Today for dinner, I wanted chicken but had no idea how I wanted it. I spied the bag of charcoal and made my way outside in the backyard.



You will need:
For the Chicken
Chicken breasts (I used 6)
1 can of chipotles (chopped)
2 lemons
4 tbsp lemon pepper seasoning
1 tbsp salt

For this chicken, I seasoned the cleaned chicken breast with fresh squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon) and lemon pepper seasoning with salt. Make sure to sprinkle evenly to coat the front and back of the chicken. I then chopped up a small can of chipotles in adobe sauce. I spread the chopped chipotles and sauce over the chicken and and placed them on the hot grill with fresh slices of lemon on top.

Squeeze lemon juice on the chicken every 15 minutes until done. You can also sprinkle more lemon pepper seasoning on it as well. I like a tangy lemon taste, so I added just a bit more.  Also, reserve some of your chipotle sauce to brush over the chicken once after you flip. Cook until juices run clear.  You can also cook these on top of the stove or bake.



For the salsa, I peeled one sweet plum and diced it. I also chopped one fresh jalapeno pepper and 1/3 chopped onion. Squeeze the juice of one lemon and add salt to taste. Mix well and serve over your chicken.



My mother is not a fan of chicken breasts, because she says they are dry. She loved this so much and said it was really moist. I know if my mama says it is good, it has to be pretty good.

I love a good sandwich and I love a good roasted tomato. Seasoned just right, you can't beat those tender slices of roasted tomatoes.  And when you add bacon? Oh my gosh, so much yes.


This is a super easy recipe and perfect compliment to any sandwich.


Bacon Wrapped Tomatoes

1 roma tomato sliced
Bacon
2 tsp Kyvan BBQ Dry Rub
1 tsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp of Lemon Juice

Wrapped the uncooked bacon around each tomato slice and place on baking sheet. Drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil and sprinkle with the Kyvan Dry BBQ Rub.

Place in oven at 350 degrees and bake for about 40 minutes or until bacon is cooked thoroughly.

Remove from heat and serve atop your favorite sandwich.




Buffalo Baby Potatoes

Baby Potatoes
2 tbsp Kyvan Dry BBQ Rub
2 tbsp Kyvan Hot Sauce
1 Tbsp of Ranch dressing
1 cup shredded cheese
3 tbsp butter

Place baby potatoes into baking dish with butter. Sprinkle dry BBQ Rub and bake at 350 for 45 minutes until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat and top with cheese. Place back in oven until cheese is melted. Drizzle with Kyvan Hot Sauce and Ranch dressing.

It is no secret my crew and I love Asian inspired meals. I seriously watch Mark Weins of Migrationology every single day.  He is this amazing blogger and food traveler that I am subscribed to and dude makes me so hungry with every single video. He does primarily focus on Asian countries but he has been featuring videos of his trip to Mexico and that is another place that has some serious amazing good food.



Anywoo, I am now contributing as recipe developer for Town and Gown magazine here in my town. When the editor said healthy and good, I knew I wanted to do Asian inspired. The use of fresh greens, herbs and veggies is so inspiring and so healthy. Pair it with a little flair with the sauces and oh muh gawd, yes.

My children loved each one of these recipes but they took most to the spring/summer rolls so much that I had to make them everyday for that entire week. I didn't complain though, heck, they were eating clean, right.



Check out these recipes coming to the Town and Gown website soon, but for now, if you are local to Starkville, Mississippi or the surrounding areas, you can pick up the magazine locally and try these out!

Last night my son told me he wanted a Doctor Who birthday party. Nevermind that said party was to take place the next day.  Being  avid Doctor Who fans, I thought over the episodes we have watched over and over and thought how could I make something cool on a looooow budget. No time to order anything, no time to really plan, I decided, not to make Dalek cupcakes, or a Tardis cake, but instead, opted to keep it simple. I bought some napkins, white cups, buttons, ribbon, 50 cent  paint and blue wrapping paper.














A Tardis out of the wrapping paper, the 11th Doctor out of the other items and some simple candy talk bubbles I wrote on with an edible marker. My son loved it and I am happy that it turned out cool.




I guess this means, he wins. No more House marathons on Netflix...time to go back to The Doctor.

 I love fried green tomatoes. Seriously...love them. They are just little tart slices of fried goodness that makes my soul feel good. What can make fried green tomatoes better? The sharpness of pimento cheese and the slightly sweet  Kyvan sweet potato bbq sauce that marries with shredded chicken. Oh, my word yes.



These sliders are perfect for your Super Bowl party. Seriously two biters, they will be gone in a heart beat and while these are perfect sliders for parties, they would make an epic full size dinner option.  I made a simple apple coleslaw to go with it. The flavor profile on these bad boys are through the roof!



BBQ Chicken Sliders with Pimento Cheese, Fried Green Tomato and Apple Slaw

Boneless skinless chicken breast
Kyvan Dry BBQ Rub
2-4 pats of butter
Kyvan Sweet Potato BBQ Sauce

Slider buns


Apple Slaw
1 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 cup of thinly sliced Granny Smith apples
2-3 tbsp mayo
1/2 tsp of sugar
1/2-1 tbsp of vinegar

Fried Green Tomatoes
Green Tomatoes, sliced
Kyvan BBQ Dry rub
1 Cup Corn Meal
3 tablespoons flour
Vegetable oil 


Pimento Cheese Recipe found here.


Sprinkle both sides of chicken breasts with bbq dry rub and place in skillet on meduim heat with butter. Cook until chicken is completely done. Remove from heat and shred the chicken.  Drizzle  the Kyvan Sweet Potato BBQ Sauce over the shredded chicken.

In bowl, place your shredded cabbage, apples, mayo, sugar and vinegar and mix well.  The mixture should not be runny. If runny, add in more shredded cabbage.




Pour 2 cups of vegetable oil into your skillet on meduim high heat. Allow it to get hot.  In bowl, mix corn meal, flour and dry rub together.  Rinse your sliced tomatoes and then coat in your dry mixture. Place in the hot oil and fry on both sides until golden.



Remove from grease and allow tomatoes to drain on a paper towel.

Line your bottom slider buns on baking sheet. Top with bbq shredded chicken and then your pimento cheese. Place in oven at 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and top the sliders with fried green tomato and apple slaw. Top with bun and serve warm.

Gorgeous butcher block courtesy of Woods Rooted.

I am not a huge football fan.  As a college student, I went to one game and I do not think I stayed the entire game. Here in the South though, everyone is die hard about their football, basketball and baseball,  so the Super Bowl is a huge thing.

We always throw a Super Bowl party.   Of course, for me it is about food but for my kids, family and friends it is about whose team is going to smash the living daylights out of the other team. Loads of yelling at the tv while lauging with each other and of course, some good game day eats.


Here are some things my oldest son tested with me yesterday to make sure they could go down on the menu. They were a huge hit and we can't wait to have these again for game day. And one thing rings true abut the South, we love football and bbq. These game day treats are the perfect combination of cheesey potato goodness with amazing bbq flavor.



Twice Baked Sweet Potato BBQ Chicken Baby Potatoes

One Bag of Baby Potatoes
Kyvan Sweet Potato BBQ Sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/2 - 1 cup Sour Cream
1/2 cup of Shredded Cheddar
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons Kyvan Dry BBQ Rub
2 tablespoons Butter
Micro Greens

In a meduim size pot of water, bring the baby potatoes to a boil then reduce to meduim heat. Cook for twenty minutes until potatoes are tender.

Remove potatoes from water and allow them to cool.

Once cool, slice the potatoes in half and use a spoon to scoop out the insides of the potatoes.  Place what you scoop out into a bowl.

Add in sour cream, salt, pepper, cheese and mix well. Should be thick and creamy. If dry or too chunky, add in more sour cream.

Set potato mixture aside.



In skillet on meduim heat, cook your chicken breasts with dry bbq rub and butter. Cook breasts until done. Allow to cool once removing from heat and then shred the chicken.

Coat the shredded chicken with 1/2 cup or 1 cup of bbq sauce.

Line the potato skins on a baking sheet and scoop in a spoonful of the potato mixture. Top with shredded cheese and a half a spoonful of chicken. Place in oven and bake for 5 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve hot and fresh, and add a garnish of microgreens.



We also did a variation of this added by sprinkling Kyvan Dry BBQ rub over the potato mixture and baking plain.  After they were removed from the oven, I added a piece of bacon that had been cooked after being sprinkled with the rub for a nice smoky bbq flavor.

One potato, two ways!

Amazing butcher blocks courtesy of Woods Rooted.

I took a trip to Chicago this past weekend for a commercial shoot. On my way back, I had the pleasure of sitting next to a nice young man. I usually do not talk, but somehow we started a conversation and of course, it led to talking about food. He was from the South like me, and shared with me one of his favorite desserts. He said his mother, who had passed, would make him and his brothers Butter Rolls.

I was confused at first. He was talking about desserts but I was picturing something like yeast rolls in my head. He told me that he still had an aunt that would make them and called her right then and there so she could share her recipe with me.

It was a beautiful thing. From what I have heard since learning about these, this was a dessert that many would make using the scraps leftover from making biscuits. It is complete with a sweet milk sauce that you cover over the rolls.  It is sort of like cinnamon rolls, but it uses biscuit dough.

You will need:

Dough
3 cups of self rising flour
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of milk

Sauce
2 cups milk
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
3 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Sugar
4 tsbp butter


To begin making your dough, pour your flour in your mixing bowl. Using your hands ( or you can use a food processor) begin crumbling the butter into the flour. I place the butter in the flour and squeeze it over and over until it crumbles into the flour.


Once butter is crumbled into the flour, make a hole in the middle of the flour. Slowly add in 1/2 cup of milk. Take the flour and fold it over on top of the milk and pat down. The milk will escape but absorb into the flour, make another hole and fill with more milk. Repeat the process until you have a nice dough forming. Remove from bowl and on a floured surface, begin kneading.

Roll out your dough to about a half an inch thick. Trim sides. While butter is at room temperature, spread it evenly over the dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture.





Begin rolling. Slice into rolls.

Place rolls in nonstick baking pan.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until golden brown at the top.

In sauce pan, add in your milks and butter, Cook on meduim for 15 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat.

Once rolls are brown, remove from oven, pour milk mixture over them and bake for 10-15 more minutes. Serve warm.





*I placed mine back in the oven for the sauce to thicken. I had removed it too early for photos. It did thicken and was really good!



Since this is still new to me, I would love to try some recipes for Butter Rolls if you have any! Feel free to share! I have heard they can be made different ways.