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!

I have to confess, I have only made pork loin once in my life before this and when I did, it was one of those preseasoned ones that was not stuffed. We do not eat a lot of pork (unless it is bacon, because bacon is the goodness) so I never really thought I was missing out.  But then I kept seeing these gorgeously stuffed porkloin that just looked amazing. I never understood how people could make them look so perfect and so good. I wanted to try. I had to try. I wanted to tackle the feat that was stuffing a pork loin.

I was a bit apprehensive because it looked complicated. I mean, how did they get it to swirl like that. As much as I cook, I do not know how to do a lot of things and jelly rolling stuff is one. When I bought the pork, I thought it would already be ready to stuff and roll but I looked at that big chunk of meat and was like, okayyyy.



Believe me, it really is not as hard as I thought it would be. It really was super easy...and I had a dull knife!

I stuffed my pork loin with a sausage mixture flavored with sweet honey apple butter from Kyvan. Oh my word. Goodness indeed.

Using Kyvan Dry BBQ rub, gave the outside a nice contrasting taste to balance out the sweetness inside.  Smokey and deep with hints of that apple really hit the best notes.  My kids loved it and there was not a piece left to be packed up in the fridge as leftovers.

This is a perfect family meal to change things up at the dinner table!




You will need:

Pork loin
1 Tube Pork Sausage
6 Slices of Toasted Bread or 2 cups of bread crumbs
1 1/2 cup Kyvan Apple Butter
1/2 cup Kyvan Dry BBQ Rub
1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cut potatoes, onion, carrots and celery




Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Start slicing your pork loin, when you get almost to the end, slowly turn the meat to continue slicing. You can watch a video on how to butterfly a pork loin, here.

Cover the loin with plastic wrap and beat with meat mallet or whatever you have handy (I used a rolling pin) to tenderize the meat. Remove plastic wrap.

Cook sausage on medium heat until done and in crumbles. In bowl crumble your toasted bread or add in your bread crumbs, toss in your cooked sausage and pour in your apple butter. Mix well. Mixture will be thick like a paste.  Spread your sausage mixture over the pork loin. 

Starting at one end, begin to roll, like a cinnamon or jelly roll. Once at all roll, tie with your butcher's twine to hold it together.

Place in roasting pan, fat side up and add in your chopped veggies. Drizzle with your olive oil and sprinkle all of the bbq dry rub on the meat and vegetables.

Roast in 450 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Continue to roast for 55 to 60 minutes or until instant-read meat thermometer inserted into the pork, but not in the stuffing, reads 150 to 155 degrees F and the potatoes are fork tender.

My mom claimed she did not want prime rib or ham for Thanksgiving as my menu so beautifully stated.  Of course, she got a serious side eye and a "What would you like instead?" 

I was serious. This is my mama and even though I was in charge of Thanksgiving dinner and my kids and other invited family members had no say in what I was making, my mama was the exception. Shoot, I still remember those epic punishments I would get when I kept running in and out the house as a kid, so there was no way I was going to say, deal with it mama. Instead, I asked her what she wanted and she answered with chicken.



I consider myself I foodie. I was not just going to do any kind of chicken for her, I planned out this epic worthy whole baked chicken that was sure to knock her socks off but exxxxxcuse me when she called me up and said, Never mind on the chicken, your Aunt Angie bought me some. Now, ok. It's only the day before Thanksgiving. I head to the kitchen, glance in the fridge at the lone whole chicken that is chilling inside and give it a "Maybe tomorrow" salute.



And then tomorrow came. Not thinking, I left most of the leftovers at my mom's, so I was limited on corn, bread, salad and that lonely whole chicken that never made it to the rack of the oven.  I decided that it would make a nice lunch for my crew.



I opened my pantry and pulled out some Kyvan bbq dry rub, Honey Apple BBQ Sauce, some balsamic vinegar and decided, hey, let's make it happen.

Look at that drizzle...Oh yeah.

Thus, this lunch was born.


This is a super tasty and easy to make dinner or lunch for your crew.



My kids could not get enough of the bbq dry rub croutons so I had to use my entire leftover loaf of crusty italian bread to make them more. They popped them like popcorn, so this is a nice way to use leftover bread, an addition to a great salad, or an amazing snack option.

You will need:

Chicken
Whole Chicken (cleaned)
1/2 cup Kyvan BBQ Dry Rub
1/2 cup Kyvan Honey Apple BBQ Sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1.2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup softened butter

Spread softened butter all over chicken. Pat on and spread the dry ingredients. Bake at 450 degrees in oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat in oven to 350 degrees and cook 25 minutes per pound.

Once roasted, coat chicken with bbq sauce and place in oven for 10 minutes.



Kyvan BBQ Vinaigrette 
1/2 cup olive oil
1⁄2 cup balsamic vinegar
1⁄3 cup Kyvan Honey Apple BBQ Sauce
1⁄2 lemon squeezed
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tablespoon fresh oregano or parsley, chopped fine
1⁄4 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix all ingredients well. Shake well before serving and refrigerate after making and use.



Kyvan BBQ Croutons
Bread (cut into one inch cubes)
Kyvan BBQ Dry Rub
Olive Oil

On baking sheet line cut bread cubes. Sprinkle lightly with olive oil and then sprinkle bbq dry rub.

Herb Salad
1/2 cup basil
1/2 cup mint
1/2 cup dill
2 cups of arugula spinach mix
1/2 cup micro greens
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup of almonds




Check out Kyvan and purchase their deliciously southern products here.

Parmesan potatoes with gouda, provolone cheeses.

My mom and I alternate cooking duties on holidays. Most often it is her doing all the cooking but this year she told me she would decorate the Thanksgiving table and I do the cooking, and on Christmas we would swap.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I do NOT do cooking for large crowds nor do I cook large quantities of food. I am one of those weirdos who knows how much each person should have and I cook accordingly.

Everyone coming knew that was the case this Thanksgiving. There was no room for pop up visits because seriously, they would be eating crumbs. I just do not overcook. lol

Anywho, within the next few days I will be covering the recipes for these dishes, but here is a photographic recap.

It was such a good time among family and I was reminded just how awesome my mom, kids, sister and aunt are...they all seriously rock.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Apple and Cranberry Pie

Chocolate Cake with vanilla icing and blueberry preserves filling.

Herb salad with goat cheese and cranberry

My mom's awesome table setting

Cornbread dressing...the only thing my mom made because seriously hers is the BEST. If I had one word for it, it would be 'golden'. Or creamy. Or delicious.  Or cornbready, chickeny goldeny goodness.