A classic made from jello, juices, ginger ale or lemon-lime soda, and sherbet, this party punch shows up at just about every event imaginable in the south. Photo Credit: Taste of Home.

Party Punch

Though this is not a southern punch as far as I know, almost every baby shower, wedding shower, wedding reception, reunion, pot luck, church social, "fill-in-the-blank-home-party," or other social event that I attended most of my life, has had a party punch in some variation of this one. Sometimes it's called Bride's Punch, Reception Punch, Wedding Punch, Creamy Punch, Holiday Punch or Sherbet Punch.

A mixture of seasoned crab and a light binder of freshly toasted bread, pan fried in a bit of butter and oil. Serve alone as-is, or with spicy horseradish mustard, spicy mustard sauce, jalapeno cream sauce, remoulade sauce, or comeback sauce.

Gulf Coast Style Pan Fried Crab Cakes

I've previously posted some oven baked crab cakes - great when you are trying to reign in the fat for a bit - but these pan fried crab cakes are the more traditional way to go down here.

This recipe is essential a standard crab mix that I use for a variety of dishes with some variations here and there that I use to make crab patties for po'boys, or stuffed crabs, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed flounder and of course, these pan fried crab cakes.

Add a nice mixed garden salad and a green veggie to round it out.

My version of Buffalo Chicken Dip uses fresh cooked chicken, Louisiana hot sauce, ranch instead of bleu cheese dressing, bacon, and a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses.

Buffalo Chicken Dip with Bacon

Y'all likely know this dip as Frank's Famous Red Hot Buffalo Chicken Dip, or just plain ole Buffalo Chicken Dip, some of you may even know it as Crack Dip, but I made some changes to the standard recipe and I really think it's the best chicken dip you could ask for!

Everything Should Taste Like Bacon!

You may have noticed that I have been using a variety of "bacon" products in some of my recipes here lately. Most recently I used Bacon Salt in a sage crusted pork roast, but I've also used it on french fries, over veggies, in this Ground Beef Casserole, in a Creole Smothered Steak, and as a seasoning on some Homemade Baked Potato Chips to name a few! 

 

    A pork roast rubbed with sage and ginger and cooked in a hot tub of apple juice.

Sage Pork Roast with Apple Pan Sauce

This is my second pork roast posted - the first one has an amazing spicy and sweet onion sauce and has been my favorite way of doing pork roast for years. This one, is a simple roasted pork, crusted with a layer of herbs and seasonings, resting in a hot tub of apple juice that makes one mighty fine pan sauce and gravy. 

Shrimp Spaghetti, often referred to as shrimp boat spaghetti, because it could easily be made with a scoop out of the day's catch and ingredients easy transported on a shrimp boat. A nice shortcut, tomato based sauce made with shrimp, bell pepper and garlic and tossed with spaghetti noodles.

Shrimp Spaghetti

Because this dish takes shortcuts by using canned pasta sauce and tomatoes, here in the Deep South it is often referred to as Shrimp Boat Spaghetti, a dish that can easily be made with a scoop out of the day's catch with ingredients that are easily transported on a shrimp boat.

French Market Beignet Doughnuts

Beignets are slightly sweet fritters, deep fried and sprinkled with a generous dousing of powdered sugar. Best when served with a strong New Orleans chicory coffee.

Beignet Doughnuts

At this writing, it's Shrove Monday, or the Monday before Ash Wednesday, now mostly just referred to as Lundi Gras, meaning that Carnival season is winding down and the Lenten season is about to begin.

It is the time that certain Christian denominations, in particular Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran, begin to reflect, prepare for confession, and seek penance to obtain absolution for our sins. It is, in essence, the day before the final blowout - Fat Tuesday.

No better appropriate time to bring you my final recipe to add to the Mardi Gras brunch and party foods list for New Orleans Style Café au Lait and French Market Beignets!

 

  A half and half mixture of half scalded milk and half of a Louisiana chicory blend coffee.

New Orleans Style Café au Lait

Really, this is another one of those non-recipe recipes, but I'm posting my beignet recipe and I have to explain the process of New Orleans style café au lait to go along with that or what kind of southerner would I be?!

A classic southern cake that usually makes its appearance over the Christmas holidays.

Mama's Red Velvet Cake

This was a traditional Christmas cake around our house growing up and it is as moist as it is pretty. I can barely think of Red Velvet Cake without thinking of my Mama, and it is the Christmas season where my heart gets real heavy on missing her.

I have heard that there is a newer evolution of red velvet cake that substitutes cooking oil for the real butter used in the original cake. I can't imagine why. Why you would want the oily residue of a cooking oil versus the flavor impact and richness of butter is beyond me, though I think it probably has something to do with the mouth feel texture result, which would probably be somewhat similar to a box cake mix that so many people use. If so, then just use the box mix I say! As far as me, I don't know that I'll go messing around with something that I know is delicious and good... and works!

A selection of recipes from Deep South Dish website perfect for your Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day Menu

To me, the celebration aspect of Valentine's Day is all about young love - both in the love between a couple in the early stages of a relationship and in that love between a parent and their young children. Young lovers should be enthralled in every aspect of love and being in love on Valentine's Day. Children, with the help of their parents, should be building Valentine boxes, making cupcakes and putting together treats for teachers and classmates - learning about what it is to care for and about others.

Of course if you're wealthy, or a celebrity, you can run off to some exotic spot and spend an obscene amount of money for a week long Valentine's Day celebration whether you are young, old, single, married or somewhere in between. For the rest of us older and maybe, not so older, married folk, the love we feel for our spouses and significant others, is something that should be celebrated every day beginning with those marriage vows. Valentine's Day should not put pressure or a burden on that in any way.

Pommes Duchesse - Duchess Potatoes

Duchess potatoes are mashed potatoes are mixed with eggs and piped into rosettes, drizzled with melted butter and given a sprinkle of paprika before baking.

Duchess Potatoes

Duchess Potatoes are all about the piping, because the edges produce a nice, crust while the potatoes inside remain creamy, but if you don't have a large star tip, you can simply use a plastic zipper storage bag, fill it with the potatoes and cut off a small corner of the bag. Pipe the potatoes into piles of swirls about 2 inches wide but spaced apart where the sides do not touch. They won't pick up the browning on the edges quite the same as the rosettes, but they do still make for a pretty presentation. I love Duchess Potatoes!

This simple roasted chicken using butter and plenty of lemon, has a bit of a reputation of garnering marriage proposals, enough so that it has been dubbed the engagement chicken.

Lemon Roasted Chicken

Legend has it, that the original "engagement chicken" first made its appearance almost 30 years ago now, when a Glamour magazine editor shared the recipe for a simple, roasted chicken with an assistant, who prepared it for her boyfriend one evening.

A month later he proposed. While you can read more about the story here, all that aside, it's certainly a great recipe for a roasted chicken. There is just something so comforting about the smell of a chicken roasting, that it's one of my favorite methods of cooking chicken.

Cube steaks or tenderized round steak in a nicely seasoned Creole sauce of tomatoes, onions and peppers with rosemary and thyme - and a secret ingredient!

Creole Smothered Swiss Steak

A stepped-up version of Swiss Steak, Creole Smothered Steak can use either cube steaks, which have already been tenderized, or other beef steaks such as chuck or round steak which is generally less expensive, but also leaner cuts of beef and definitely needing tenderizing.

Be sure not to skip that step!

How to Make Your Own Cube Steaks

Blade Tenderizer

Cube steaks are pretty much nothing more than tenderized round steak that you pay a little extra money for in order to have somebody else to do the work. Now granted, the butchers have a nice machine that does a fantastic job of super-tenderizing the meat, but you can also do a fair job of duplicating this at home and save a little money.

MIU Stainless-Steel Rolling Meat Tenderizer

While you may occasionally find cube steaks reduced, it is rare, but you can very often find round steak reduced or on sale ... giving you a great excuse for stocking up on it in your freezer.

Thinly cut, red skin potatoes, tossed with olive oil and a variety of seasonings and baked.

Homemade Baked Potato Chips

Another one of those No-Recipe-Recipes ... yummy, crisp homemade potato chips that you bake yourself, season yourself, and coat with healthy olive oil. So easy and just delicious!

Break out the mandolin for this one because you really do need the potatoes to be thin (not too thin though) and uniform, and a mandolin does that with ease, making a super speedy job of it too. I went through these two potatoes in literally seconds. Toss the potato slices with some olive oil.

Often referred to as a pantry pie because it can be made from pantry basics, chess pie is an old fashioned, southern favorite. I like to cut the sweetness of my chess pie with just a bit of buttermilk instead of sweet milk and fresh lemon juice and zest, instead of vinegar.

Old Fashioned Buttermilk Chess Pie

Old Fashioned Chess Pie is southern to the core. And sweet. A very sweet custard pie made with eggs, butter, a little flour, a bit of cornmeal, vanilla and sugar. Lots of sugar.  While not many folks include buttermilk in their chess pie recipe as I do, I happen to think that it only improves on the flavor of the chess pie. The tartness of the buttermilk helps to cut the sugary sweetness and makes for a simply perfect chess pie.

Like a deconstructed jalapeno popper, this dip is made with jalapenos, green chilies, cream cheese, parmesan and cheddar, and topped with a buttery bread crumb.

Awesome Jalapeno Popper Dip

Okay. I know that saying this is an "awesome" dip is a pretty bold statement but I think it's pretty awesome. A layered, deconstructed version of a jalapeno popper in a dip, that I've never seen done quite this way, and since I didn't have outside influences, I'm claiming it as my own original recipe.

Spicy Crockpot Italian Style Drip Beef for Sandwiches

A nice, spicy beef made in the crockpot with giardiniera and golden peperoncini, finished with sauteed sweet peppers, onions and provolone cheese & passed under the broiler to melt.

Spicy Crockpot Italian Beef

An Italian beef is a sandwich believed to have originated in Chicago, made of thin slices of highly seasoned beef, dripping with meat juices, and served on an Italian roll.

First, let's get this out of the way. Like all regional foods that I prepare and share here on Deep South Dish that originate from other parts of the country, this recipe is not meant to be representative of an authentic or even traditional Chicago style Italian beef in any way, shape or form. It's just a beef roast braised in broth, peppers, onions, and Italian seasonings, that makes a pretty darned good Italian Beef drip sandwich. Let's just agree to settle on calling my sandwich "inspired."

Chicken wings baked with a Ponzu Lime Mojo marinade that brings a wonderful spicy, sweet, savory, citrus tang to average wings.

Ponzu Lime Mojo Wings

One more for the wing collection and then I'm going to {try} to take off from blogging to get ready for and enjoy the Super Bowl! {okay, I might try to squeeze in just one more recipe...}  If you're still on the hunt for some Super Bowl party food ideas, you can pick some great menu ideas right here. They are all mine, all tried and true, and all right here on this site. Check 'em out!

A tender and tasty meatloaf, infused with the trinity, seared and cooked in a roux based tomato gravy.

Creole Meatloaf with Tomato Gravy

When you have a little time on your hands, I hope that you'll give this meatloaf a try. It's totally different from your mama's meatloaf, has a few additional steps you don't usually see in a meatloaf, so it takes a bit of time to come together, but it is so worth it! Searing creates a tender and juicy meatloaf that thanks to our famous Trinity, just full of flavor. Don't expect any leftovers to last long.

 

A throwback to the good ole days, Devils on Horseback are simply dates, stuffed with cheese, wrapped with bacon, bite sized yum yums.

Devils on Horseback

Here's another great party appetizer to add to the growing list of party foods.

I mean seriously... can't you just wrap a piece of bacon around just about anything and make it taste good or better?

I love dried plums (yes, those are prunes) and dates anyway, but stuff them with some smoky Gruyere, wrap them with bacon and have a spicy pepper jelly or mango sauce to dip them in and yum, yum, yum.

And the "angels," made with oysters, are by far my favorite.

 

A fall back to the good ole days, Angels and Devils on Horseback are simply bacon wrapped, bite sized yum yums, one based on dates, the other, oysters.

Angels on Horseback

Angels on Horseback are similar to their counterpart, Devils on Horseback, except instead of dates wrapped in bacon, we're using oysters, and like their counterparts, the bacon you'll need and how you cut it, is going to depend on the size of the oysters, so you may need to cut it into two or three pieces.

Here's how to make them.

A retro throw-back to the 70s and still popular today, 7-layer dip is made with seasoned refried beans, avocado or guacamole spread, sour cream, shredded cheese, tomatoes, black olives and green onion, and is still a party favorite.

Classic 70s 7-Layer Mexican Dip

I adore this dip. In fact, I have been known to buy those itty bitty and pricey containers of it from the deli, just because I had a taste for it.

I have loved this dip since the first time that I saw it being delivered to a party back in the late 70s. With Super Bowl coming up, I thought I would blog it, but really, I just wanted an excuse to make it.

My Best of the Best Super Bowl Party Foods - All in One Place!

Beverages, Appetizers, Snack Food, 17 Dips, Sandwiches, Wings, Potato, Pasta and Crowd Sized Salads, Bean, Beef, Pork, Chicken & Seafood Main Dish Meals, Gumbo, Jambalaya, Soups, Stews & Chilis, Ribs and Sides and of course, Sweet Stuff!

Looking for menu ideas for your super bowl party? Here's my personal collection of tried and true, all Deep South Dish, Best of the Best Recipes for your super bowl party. I think this is a fabulous collection and it's all in one spot for you, all my recipes. There's plenty to choose from so no matter who you're rooting for, you're sure to find something here for that menu and to please those those hungry fans.

Check back regularly as I update and add to the collection!