Those Southern cake recipes will bring back fond memories of your grandma’s country kitchen. Find our favorite recipes for upside-down cake, hummingbird cake and more.
40 Charmingly Decadent Southern Cake Recipes
Category: About Me
These 12 Simple Mistakes Are Ruining Your Casseroles
Casseroles have long been the savior of weeknight dinners, the champion of do-ahead dishes, the perfect way to stretch leftovers deliciously into a second meal, sometimes even more satisfying than the first. They are staunchly comforting, easy enough for both kids and harried parents to pull off, and even the fussiest of gourmands will cop to loving a classic casserole or two. And if they claim they don’t, just say the words cassoulet or tian Provençale and their denials will go silent. But simple-to-prepare doesn’t mean without pitfalls. Here are a dozen of the places you can go wrong with your casserole cookery.
1. Choosing the wrong baking dish.
Casserole dishes need, first and foremost, to be ovenproof. Glass, ceramic, cast iron, enameled — whatever you choose be sure you know it is designed to go into the oven. There’s nothing worse than assembling a perfect casserole in that lovely piece of pottery you bought at the art fair and have it crack in half mid-bake.
2. Using the wrong size dish.
Once you have ascertained that your dish is oven safe, make sure it is the right size for what you want it to contain. Recipes should specify size and shape (an oval 10-inch dish will contain less volume than a rectangle), and depth. Casserole dishes should be filled no more than three-quarters of the height of the dish to prevent overflow when cooking. And it is always a good idea to place the casserole dish on a sheet pan to catch spatters, or to place a sheet pan on the rack just below. You don’t win on convenience with a casserole if you then have to clean your oven!
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Find more recipes like this on my companion blog, “Good Food, Good Meat, Good God, Let’s Eat!”
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Verse of the Day May 2, 2025
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Verse of the Day April 28, 2025
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Marry Me Pot Roast
We’re certain our “Marry Me” recipes have rewarded many lucky home cooks with promises of undying love. Marry Me chicken has a luscious sauce, and Marry Me pasta is internet famous! But if your true love is more of a roast fan, then Marry Me pot roast in the slow cooker is the perfect recipe to make. It’s an easy dish to prepare, and the slow-braising and slow-cooking guarantee really tender meat.
You’ll both really love how much flavor this recipe packs. The pot roast is simmered with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, and the velvety sauce comes together with cream of mushroom soup. Then, finish plates of the pot roast and sauce with fresh basil and Parmesan. Get ready: After one bite, we bet your sweetie will get down on bended knee.
Marry Me Pot Roast Ingredients
- Chuck roast: Pick up a 3- to 4-pound boneless chuck roast for this recipe. Other cuts of meat that will work are top round roast or rump roast.
- Sun-dried tomatoes: So much of the flavor in this recipe comes from flavor-packed sun-dried tomatoes. Use the oil from the jar to sear the roast.
- Onions: The onions are sliced and placed on the bottom of the slow cooker for flavor, but they’re especially tasty in the finished sauce.
- Garlic: Another favorite flavor in so many “Marry Me” dishes is plenty of fresh garlic. Simply smash the cloves and toss them into the slow cooker.
- Beef stock: You can use store-bought or homemade beef stock here. It’s one of the liquids that braises the pot roast.
- Red wine: This dish is the perfect way to finish off a bottle of red. This recipe with wine calls for a dry red, like merlot or cabernet sauvignon, to deglaze the pot.
- Roasted red peppers: Even though you’ll use just the peppers and the oil, look for jarred red peppers packed with pickles and other vegetables. The flavor in the oil will add more Mediterranean flavor to the dish.
- Cream of mushroom soup: Recipes with cream of mushroom soup like this one are guaranteed to have a creamy texture and extra flavor oomph.
- Spices: This recipe requires only a few essential spices: oregano, thyme, salt and black pepper.
- Pappardelle pasta: The flat, hearty noodles hold up well under the rich sauce and meat. Other pasta shapes to try are rigatoni and penne.
- Parmesan cheese: The nutty, salty flavor of Parmesan is the finishing touch for the pot roast. Pick up a wedge from the cheese case and grate it over the dish.
- Basil: A few fresh basil leaves scattered over servings add lovely color and fresh, herby flavor.
Taste of Home
Find more recipes like this on my companion blog, “Good Food, Good Meat, Good God, Let’s Eat!”
Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree 