Old fashioned peanut butter balls are a rich dessert, both in its heritage and its taste. A classic Christmas confection, peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar are rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate. If you remember these from your childhood, one bite will take you right back.

Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Balls

In the Deep South, we don't typically do buckeyes, the peanut butter and chocolate confection from Ohio, that is partially dipped so that the result is patterned after the nut of the buckeye tree.

We do peanut butter balls down here.

While I don't know if the recipes are the same, the concept, of course, is. We just completely encase our peanut butter balls in chocolate down South.

Garlic Chicken from Birds Eye Voila!

Authoring a full time food blog, I don't buy a lot of frozen food products, but as you know, they are handy to have for a hurry up meal. I love opportunities to try them though and to share my opinion with readers, many of whom do live a much more harried life than me. Based on the crowd in the frozen food aisle the day I purchased this, I'd say a lot of us are super busy these days and looking for food that is both convenient and satisfying.

Birds Eye has always had good quality frozen vegetables, but now they've moved into a line of complete frozen dinners, and through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program I recently had the opportunity to give Birds Eye Voila! complete meal kits a taste test.

I decided to try tried the Garlic Chicken. Soon as you open the bag, you smell the garlic and this gal loves her garlic so that made me happy!

Crawfish, simmered in a very simple butter roux, seasoned with a basic trinity, garlic, stock and Cajun seasoning, and finished with a little fresh parsley and green onion. Serve over hot rice with fresh French bread for dipping.

Crawfish Etouffée

There are so many schools of thought on how to prepare a proper crawfish etouffée. Some say with a roux, others think not. Some add tomatoes, others say there is no place for tomatoes in it. Some use the Trinity, others only part of it. One thing I think that we all can agree on is that it should be uncomplicated.

For a seafood etouffée, crawfish is traditional, although shrimp or crab can be substituted. It is a totally different taste experience from the crawfish, however, since the fat from the crawfish do contribute both a distinct flavor and a bit of color. I would suggest giving it a taste and maybe bump up the seasonings a bit. Maybe even add a dab of tomato paste also.

The Next Food Network Star!

Food Network Star: The Official Insider's Guide to America's Hottest Food Show

Yeah, y'all weren't thinking I was gonna audition for the next Food Network Star show were you? No, not me! Heavens no.

I am not a competitive person. Never have been. I don't like performing, I have no desire for fame, to be a celebrity, to put my mug on video much less a cooking show, or anything like that. Okay, I might do a video... someday. My goal with my website is to simply put out an authentic product that hopefully readers will enjoy, that will stir up some memories from days past, and that will nudge you back to the kitchen. I spent most of my pre-blogging life in a highly competitive legal career, but the growth of my site has been pretty organic, and I kinda like it that way.

A simple deep fried drop flour fritter featuring corn. Cream corn adds such a nice creamy texture, but fresh corn milked from the cob is excellent too.

Drop Corn Fritters

A reader on the Facebook page recently asked for a corn fritter recipe, and I thought that it'd be a good time to get mine up on the site.

Cornmeal is often used for corn fritters, but I like to reserve that for hushpuppies and hoecakes myself, since I prefer a corn fritter to be lighter and fluffier, almost a corn puff really.

A light, tender yellow butter cake with a classic boiled icing, traditionally made from burnt sugar or for more modern versions, with boiled brown sugar.

Southern Caramel Cake

As soon as I knew they were making a movie from the book The Help (#ad), I knew I wanted to make a caramel cake for the website. Really, from the first time I read about Minny's caramel cake in the book in 2009, I knew I'd be making one. There is just something about this book that makes you want a caramel cake... and maybe never want to eat a chocolate pie - at least for awhile. You'll know what I mean on all of the above counts if you read the book.

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My intention had been to make this cake over the past weekend, but I was dragging my tail-end here recently thanks to fighting off a summer cold while simultaneously pulling a muscle in my back and found my motivation lacking.

With the film making its debut at the theater Wednesday, I decided to make the cake anyway, and found myself up at 2:00 a.m. that morning icing a cake!

Scoops of vanilla ice cream, topped with chocolate syrup and a coffee punch, made with Godiva chocolate truffle coffee blended with more ice cream and homemade whipped cream, makes for a decadent and refreshing coffee punch float.

Coffee Punch Float

Coffee punch is an old-fashioned, familiar and popular adult party punch in the south, that often shows up at wedding and baby showers, ladies teas, potlucks, cookouts, or really any other party or gathering. Ice cream is scooped into a punch bowl, topped with homemade whipped cream and covered in sweetened coffee. I recently had a chance to try out Godiva coffees {affil link} and thought that it would be a good time to transform this familiar southern punch into individual coffee floats, for a refreshing summer treat to serve anytime.

I received samples of both Godiva Chocolate Truffle and Godiva Hazelnut Creme. Both coffees are a medium roast, pre-ground blend, made from 100% Arabica coffee beans, and inspired by signature Godiva chocolates. The inspiration for these two featured coffees is Godiva's rich Milk Chocolate truffle and Open Oyster hazelnut praline truffles - both giving a wonderfully sweet and creamy finish. Godiva coffees are so incredibly fragrant that I gotta say, it was really difficult to settle on one to use for the punch float!

Jumbo shrimp, marinated in a spicy Buffalo sauce then grilled and served on a bed of Cajun Rice Pilaf.

Buffalo Grilled Shrimp

Most people think of Frank's RedHot with wings, or maybe chicken, but I thought that I'd give it a run on some grilled shrimp for a change of pace.

The next time that The Cajun headed out to shrimp with Dad, I put out my request for some proper grilling jumbos. To grill shrimp, you really need colossal or jumbo sized. Anything smaller will overcook too quickly on the grill unless you are quick on the draw and stand over them.

Right off the boat, caught in our Gulf in the mornin', cooked that same day - now that's as fresh as it gets y'all!

Fresh Corn Casserole

A garden fresh casserole featuring sweet summer corn and tomatoes, onion, sweet bell pepper and garden fresh herbs.

Fresh Corn Casserole

I don't watch QVC as much as I'd like to, well except during Christmas time, not because I don't love it, but because I do. I would be flat broke is all! At any rate, Terresa Ray was recently filling in as on-air host for two of my favorite Mississippi "Cookbook Ladies" Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley of the Best of the Best cookbook series (#affil) fame and the company that published my own cookbook (#affil)!

She was on the 'In the Kitchen with David' segment to do a pre-sell on their upcoming and QVC exclusive August release, Recipe Hall of Fame Fresh from the Farmers Market (#affil) cookbook. They sold out thousands of cookbooks on that show very quickly.

 

Salsa made with fresh off the cob corn and summer garden tomatoes, black beans, lime and cilantro. Just add some chips.

Fresh Corn and Black Bean Salsa

One of my favorite snacks is tortilla chips and salsa, and one of my favorite salsas is the corn and black bean variety.  I sort of fiddled around a bit with the basics of my restaurant style salsa and came up with this homemade version, both making and plowing through it several times already, all on my little own.