Cooking by the North Florida calendar.
Flaviella is a home kitchen in Monticello, Florida. Every recipe here is tied to what is in season in the Big Bend or to the next holiday on the calendar — this fall that means Gulf shrimp, pie pumpkins, Diwali sweets and a pecan-heavy Thanksgiving.
The next eight weeks in our kitchen
October 1 to November 30, with the dates that decide what we cook. Tap any recipe to go straight to it.
Cook this week
One weeknight supper while the shrimp are good, and two projects to start practicing before the holidays.
Recipes by occasion
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30 min
Gulf Shrimp Skillet with Blistered Tomatoes & Garlic
Sweet Gulf shrimp seared hard, then finished in garlicky tomato pan juices. Thirty minutes, one skillet, bread for mopping.
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1 hr 5 min
Roasted Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup with Toasted Pecans
Pie pumpkin and a North Florida sweet potato, roasted until caramelized and blended silky with cumin and a splash of cream.
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1 hr 5 min
Halloween Candy Bark
Dark chocolate swirled with orange-tinted white chocolate and loaded with candy, pretzels and salted peanuts. No oven needed.
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1 hr 35 minTrick-or-Treat Beef & Bean Chili
A thick, smoky pot of beef and bean chili that holds on the stove all evening while the doorbell keeps ringing.
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2 hr 10 min
Crisp Punjabi Aloo Samosas
Flaky, blister-free pastry around a spiced potato and pea filling — fried low and slow the way it is done for Diwali.
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1 hr 55 minGulab Jamun in Rose & Cardamom Syrup
Soft milk-powder dumplings fried to a deep bronze and soaked in warm saffron-cardamom syrup. The sweet of Diwali.
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4 hr 20 min
Dry-Brined Herb Butter Turkey with Pan Gravy
A three-day dry brine, sage and satsuma herb butter under the skin, and a gravy made right in the roasting pan.
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32 minButtermilk Skillet Cornbread
Crisp-edged, barely sweet Southern cornbread baked in a screaming-hot cast iron pan. For the Thanksgiving table and the chili pot.
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4 hr 5 min
Southern Sweet Potato Pie
Silky, warmly spiced and deeply orange — the pie that sits beside the pecan pie at every Big Bend Thanksgiving.
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3 hr 15 min
Classic Spiced Pumpkin Pie
Brown sugar, fresh ginger warmth and a custard that sets smooth without cracking. The Thanksgiving standard, done right.
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4 hr 20 min
Brown Butter Pecan Pie with Cane Syrup
Red Hills pecans, nutty brown butter and a splash of Southern cane syrup for a pecan pie that is rich without being cloying.
A note from the kitchen
I am Dorethea Schwendemann, and I cook out of an old farmhouse kitchen off West Lake Road in Monticello. Jefferson County is small-town Florida — pecan orchards, cane syrup, a watermelon festival every June — and the calendar here moves by harvests and holidays more than by food trends.
Everything on Flaviella is cooked and photographed with real food. Recipes rotate onto the front page when their season or festival comes around, with honest timings and the mistakes I made so you do not have to.
What to expect in every recipe
Exact quantities in US measures, steps in the order you will actually do them, the season or date it belongs to, and a notes box on make-ahead, storage and substitutions.
Questions about a recipe? Send a message or call (850) 997-1156.