A basic ground beef casserole, gets a bump of flavor from veggies, flavorful seasonings and spicy Rotel tomatoes.

Hamburger Hot Dish Casserole

This "hot dish" casserole recipe is a wildly adapted version of one found in the September 2009 Pillsbury Classic Pot Pies and Casseroles Cookbooklet. These are the mini cookbooks you see at the register as you're waiting to checkout and they usually have some quick and easy dinner ideas.

This issue was loaded with lots of pot pie ideas I hadn't thought of before, lots of yummy casseroles, and some really cute Halloween ideas. As fast as this summer has flown by I have a feeling that winter will be here before we know it!

A twice-baked potato, stuffed with crabmeat, cheese and simple seasonings.

Crab-Stuffed Twice-Baked Potatoes

Every year, on the weekend near the 4th of July, Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Mississippi's West Coast) hosts their church bazaar, the annual Crab Festival, though these days it has grown to be such a large event that it's not really a little church function anymore, but rather a very important coastal event. The festival has been held since 1984.

There are rides for the kids, all sorts of vendor booths, raffles, cash drawdowns, live entertainment, and of course lots of food. Besides the usual fair foods, you'll find loads of seafood dishes and of course, many of them made with crab.

 

Mississippi Comeback Sauce. An all purpose sauce that is a cross somewhere between a rémoulade sauce and Thousand Island salad dressing, great for a sandwich spread or dipping sauce. A Mississippi original!

Mississippi Comeback Sauce

Comeback Sauce, which also has some, shall we say, rather interesting alternative spellings, was birthed in the 1930s at a Greek restaurant, The Rotisserie, located in Jackson, Mississippi. Known back then as simply their house dressing, it very quickly caught on and has earned fame, spreading across the city to other restaurants and eventually across the south. Comeback Sauce is truly the queen mother of all Mississippi condiments.

Sliced okra is dipped in buttermilk and then dredged in a lightly seasoned mixture of cornmeal and flour, then deep fried to crispy perfection.

Restaurant-Style Southern Deep Fried Okra

We use okra a lot down here in the Deep South where gumbo is king, as a thickening agent. I believe that and steamed - yes, with that gooey, buttery, slime and all - are the only two ways that my Mama ever made okra when I was growin' up.

While most southern kitchens will feature a more classic pan fried okra, tossed with lots of cornmeal and cooked up in a small amount of fat, often bacon drippings in a hot cast iron skillet, this deep fried version is what you will most often find served at a restaurant.

A favorite egg salad, made very simply with the addition of shrimp, green onion, celery and mayonnaise. Serve with crackers, as a sandwich, or stuffed into a tomato. Light and delicious!

Shrimp and Egg Salad

Today's post is a 4-in-one. They sort of all went together so rather than reserve them for different days, I thought that I would post them all together at the same time. Click each link below to visit them all.

First we have Absolutely Perfect Shrimp & Crab Boil, followed by a yummy Easy Cocktail Sauce and a Speedy White Rémoulade Sauce for dipping, and then well, what else does one do when one has leftover boiled shrimp?

Speedy White Rémoulade Sauce

Speedy White Rémoulade Sauce

Well, with all that nice, spicy boiled shrimp, classic cocktail sauce is a common condiment to use for sure, but I thought another sauce was in order. One of the best to accompany boiled shrimp is a good rémoulade.

An easy cocktail sauce, perfect for boiled and fried seafood, made with chili sauce, horseradish, lemon and hot sauce.

Easy Cocktail Sauce

We eat a lot of seafood here in the Deep South and we do love, and expect a good cocktail sauce to go with it. This is a blend that is perfect for raw oysters, boiled shrimp or any fried seafood, such as fried shrimp, southern fried catfish, or even deep fried oysters.

Absolutely Perfect Shrimp and Crab Boil

A nicely seasoned boil mix for shrimp or crabs.

Shrimp and Crab Boil

Seriously. This is the absolute perfect shrimp and crab boil recipe. I swear! Well, I think it is anyway. Now first, let me get this out of the way - this is more about the boil seasoning, than it is about the boiling. You can boil the tiniest of shrimp, or the super colossal ones with this same boil. The mixture here will do somewhere between 3 to 5 pounds of the larger shrimp, a larger quantity of the smaller, but the soaking time will vary accordingly. So test your shrimp and remove them when they are done.

Coconut Key Lime Pie with Minty Whipped Cream

A Key lime pie made with cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and Key lime juice in a coconut graham cracker crust and served with minty whipped cream.

Coconut Key Lime Pie

Coconut Key Lime Pie.

I love lime. I absolutely love it. Pair that up with some sweetened condensed milk and I am in heaven.

Traditionally Key lime pie contains egg yolks and is unbaked, though that is rarely done these days, since most fillings with egg are now baked.

Some say that baking the pie completely changes its flavor and texture though and use pasteurized egg yolks to squelch the fears of using raw eggs in an unbaked filling. Key lime pie also sometimes has an egg white meringue on top, though I prefer mine plain with only a dab of whipped cream.

Cube steak dressed up with a coating of seasoned bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, pan fried, topped with sauce, then baked and finished with shredded mozzarella.

Steak Parmesan

Steak Parmesan is a real family-pleaser that comes together pretty easy. I usually do 3 or 4 cube steaks, leaving leftovers for the two of us. For a family you may want to do at least 6 to 8 cube steaks and increase some of the ingredients just slightly, though one steak is enough even for The Cajun.

Carottes Glacées - Savory Glazed Carrots from Julia

Carottes Glacées - a savory glazed carrot side dish, made from strips of carrots, slow boiled in beef stock with a little sugar and plenty of butter.

Savory Glazed Carrots

Everybody has heard of, and probably had, some kind of glazed carrots made using brown sugar, or honey, or maple syrup, or oranges, or a combination of any of these wonderful flavors - especially around the holidays. But Julia's glazed carrots are pure, unadulterated, simple and just delicious.

Weekend Cocktails - Lemon Drop

If I keep doing this weekend cocktail series, I guess I'm going to have to invest in a basic bar set, because frankly these are what I'm using for shaking and straining. Pretty darned sophisticated, huh?! Well, I guess that would be what you call southern ingenuity! Make do with what you have. So, please also forgive my use of the margarita glass for what clearly should be in a martini glass. I'll try to redeem myself on the next martini glass worthy drink.

A fresh homemade tomato sauce and a whole cooked hen make for one of my favorite spaghetti dishes in memory of my grandma.

Grandma Mac's Homemade Chicken Spaghetti

I've been thinking about my Grandma Mac a lot here lately. I was looking for a document on an old desktop PC that I rarely use anymore, and I ran across a letter I'd written to my Grandma when she went to stay with my aunt in Alabama, shortly before she died.

She had started having a bit of dementia by this time and I had written the letter in that manner, "remember that they are in Japan" and "this is Rosalie, my aunt, Mama's sister."

I was still working then, no Hurricane Katrina had passed our way, my sister-in-law Teresa, who later died just before her 40th birthday from breast cancer, was still living then, and we had just finally sold my parents' house, several years after they had both passed.

A lot had happened in just a few years.

Southern Style Creamed Corn - fresh corn, stewed down in bacon drippings and cream, and finished with butter. A great side dish anytime.

Southern Style Creamed Corn

This creamed corn is perfect made with freshly shucked sweet corn, and especially Silver Queen variety, when it's available and in season, the kernels shaved straight off the cob, and juiced of the milk, ummm-ummm, some kinda good. But when you don't have any corn on the cob handy, two cans of drained whole kernel corn or even a bag of frozen corn (try the shoepeg corn) both make mighty adequate substitutes. For fresh corn, you'll want just about one ear or so per serving.

An old fashioned chicken pot pie, made with a thick and creamy roux and veggies, encased in a flaky double crust.

Old-Fashioned Double-Crust Chicken Pot Pie

A couple of food bloggers here recently near about apologized for posting dishes that they had been having tastes for, but that some people might consider to be "off season." I don't even remember what it was now, but that doesn't matter.

What struck me was that, well, if I have a taste for a certain dish, a craving if you will, I'm gonna make it, no matter the time of year! It's just silly I tell you, because frankly, down here in the Deep South, we have pretty much one season 90% of the time. Hot.

Oeufs Pochés in Honor of Julie & Julia - Poached Eggs

How to Poach an Egg

Fill a large skillet with 2 inches of water and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Have a bowl of cool water at the ready. Bring the water in the skillet to a boil, reduce heat to a very low simmer and keep it at a simmer.  Break one egg at a time in the water and using a spatula, immediately push the outsides of the white over toward the yolk. Add additional eggs and repeat. Once the first egg has been in the water for 4 minutes, lift it out of the water with a slotted spoon and check it - the white should be cooked and the yolk still soft.

Garden Fresh Tomato Quiche with Bacon

Fresh from the garden tomatoes, basil rolled and cut into thin chiffonade ribbons, freshly grated fresh mozzarella cheese and eggs make up this wonderful summer tomato quiche pie.

Fresh Tomato Quiche

It's no secret how I feel about fresh from the garden tomatoes. So juicy, so tasty - heads above any grocery store tomato. There is just nothin' like a tomato freshly plucked from a backyard garden. Well, here's another yummy way to use up that bounty of tomatoes from your summer harvest.

Pork chops smothered in a cream gravy with sauteed peppers and onion and slow simmered on the stovetop.

Smothered Pork Chops with Cream Gravy

We love our smothered foods in the south. Course, we southerners get accused all the time of either frying everything or else giving it a heavy dousin' of gravy. Well, they are both true - to a degree.

Frying we'll have to address at another time. Today it's all about smothering some chops in a delicious cream gravy. These are certainly an indulgent and incredibly delicious way to serve pork chops, and truly southern to the core. Some like to dredge their chops in flour before browning them, but I prefer the simple sear of the naked meat.

Welcome to Deep South Dish!!

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED!  Congrats to girlichef - you're the winner of the Julia Child Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook!!  With all the scrumptious recipes and photographs I've seen from you in the past, I know we'll be seeing something awesome coming out of this win. Email me @ mary @ deepsouthdish . com with your full name, mailing address & phone number so I can get that out to  you!  Congratulations!!

I am so excited to announce the birth of Deep South Dish, the new home for recipes!

It's been a few months since I dreamed of establishing Deep South Dish, and I finally have managed to launch it. Now, there will be a few hiccups {especially with links} along the way as I transfer files over and such, so please bear with me, but as of now, all the recipes you were used to seeing and all the new ones, will be posted here.