Grateful Heart / Celebrating Life
Favorite Recipes
I love to cook. I started my culinary adventures in 2009, with a plan to take cooking lessons at a local kitchen-supply store (Sur La Table). The cost was $80 per person for a group lesson–and that seemed a bit high to me. So instead, I bought ingredients and just started cooking! I figured, “What the heck? If it doesn’t taste good, I’ll throw it out and try something different next time.”
My first attempt was seared scallops with orange sauce, and I cooked this on Valentines day. Scallops are pricey ($18/lbs.), but after reading a few articles and watching a video, I cooked a great meal! And I’ve enjoyed culinary adventures ever since!
I have some favorite recipes; they are listed below. Please download and enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions (wbsitx@gmail.com).
Thanks for visiting my At Home site!
| Food to Be Prepared | Recipe Notes | Recipe Download Link |
| Baked Squash Casserole | I have a vegetable garden and one things I grow every year is yellow squash. This year’s crop has been particularity bountiful, and that’s great because I love squash casserole! It’s an excellent side dish for almost any kind of protein (grilled chicken, seared fish, ground beef, pork ribs). And, it freezes beautifully well. | Download |
| Bread machine – Coconut Bread | In Grand Cayman, the Wholesome Bakery produces fresh coconut bread every Monday and Thursday. People will wait in line starting at 6:00 a.m. on both days, to take home a fresh warm loaf. Grand Cayman does not allow preservatives to be added to breads. There’s something about the coconut that acts as a natural preservative. So, this bread will stay mold-free for 10-12 days, and toasts deliciously. | Download |
| Bread machine – French Honey Bread | I went to France in April of 2025, and the breads are as good as you’ve heard. This isn’t a traditional French bread, but the combination of honey, sugar and olive oil create a bread that conjures images of Paris for me. | Download |
| Cajun – Chicken and Sausage Gumbo | I love gumbos; I eat a different one every week (usually from the freezer). The secret to a good gumbo is the roux–and the roux recipe here is fabalous! The most important thing in making a roux is the pot. I use a stainless steel Dutch oven and our roux cooks beautifully in just 6 – 8 minutes. A pot with a non-stick coating will increase your cooking time by 100% or more. I’m not sure why this is, but this have been my experience.) | Download |
| Cajun – Crawfish Bisque | If you live in Louisiana, you are blessed with an abundance of crawfish. That’s not the case everywhere else. However, Walmart now has frozen, uncooked LA crawfish! (You should never use cooked crawfish in a recipe.) These tasty creatures are a bit pricey ($17/lbs.) but the quality is excellent. This recipe cooks quick, freezes great and is delicious. | Download |
| Cajun – Jambalaya | Jambalaya recipes are a lot like chili recipes: everyone has their favorite and your best friend’s just isn’t as good as yours! So, you won’t hurt my feelings if you pass this one by. I really like this recipe. It has more meat than most (a common theme in all our recipes) and paired with a side salad makes a wonderful meal. And … you guessed it, the leftovers freeze great! | Download |
| Cajun – Turkey Gumbo | The best thing about a gumbo is the roux. A good roux smells and tastes like buttered toast. Of course, the meats are important too. I use both light and dark turkey meat, and Andouille sausage. I use to only make this gumbo after Thanksgiving. Now I smoke a turkey a couple of times a year and use the meat to make 3-4 gumbos. It freezes beautifully well. | Download |
| Cakes – Blueberry Muffins | I found this recipe in the Best Kitchens cookbook and modified it slightly. It has variations for blueberry, bluegerry-lemon, banana-walnut, chocolate-pecan-coconut, and carrot-walnut. These muffins stay good in the refrigerator for 10-12 days (though they seldom last that long in this house). | Download |
| Cakes – Ms. Dot’s Pound Cake | I enjoy HGTV and Food Network shows! I enjoy TV shows where the only agenda is to love God and each other. This recipe come from the Home Town TV show and it’s wonderful! | Download |
| Cookies – Chocolate Chip | This recipe is a little different: it makes a chocolate chip cookie that is very thin and crisp, with a wonderful caramelization of the sugars. Having one of these cookies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is unbelievably good! | Download |
| Instant Pot – Cuban Black Beans | A friend of mine from Austria, whose husband is a diplomat from Brazil, shared this recipe with us–and it’s wonderful! Black beans can be hard to cook (until I had the Instant Pot, I could never get them tender). You won’t have that problem with this recipe. The beans freeze great; I normally freeze 14-16 ounces per container (which is two great servings). | Download |
| Instant Pot – Jerk Pork | This is one of my favorite recipes. The cinnamon in the dry-rub and the maple syrup & apple cider vinegar in the sauce create a lovely Caribbean favor. This is another meal that freezes beautifully; we normally freeze 13-14 ounces per container and that will feed us both (especially when served with Cuban black beans). | Download |
| Instant Pot – Kung Pao Chicken | I love Chinese food. The problem with making Chinese food is you use a lot of ingredients that aren’t common to Southern or Cajun cooking. But most of these ingredients can be purchase affordably at Walmart, and if you enjoy Chinese cooking the cost of the ingredients will be spread over several meals–making the purchase a bargain. And, of course, the leftover freeze beautifully! | Download |
| Pizza sauce | This recipe uses a can of tomato paste, Parmesan cheese, red wine, honey, a olive oil, and several herbs. Its great on pizza, or to use as a dip for bread sticks. I also like to use this sauce on meatball subs. My preferred meatballs are FarmRich Beef, Pork, and Chicken meatballs (sold at Kroger). | Download |
| Soups – 10/3 Vegetable Beef Soup | I love fresh vegetables! This recipe has 10 of them, plus three others that are canned or frozen. It also has three fresh herbs. This recipe makes a bunch (I use my 12 quart stock pot), but it freezes beautifully well–and you’ll love having this in the freezer for an easy evening meal. | Download |
| Soups – Fish Soup | There’s a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, FL that is famous for their fish soup. It’s so good, they can charge $30/bowl–and still sell-out every night.. I’m not sure my recipe is as delicious as theirs–but it’s dang close! And for $30, I can make a ten bowls–and it freezes great! | Download |
| Soups – Pork Pozole | Pozole is the Spanish word for hominy. Hominy is produced from maize corn (the type of corn used for Fritos). Straight from the can, hominy has a mild flavor. But when added to a soup, hominy will partially dissolve and creates a rich flavorful broth. This soup freezes beautifully well. | Download |
| Soups – Potato | Southern Boys will always love three things: their momma, mashed potatoes, and bacon. My momma always enjoyed my cooking; I think this recipe would have been one of her favorites! I really enjoy this soup on a cold winter night. A hot bowl of this with 1-2 Tyson chicken tenders (yes, I occasionally eat frozen chicken tenders) will guarantee a great night’s sleep. | Download |
| Soups – Spinach Lasagna | Spanish and Italian lasagna are both delicious, but Spanish lasagna is slightly sweeter and less acidic. I love both! This soup has a wonderful Spanish flavor. If you make it, I’ll bet it becomes one of your favorite winter soups! | Download |
| Turkey Pot Pie | There use to be a restaurant in Dallas that, every Wednesday, would serve turkey pot pie. Their TPP was delicious and it would always sell-out by 7:30 p.m. People with later reservations would offer to prepay the bill if they would save them an order–and the restaurant wouldn’t do it. If you love turkey pot pie, I think you’ll find this recipe is delicious! And, no surprise, it freezes beautifully. | Download |