Scratch Garlic Cheese Biscuits

Homemade cut or drop biscuits featuring cheese and garlic, onion, parsley, freshly ground pepper and even a touch of Cajun seasoning.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

I know canned biscuits are pretty darned good and mighty convenient - heck I have a general purpose can of them in my fridge right now. Let's face it. They put some biscuits on your plate pretty quick, but they are especially good to use as a shortcut in recipes too.

That aside, who doesn't really love a homemade biscuit? And everybody seems to be super crazy about copycat Red Lobster garlic cheese biscuits (for the record, these are not those). Well, I haven't exactly had one of those in ages, so I won't even try to say this resembles those, but tell me, how can you not love a homemade biscuit combined with garlic and cheese? I know I sure do and the other night I just decided I had to have some!

Bone-in pork chops, skillet seared and brushed with a spicy syrup and balsamic glaze.

Spicy Sweet Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops

The inspiration from this came from repeatedly seeing maple-glazed-something-or-another all over the place here lately! Well, I guess it is that time of year, although I might add, maple isn't king in the Deep South. Cane and sorghum syrup are!

I served these with potatoes cooked in the microwave with my Anyday Pan along with some mixed vegetables, although my Quick Fix Southern-Style Green Beans, using canned green beans, onion and bacon and some roasted potatoes cooked in the air fryer are great sides also.

Blue Runner Shortcut Red Beans and Rice

Quick cook red beans and rice made with the southern trinity of seasoning veggies, bacon, smoked sausage and canned kidney beans. You'll never believe they're a shortcut version!

Shortcut Red Beans and Rice

Red beans and rice made from dried beans are delicious, but of course, like any dried bean, take a bit of time to stew down to delicious creaminess on the stove top, so there is a bit of a time commitment.

Cajun Cabbage au Gratin, also known in this area as Choux Glorieux, or Glorious Cabbage, is a casserole of cooked, chopped cabbage, made with The Trinity, milk moistened bread, cheese and finished with a bread crumb and cheese topping.

Cajun Cabbage Au Gratin Casserole

Had some cabbage on hand so decided to do an au gratin for y'all. If you're anywhere from around the lower Deep South area, you probably know this dish as Choux Glorieux, or Glorious Cabbage. I am happy that it is "casserole season," but I hate the way that casseroles photograph - the pictures just do not ever do justice to the dish - but don't let that lead you. Most casseroles are outstanding and this one is no exception.

Super easy fresh apple cobbler made with cinnamon sugar, fresh apples, pecans and a simple butter batter - highly adaptable too. Use this batter with peaches, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, mixed berries, pear - whatever you have!

Fresh Apple Pecan Cobbler

It's fall, and that mean apples are both plentiful and cheap right now and even though Mother Nature cannot seem to decide whether we are in full blown summer or fall down south, I thought that an apple cobbler sounded so good. I've mentioned before that I'm not really much on "seasonal" cooking anyway because I like to cook what I have a taste for, when I have a taste for it, and my taste buds don't seem to have a calendar.

Japchae/Chap Chae - Korean Mixed Vegetables and Cellophane Noodles

A Korean-style noodle dish, made with mixed vegetables, marinated chicken or beef and cellophane noodles, finished with a soy-based sauce.

Korean Mixed Vegetables and Cellophane Noodles

The first time I tasted this dish I fell in love with it.

My neighbor, right across the street from me, was born in Korea. She married a military man and has been living in the states for many years now, but most of her family are still living in Korea. She is such a sweet and delightful person, and I love her to death.

Thin slices of seasoned potatoes, layered with onion and baked in a buttery milk sauce.

Scalloped Potato Casserole

I grew up with two basic potato casseroles. One that was made with a buttery milk sauce that my Mama called scalloped potatoes; the other made similar but adding in cheese, that we called potatoes au gratin. I used to love it when Mama made them. Both are just simply heartwarming and delicious and a perfect potato side dish for cooler weather.

Boneless, skinless or bone-in chicken breasts, simply seasoned, wrapped in bacon and rubbed with brown sugar.

Spicy Sweet Bacon Chicken Breasts

This chicken recipe starts with fairly simple seasonings, then the chicken breasts are wrapped with strips of bacon and get this... like you do with candied bacon, you coat the bacon and the chicken with brown sugar!

What you end up with is this wonderful, sweet, slightly caramelized coating.

A diner classic and a southern favorite, seasoned ground beef patties cooked with caramelized onion and gravy is a belly-pleaser.

Hamburger Steak with Creamy Onion Gravy

Hamburger steak should be in everybody's go-to recipe box and this recipe is a perfect combination of flavors. It always gets a boatload of compliments, and isn't that what we're all after in this anyway?

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are truly one of the best chocolate chip cookies, producing a chewy textured cookie due to the higher ratio of brown sugar to granulated sugar. If you like more crisp to your cookie, exchange those ratios so you have more granulated sugar than brown sugar.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everybody has a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe that they think is the best. Well, this one is my go-to recipe and the only one that I have used for years. Would I go so far as to say that these are The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever?? Well, in my opinion, and solely mine, a resounding YES! These are truly at least, One of The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever!! It produces a chewy textured cookie due to the higher ratio of brown sugar to granulated sugar, but if you like more crisp to your cookie, try exchanging those ratios so you have more granulated sugar than brown sugar.

A traditional roux-based gumbo made with shrimp, spicy andouille sausage and okra. Pass hot sauce at the table, add some hot, buttered French bread and a side salad to round it out.

Shrimp and Andouille Gumbo with Okra

Delish. But, admittedly, homemade gumbo can take a bit of time between planning and preparing, though there are ways that you can save some time and make it an easier process when you get in the mood for gumbo.

Next time you are chopping an onion, go ahead and chop an extra one or two and bag it in a zipper freezer bag. When you make rice for one dinner, double up on it and then bag and freeze half. All it needs is a sprinkle of water, cover and microwave to freshen it up. For okra, pre-sliced frozen okra works fantastic.

A roux based gravy made with tomatoes is traditional served over biscuits, but can be served with meatloaf, over rice, or spooned on grits, alongside fish and with some hushpuppies.

Southern Homestyle Tomato Gravy

Southern Tomato Gravy is another one of our classic southern recipes, that goes great with those Sour Cream Biscuits I just posted a little earlier.  Totally different from what our Northeastern Italian neighbors call Sunday Tomato Gravy {what we Down South call Tomato Sauce, or Creole Gravy, or more often, just Spaghetti Sauce} meant for pasta.  This tomato gravy is the kind of gravy that us Southerners most traditionally love to eat over hot, and preferably homemade, southern buttermilk biscuits, like we do with our sausage gravy.

 

A jazzed up shortcut, baking mix biscuit, that uses lemon-lime soda and sour cream, resulting in the lightest most tender, delicious and easy biscuit.

Sour Cream 7-up Biscuits

These are a super tender, light, and melt in your mouth biscuit perfect for a slather of butter, wrapping around slices of salty ham, or spooning over with sausage gravy or tomato gravy.

The texture of these are just a bit different from old fashioned buttermilk biscuits, more soft and creamy, with a touch of sweet.

An iron skillet cornmeal cake, cooked upside down, with brown sugar, berries, pecans and apples.

Apple Upside Down Cornmeal Cake

Pretty much everybody is familiar with Pineapple Upside Down Cake, but when I saw Sunny Anderson do an upside down cornmeal cake on one of her episodes, I knew I'd eventually get around to trying one of these. I had all but forgotten about it though until I saw one featured in the October issue of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine {affil link}. Their version used apples, and I had plenty of apples on hand, so between these two resources, I came up with my own version. I loved it!

The cornmeal cake is much less sweet than the regular sweet cake versions of upside down cakes, especially those using boxed mixes, and I really loved the texture - perfect for a skillet cake. I'm sure I'll keep tweaking on this recipe but I can definitely say I will be making this again, though next time I'm thinking pineapple ... with some maraschino cherries!

Chicken thighs, roasted with a garlicky, thyme, lemon and balsamic sauce, onions and potatoes.

Roasted Balsamic Chicken Thighs

I had a large, 5 pound package of chicken thighs in the freezer, though unfortunately they were the kind frozen into one big blob and not individually so I pretty much had to thaw and bake the whole package.  Whatever isn't eaten up in leftovers will be deboned and frozen to use in casseroles or maybe some chicken salad.

A slightly southernized version of baked ziti, made with the Trinity of southern vegetables, tiny beef and sausage meatballs, a tomato-based sauce with Italian sausage and mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

Southernized Baked Ziti

While baked ziti may not be traditional southern fare, it's a popular dish that goes a long way to feeding a crowd of folks and y'all know I'm gonna have to southernize it just a little bit!

Actually, where I grew up here along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, not only do we have amazing access to fresh seafood, but because of our history and our military bases, bringing people here from literally all over the world, we are so fortunate to also have a large influx of a variety of cuisines in our area.

An old-fashioned casserole, probably patterned as a way to use Sunday's leftover roast chicken, is combined with a creamy sauce, mushrooms and egg noodles, for one of my favorite comfort foods.

Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Casserole

Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Casserole is one of those good, ole, standby recipes common to many of us, no matter where we live - a basic chicken noodle casserole - the kind that has been around for longer than I have. Simple, easy, yummy and comforting. It's a great casserole for anytime but is especially comforting on those cooler nights that are coming up.