Summer is Coming Soon

Summer officially begins almost four weeks from now. Spring has sprung forth with such beauty in gardens and vineyards, bees have been busy pollinating, and temperatures are warming up.

 

Spring
Spring Flowers

roses

The summer solstice falls on June 21 this year at 12:24 a.m. EDT. But for the rest of North America, the first day of summer will be June 20. I’m excited because the release date for my new Simple Summer Recipes cookbook is June 15!

summer cookbooks
A summer cookbook

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How I Started Food Blogging

A few years ago I started a food blog. Kitchen Southern Hospitality originally began as Kitchen Hospitality at kitchenhospitality.blogspot.com. After switching over to a WordPress blog, I added “Southern” to the name and made a new start in January 2014.

Southern Cooking

I give the credit to my southern flair of cooking and hospitality to my mother. She was an incredible lady who could “cook up a storm” as we say in the South. She cooked my favorite vegetables like yellow summer squash crowder peas, purple hull peas, and greens – collard, mustard, and turnip.

Though I can’t remember planting the pea seeds, I can well recall shelling them and having sore fingers!  Want to plant some peas for good ol’ southern cooking? Order seeds for the crowder or purple hull peas

summer vegetables, squash
Yellow Squash Casserole

Mother knew how much I loved her yellow summer squash. First, she washed the vegetables from the garden, blanched the squash, then froze several bags of it. Whenever I came home for holidays or other occasions, she pulled out a bag or two of the squash to defrost. Next, she cooked it with onions and about a tablespoon of sugar.

Served with the peas we always had homemade Chow Chow, a delectable relish recipe Mother and both of my grandmothers made. However, my grandmothers made theirs differently. One recipe is made with cabbage, and another is made with ripe tomatoes. While writing this blog post, I don’t have the Chow Chow recipes handy. But I can share a relish recipe at a future date.

My mom made the best chicken salad sandwiches, and she liked to serve them on croissants. The onions had to be “chopped real fine” as she would say. It was always funny to hear her and her older sister talk about how they didn’t make the chicken salad alike. Mother chopped her onions real fine, and my aunt chopped hers chunky.

Good southern cooking like I was raised with means you sit down to a table full of food. Meals consisted of multiple vegetables, a meat, rolls, maybe a salad. When I was younger, it seems like we ate a lot more of fried chicken than in my teens. It was probably because Mother and Daddy started dieting. They were conscious of being healthy and eating nutritious food.

After I started my food blog, I met another blogger, Nina Amir, who spoke to the writers club I belong to. When I chauffeured Nina for a weekend blogging workshop hosted by High Desert California Writers Club, she and I discussed my plans to publish a southern cookbook. Nina, the author of How to Blog a Book, inspired me to publish the recipes I was sharing on the blog.

Several of the recipes published on the Kitchen Southern Hospitality blog have been combined with others I have created in addition to memorable anecdotes related to recipes in the cookbook. These stories are referred to as “Foodie Storytime” in Simple Summer Recipes.

Sugar-Free Recipes for Diabetics

Many people these days struggle with diabetes. Since I began my health and fitness journey in 2016, I no longer crave sweets as I previously did. The majority of the recipes in my summer cookbook list sugar substitute instead of sugar.

Fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs are also included in many of the cookbook’s recipes. You’ll find refreshing beverages, breakfasts, salads, snacks, slow cooker, and grilling dishes and specialties.

Like Strawberries?

I love to shop at farmers markets for organic herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Many of the fresh foods I’ve purchased from the farmers – like strawberries – are included in my recipes in Simple Summer Recipes cookbook.

Like refreshing strawberry shakes and snacks? The blog post titled Strawberry Shake and Snack Recipes includes four strawberry recipes. Blogging about four separate recipes in one post is not a common practice for me. However, in April I blogged about 30 recipes for two people and missed three or four days of blogging. Then I worked like crazy on the cookbook to prepare it for publication.

If you have been following Kitchen Southern Hospitality and were wondering if I fell off the face of the earth, I was working day and night to meet the publishing deadlines. Unfortunately, I didn’t have guests posts scheduled. But I’m back to blogging now. Since I didn’t quite make my goal for 30 recipes for two in April, the four strawberry specialties will, hopefully, appease anyone who was counting on those 30 dishes for two.

Strawberry Lemon Pudding Recipe

You’ll find strawberry pudding recipes similar to the one below in the new cookbook. Pudding and fruit desserts take only a few minutes to make. 

Strawberry Lemon Pudding

A simple instant lemon pudding mixed with fresh farmers market strawberries

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Author Angie Horn

Ingredients

  • 1 box instant lemon pudding
  • 1 cup 2% milk
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 10 strawberries

Instructions

  1. Mix pudding mix and milk with an electric mixer. 

  2. Let pudding set in the refrigerator for an hour.

  3. Slice the strawberries and place on the top of the pudding.

  4. Ready to serve.

Having company over for lunch? Prepare the quick and easy Strawberry Lemon Pudding recipe in a jiffy. Improvise any way you would like. For instance, this recipe is not sugar-free. If you will be serving diabetics, purchase the sugar-free instant lemon pudding box. I like to keep a few boxes of various pudding flavors on hand. That way, you don’t have to run to the grocery store real quick when you invite a friend over for an impromptu lunch.

The Simple Summer Recipe cookbook can now be preordered for only $15.00 on this site. The price will go up after publication, so hop on over to the Kitchen Southern Hospitality’s BOOKS page and order yours now.

Thank you for visiting Kitchen Southern Hospitality! Be safe this holiday weekend!

 

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