May 2023 Wrap-Up: What You May Have Missed!

May 2023 Wrap-Up: Small Batch Fresh Tomato Relish, Creamy Cajun Shrimp and Sausage with Noodles, Buttermilk Banana Snack Cake, Ranch Oyster Crackers and Mulitas - Chicken Tortilla Sandwiches - did you miss anything?

May 2023 Wrap-Up

Whew y'all! May sure did fly by.

Did you catch all of the new recipes that posted up on Deep South Dish during the month?

Here's a quick round-up, in case you missed anything!

Small Batch Fresh Tomato Relish

This easy to make fresh tomato relish adds a great punch of bright flavor to so many dishes, you'll want to have some in your refrigerator all summer long!

Fresh Tomato Relish

With summer tomatoes heading in soon, I thought it would be a great time to introduce this fresh tomato relish. Of course, it's good even with hot house tomatoes throughout the year, but you just really can't beat the superior flavor that comes from backyard or otherwise locally grown fresh tomatoes.

What exactly is a fresh tomato relish?

It's a little like a pico, minus the lime and cilantro, but made with a dressing that is much like the well-loved tomato salads we consume here in the south all summer long - a little sour, a little sweet.

A quick skillet meal of shrimp and smoked sausage with wide egg noodles in a creamy sauce.

Creamy Cajun Shrimp and Sausage with Noodles

We are so blessed with fresh seafood and Gulf shrimp is available year round, very often fresh off the boat which is my preferred method of purchase. 

I'm always fooling around with different shrimp and pasta combinations to try different things and this is one of those instances. As a recipe writer and owner of a food-related website, there's a lot of experimenting and often it takes multiple tries to get a recipe just right.

At least that's my philosophy as a food blogger, because one thing I can guarantee and that is when a recipe appears on my website, it has been well-tested to meet my approval.

A light and tender snack cake made with buttermilk and bananas.

Buttermilk Banana Snack Cake

I am not a baker. Y'all pretty much know that if you've been hanging around this blog any length of time.

I'm much more of a savory home cook and baking has just never been my thing so I don't bake much and really, you kind of have to bake regularly in order to build experience in it!

So funny though, but I broke all of the known rules of cake making with this snack cake, which is probably why I'm not much of a baker!

Oyster crackers get transformed into a terrific snack or salad topper when infused with salad oil, ranch seasoning, a few common seasonings and then lightly baked.

Ranch Oyster Crackers

I think that pretty much everybody is now familiar with the seasoned snack crackers marinated in a blend of oil, dry ranch seasoning and a few flavor enhancements.

They often start with saltines these days like my Firecracker Saltines, but did you know that they actually originated with oyster crackers? Yes! Oyster crackers are not just for oyster stew or soups. They make a nice, crunchy, comforting snack too.

Folks have moved on even further to include a wider variety of crackers and forms of seasonings, bumping it up with red pepper flakes and a little cayenne, lemon pepper, Creole or Cajun seasoning, even Worcestershire. 

Known as Mulitas in Mexican culture, highly seasoned chicken is sandwiched between homemade corn tortillas with shredded cheese and finished with guacamole or avocado, sour cream, pico de gallo or salsa, or whatever your favorite toppings are.

Chicken Tortilla Sandwiches (Mulitas)

I don't remember where I first heard about mulitas, and, in fact, when I first did, I mistakenly assumed it was just another name for a quesadilla!

The reason for that is that I usually make my quesadillas the same way as these mulitas.

Although both can have very similar fillings, some of the differences I've seen between quesadillas and mulitas include: