This Pumpkin Roll recipe is an easy and impressive dessert all year long. We think this version is the BEST with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves—with a smooth and creamy filling from cream cheese and powdered sugar.  About a dozen years ago, my daughter requested a pumpkin roll for our Thanksgiving menu, in addition to the …

Southern caramel cake with homemade caramel icing from butter, sugar, and milk. This one tastes just like Grandma’s! A classic favorite, Southern Caramel Cake is just a regular yellow cake frosted with a sweet caramel cake icing. Some folks like to drizzle the caramel icing in between the layers and just let it drip from …

Fudge pie made with cocoa takes about 10 minutes to put together and 30 minutes to bake into the most delicious pie you’ve ever had! If you ask my family what they want for dessert, hands down every single one of us will say something chocolate. Chocolate Chess pie, chocolate cake, chocolate something—which doesn’t mean we …

Fried apple pies like Granny used to make—sweet apple filling inside tender, lightly fried pastry dough! Simple Southern cooking at its best! Unlike my Double-Crust Apple Pie, which is made with fresh apples and seems best in the fall, these fried apple pies are a year round delight! The filling comes from dried apples, which is …

Cheese Straws — crispy, buttery, homemade crackers that are easy to make and a great appetizer! Southerners love cheese straws and serve them at bridal showers, baby showers, and anything in between.  If you attend a bridal or baby shower in the South, or a church dinner on the grounds, or just about any type …

Baked pork chops with cream of mushroom soup are ready in about 30 minutes! This is a quick and easy weeknight dinner recipe that goes great with mashed potatoes or rice! Quick and easy weeknight dinner ideas can be one of a busy parent’s worst frustrations, which is why meal planning is so important! And why …

Southern Baked Beans have a touch of sweetness from brown sugar and lots of flavor from onion, peppers, and seasonings. These are easy and your folks will love them! There’s one dish you can take to almost any potluck and it will be in fashion, and that’s these Southern Baked Beans. Whether the main dish …

Pear Salad made with grated cheese and mayonnaise is an old-fashioned Southern favorite. Serve it as an appetizer or side dish to go with almost any meal. Let me just go ahead and say that if you aren’t from the South, you’ve probably never tasted this particular Southern delicacy before. Canned pears? Yuck. In any …

Chocolate Coca-Cola cake is an old-fashioned Southern favorite made with cocoa and real Coca-Cola. It’s moist, delicious, and easy! Have y’all ever tasted a Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake? It’s a lot like my Chocolate Sheet Cake, but this one has a primary ingredient of real Coca-Cola®! This Coca-Cola cake recipe has been around for decades and …

A luscious strawberry sheet cake with fresh strawberries and cream cheese frosting that’s always a crowd-pleaser and easy to take along for potlucks. The arrival of spring is heralded by daffodils, dogwoods, do-it-yourself projects, and one of my favorite loves, strawberries. Since we’re so close to Florida, we start getting beautiful fresh strawberries in February …

If you’ve ever been to a church potluck in the South then you’ve probably seen this chicken pie. It’s not chicken pot pie. Chicken pot pie is full of vegetables and has sherry and cream and lots of good stuff. This pie is different…it’s simple, quick, easy, and classic comfort food. This pie is ubiquitous and that’s …

Fresh strawberry cake filled with strawberry-lemon jam and topped with a fresh strawberry cream cheese frosting—this is a special occasion show-stopper and it’s divine! Part of the genesis of In a Southern Kitchen was a desire to share recipes and ideas that would help folks entertain at home. Tolkien said, “If more of us valued …

Fresh salsa made with garden fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, Vidalia onions, and herbs. It’s a great sweet and savory appetizer! If you’re lucky enough to live in the South, then you know we have an abundance of choices when it comes to fresh vegetables all throughout the spring and summer. One of our favorites around …

I’m not sure what makes this a Texas dish, but it sure is good wherever it comes from. Texas Caviar is basically a salsa made with black-eyed peas. And there are probably as many variations as there are Texans! We like it with lots of fresh vegetables like bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, and corn …

I have to be honest with you, I had never heard of country fried steak or chicken fried steak until I moved to the city. If you live in the country, you don’t cook things and call them country fried or chicken fried. They’re just fried. And cubed steak is just, well, cubed steak. It’s not …

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” Just a little taste of this homemade caramel sauce, and you will close your eyes and slowly savor the sinful, creamy feel of the luscious sauce. You will want more and you will start looking for pound cake or cookies to drizzle it on. And …

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting made from an easy and moist recipe that will quickly become a family favorite! This cake is a classic for weddings, showers, and any event.  What is Red Velvet Cake? Red velvet cake…is it a Southern classic or the product of a food coloring manufacturer’s marketing scheme? No …

Chocolate Chess Pie is a favorite Southern dessert that’s so simple—with just a few pantry ingredients, you can have this pie on the table in about an hour! A while back I wrote about playing at my friend’s house after church on Sundays, and about her Mama’s chocolate chess pie. Well, after digging through some …

This Sweet Potato Pie is creamy and lightly spiced and easy to make! Similar to pumpkin but with a more delicate flavor, this one is a Southern family favorite! Lots of people will claim to be either sweet potato pie lovers or pumpkin pie lovers. I love both! Along with pecan pie. And chocolate pie. …

Creamy sweet potato casserole with pecan and brown sugar streusel topping. It strikes me as so funny that this dish is considered a vegetable or side dish in most old cookbooks. It has basically the same ingredients as sweet potato pie…why is it not a dessert? But I say that and folks just look at …

Three Bean Salad is a tangy and sweet bean salad that can accompany grilled or roasted meats and makes a perfect addition to a vegetarian menu. Thanksgiving menus abound with starchy, cheesy, fat-laden dishes. That’s what makes Thanksgiving so wonderful! You get to eat all the potatoes, cheese, bread, and butter that you want and …

Chocolate Cobbler is a simple, classic Southern recipe that’s so easy to make. You just need cocoa, eggs, butter, sugar, milk, and flour and you’ll have this delicious dessert on the table in a jiffy!   Chocolate cobbler is one of those old desserts that came about due to the Southern home cook’s need to …

“Oh, Aunt Ginny is coming! That means strawberry jam!” That was me, as a little girl, anytime I heard my Aunt Ginny, Papa’s sister, was coming for a visit. She and her husband lived in Plant City, Florida, and would visit my grandparents a couple of times a year. They would always bring whatever was …

Southern Pulled Pork is so easy to make! Just throw together a barbecue rub and roast a pork butt in the oven low and slow for several hours. Then shred the meat and it’s good to go! So simple yet so delicious! We are a barbecue loving family. Is it because we’re Southern? Because we …