Weekend Cocktails - Mint Julep

How to make a proper Mint Julep, plus recipes for Skinny Julep and Mint Julep Martini

Mint Julep

When it's Derby Day, mint juleps are definitely on the menu, with somewhere around 120,000 of the minty sweet bourbon drinks served over the two days at Churchill Downs, though Louisville locals will tell you that it's really a tourist thing.

Chicken drumsticks, marinated in a spicy combination of chili powder, curry and ginger, then grilled, broiled or baked.

Grilled Chili Lime Drumsticks

This is a wonderfully flavorful chicken marinade that could be used for wings, thighs, drumsticks, a spatchcocked or a whole cut up chicken and will work either for the grill or the oven.

I have to say that I was highly impressed with my new grill for my first skin-on chicken - no major flare ups! Gotta work a bit on temperature regulation, but that'll come in time and learning the exact hot spots on the grill. This is a way bigger grill than my previous ones so I'm like a kid in a candy store, though I am no grill aficionado y'all. Rather I look at a grill as an extension of my oven and stovetop, that just happens to live outside! I'll leave the real grillin' to the experts.

Tex-Mex meets The Keys - a Cinco de Mayo menu offering from Deep South Dish

My Offerings for Cinco de Mayo

Wow, it's right at the end of the month already isn't it? The Kentucky Derby, Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day are all right around the corner! For Mother's Day, and from someone who cooks ALL the time, here's my menu for Mother's Day. Take your mother (or wife if that applies) OUT to eat to a very nice restaurant! As far as Cinco de Mayo, my menu suggestions may be pretty far from anything authentic and more like Tex-Mex meets the Keys, but that's okay, because it's a menu I like and I hope you do too. For a few more Tex-Mex offerings pop over to this link and scroll the page.

A spicy sausage dip made with Monterey Jack cheese, cream cheese, and Rotel tomatoes.

Sausage and Cheese White Rotel Dip

This is another great dip for keeping your guests at bay while you cook out, for football night, your next party, or simply for movie night in with the family.

It's simple, only four ingredients and comes together quick. Keep it warm in the crockpot and scoop out single servings into small custard bowls with tortilla chips or corn chips on the side.

Slow cooker pork, cooked until tender and dressed Carolina style with a basic vinegar and mustard-based sauce.

Crockpot Carolina Style Pulled Pork

This pulled pork recipe came about when recently, I posted over on Facebook a slow, stovetop simmered, cheater pulled pork I learned last summer. It is done on the top of the stove, and even though it's completely unconventional, it produces an incredibly flavored pork The Cajun and I instantly fell in love with.

Several Deep South Dish Facebook family members reported they did a similar pork using their crockpots. Well, y'all talked me into investing in a new slow cooker {since the one I owned is at least... ahem... 33 years old} and the first thing I set my mind to doing was some kind of pork barbecue.

A skillet chili, made for hot dogs and with a Cajun-flair, made with ground beef, seasoned with Worcestershire, yellow mustard, onion, hot sauce, Cajun and other flavorful seasonings.

Skillet Hot Dog Chili Sauce

I love hot dogs. Love, love, love. I don't care how they are made, or what's in them, or the scary stories, nope, just don't even want to hear about all that, because I. Love. Hot. Dogs. And guess what?

I've tried just about every brand and kind there is out there and I like the cheap ones the best. I'll eat them boiled, microwaved or pan fried, though for me, they really are best cooked on the grill in my humble opinion, and this yummy hot dog chili sauce only makes the experience that much better. Here's how to make my hot dog chili sauce.

Turn a whole chicken into a wonderful home rotisserie style chicken, slow roasted, loaded with flavor and as tender as can be!

Mimi's Rotisserie Style Sticky Chicken

There must be a hundred sticky chicken recipes on the internet for how to make a homemade rotisserie chicken, every one different from what I consider to be the original sticky chicken - Mimi's.

Several years back when I had a few extra mouths to feed and was working more than full time, I did the once a month freezer method of cooking. This sticky chicken was one of the most popular chicken recipes back then to make ahead and reserve the meat for casseroles. It's one of the carryovers I have held onto all these years, and that I still love today.

Baked Spaghetti from Trisha Yearwood

A perfect potluck casserole, this one feeds a crowd! Using a basic tomato based spaghetti meat sauce as a base with layer of spaghetti noodles & cheese, finished with a cream soup topping.

Baked Spaghetti

Baked Spaghetti is a fantastic meal for any day, but most especially for feeding a crowd, making it perfect for potlucks, church suppers and social events. 

This one has been a favorite around my house ever since the first time I made it. It comes from the cookbook Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood {affil link}, another favorite, and it is simply delicious. Check out the Hot Corn Dip I made from the new cookbook and the Warm Feta and Artichoke Dip I made from her first cookbook too while you're visiting.

Southern seasoned collard greens made with smoked pork hocks, or other smoked meats, and served with raw onion, vinegar pepper sauce and cornbread or hoecakes on the side.

Southern Style Collard Greens

Collard greens and ham hocks were just meant to be together in my opinion. I mean, is there possibly anything more southern than a big bowl of southern style collard greens, made with ham hocks and a couple of hoe cakes tucked into the corner of the bowl? I absolutely adore collards personally, and really, though you can use a few other types of meats to season them with, ham hocks rule.

A classic southern recipe, cornmeal hoecakes are little pan fried cornmeal medallions that are at home as breakfast, as much as they are as a side dish with a mess o' greens, and just about anything else!

Fried Cornbread - Southern Cornmeal Hoecakes

Fried cornbread, is also known as cornmeal hoe cakes and corn cakes, and sometimes Johnnycakes, is a sort of fried cornmeal flatbread - kind of like if you took cornbread batter and skillet fried it like a pancake. The inside puffs up like cornbread, while the outside gets nice and crispy from frying it in the oil. It's the perfect companion to a mess o'greens, or for breakfast or as a sweet treat when drizzled with a bit of syrup.

Hot Corn Dip made with Mexicorn, green chilies, jalapenos, Monterey Jack and Parmesan cheeses, and red pepper flakes, is terrific served with corn chips or tortilla chips.

Hot Corn Dip

This Hot Corn Dip recipe from Trisha Yearwood, is one of the most popular posts on my site since I posted it. And for good reason - it is downright yummy! Y'all might have read my previous post where I got a craving for Trisha Yearwood's Hot Corn Dip when Trisha made an appearance on The View to promote her newest cookbook, Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood {affil link}

Unlike the slower, long stewed version of southern green bean preparation, this method is a quick fix version, using onion and bacon for seasoning, and fitting for fresh, frozen and even canned green beans. Add in some chunks of new or small red potatoes for a change.

Quick Fix Southern Style Green Beans

Southern style green beans, whether made alone with sauteed onion and bacon, or with the addition of potatoes, are a well loved side dish in this part of the country.

When fresh green beans are at peak in my garden, or in season and available in abundance at the grocery store, those are what I prefer to cook. When I run out of those, or when it's off season, frozen or canned green beans are a perfectly acceptable substitute.

 

Another great recipe from Trisha Yearwood, this warm dip is made with artichoke hearts, mayo, feta cheese and Parmesan.

Warm Feta and Artichoke Dip

You've probably tried the old standby Spinach and Artichoke Dip at some point, this is just a bit of a different take on that idea. We ate some of it with white corn tortilla chips, but I also had French bread in the house from the Homemade Roast Beef Po'Boys. I sliced off some of the tip end, buttered and then toasted the slices. Flipped them over, buttered and toasted the other side, and then top them off with some of the hot dip. Yum. Here's how to make it.

Step by Step Homemade Mississippi Roast Beef Po'Boy with Debris Gravy

How to make a Mississippi style, dressed and pressed, roast beef po'boy, using a freshly cooked roast and homemade gravy.

Roast Beef Po'Boy with Debris Gravy

Po'boys are the mysterious sandwich of the South for sure. Over here in Mississippi we make ours just a tad bit different than our sister state, Louisiana. We have this whole "dressed and pressed" thing we like over this way. You can read more about what exactly a po'boy is, along with a mild southern style hissy fit about what a po'boy is not, right here. I won't rehash all that here.

Chicken wings, dipped in a butter and garlic sauce and rolled in seasoned Parmesan cheese.

Garlic Parmesan Wings

This recipe for Baked Garlic Parmesan Wings was one that, waaaay back in my low carb days of eating (oh, yes I did), we LCers used to eat a lot.

They were considered addictive, so much so that they were actually known as heroin wings back then. Today, I guess that would be "crack" wings. Yes. I know. I hate that reference to anything food, but it is what it is. That, my friends, was what they were called.

I think I'll stick with Garlic Parmesan Wings.

 

Move over Cracker Barrel copycats - this is my ultra ultra cheesy hash brown casserole and it started as an accident!

Ultra Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

This Ultra Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole was born from a mistake, but in the end it proved to be a good mistake!

I had been trying to cook through my pantry and freezer to sort of spring clean out the old, so I can bring in the new. One thing that was taking up space and constantly falling out on me when I opened the freezer, was a one pound bag of frozen hash brown potatoes, so I decided to make a hash brown casserole as a side dish for supper one evening.

Happy Easter - Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter


This recipe for Hot Cross Buns was shared with me by one of our readers. Hope you enjoy it!

Weekend Cocktails - Pineapple Lemonade Spring Sangria Blanca

A blend of white wine, lemon, pineapple, orange, apple and strawberries, it's a perfect party cocktail for spring and summer!

Pineapple Lemonade Sangria

I just love a good sangria for a party don't you? And this one is perfect for any party you're planning. This goes super fast so double it up, at the least!

You may have seen my Cranberry Pomegranate Holiday Sangria that I posted back around Thanksgiving. Made with a combination of cranberry and pomegranate juices and fruit, apple, orange and lemon, it's a perfect fall and winter sangria.  Well, spring is finally upon us, and so I think it's a perfect time to introduce a Spring Sangria for our weekend cocktails series - lemon, pineapple, strawberries, orange, apple - so fresh and delicious. I just love it!

Brown Sugar and Mustard Glazed Bone-in Ham with Cola Pan Sauce - Plus Bonus Glazes

A bone-in ham, glazed with mustard and brown sugar, and cooked in a cola syrup is a traditional southern holiday feature.

Brown Sugar and Mustard Glazed Bone-in Ham

A baked ham is a southern holiday staple. My Mama used to make ham one of two ways. One was with this absolutely marvelous glaze produced by using simply one ingredient - classic cola. Ham and cola. How much more old-fashioned and southern can you get than that? The other was baked in a plain brown paper bag, studded with pineapples and cloves.

My Way Spinach Bake and The Original Spinach Madeline

A classic spinach casserole based on Spinach Madeleine, a simple spin on Creamed Spinach, typically made with spinach, sauteed vegetables and a white sauce.

The original Nevill recipe starts with making a roux, and then adds in 1/2 cup evaporated milk, with 1/2 cup of the liquor from squeezing out the spinach. It also called for the now discontinued Kraft garlic cheese roll {or the also discontinued jalapeno roll, depending on which "original" recipe you are endeared to.

Cinnamon rolls semi-homemade and made easy using frozen Rhodes bread dough.

Easy Cheater Cinnamon Rolls

I am of the opinion that it is difficult to make a bad cinnamon roll, no matter what recipe you use.

Honestly, a good cinnamon roll needs basically three things. Generous amounts of butter, plenty of cinnamon sugar and a boatload of icing. Maybe not for the faint of heart - but we don't eat them everyday now do we? The dough itself is really almost secondary to those things, so I say why not get a little help there?