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!

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.

With green beans available year round, this green bean vegetable salad with potatoes makes for a great side dish any time of the year.

Green Bean and Potato Salad

Green beans and potatoes go together like hand and glove, and we sure do love that hot dish served in the south.

But... have you ever considered combining this classic southern mix up with a vinaigrette and serving it cold? It's actually a great combination as a cold vegetable salad, though it's also good slightly warm or at room temperature too!

Small red or yellow potatoes, tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and dried herbs and roasted in the air fryer.

Air Fryer Roasted Potatoes

While I love all kinds of vegetables, my husband, aka "The Cajun," is not a big veggie eater.

He's more of a "starchy" vegetable kind of guy and specifically the classic meat and potatoes man, so potatoes make a regular appearance on the plate in this house, along with rice, because rice is a big deal in the Deep South thanks to our many rice fields.

In fact, according to Think Rice US Grown, each year American rice farmers sustainably grow roughly 20 billion pounds of rice in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas, half of which is used domestically, and the other half exported. That's a lot of rice y'all!

But, we're talking potatoes here.

A bread-based dressing with the classic vegetable seasonings and the addition of mashed potatoes.

Bread and Potato Dressing

Let's see. A bread-based dressing with the classic vegetable seasonings, and the addition of mashed potatoes?

I'm not at all mad at it!

In fact, I cannot believe this isn't already something in the South for heaven's sake.

Russet potatoes, slow cooked with onion, celery and chicken broth and finished with cream, prepared in your slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Potato Soup

Potato soup is a long-held favorite of many of you, from simple and classic, to fully loaded and dressed up, to easy, shortcut versions, most folks just seem to love it.

Featured on this website, are several versions in case you've missed them:

A potato salad made using half smashed and half chunky potatoes and finished with a sour cream and mayonnaise-based dressing.

Sour Cream Smashed Potato Salad

Hope y'all don't mind me sneaking in another potato salad before we roll into Fall in a few days!

Not that it matters much what the calendar says in the Deep South because yesterday it was miserably hot and humid. Not that the weather has ever stopped a craving on me, I sure do look forward to some cooler temperatures and some belly warmin' meals though - hopefully soon!

I wrote this version of potato salad in honor of my mother-in-law, who passed away a few years back. Although it's a bit different from her version, very different from my Mama's and different even from the way my father-in-law, who was also a great cook, made his, she prepared her potato salad mostly mashed, something that was very new to me.

French Potato Salad - Pommes de Terre a L'huile

A cold potato salad, made with red skinned potatoes, tossed with chicken stock and white wine, dressed with a lemon and mustard olive oil vinaigrette and tossed with green onions and herbs.

French Potato Salad

One day, as I shared cookout recipes on my Facebook page, I shared my classic potato salad, a recipe that, while I do prepare other versions on occasion, is my standby recipe and most similar to the way that my Mama made potato salad. A reader commented that I really should try French potato salad sometime.

Of course, I took that as a challenge!

This sheet pan mix of roasted potatoes with loads of vegetables and smoked sausage is an easy meal that's packed with flavor.

Roasted Potatoes with Sausage and Vegetables

You may remember a near viral recipe for a simple sheet pan roasted potatoes with onions and sweet peppers flashing across social media platforms the past year or so.

I'm old enough to remember when people just made these kinds of things with little to no fanfare, but hey, if social media can drum up some interest in cooking, well, anything... I'm happy about it!

Food, after all, isn't just about nourishment, although some would have you think so.

A small batch, quick and delicious soup made with cooked chicken and chicken stock, loads of vegetables, and tiny shell pasta.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

We've had a nice, though likely temporary, reprieve from the heat and humidity these last couple of days. It's so nice when the oppressive heat goes away even for a bit and we can breathe a little easier, but... it is still September. We have lots of summer still to go around in the Deep South!

Potato salad, made with red and green onions, celery, jalapeno, cilantro and boiled eggs, tossed with a sour cream and avocado dressing.

Sour Cream Avocado Potato Salad

I am a big fan of potato salad, and while I make the more classic, southern-style potato salad most often, I love all different kinds, and I love experimenting too.

Well, except mustard potato salad.

And when I say mustard I mean like heavy mustard based, and not the little dab of mustard that I do like to include in mine. For some reason, that heavy mustard just doesn't appeal to my taste buds at all, though I know some folks absolutely love it.

A quick and easy, small batch chowder, made with the trinity, smoked sausage, beef stock, stewed tomatoes, potatoes and white beans.

Smoked Sausage and White Bean Chowder

I sure love a good soup and even better when it's one of those quick and easy versions, but one that still tastes great!

Soup is pretty easy to make, no doubt about that, and you don't really even need a recipe. In fact, some of the best soups come out of refrigerator or freezer leftovers thrown together! Trouble is though, trying to recreate the same flavor the next time. While they are all usually still good, it's hit and miss on capturing the same taste you got before. That's where soup recipes come in handy.

Fresh green beans, trimmed and snapped and layered in with salt pork, onion, sliced smoked andouille sausage, plenty of freshly cracked black pepper and pork or chicken base or stock, cooked in the Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Green Beans, Potatoes and Andouille

I absolutely love a pot of slow stewed, fresh green beans, so much so, that I can literally make a meal of a pot, especially when you throw in some ham or andouille sausage! Just give me that and some cornbread, and I am in heaven y'all!

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I use my Instant Pot {affil link}, or one of my other electronic pressure cookers a lot, yes, even in the summer. I was never real attached to a slow cooker much, but I do a lot of cooking in the Instant Pot.

This Instant Pot version of green beans comes in right up there along with the slow stewed version, even though instead of hours slow stewing, they come together in just minutes. I've made them enough times now, varying the way I do them, that I'm finally ready to publish a standalone version.

No worries if you don't have an Instant Pot though - just click here to get to my slow-stewed, stovetop version!

A hearty, one-pot Italian-style meal, made with bone-in chicken thighs, Cajun andouille, potatoes, tomatoes and white beans.

One Pot Italian-Style Chicken Stew

This is a good and hearty, one-pot, Italian style stew, though "stew" is really a loose interpretation here. It's hearty, but not thick and rich as we think of stews to be, but rather a bit lighter, making it fully appropriate any time of the year.

I based my recipe on a bit of a combination of MarkCharles Misilli's One Pot Italian Chicken from the cookbook Easy Everyday Favorites and Jacques Pépin's Chicken Bouillabaisse in his cookbook Fast Food My Way {affil links}, since I find them to be strikingly similar.

Slow Cooker Corn and Potato Chowder from Deep South Dish website - A mix of chicken stock, tomatoes, corn and potatoes with herbs and seasonings and finished with a splash of cream.

Slow Cooker Corn and Potato Chowder

I've never really been a huge fan of crockpot cooking, although like everyone else, I do have a few favorites. Since the introduction of Instant Pots, and electronic pressure cookers overall really, I rarely use a slow cooker. They still have their place of course, especially for recipes like this where you can pretty much dump things in and go about your business for 8 hours.

I ran across this recipe in the book Southern Living's Big Book of Slow Cooking {affil link} and it sounded pretty good, so thought I'd give it a try with a few changes.

Russet potatoes, air fry baked, then the pulp scooped out and mixed with cream cheese, butter, salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, grated onion, bacon, cheddar cheese, stuffed back into the shells and baked again.

Air Fryer Twice-Baked Potato

I tell you what, if you live in the Deep South and you don't have an Instant Pot and an air fryer, I seriously don't know why.

Those have been the two most used appliances in my house all summer long in this oppressive heat we've been experiencing down here. I mean yes, we always have hot summers down here, but it sure seems we have had an awful lot of those heat advisories this summer and even though I have a killer A/C unit, I have had the oven on only a couple of times.

Kielbasa sausage, braised with cabbage, onions and potatoes in chicken broth.

Braised Kielbasa and Cabbage

Between Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, there are some pretty awesome smoked sausages to be found down here. Distinctly Deep South, they are unique, highly spiced and incredibly flavorful, and the sausages we use the most in our cooking.

And then there's unassuming, simple and mild, soft-textured Polish kielbasa.

Very much different than Conecuh, Savoie's, Polk's or Country Pleasin', but we love it down here just as much as anywhere else in the country. There are times you just want something simple and basic. Something that's comforting and delicious.

This cabbage dish is just that and kielbasa is perfection here.

Russet potatoes and chunks of carrots and onion are cooked stovetop in a tomato-based sauce with seasoned pork chops or pork steaks, for an easy one pot meal.

One Pot Pork Chop Dinner

The Cajun is a big meat and potatoes man. I may have mentioned that before I think! He's just not that into vegetables, so he's always a little disappointed when the first of the year rolls around and I'm back to trying to eat more balanced, and maybe even a bit healthier than usual. Meaning more greens and vegetables.

I'm a little bit slow starting this year, as I've been under the weather since right before Christmas and let's just say it's been one thing after another. Haven't had much of an appetite, but I think I dropped a couple pounds as a result. I'm actually still on the mend today and frankly, still not feeling that well, so food hasn't been all that appealing to me. I guess I'll let him have his meat and potatoes way.

Sausage and Garlic Potatoes - skillet fried potatoes, cooked with Italian, breakfast or turkey sausage, plenty of garlic and fresh or canned tomatoes.

Sausage and Garlic Potatoes

Okay, right up front, I reckon this isn't the prettiest picture, and I'm sure, due to the nature of the internet, somebody is gonna feel free to let me know that.

Truth is though, you and I know that a lot of the best tasting foods aren't necessarily the most photogenic. As a person with a blog of recipes, some are a little difficult to "style." Have you seen my mandarin orange fruit salad, aka to many of you as ambrosia salad? There is no way to make that dish look good, but man is it delicious! I've already told y'all what I think about all that photography business anyway. I'm just more about the food around here! Heck, I didn't even take this one out of the skillet I cooked it in.

After the Boil Seafood Potato Salad

 

A potato salad, made with leftovers from a seafood boil, using highly seasoned red-skinned potatoes, shrimp, crawfish and crab. Shown here with fried catfish and collards If you didn't have a boil, no worries - you can still make it!

Seafood Potato Salad

What some areas of the country refer to as Frogmore Stew or "low country boils," are simply called seafood boils here in the Deep South, and they might involve shrimp, crawfish or crabs. With access to the best seafood, boils are actually a favorite addition to summer cookouts here along the Gulf Coast, and certainly one of my favorite parties to attend. If there's a boil-master manning a massive outdoor cooker that's loaded with Gulf seafood, I'm definitely in!