shrimp, doused in remoulade sauce and generally spread over a simple bed of crisp lettuce. That's pretty much it, because the tangy, spicy remoulade sauce speaks for itself.

A spicy olive oil and mayonnaise based southern condiment that's as good on fried seafood as it is as a salad dressing.

Remoulade Sauce

Rémoulade sauce was an invention of France, but down here, it's all about New Orleans style remoulade sauce. A favorite southern condiment, the Creole version of remoulade is made a variety of ways, many oil and vinegar based, with plenty of paprika and ketchup, green onion, and often the inclusion of celery. It is a very tangy and pucker-worthy sauce.

White beans, seasoned with the Trinity, garlic, green onion, parsley, bacon and andouille sausage, and served over white rice.

Cajun White Beans with Andouille

White beans are a common dish in this part of the Deep South, second only to red kidney beans for our red beans and rice.

I love these beans and I especially love to take the leftovers, simmer them on the stovetop with some chicken stock for one mighty fine soup y'all! Delish.

Ain't No Thing Chicken

A combination of chili sauce and hot sauce with cider vinegar, garlic, ginger and Cajun seasoning, makes for a nice spicy kick in these chicken drumsticks. Try it on wings too!

Ain't No Thing Chicken Drumsticks

These drumsticks were inspired by the Ain't No Thing Chicken Wing recipe from fellow native Mississippian, Miss Martha Foose.  She's been called Mississippi's Martha, and she's the author of the cookbook Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook {affil limk}and her newest one, A Southerly Course.

If you're the kind of person who likes to collect and read cookbooks, you'll love both of these because they are just beautiful cookbooks. Foose currently teaches gourmet cooking class at Viking Cooking School, the home of dream Viking ovens and stoves to pine over. Yes! My dream oven, and Mississippi made.

Take all the things we love about macaroni and cheese, the creamy cheese and tender pasta, and transform it into a delicious soup.

Macaroni and Cheese Soup

As soon as I saw this Mac 'n Cheese Soup recipe in one of those freebie Cuisine at Home promo magazines that comes in the mail, I knew I wanted to try it, and I just so happened to have everything on hand that I needed except for the whole milk. Now that's the kind of recipes that I like!

Crescent rolls stuffed with apple, cinnamon sugar and chopped nuts cooked in a buttery syrup.

Crescent Apple Dumplings

I call these 7-Up Apple Dumplings, but of course they can be made with any lemon-lime soda, like 7-Up, Sprite or Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is a very popular choice, but not a beverage I ever acquired a taste for personally.

The soda forms a syrup, generally found with using sugar in regular apple dumplings, though I have been told by readers that you can also use diet sodas for these apple dumplings. I've never done that so I'm not 100% sure if the result is the same without the sugar.

A combination of seasoned dry bread crumbs and panko make for some yummy fried cheese sticks! Try them with a super easy homemade marinara sauce.

Fried Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

I have really been loving the panko breadcrumbs ever since they became more widely available in our supermarkets. 

Yes, y'all... I'm going back the future here for the future you who shows up here and says... "what?" 

Believe it or not, once upon a time, not so long before this, it was near impossible to find panko breadcrumbs in any grocery store. You really had to seek them out in a specialty food store. I know! Hard to believe isn't it, but it's true, and yes, now I'm feeling OLD!!

Easy Marinara Dipping Sauce

A super easy marinara sauce made using a little olive oil, tomato paste and good ole Rotel tomatoes is extremely versatile to use as a sauce, as a dipper and even as a sandwich spread.

Marinara Dipping Sauce

This marinara sauce recipe makes for a very quick and easy dipping sauce that is perfect for fried mozzarella cheese sticks, jalapeno poppers, pizza, fried pickles, onion rings, boiled shrimp, loaded potato skins, and any number of other quick finger foods.

To transform this into a pasta sauce, add a 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained, a couple of minced garlic cloves, a medium onion, chopped, Italian seasoning, a little red wine and some mushrooms. Saute vegetables in the oil before adding the tomato paste and proceed with the recipe as above.