A delicious corn casserole side dish, made with a good seasoning base of bacon and drippings with onion and bell pepper, a light roux, and just a touch of sour cream along with some Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies.

Rotel Corn Casserole

I just love corn and I especially love the versatility of it!

Don't get me wrong - I love it pretty good right from the cob, unadorned, with the exception of some butter and salt, of course, and there are a lot of ways to prepare it just for that. One of my top favorites is the no-shuck, no silking, 4-minute microwave method, especially when I need just an ear or two for another dish.

Of course, fresh corn on the cob is best at its peak and in season, but it's now available year-round, and though you pay a little more for it, I still find it to be pretty tasty even though it's having to do a bit of traveling. I also enjoy both frozen and canned corn, and you'll find a wide variety of recipes using all of those right here on my website.

Classic Fresh Purple Hull Peas

A classic recipe for southern peas, in this case, fresh purple hulls, simply seasoned with bacon, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, perfect as a side dish or as a feature on a vegetable plate. Pictured here with my whiskey glazed baked ham, Dr. Weil's steamed broccoli and the cornbread from my cookbook {affil link}, made with stone ground cornmeal from the Smoky Mountains.

Fresh Purple Hull Peas

If I had to pick one of my favorite southern peas, it'd have to be purple hulls. I just love them, and they are super easy to grow and easy to find, even if you don't grow your own.

Purple hull peas get their name from the color of the hull, and it used to be that if you ever shelled any from the pod, your purple stained fingers would be a dead giveaway. It might be that most shelling takes place in an air conditioned home these days, rather than in a rocker on the front porch in the heat and humidity, but I've shelled several pounds at a time and didn't have issue with those colorful fingers.

Country Green Beans with Ham and Potatoes - Green beans, slow stewed in a ham broth, with chunks of torn ham or tasso and potatoes, and served with a flavorful pot likker.

Country Green Beans with Ham and Potatoes

If I had to pick only one vegetable I could eat for the rest of my life, it'd sure be hard.

While The Cajun's veggie list is very limited, I pretty much love them all. Just take a look at the cover of my cookbook and you'll see one of my favorite meals ever!

Yep, I'm a veggie plate gal and I can make a meal out of just about any vegetable pairing. Well... actually that cover shot was my supper that day!

Deep South Dish Cookbook, available at your favorite local bookstore, or online at Amazon!

A classic corn casserole made with frozen and creamed corn, cracker crumbs, pimentos, eggs, milk and butter.

Classic Corn Casserole

Corn casseroles seem to have an identity crisis going on in this day and age.

There doesn't seem to be a division anymore between what folks define as corn casseroles, corn spoon bread and corn pudding, so much so, that what once made each of these dishes unique from the other, has been completely lost.

Because this dish is heavy in corn, but lighter in binders and eggs, I consider it to be a corn casserole. You may know it as something different, but there is one thing for sure. It gets gobbled up.

Potatoes, cabbage and onions, simply seasoned and smothered down in broth with a spicy andouille sausage, is definitely a favorite in the Deep South.

Smothered Potatoes and Cabbage with Andouille

I love cabbage, well... just about any way that you can make it, but The Cajun ... not so much. Not at all actually. I can't figure out what is wrong with him! I still buy it anyway, of course. I'm not gonna deny myself something that I really enjoy because someone in my family doesn't, and neither should you.

Over the years of blogging, I have heard so many of you saying that you really love something, like cabbage or okra, but nobody else in your family will eat it, so you never make it anymore. I can only speak to being a woman, mother and wife, but those titles often mean that we do for others and put ourselves at the bottom of the list and we really need to stop doing that, yes, even with something as simple as a vegetable. I'm not saying that we should become selfish, but that we should treat ourselves as well as we do others is all - that's the message we should give to those we love. We count too.

Garden Fresh Tomato Quiche with Bacon

Fresh from the garden tomatoes, basil rolled and cut into thin chiffonade ribbons, freshly grated fresh mozzarella cheese and eggs make up this wonderful summer tomato quiche pie.

Fresh Tomato Quiche

It's no secret how I feel about fresh from the garden tomatoes. So juicy, so tasty - heads above any grocery store tomato. There is just nothin' like a tomato freshly plucked from a backyard garden. Well, here's another yummy way to use up that bounty of tomatoes from your summer harvest.

A great collection of southern vegetable and side dishes from Deep South Dish.

Veggies and Side Dishes

Misc. Vegetables



Oven Roasted Vegetables
Baked Vidalia Onions
Creamed Brussels Sprouts
Green Bean Étouffée
Green Bean Bundles
Skillet Green Beans