A quick skillet meal made with seasoned, boneless, skinless chicken thighs and frozen mixed vegetables, served over rice or noodles.

Skillet Chicken and Vegetables

I love a quick skillet meal!

Even though I run this recipe website, I'm still like many of you. In between recipe development and getting things in a form where y'all can recreate it in your own kitchen, I have some days where I'm just not super inspired about what I want to eat, or even whether or not I even feel like cooking!

A favorite dish of pasta with ground beef, tomatoes and chili seasonings, made easy using the Instant Pot!

Instant Pot Chili Mac

I love sauce and pasta dishes like this chili mac. It's so easy to throw together and gives you such a tasty dish that really most everyone loves and it's good any time of the year.

Besides a multitude of variations within the recipe itself that you can make by increasing and decreasing the chili seasonings and yes, even the cheese (or even leaving the cheese out), there are other ways to vary it too, just to give it a different flavor. Taco seasoned comes to mind as does a more mildly seasoned ground beef "helper" style of pasta and everything in between.

Strips of chicken breast, tossed with fajita seasonings and combined with sauteed peppers and onions, served on warmed corn or flour tortillas.

Skillet Chicken Fajitas

I love when you're sitting in a Mexican restaurant and a server passes by with a sizzling cast iron fajita plate filled with veggies and meat. It leaves behind it such a fragrant trail doesn't it?

Apparently,  it's a bit addictive too, that aroma, because you will often see tray after tray after tray delivered after that first one passed through!

Even my veggie adverse hubby aka The Cajun, fell into that fragrant allure once, and ordered some, despite my warning that they were more vegetable than they were protein.

A spicy, slow-simmered red sauce made with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and red pepper flakes and tossed with penne pasta. Here I've added a few additional seasonings, some chopped sweet onion and finished it with fresh Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Spicy Arrabiata Sauce with Pasta

The word arrabiata (ah-rah-BYAH-tah) literally translates into the word "angry" and it's the heat from the addition of red pepper flakes here that earned the sauce the name, setting it apart from other more traditional Italian sauces.

If you enjoy a little heat in your sauce, start with the lesser amount of red pepper flakes. If you are already a lover of super spicy, increase that according to your personal taste.

While you can use fresh tomatoes, this sauce is often made using shelf-stable canned tomatoes, whether home canned or commercially bought, so it's an easy pasta sauce that can be prepared from the pantry anytime.

The classic dip combination of spinach and artichokes in an Alfredo base, with Italian and cream cheese and crabmeat.

Alfredo Spinach and Artichoke Dip with Crab

We're kind of in that awkward stage of food seasons down here along the Gulf Coast. Summer is gone from the calendar and mostly along with all the great summer vegetables, and though fall has arrived, the weather here can get a little wacky. Some days cooler, then others downright summerlike.

One thing is for certain this time of year though.

Tis the season for football and football means appetizers and snacks! Sandwiches, wings, meatballs, gumbo, chilis, soups, snacks, a wide variety of finger foods and dips, of course! You can grab up some ideas by tapping on those categories, or right here at this link.

A homemade from scratch snack cake made with peanut butter and finished with a caramel cream cheese frosting.

Homemade Peanut Butter Snack Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

If you've been around my blog any length of time, you already know I'm far more of a savory cook than I am a baker. Primarily that's simply because I'm not a huge sweets person.

It's not that I don't enjoy sweets because I absolutely do, and those beautiful desserts that pass by us all on social media certainly get my mouth watering, but I'm more likely to crave a bag of potato chips over something sweet.

I'm just more of a salty gal!

Tortilla scoops, filled with a blend of bacon with Rotel diced tomatoes, mayonnaise and cheese and topped with taco sauce and more cheese, then baked, for a great party appetizer!

Cheesy Bacon Rotel Cup Appetizers

Football season is king around this house with my husband, aka The Cajun. He loves the game, so I'm always looking for a good appetizer to snack on when it comes to game time, and this is a great one.

Typically made using phyllo cups, those can be a little hard to find around here for some reason. One day when I was adding my standard tortilla chips to the grocery list, I was reminded about the tortilla scoops. I thought hey, I bet those would work for those little snacks I like to make.

Turns out, somebody had already thought of that, so I made the adjustment and frankly, it worked out well!

Fresh green beans, trimmed, cut and blanched, prepared with onion, garlic and toasted almonds and finished with lemon, salt and pepper.

Green Beans with Almonds

Green beans are a very common vegetable side in this house because even my veggie adverse hubby, known here as The Cajun, will eat them!

I have to give some kudos to the man though, because since I've been blogging food, he has gotten a bit more adventurous with trying different veggies and other dishes that, frankly, he once would not touch. Typically if I put it on his plate, he'll try it and many times, says how good it was!

Oysters, cooked stovetop or on the grill in a cast iron skillet and tossed in a seasoned garlic butter blend. Crackers are dipped in the butter, topped with oysters and a splash of hot pepper sauce.

Cast Iron Oyster Appetizer

Where's my oyster lovers because trust me on this one. You will want to make this!

It's a great snack for movie night, or as a party or game day appetizer and your oyster loving friends will love it too, although you'll want to increase the recipe two or three times.

The idea came from a local cookbook Cooking on the Coast by the O'Keefe family, contributed by Jody O'Keefe, who got it and named it Oysters A and M Breaux, after friends of theirs from Cajun Country.

Cast iron skillet Southern cornbread made with buttermilk and stone-ground cornmeal.

Real Southern Cornbread

What's the fastest way to stir up a hissy fit among Southerners?

Say to them "a real Southerner would never ... [fill in the blank]," that's how.

I hear it sometimes on social media about my own personal recipes because there are some folks who have set in their heads that to be "Southern," a recipe must be prepared a certain way - the way that they grew up with it being prepared, and only that way.

Corn tortillas cut into wedges and tossed with seasoned ground beef, enchilada sauce, green chilies, black beans and cheese and baked.

Sheet Pan Beef Enchilada Casserole

One day I ran across this recipe while browsing through Instagram - something that I like to do when I'm avoiding doing something else I should be doing. That can happen a lot these days and social media can be really good for that!

Anyway, this fella Kevin Ashton (@oldscoolkevmo) is a chef for a sorority house and he makes a lot of good eats that he cooks for himself at home and those gals and shares them on his social media. I'm sure they must really enjoy the things he comes up with because it's a wide variety of cuisines and it all looks good!

By the way, he's also battling stage 4 cancer (but seems to be beating it), so go and give him some love on one of his platforms y'all!

Russet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and sliced, tossed in cooking oil and fried.

Soft Fried Potatoes

There are versions of these kinds of fried potatoes all across the country, but most definitely in the South - and, as usual, everybody prepares them differently.

There are two versions that I make the most.

• Southern-style, smothered fried potatoes with onion, made with cubed peeled russet potatoes, that are first steamed, then pan-fried in bacon drippings to crisp and turned, resulting in a tender inside, but with crispy outer edges.
  
  
• Unpeeled red skin potatoes, fried up in a cast iron skillet with sweet or yellow onion and bell pepper and nicely seasoned for a take on Potatoes O'Brien. Great for any meal and versatile - add bacon, ham, sausage, fresh herbs and even mushrooms if you like!

Chicken wings generously seasoned and air fried naked. Saucing optional!

Air Fryer Naked Chicken Wings

I love wings. Love them!

They are one of our top favorite foods for football gatherings, movie watching or really anytime snacking.

I used to do them most of the time in the oven and still do occasionally but they are ideal and so easy in the air fryer.

Now... first a disclosure because it's important and it matters.

Italian sausage, sweet peppers and onions, slow baked with crushed and diced tomatoes, olive oil and seasonings, served here on buttered and toasted rolls.

Baked Italian Sausage and Peppers

I love Italian sausage and peppers, but it never occurred to me to cook it in the oven.

While I think that this dish is not really authentic Italian, but more of a fusion of Italian with American, Italians do cook a lot of sausages, though the kinds do vary by region. Typically when authentic Italian sausages are referenced, it means salamina or salame da sugo, cotechino, zampone, or capello del prete and not the typical sweet or hot Italian sausages in our markets here in the U.S.

I love eating this dish, especially on a good sturdy bun, but mostly prepared it in what I thought was the more traditional manner - whole sausages, browned off in a skillet of oil, set aside while sliced peppers and onions are sauteed in that same skillet, then everything combined together.

An appetizer of poached shrimp, marinated in a tangy cocktail sauce based on a combination of V8 and ketchup with lime and a mix of vegetables.

Mexican Shrimp Cocktail - Cóctel de Camarones

This is such a great appetizer anytime really, but will certainly go very nicely as a starter for your Taco Tuesday, any cocktail party, football gathering or tailgate and those cookouts too. Heck, just a movie night even - just bust up some saltines or tortilla chips!

A tad bit different from what you're used to seeing with our classic American-style shrimp cocktail, it's sort of a cross between that, a ceviche and a gazpacho, all in a Bloody Mary-like base!

A tomato and cucumber salad with red onion, olives and feta tossed in a Greek-style dressing.

(Almost Greek-Style) Tomato, Cucumber and Olive Salad

I'm always up for making different kinds of salads using tomatoes, cucumbers, or both!

I saw this Horiatiki Salata aka Hearty Greek Salad on the America's Test Kitchen channel on Roku one day recently and thought it looked so good I needed to make it right away!

Only thing is, I didn't have everything on hand that it called for though, so I had to make some adjustments, which is why I say this is an "almost" Greek-style salad.

A fried bologna sandwich with mayonnaise and Colman's mustard sauce piled with thick sliced bologna, caramelized onion, cheese, shredded lettuce and vinegar potato chips.

Fried Bologna Sandwich

Y'all. This is hands-down the best fried bologna sandwich I have ever had in my entire life, and I've eaten a lot of fried bologna sandwiches.

Most of mine aren't anywhere close to this - just a slice, or two of bologna fried in a skillet, then sandwiched in two slices of white bread with some mustard. Delish!

The melding of the flavors here though, is just fried bologna perfection.

Catfish fillets rubbed with a blackening seasoning and cooked in the air fryer!

Air Fryer Blackened Catfish

If you love well seasoned fish, you're gonna love this blackened catfish and it's made a little easier with the air fryer!

Usually when I blacken anything, it requires a screaming hot cast iron pan and that creates an intense amount of smoke, so for me, it's relegated to cooking outside on the grill. It works great, but the heat has really kept me from being able to do outdoor cooking in the summer.

This method provides a beautiful and flavorful blackening and it's done right in the air fryer on the kitchen counter and minus the smoke.

Shrimp and Pasta with Vegetables (Primavera)

Linguine pasta in a cream sauce with a mix of vegetables and shrimp.

Shrimp and Pasta with Vegetables

This dish came about when I found quite a few mixed bags of frozen vegetables up in my freezer that I had bought for something very specific that I had intended to make - but forgot about. That happens to me alot!

And I know, you're gonna say "now Mary. That's pasta primavera!" Well, yes, to a certain degree, it is!

Pasta primavera is an American dish of pasta in a cream sauce with fresh vegetables, typically fresh spring vegetables, and the primary difference here is that instead of those typical fresh vegetables, I used those frozen ones.

Waste not, want not, and plus, it shaves off a little time!

A Southwestern style pasta salad featuring rotini pasta with taco seasonings, salsa, veggies and beans. Drizzle with your favorite salad dressing and garnish as desired.

Taco Pasta Salad   

Pasta salads are such a welcome addition to the summertime menu, aren't they?

Some days it's just so hot that the thought of putting a lot of effort into a full out meal can be daunting and overwhelming, nevermind the fact that I may not even have an appetite for that!

What happens with me during those times is that I end up snacking on a whole bunch of junk, instead of having a "meal."

Not great.

Yellow squash, cut into chunks, dipped in a blend of buttermilk and hot sauce and dredged in seasoned flour, sprayed with oil and air fried.

Air Fryer Squash Nuggets

I love summer squash and it can be prepared all kinds of ways - in a salad, stuffed, in a gratin, stir fried, smothered with onions, creamed, in a dressing, in a casserole and on the grill, among others.

And, I absolutely love deep fried squash y'all.

I mean deep fried foods are just so darned tasty - especially that good ole southern fried chicken!

A mixture of long grain rice, cooked stovetop in chicken stock with green and sweet onion, garlic, parsley and a variety of seasonings with Wild American shrimp stirred in at the end.

Cajun Shrimp Bowl

I love simple, one pot meals like this, especially in the heat of the summer. And yeah, especially when my central A/C goes south and the part takes a week to get here from Houston. During the hottest month of southern summers too. 

Ugh. I am dying.

Thank goodness for backup portable air conditioners because we have several going at the moment, though they are pretty much intended for use during a hurricane power outage to be seated right in front of, so they can't really keep up and the house is at minimum in the low 80s - all day long. Better than nothing I guess.

Another classic egg salad made with hard boiled eggs, red and green onion, lemon, seasonings, parsley, mayonnaise and Creole mustard.

Another Egg Salad

It's sure been another hot summer hasn't it y'all? And it seems to be all over the country so I guess we're all in good company.

Well, it is summer! But... I'm SO ready for fall.

I'm still plugging away over here cooking up a storm anyway. I mean, no matter the weather, we still gotta eat, right?

Still, there are days where the heat is just too exhausting to me and egg salad is a welcome addition, whether stuffed into a fresh garden tomato, spooned onto sandwich bread, or scooped on a plate with some crackers.

A whole chicken, cut up, seasoned simply and baked uncovered.

Classic Baked Chicken

I actually do have a few, but one of my top favorite kitchen aromas is of a roasting turkey or chicken.

Not only is it a great statement of a delicious meal on the way, it really invokes a lot of memories for me. Growing up, the holidays and the meals surrounding them, were a very important part of my life. I sure do miss those days.

Poached chicken breasts, highly seasoned, shredded and stuffed into warmed soft tortillas and dressed with red onion, pico de gallo, cilantro and avocado, or your favorite classic toppings, finished with a squeeze of lime.

Shredded Chicken Soft Tacos - Tacos de Pollo

My husband, aka The Cajun, is pretty set in his taco consumption and not very willing to branch out.

Seasoned ground beef on crunchy taco shells and dressed with a little bit of tomato and lettuce and lots of cheese. That's it.

Me, I'm open to pretty much any variation out there. Shredded beef. Ground turkey. Ground chicken. Shredded chicken. Shrimp. Fish. Steak. Pork. Even potatoes and eggs. I love them all!

A Cajun-style loose meat sandwich, made with ground beef and pork, the trinity veggies, mushroom sauce and a mixture of seasonings, piled on a pistolette roll or po'boy bread.

Cajun Farre Loose Meat Sandwich

Ever heard of a Cajun Farre dressing sandwich?

Probably not, because while it is pretty common in some areas of Louisiana, even often being served as a sandwich spread at parties, as a funeral food and yes, even wedding receptions, it's still not well known even across all of Louisiana, and certainly not the Southern region.

Well... we're gonna change that!

Hand-formed pones of dense and sturdy fried cornmeal patties, a perfect companion for a bowl of greens and pot likker.

Corn Dodgers

If you look up corn dodgers on the internet, you'll find a huge variety of recipes that may differ significantly from one another.

I suppose that's true of a lot of dishes in Southern cooking - like corn casseroles for instance. In truth, it really all depends on one thing, and one thing only.

What you grew up with and how your Mama cooked things!

Pasta salad, made with tiny shell pasta, tossed with a dressing made with mayonnaise, sour cream and Creole mustard with grilled salmon folded in.

Grilled Salmon Pasta Salad

I love fish! Some of my favorites include Mississippi farm raised catfish, of course, as well as the bounty from our beloved Mississippi Sound and Gulf of Mexico. 

White trout, speckled trout, redfish, mackerel, snapper, red drum, grouper, even good ole ground mullet and Biloxi Bacon aka striped popeye mullet or jumping mullet, are just some of the fish that are found here, and frankly most of us from here were just about weaned on it all from birth!

This shrimp and sausage skillet meal, made in a flavorful buttery, garlic sauce, may be served over toast points, in baked pastry shells or with pasta or rice.

Singing Shrimp

Here's another great shrimp recipe from New Orleans!

It is said to have originated at Commander's Palace, sometime in the late 1980s, where it was prepared table-side and flamed with cognac for effect. Those table-side presentations are pretty exciting!

As far as I know this dish is no longer offered at the restaurant, although I haven't been to Commander's in too many years, so don't hold me to that!!

A classic tomato salad with sweet onion and cucumber and a nicely balanced vinegar based dressing.

Cucumber Tomato and Onion Salad

I love cucumber, tomato and onion salad combinations and I eat them constantly over these hot summers, so I am always playing around with them.

It's pretty amazing how subtle changes in the same basic ingredients can completely alter the texture and taste in them and the dressing on this one is a great balance between tart and sweet to me.

Social Media Roundup Cookout Menu Ideas 3 - What You Missed! Mint Infused Southern Sweet Tea, Cucumber and Onion Salad, Tri-Color Rotini Italian Pasta Salad, Southern-Style Potato Salad - My Way, Fresh Corn Casserole, Chile Cheese Cornbread and Summer Berry Cobbler. Tap/click the photos or links below to see them all.

Social Media Roundup Cookout Menu Ideas 3

Summer cookouts are in full swing, so we've been sharing on our social media some of those favorite beverages, salads, sides, mains and desserts that we all love to have when it's cookout time - even, yes, for those of us who don't really cook outside much!

We share regularly on social media during the week, but unfortunately, algorithms keep a lot of those posts hidden from our members there - even those who have actively "liked" the page! I've starting duplicating some of those shares in roundups right here on my website to let you know what you may have missed.

My version of Johnny Marzetti, a well-loved baked casserole originating in Ohio, made with ground beef and pork, the trinity of southern cooking, tomato soup, mushrooms, egg noodles and cheese.

Johnny Marzetti Casserole - My Way

I know, I know... it's HOT! But this is one of my favorite casseroles to make, and I've made it twice here recently, so yeah, I'm sharing it, right in the heat of the summer.

Besides, it's a terrific potluck carry too that everybody enjoys.

There is something about the combination of textures and flavors here that make this an outstanding meal anytime of the year and perfect if you have a countertop oven (#ad), which is what I use the most these days anyway, especially in the summer.

Fresh, or fresh frozen purple hull peas, seasoned simply with salt pork, onion and chicken stock, made quick and easy in the Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Purple Hull Peas

Purple hull peas are my favorite southern pea!

They are part of the group of peas, that are really beans, and something that we love so much in the South. It's a summer favorite among many of us.

They are easy to grow too and easier to shell than they used to be when an afternoon of shelling once yielded sore and purple fingers!

Baby back ribs, sprinkled with a dry rib rub and air fried with sauce applied in the last minutes of cooking.

Air Fryer Baby Back Ribs

Y'all, I swear. If I hadn't tried it for myself, I never would have believed you could successfully prepare baby back ribs - in an air fryer!

What??

In fact, the first time I made them I thought surely it was a fluke. So I tried it again.

Sure enough, it's true! And they are good y'all.

Social Media Roundup Cookout Menu Ideas 2 - What You Missed! - Old Fashioned Hand-Squeezed Fresh Lemonade, Fire and Ice Summer Salad, Mississippi Comeback Sauce, Baked Vidalia Onions, Pimento Cheese Finger Sandwiches, Southern Caviar - Black Eyed Pea Salad, Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, Country Style Ribs with Pepper Jelly Barbecue Sauce and Creamy Peanut Butter Pie.

Social Media Roundup Cookout Menu Ideas 2

With Memorial Day and summer cookouts around the corner, we've begun sharing on our social media some of those favorite foods we love to have when it's cookout time - even for those of us who don't really cook outside much!

We've got you covered for beverages and cocktails, appetizers, dips, salads and sides as well as main dish offerings and summer desserts!

We share on social media regularly every day, but unfortunately, algorithms keep a lot of those posts hidden from our members there who have actually "liked" the page! I've starting duplicating some of those shares in roundups right here on my website.

Social Media Roundup Cookout Menu Ideas 1 - What You Missed! - Southwestern Chip Dip, Cucumber Salad with Creamy Buttermilk Herb Dressing, Beer Braised Hot Dogs, General-Purpose Grilling Marinade, Memphis-Style Southern Dry Rub Grilled Pork Spareribs, Baked Bean Medley, Bacon Ranch Cold Baked Potato Salad and Mandarin Orange Pig Pickin' Cake.

Social Media Roundup Cookout Menu Ideas 1

Memorial Day is just about here y'all!

As the commemoration of our country's servicemen and women who have died in the line of duty, Memorial Day also kicks off the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S., with all kinds of events across the country, and, of course, yummy barbecues!

It's a long summer ahead of us, and I just heard that it's gonna be even more hot and muggy than usual. And possibly more tropical storms and hurricanes to deal with too. Ugh.

Well, I say, let's just enjoy the food for now!

We've begun sharing some of those favorite foods we love to have when it's cookout time - even when we may never cook outside! Favorite beverages, appetizers, salads and sides and of course those main dish ribs, chicken, steaks and such, and let's not forget summer desserts!

A classic tuna salad made with the addition of grated apple and served here on griddled Texas Toast.

Tuna Salad with Apple

Not long ago, my sister in law told The Cajun she was getting rid of some old cookbooks and asked him if I might like them.

Since physical libraries don't hold onto cookbooks for very long these days and the older cookbooks are extremely useful tools for recipe research, I'm never one to turn down cookbooks, so I said of course! 

Most of them were older Southern Living annuals and back then, not only were they summaries of the year's recipes shared from the magazine, a lot of folks don't realize that many Southern Living recipes started much like you see with Taste of Home - they were recipes submitted by readers! 

Social Media Roundup Seafood Favorites 2

Social Media Roundup - Seafood Favorites 2, What You Missed! Gulf Coast Style Pan Fried Crab Cakes, Hushpuppy Breaded Fried Shrimp, Godchaux Mixed Seafood Salad with Creole Vinaigrette Dressing, Seafood and Eggplant Dressing and Spicy Orange Pecan Shrimp Stir Fry

Seafood Favorites 2

We've been sharing more of our classic favorites on social media lately and of course, considering I live right along the Gulf Coast that is very often seafood and certainly a lot of shrimp recipes!

I do love shrimp and it's a very versatile protein.

Of course Fridays have always been a seafood day here where I live, as much as Mondays have always been a red beans and rice day, but we have amazing seafood here along the Gulf Coast so any day can be a seafood day!

A whole cut up chicken, soaked in a seasoned buttermilk and mustard marinade, then dredged in a seasoned flour, deep fried and finished in the oven. Pictured here with roasted potatoes and black-eyed peas.

Buttermilk Mustard Fried Chicken

Like many Southerners, I love fried chicken, especially when it's prepared well. Although pretty rewarding in the end, it is a little messy frying it at home though and frankly takes practice,  meaning you need to keep making it often to perfect the processes!

You know. Like Grandma did.

For those reasons, lots of folks satisfy those occasional fried chicken cravings with take out these days and while really great fried chicken can be found at sit down restaurants, you can also find it at locally owned gas station counters, at regional grocery store delis like Winn Dixie and Rouses in my neighborhood, at local sit down or take out buffets like Hartz, Cajun's and Broome's and fried chicken places like Popeye's and KFC.

The one problem? Have you seen the prices?

American-style tacos made with slow braised, seasoned ground beef or turkey.

Tex-Mex American-Style Taco Meat

I love American style Mexican food, and I'm certainly not opposed at all to using seasoning packets to season them.

They are 100% convenient and I usually keep a few on hand, but sometimes I also like to change up the ingredient amounts for different kinds of dishes.

I've tried a few different ones, including generics, and the brand that I like the most personally is Taco Bell Original (#affiliate) because it seems to have the best combination of flavors for me, but hey... I also enjoy their tacos on occasion when I'm hungry and I just want a quick snack!

Ziti pasta, layered with a mix of shredded off the block Monterey Jack and extra sharp Cheddar cheeses, salted butter, finished with egg with whole milk and topped with additional cheese and baked.

Baked Ziti with Cheese

A lot of folks enjoy a baked ziti, made with tiny beef and sausage meatballs in a tomato-based sauce with cheeses with ziti noodles. It's a bit of a labor of love because it's a little time consuming, so that I even made a quicker, easier stovetop, skillet version that provides a very similar taste. 

Most folks also enjoy a good homemade macaroni and cheese typically made with elbow macaroni and I've got several versions available on the website.

I took some of the basic aspects of my own mac and cheese recipes and used ziti noodles instead of classic elbows for a little bit of a change!

Social Media Roundup Seafood Favorites 1

Social Media Roundup - Seafood Favorites, What You Missed! Skillet Shrimp and Pasta with Asparagus, Classic Fried Shrimp on a Po'boy, Crabbie Melts, Tex-Mex Grilled Shrimp Tacos and Boudin Stuffed Shrimp.

Seafood Favorites 1

My husband, aka to y'all as The Cajun, loves his seafood.

Anytime I fix supper that is seafood based he talks about how blessed we are here along the Gulf Coast to have such great access to fresh seafood, and he's right!

The best deal of course is when you get out there on a boat and catch it fresh yourself. You can even pull in some good eating right off of a local pier, but buying it at the local fish monger is good too, though you do pay a bit of a premium because somebody else did the work!

But... what if you're landlocked?

An Italian chopped salad of lettuce, assorted Italian meats, black forest smoked ham, salami and provolone cheese, finished with olive salad and a homemade creamy Italian dressing, served on a hoagie or sub bun.

Italian Chopped Salad Sandwich

Y'all may remember this sandwich circulating on social media awhile back. I think it started as a TikTok Italian grinder sandwich with all of the meats layered up on a roll like you'd get at any good sandwich shop. From there, it appears that somebody thought to chop it all up together like a salad and then pile it on a bun.

Brilliant!

As always, multiple variations arose from whatever the original was as everybody put their own spin on it. Most of them actually do chop up the tomato with the rest of the ingredients but I really didn't want the juices of the tomatoes mixed it, so I opted for adding the tomatoes sliced to dress the final sandwich, if someone wanted them and then finished with a creamy dressing.

My Ultimate Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes, made with the ease of a slow cooker, using peeled russet potatoes cooked in chicken broth, then beat with butter, heavy cream or whole milk and cream cheese. Pictured here with trinity seasoned green peas, chicken fried chicken and milk gravy.

Slow Cooker Ultimate Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

I love mashed potatoes anytime, not just holidays!

While we may tone it down a bit when we make them on the regular, admittedly, holidays are when we usually break out the fancy potatoes. You know the ones. Cream cheese. Whole milk with heavy cream. Plenty of butter!

Those of y'all who have been around any length of time already know I'm not huge on the slow cooker, mostly because I am not a very good advance planner and generally speaking, slow cookers require that! I have some slow cooker recipes here and there because I know it's one more tool to make mealtime happen.

Cocktail smoked sausages, wrapped in puff pastry and topped with fresh Parmesan with bagel seasoning and black pepper and served with a homemade mustard sauce.

Puff Pastry Pigs in a Blanket with Mustard Sauce

I love pigs in a blanket for an appetizer and apparently I'm not alone! Guaranteed they will be one of the first platters to be cleared at your gathering.

Usually made with a biscuit dough, they are a delicious two bite appetizer for any time, but let me tell you what... make them with puff pastry and they are out of the park!

They are also usually made with hot dogs, and me, I love hot dogs, yes, even though I know how they're made and I know what's in them. I. Don't. Care!

Lent Favorites Roundup 2 - What You've Missed on Social Media! Tap on the photos below to visit each recipe.

Social Media Roundup - Lent Favorites 2

We're having a bit of a strange weather cycle around the country aren't we?

We seem to be cycling between winter and spring even here along the Gulf Coast from one day to the next and I've personally gone from having the heat on in the morning to having the air conditioner on by afternoon way too many days!

But... it is mighty nice to see things blooming up around here finally! My azalea is in full bloom and I had to grab a picture of it before the rain washed all the blooms off.

I call this my "Katrina Azalea" because it started from a clipping that came off of a huge azalea shrub from my previous home and one of the few surviving plants from the saltwater intrusion of that storm into my yard.

We've been sharing some Lent-friendly meal ideas on social media this season, though honestly, these are all recipes for anyone, anytime!

A quick skillet version of barbecue chicken made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts and shown here with my Green Bean Supreme Casserole and Fiesta Confetti Corn.

Skillet Barbecue Chicken

The inspiration for this began with the BBQ Glazed Chicken in Pioneer Woman's most recent cookbook Dinner's Ready (#ad).

As soon as I saw the picture, my mouth watered so I thought that I would try it with some boneless, skinless chicken breasts I had and my own rub.

I loved the way this turned out y'all!

Quick and easy individual pizzas made using Naan flatbread.

Naan Flatbread Pizza

Y'all. I am a nut for pizza!

I love them homemade the best of course, though I'll take a good fresh made grocery store deli pizza too. My husband has a favorite chain he likes and they are really good too!

But, pizza like everything else has become a bit expensive these days. We usually do a medium half pepperoni and half veggie, with a military discount to save a little money. The Cajun goes nowhere without asking for a military discount!

Oven roasted, well-seasoned jumbo shrimp tossed in a tomato-based pasta sauce and rotini pasta.

Roasted Shrimp and Pasta Sauce

Pasta, pasta sauce and shrimp. How can you go wrong with that?!

Some of y'all may know about one of my favorite pasta sauces that I typically make in the summer with those super delicious, fresh from the garden tomatoes. It's simple, light and so flavorful.