A super easy, cheesy and creamy, delicious slow cooker corn side dish, perfect for any gathering, church social, reunion or holiday.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Creamy Corn

It's been three years since Charlotte, one of our Facebook family members mentioned a corn dish similar to this, and I've missed at least three cycles of major holidays getting it posted, failing to remember to get that final shot of what it looks like on a plate! Eh, what can I say? These days, sometimes, it takes me awhile to do things.

Well, although those major holidays have once again passed, because peak summer corn is still a bit away from us and since I made this for Easter, I'm posting it now. Besides those big holidays, it's an equally great side dish for those backyard family barbecues, church socials, family reunions and potlucks you'll be attending anyway, and, it's so easy to both make and transport too!

Bone-in, skin-on, chicken thighs and legs, or a whole chicken, cut up, seasoned and baked with cream soup and rice for a flavorful, tender baked chicken.

Old School Baked Chicken and Rice

With the usual errands and chores of life, it can sure make for busy days and I'm happy to turn to the old school dishes like this chicken and rice when days are super active. It's simple - throw it all together and throw it in the oven. This truly is old school y'all, as it's been around as long as I have, but it's delicious too!

Sometimes called "no-peek" chicken, I like to uncover it toward the end of cooking to brown the top of the otherwise pale chicken.

A quick skillet meal, made from andouille sausage, broccoli, leftover, cooked veggies, bow tie pasta, and a touch of sour cream added at the end for creaminess.

Creamy Andouille and Pasta Skillet

Don't you just love a good, quick skillet meal? This one I especially love because it's so versatile. In this instance, I just used some good andouille sausage, making it super easy because it's something that I always have on hand, and smoked sausage thaws pretty quick, making it an easy last minute meal. It's delicious with both chicken breast and shrimp also.

A cabbage and rice dish, commonly called dressing here in the Deep South, made with the trinity sauteed in bacon drippings, stewed down with cabbage, browned ground beef or sausage, cooked rice, and cream soup, baked, and finished with a buttered bread crumb topping. Pictured here with my collard greens and squash salad.

Cabbage Rice Dressing

Okay all you kindred cabbage lovers - if you've been around here any length of time, y'all know how much I love the stuff... though to be honest, 99.9% of the time when I pick up a new head of cabbage, thinking I'll bring something different to the blog, good intentions fall the wayside and I end up making fried cabbage. What can I say? It's an easy dish, and it really is my number one favorite.

Chargrilled Oysters on the Half Shell

Freshly shucked Gulf oysters, grilled in the shell, with a lemon and garlic butter sauce, and served on an ice or rock salt covered platter with cocktail sauce, horseradish, lemon wedges and hot sauce and French bread on the side.

Chargrilled Oysters

Oysters are so common along the Gulf Coast, most folks who grew up here, eat them in some form. Most of us buy them already shucked, by the pint, quart or gallon, from our favorite seafood or grocery market. Many others, like my father in law, and like my daddy did, buy them by the sack and shuck them fresh. Sweet and salty, fresh from the Gulf - those are the absolute best oysters you will ever put in your mouth, y'all!

A super flavorful way to prepare fresh or frozen chicken breasts to use in chicken salads, soups, skillet meals, casseroles and other recipes.

Oven Poached Ready Chicken

Usually when folks need already cooked chicken for a recipe, they poach a couple of chicken breasts in a saucepan on the top of the stove. It's a quick and easy process when there isn't some already put up, or leftover from another meal.

Sometimes we pick up an over-sized deli rotisserie chicken, just for the purpose of a quick meal on a busy day, with some intentional leftovers. Very often, however, those are heavily seasoned and super-salty, making them less adaptable for some recipes.

Guacamole, made with a little Deep South regional influence, incorporating some spicy Louisiana flavor.

Cajun Guacamole

I love avocados and I especially love that they have moved into the mainstream of eating everywhere nowadays, even here in the Deep South! I can remember a time back in the day, when finding a fresh avocado wasn't so easy around here. Mostly we were forced to that neon green, pre-made guacamole in a plastic container from the dairy case, when building things like our layered Mexican dip. Fresh is certainly so much better.

Now... right out of the gate, I want to say that I know somebody reading this will likely get all up in arms about this being called "Cajun Guacamole." Just relax and roll with it y'all. In fact, go ahead and Google it... turns out it really is a thing.

 

An easy chili, made leaner with ground turkey, more hearty with vegetables and beans, and gets a flavor boost from basic pantry seasonings.

Turkey Chili with Beans

You may have noticed that boneless, skinless chicken breasts are not my favorite piece of chicken to cook... but of course, they're on sale often enough that I still buy them. With a little help, they can make for a quick and inexpensive meal.

While I very much love a brined and roasted turkey, I don't use a lot of ground turkey either. Though it is less fatty and therefore more attractive to those dieting and trying to cut back on fat, the lack of fat also means lack of flavor. In my dig through the New Year Freezer Cleanse however, I found a pound of mixed (85/15) ground turkey I had picked up at some point to make something that I've now long forgotten. With winter in the Deep South waning, and the Big Game coming up, I thought I would give some turkey chili a spin.

Egg noodles, seasoned simply, tossed with butter, Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley.

Parmesan Cheesy Noodles

Growing up, I'm guessing that your mom, like mine, had a few, very simple, go-to side dishes that made it to the table. Buttered egg noodles or chunks of boiled potatoes or corn, usually from frozen at my house, seasoned simply with salt and pepper, tossed with butter and often, a bit of parsley were pretty common for us.

Looks like economic conditions are calling for these simple but filling meals again.

Add some cheese to those egg noodles, oven roasted potatoes when the weather isn't too hot, dressed up canned southern peas and my quick fix green beans to the repertoire, and you've got my most common, easy fix, side dishes today.

Chopped cabbage, smothered down with the trinity of vegetables, ground sausage and tomatoes.

Smothered Cabbage with Sausage and Tomato

Well hey y'all - wow, it's a new year already... Happy New Year! Okay we're more than a week into it now, but what can I say? I've been busy with life.

Mercy was it cold enough this January for everybody though?

I know that in comparison to the rest of the country, here on the Gulf Coast we had it pretty easy. No snow, but the cold rain that rolled in right when the temps started dropping sure would have made for a pretty blanket of snow. We did have three nights in a row where things were freezing, two of which were hard freezes, and with the high winds, daytime temps weren't a whole lot better, so for us here in the Deep South, it was cold!