A vegetable skillet meal, made from fresh summer squash, sweet Vidalia onion, with fresh okra and tomato.

Summer Veggie Skillet - Squash and Okra with Onion and Tomato

This is one of my favorite summertime skillet vegetable dishes - just simply squash and sweet onions, sauteed in a little bit of bacon drippings and butter, and stewed down with sliced okra, fresh tomatoes and finished with some garden parsley and basil. Quick and easy to make, I can make a meal of this entire pan on these hot summer days!

Ways to Use Those Garden Cucumbers

When the garden cucumbers start flowing, here's a collection of recipes for salads and more, to enjoy them!

This year, for the first time since we moved, I planted a small square foot style, raised bed garden right outside my backdoor patio. In that, I planted an heirloom tomato, some herbs, two pepper plants and two cucumber plants that just exploded, so I've been picking two to three cucumbers a day for several weeks now. The only thing I did was to feed it Jobe's organic fertilizer for vegetables. The cucumber salads have certainly been flowing here lately, and I just love having different variations to make.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven and My Thoughts on Low Carb Dieting

Perfect bacon, cooked all at once in the oven!

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven

Oven bacon is the easiest way to cook a lot of bacon at once, but first, I want to address a subject that interestingly several long time readers have contacted me about recently, and that is to ask what I think about this new low carb trend among some southern food bloggers, to which I respond, "there's a trend??"

Between family, grandchildren and work, I don't get out much across the interwebs so I wasn't aware of this, but y'all tell me there has been, and seriously, I'm not at all surprised to see some southern food bloggers taking the low carb path. Here's why.

 

Brabant Potatoes, known as Louisiana fries, are made from peeled and cubed potatoes, first blanched, then deep fried and tossed with a rich, butter garlic sauce. A delicious side for fish, or any main dish!

Brabant Potatoes - Louisiana Fries

While still served in high end restaurants around here on the Gulf Coast, I'm afraid that Brabant Potatoes, a Louisiana style, cubed, fried potato side, has mostly fallen out of favor with home cooks in recent years - probably due to their multiple steps.

Although folks seem to be making their way back to home cooking - and often, lamenting the fact that they didn't pay more attention to their grandmother in the kitchen - I'm afraid that in this hurry up, busy world we live in, we've mostly become more of an eat out and fast food nation.

Cold Green Bean Salad - fresh green beans, blanched then shocked in cold water to retain crispness, dressed with a seasoned vinaigrette and finished with sliced cherry tomatoes.

Cold Green Bean Salad

I have a confession to make. I have been cheating on y'all!

Well, not like that... but, when it comes to posting new stuff, things were a bit slow last month. Although I have written quite a few new recipes lately (that I've yet to write up, including this one), I have primarily been using my usual, regular, repeat recipes that y'all have also already been using for years too now. I've also been using my Traeger grill and my pressure cooker quite a bit too.