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!

Great Northern beans, made easy cooked in the Instant Pot, seasoned with the trinity of southern vegetables and a little bacon for flavor, and served with pan seared or air fried smoked sausage.

Instant Pot Great Northern White Beans

Once upon a time, I didn't think I needed an air fryer. Until I got one.

And, I didn't think I wanted a pressure cooker either.

Like many of you, I had witnessed a disaster with one of those old-school, scary stovetop pressure cookers, when our dinner ended up on the ceiling instead of in our bellies, and boy was my Mama mad!

Nope. Never had an interest in going there.

So, I wasn't a whole lot interested in these newfangled ones either.

A classic pork roast, simply seasoned, cooked in the Instant Pot and served with gravy.

Instant Pot Pork Roast

This is a classic, very basic pork roast done in the Instant Pot, or whatever electronic pressure cooker you have.

I say that, because long before the Instant Pot craze, I had purchased three other cookers - two are QVC branded Cook's Essentials pots and the other a Power XL pressure cooker. They all did such a fine job, that I didn't get on the IP bandwagon for quite some time.

A delicious ground beef, macaroni and tomato meal made quick and easy using the Instant Pot.

Instant Pot American-Style Goulash

I have truly enjoyed having an Instant Pot. Even though, much like the whole air fryer thing, I was skeptical, I own several pots now and I use them all the time!

For plain rice, rice dishes and boiled eggs. Potatoes for both mashed potatoes and potato salad or just for a side. Fresh green beans and carrots and cabbage and dried beans, done in no time. Pork roasts and ribs and pulled pork. Soups and stews and chicken, especially good for chicken and dumplings. And, given enough time, it's great for a nice, tender pot roast too.

It sure is fantastic for a quick pasta meal!

A classic, southern-seasoned stewed chicken and gravy, made easy using the Instant Pot!

Instant Pot Stewed Chicken

I love my slow-stewed chicken, but it's just that - a bit of a timely process since the chicken slow simmers for awhile. Once I gave it a try in my Instant Pot, it was a game changer!

With whole chickens on sale regularly around here under $1 a pound, and a faster cooking process, it has become an easy, comfort meal to enjoy anytime.

A simple one pot chicken, sausage and rice dish, regional to South Carolina and one that dates back to the 1700s, using a whole chicken and made super easy with the Instant Pot.

Instant Pot Chicken Bog

I was a bit intrigued when I first heard about bog. It's not something that is known much around here as far as I know. It's more of a regional dish born in South Carolina.

Every region seems to have some sort of chicken and rice dish like this though, and of course in my area of the Deep South, it's all about jambalaya!

So... what is the base difference between a Deep South jambalaya and bog?

Fresh coin cut carrots, steamed in the Instant Pot, then tossed with a honey based butter glaze.

Instant Pot Honey Glazed Carrots

I tell y'all what. I am sure enjoying my Instant Pots {affil link} and I've used them an awful lot. To be fair, I have also enjoyed the other brands of electronic pressure cookers that were born before the IP brand was all the rage, all of which I still have, but what I'm saying is that you just cannot beat the ease of preparation and time savings with this appliance.

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!

Chicken drumsticks, cooked in an enhanced sauce in the Instant Pot or other electronic pressure cooker, then brushed with reserved sauce and passed under the broiler or over a hot grill to finish.

Instant Pot Barbecue Drumsticks

Well, I tell you what... it's been a very hot summer. And it's nowhere near over.

The expression, it's not the heat, it's the humidity has seriously applied for me, because even when it's overcast and cloudy, that humidity just sucks the life out of me and I find it difficult to breathe outside. Five minutes outside right now translates to about an hour inside for recovery, so I have just not had that much of an appetite for standing over a stove to cook much this summer.

Chicken Lazone, made using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, either cut into chunks, tenders or left whole, highly seasoned and pan seared, then served with a creamy butter sauce over pasta, rice or mashed potatoes.

Chicken Lazone

This Chicken Lazone recipe seems to have blasted across the internet recently, but what you probably didn't know was that it was developed back in the mid to late-90s by Chef Lazone Randolph of Brennans Restaurant in New Orleans.

He wrote it for the cookbook, Sugar Bust for Life with the Brennans, a companion guide for the then very popular Sugar Buster's Diet {affil link}, a project with which Ellen Brennan was involved as a consultant, editor and publisher. I definitely remember that diet, written by a group of Louisiana doctors, and it seemed everybody I knew from New Orleans was doing it for awhile, which probably prompted the cookbook.

It was, of course, minus the pasta, since wheat flour pasta was unheard of back then, though somebody along the way added it as a serving suggestion for the rest of us. It is also delicious on it's own or served over mashed potatoes or white, brown or yellow rice though. Try my homemade yellow rice from page 117 of my cookbook, Deep South Dish Homestyle Southern Recipes {affil link}. It is divine with Chicken Lazone.

 

Slow cooked pork roast in an incredibly tasty gravy, using a classic cola soft drink and an envelope of onion soup mix. Great for chicken and beef roasts as well!

Slow Cooker Cola Pork Roast

This pork roast uses that same combination of good ole cola soft drink and dry onion soup mix we love on a beef roast, and the same as that beef roast that is so delicious, so is a pork loin done the same way.

Yes, Southerners like to cook with cola - which of course includes things like 7-up and Dr Pepper and root beer, of course - because we all know that the word cola covers all beverage bases in the South.

A classic soup combining dried split peas and ham, with a mirepox of onion, carrots and celery, enhanced with a ham bone or ham hocks.

Split Pea and Ham Soup

As much as I look forward to all those delectable holiday dishes that we wait all year to eat, I tire of it all pretty quick. By a day or two later, I usually start craving simple things like egg salad or grilled cheese and tomato soup, and anything that hasn't been consumed is destined for the freezer, where it will be re-purposed in another way, another day.

Mississippi Roast, made using a rump or chuck roast, but with my own signature and minus the full stick of butter. A moist, tender and delicious roast with a wonderful gravy and a nice spicy bite.

Slow Cooker Mississippi Roast ... My Way

There's a roast blazing across the interwebs and the world of Pinterest called "Mississippi Roast," and if you google it, you'll find it everywhere. It's the roast that broke the internet.

In the beginning of making this, like most others, I had no idea where the recipe began, or even how the recipe got the name Mississippi attached to it, because best I could figure, somebody who threw it together one day must have just happened to be from Mississippi.

Well, I'm here to set the record straight on that!

A basic and traditional southern potato salad - simply potatoes, onion, celery, eggs, just a bit of mustard, some pickle and mayonnaise, shown here plated with my BBQ menu, including grilled ribs, baked beans, macaroni salad, marinated tomatoes and Silver Queen corn on the cob.

Southern Style Potato Salad

Potato salad reminds me so much of my Mama. This recipe is basically the same as hers - simple, basic, southern potato salad. Nothin' fancy or highfalutin' - just potatoes, eggs, onion, celery, a little bit of mustard, some pickle relish, salt & pepper. Oh, and mayo, of course!