Saltine crackers get a flavor boost from a toss in a Ranch flavored, garlic and onion seasoned oil.

Firecracker Saltines

Y'all... make some of these to go with that Hissy Fit Dip I just posted. I swear you will love them together.

Although I've been acquainted with a version of these since the 70s, we got real close when The Cajun and I moved our household almost 4 years ago. No, we didn't get rich from my blogging (far from it actually) and get to build our brand new dream home from it.

Au contraire, we, in fact, bought a house that was older than the house we left. We moved from outside the city to town to be closer to the grandkids - and don't you know 2 years ago they went and moved on us! Can't blame them really. They got a bigger house for a great price and we're all in town and close still, so it's all good.

 

A hot dip, made with breakfast sausage, a mix of cheeses, sour cream, Worcestershire, hot sauce, vibrant seasonings and green onion. Serve with your favorite crackers, chips or assorted raw veggies.

Sausage and Cheese "Hissy Fit" Dip

Make. This. Dip.

I'm serious!

It is soooooo darn good y'all, you will fall in love with it and want to eat the whole thing.

By your little ole self.

Chewy oatmeal cookies, with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips scattered throughout!

Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal cookies are my number one favorite cookie.

Although I do enjoy all kinds of cookies from shortbread to tea cakes, to chocolate chip to classic snickerdoodles, oatmeal has always topped the list.

A mix of tender frozen and creamy corn, baked in a savory egg custard.

Corn Pudding

Corn Pudding suffers a similar identity crisis as corn casserole. What defines it is most often what you grew up with and nobody makes any of it the same way.

What some folks call corn spoon bread, others call corn casserole... and vice versa.

What some call corn casserole, yet others call corn pudding... and vice versa.

Sweetened pear halves, stuffed with a cream cheese and whipped cream filling, garnished with a light sprinkling of mild cheddar cheese, and if you're feeling fancy, finished off with a maraschino cherry.

Pear Salad

This is not so much a recipe, as it is a nostalgic reminder of this delicious holiday side from the past. It's so old school, that some of you my age and older may even remember seeing this at school.

Hardly anybody really thinks about pear salad much anymore, and I'd venture a guess that very few of the younger generation even know anything about it and likely wouldn't be all that receptive to it either.

Classic Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo (Gumbo Ya-Ya)

A classic light roux-based gumbo, made with a cut up chicken and andouille sausage, served over hot steamed rice.

Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo

I've been making and sharing Miss Lucy's chicken gumbo with y'all for years, but admit, her classic Cajun-style method is not exactly the way that I usually make my gumbo.

Miss Lucy's recipe makes a roux, then adds water to the roux and then adds the chicken, sausage and trinity (onion, bell pepper and celery) to the pot, a classic Cajun one pot prep.

I prepare my gumbo in a way that is more traditional where I live - brown the meats, prepare the roux, cook the trinity in the roux, then add the water or stock and the rest.

However you make it, we eat a lot of it and it's mighty good!

Make Ahead Turkey Gravy - a flavorful gravy, made ahead from roasted turkey wings or legs.

Make Ahead Turkey Gravy

There is nothing as delicious with that holiday turkey than a gravy made from the drippings, but it becomes just one more of those last minute things that has to be done in the whole process of all the other last minutes things. All too often folks just skip it and use a canned gravy, which of course, while there's not a thing wrong with that, it just doesn't have that same home-cooked, Thanksgiving flavor.

Enter the make ahead gravy!

Mirliton (Chayote Squash) Seafood Casserole

Mirliton (Chayote Squash) Seafood Casserole, a casserole made with mirliton, the trinity, shrimp, andouille, crab, bread crumbs and seasonings. Increase bread crumbs for a mirliton dressing.

Mirliton Seafood Casserole

It's mirliton season in the Deep South! I'm guessing that some of you are likely thinking right now... what the heck is that?

Mirlitons, or in Cajun Country, Alligator Pears

A near lost south Louisiana classic, calas are a flour and yeast fritter, made with cooked rice and flavored with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Creole Calas (Rice Fritters)

I've certainly mentioned this before, but we eat a lot of rice here in the Deep South, and there's almost always some leftover. We have lots of ways to use that leftover rice (just click that link to see a few) including sweet things, like rice pudding and these sweet rice fritters, called calas.

A near lost classic, Calas hold a past in the city of New Orleans, though their origins date back more likely to Africa. In the French Quarter, Cala ladies would wrap fresh, piping hot Calas in towels and carry them in a covered bowl on top of their heads, hurrying to the streets to sell them, shouting "Calas, belles calas, tout chauds!"

Photo Credit: Times Picayune

Shrimp and White Bean Stew - Great Northern, cannellini, navy or your favorite small white bean, cooked in a ham bone broth, with the trinity, Rotel tomatoes, andouille sausage and small shrimp.

Shrimp and White Bean Stew

I literally have been trying to get this recipe written and uploaded to the blog for almost two weeks! What can I say... seeing as I'm at the age of being mostly retired now, we techically at least because, trust me, a recipe website is as much work as what I did in my corporate legal career!

Anyway, I don't spend too much of my time being in a hurry to do much of anything anymore.

You may have also noticed that the Deep South summer-like fall heat finally gave way to some much cooler, near winter-like fall temperatures. Though it's sure been nice having some cooler temps the past couple of weeks, along with that comes a certain degree of laziness on my part. Though I do still cook, not a lot of writing happens.