Green chile guacamole is a no-brainer. Stir a few (or more) spoonfuls of chopped, roasted New Mexico green chile into your homemade guacamole. The chile adds a nice earthy, slightly smoky umami to the guac. And if you need a guacamole refresher, see below for my easy recipe.

New Mexico green chile nuts like us might find it difficult to settle for regular old ratatouille after this Green Chile Ratatouille because, frankly, it will taste like something’s missing. Something important. Which it will be.

We’re big fans of the power of the mini cornbread muffin at cocktail hour. Hot form the oven they are snatched up in one pass. Why Nashville restaurants and bars, especially ones into Southern-style foods, won’t get in on this simple, inexpensive, easy snack completely escapes us.

Our bet is that most Nashvillian home cooks have at least one of the Cake Mix Doctor cookbooks. Our fabulous quick caramel frosting comes from the Cake Mix Doctor herself, fifth generation Nashvillian Anne Byrn, whose mother’s sage advice “you can get away with a cake mix, but you must make your own frosting” has had a lasting impact on her successful career.

The most disappointing aspect of the sugar epidemic in the American diet is sugar creeping into good ol’ fashioned Southern cornbread — even at some well-established Nashville meat-and-threes. As Jiffy spreads its cake-like influence across the South, it’s time to go to bat for Nashville’s true cornbread heritage.