Oven roasted chunks of carrots, tossed with olive oil, seasonings, cayenne, balsamic vinegar and honey.

Honey Roasted Carrots

One of the best ways to bring out the flavors of vegetables is to roast them and carrots really shine. Bring them beyond the typical oil, salt and pepper with a few special enhancements and you've got a dish that is fit for your holiday dinner table.

Chicken Cacciatore, an Italian-American comfort food meal, also known as Hunter's Chicken, is made from a whole, cut up chicken, lightly dusted in flour and browned in hot oil, then slow braised in a light tomato sauce with onion, sweet bell pepper and mushrooms.

Chicken Cacciatore

Also known as Hunter's Chicken - or chicken in the style of the hunter - and said to have typically been a dish made using whatever wild game had come from the day's hunt - though today chicken is king.

There is no doubt that Chicken Cacciatore, or Pollo alla Cacciatora, is an authentic Italian dish, though in my Italian cookbook, The Silver Spoon {affil link}, it contains plain unfloured chicken, seared in butter and oil, includes onion, celery, carrots and tomatoes, and is finished with a toss of some fresh parsley. It also states that in some regions of Italy it is heavier in celery and carrots than their recipe, in others white wine is added and in others yet, sliced mushrooms.

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.

A quick, small batch, stovetop version of creamy rice pudding with raisins, made using leftover cooked rice.

Stovetop Rice Pudding

We eat a lot of rice here in the Deep South, more so than potatoes I'd say, although we do eat our fair share of those too. Since rice is grown all over the south though, including Arkansas, here in the Delta regions of Mississippi and over in Louisiana, chances are there is always some leftover rice around.

Storing rice can be a challenge because even rice that is tightly sealed tends to harden in the refrigerator. This is off-putting to some folks so they don't even save leftover rice. They pitch it. Don't do that!

A pork roast, rubbed with garlic, salt, cumin and oregano, marinated in a sour orange mojo with onions and then slow roasted. Serve Cuban-style, sliced and with a side of rice and black beans for your first meal - use leftovers to make a traditional Sandwich Cubano.

Cuban Pork Roast - Lechón Asado

For years I was deprived of a true Cuban-style sandwich. I wasn't even aware they existed, until I started developing and writing my own recipes for my website, Deep South Dish, but once I did, I was insatiably curious about them! There wasn't anyplace around here to buy one to try though - still isn't as far as I know.

From what I had seen around the net, the sandwich was very simple - a basic sandwich made with ham, cheese and pork roast - often just simply whatever pork roast was leftover from dinner. But, could that be right? Not so much.

Tortilla chips, covered in shredded beef, seasoned pinto beans and white cheese, and finished with your favorite garnishes.

Cowboy Nachos

I love nachos pretty much any way you can fix them. I mean who doesn't like piles of tortilla chips, topped with loads of cheese and all kinds of goodness? It's a great game day or movie night snack too and pretty darn easy to throw together.

This one uses some leftover beef roast that you've reserved from that Sunday dinner, along with some seasoned pinto beans, and then finished with some Pico de Gallo or all those delicious individual garnishes we all love - chopped fresh tomatoes, chopped purple onion, sliced green onion, chopped cilantro, sliced or chopped pickled jalapeno, sour cream, guacamole or chopped avocado.

A combination Italian style salad made of romaine lettuce, shrimp, boiled egg, fresh tomatoes, olives, loads of veggies and dressed with a spicy tomato and garlic dressing.

Combination Italian-Style Chopped Salad with Shrimp

Yessireebob... that there is what you call a main dish salad!

I know it's supposed to be fall but it's still pretty hot here in the Deep South, so I haven't moved away from summertime eating quite yet, and what a beautiful salad for one of the last salutes to summer!

This is a salad, that at least back in the day, was well known in the New Orleans and coastal Mississippi areas, when it had a rather colorful, totally inappropriate and not very politically correct name, which if you're from around here you know exactly what I am talking about.

I'll just leave it at that. It's what the Friendship House referred to as a combination salad, with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, shrimp, boiled eggs, loads of veggies and a garlicky tomato based dressing.

A tangy enhanced ketchup sauce, loaded with flavor, perfect for burgers and meatballs.

Burger and Meatball Sauce

A big leap above the standard ketchup, this is one of my favorite burger sauces, but it's a great meatball sauce too.

Though somewhat of a riff on the vintage grape jelly and chili sauce meatballs we all know and love, I patterned this version after a burger sauce once used by an old favorite and sadly now gone, little bitty, local burger joint in Biloxi.

There was nothing particularly unusual about their flame-cooked burgers really, but it was the sauce that really made them ultra delicious to me. For many years I had fond memories of it, and thought I'd give a hand at trying to make one somewhat like it. This recipe was the result. It makes about 4 cups, perfect for loads of burgers, or several pounds of meatballs, though it can certainly be reduced.

A salad of cucumber and sweet onion, dressed with a creamy, sour cream, mayo and buttermilk herb dressing. Add a little purple onion for color.

Cucumber Salad with Creamy Buttermilk Herb Dressing

Well, here it is September, and the last weekend before fall, and as happens every, single, year with the blogging community, you're probably seeing all sorts of apple and pumpkin posts as those of us who write about and share recipes on this internet world get anxious to switch over to the aromas of fall.

Unfortunately for many of us here in the South, most especially the Deep South, it doesn't matter what the calendar says, the weather betrays it! Although we got a slight break this weekend, it's still hotter than hot in my part of the world and I'm not ready for that pumpkin spice latte y'all. So... I'll still be plugging along with those cooling summer foods, like cucumber salads, for a bit yet.

Boneless chicken breasts, soaked in a southwestern seasoned, brown sugar brine, tossed in fajita seasonings, grilled over indirect heat and served with a southwestern seasoned rice.

Grilled Fajita Chicken and Rice

This is a main dish take on those well loved chicken fajitas, putting that bold fajita flavor on those ever popular, full-sized boneless, skinless chicken breast and using the classic peppers and onions to flavor a side dish of rice. Just something with familiar flavors. but a little different!

As always, the full recipe with instructions are further down the page, past the step by step photographs. Scroll or swipe down to the bottom of this post to go straight to the recipe.