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.

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.

Working on some exciting new recipes and content!  Until then, here is a super delicious must make meal perfect for cold months!

Here in the South, at least in Mississippi, there is not a place you can go to for a quick lunch that does not offer 'beef tips and gravy'.  Usually served with rice, sometimes it is sided with mashed potatoes. It is one of those dishes that working men love because hey, it's meat and potatoes and it is very filling.

It is a simple meal...no frou-frou ingredients...just meat, gravy and some onions/bell peppers. Season it just right, and this simple, traditional meal is so good.

My family loves it, but then again, we love mostly anything that comes paired with gravy. We are gravy addicts....at least I am and being that mama is, the kids happen to be too.

This meal is perfect after a long day's work or on a cool night.  I served mine with honey roasted carrots with bacon, but any green side will do just fine or a nice simple side salad.



You will need

Beef stew meat ( I used a large family pack for my family of 5)
1/2 large onion (sliced)
1/2 green bell pepper (sliced)
3 tbsp Worchestershire Sauce
1 tbsp pepper
3 tsp salt

(you can add more salt and pepper to taste. I like my food nicely seasoned, so sometimes I use a bit more. Don't be afraid to taste and add more if you need to)

In large pot of water, bring meat to a boil. Add in a tablespoon of salt to the boiling water and meat. reduce to medium heat and cook for about 40 minutes to an hour. This helps tenderize the meat.

Drain water and place meat in a skillet with onions and peppers. Add in your Worchestershire sauce  and seasoning. Stir well. Cook on medium heat until peppers and onions are softened.

Brown Gravy
1/4 cup unsalted butter or vegetable oil
1/4 cup flour
1/2  teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups water
4 teaspoons beef bouillon cubes (crushed)

In skillet, add in your butter or oil, cook on high heat. Once it starts to heat up, immediately add your flour, sprinkling around the entire skillet.  Stir quickly and consistently. The flour will start to brown.  Add in your water (still stirring so it does not burn)  and once it starts to bubble, reduce heat to low.  Add in your crushed bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Add in your salt and pepper, stir again until smooth and turn off heat.

Pour your gravy over your beef and stir. Serve hot.

*You can also add in sliced onion before you add the flour...cook them for a minute or so in the hot oil and then follow the rest of the steps.