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.

Hot sauce is one of those condiments you will find everywhere in the South. Every restaurant will have it displayed and even if it is not in sight, you can certainly ask for it and I bet you they have bottles of this spicy sauce.

My family loves hot sauce. When I go to the grocery store, I end up with the huge 12 oz bottle and as big as it is, it only lasts a few weeks. My sons, especially put it on every single thing. Like seriously, everything. My 14 year old must have it on certain foods otherwise he will not eat. While we keep hot sauce in our house, being spice and hot sauce fanatics, we love trying different kinds of hot sauce. Sometimes we have challenges. Sometimes we do blind taste testing.

When we received two awesomely packaged bottles of Tabanero, my kids were ready. We even had a neighbor over who wanted in on giving the two sauces a try.



So I laid out two tasting bowls, filled them with the sauces and we did a taste test.

I really loved the regular one and the sweet one we all agreed would make a pretty mean hot wing sauce.  So we voted and we all gave the sauces high marks and decided that we would use them both for a batch of hot wings in place of our regular buffalo sauce for our Super Bowl Party.



For delicious game day wings from the head honchos themselves, check out the Tabanero Blog for five finger lickin' wing recipes!


The heat level of the Tabanero sauces is just right. There is a hint of heat without it being overwhelming and there is no after taste that will leave you reaching for a glass of milk. I mean, it is really smooth.

When trying the Agave Sweet & Spicy, your tongue is greeted with a bite of spice then ends on a soft and lightly sweet note. For anyone who can not handle a bunch of heat, this one is really nice. I think it would be perfect with a few dashes of it on top of a burger.

So for this tasting, they both were winners, but we really have almost used the entire bottle of the Hot Sauce Picante. It was just that good.


If you have ever wanted to try hot sauce here is a list of things to try it on or in:

1. Add a few dashes to your cocktail sauce and kick up Shrimp Cocktail to a new level.
2. On popcorn. A few splashes and add a bit of heat to your popcorn.
3. In your bbq sauce
4. Instead of regular tartar sauce, add in a little hot sauce
5. In greens. Mustard, collard, turnip or even on kale.
6. Love baked beans, add in a few splashes.
7. In your sloppy joes. When mixing your sloppy joe, sprinkle in some hotsauce
8. Sprinkle on your eggs. 
9. Fry up some fish and use hot sauce instead of tartar sauce
10. Mix in a little hotsauce to your butter and place a bat of your spicy butter on top of a nicely cooked steak.

Thanksgiving is on my brain and I can not wait to dig into my mom's creamy and buttery cornbread dressing. Dressing is my all time favorite dish ever. I could eat it every single day. Unfortunately, I have not mastered the art of making dressing, the few times I have tried it was NOT like my mom's. I am going to pay close attention this year and take photos as she makes it. My mom is a no recipe kinda girl, so I will have to make sure I am right there to record her steps and process.

Although I cannot make dressing to save my life, I do make nice cranberry sauces. Yesterday I did a test run on a cranberry raspberry sauce. It was to die for so good. Seriously, why buy the canned stuff when making the real thing is so easy and tastes so much better.

Not only does this sauce go perfectly with holiday dressing, it is amazing on french toast. (That's how I had it yesterday and it was sooooo good)  I am stocking up on some cranberries so I can make more batches of this sauce. Everyone loved it and it is the perfect breakfast condiment.

You will need:

1 1/2 cup of cranberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1 cup of water
1 or 1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of lemon juice

In pot , bring water to a boil.  Add in your clean cranberries and raspberries. Stir in 1/2 cup of sugar and reduce heat when it bubbles. Your cranberries will begin to pop open, add your lemon juice.  Cook on meduim heat while stirring for about 5 minutes.




Take a taste and if you need more sugar, add it in slowly while stirring.  Remove pot from heat and allow it to cool.




When I was in college, there was this amazing place that served chicken tender po boys. One had a sweet and tart plum sauce on it. It was the best sandwich I had ever had. This cranberry and raspberry sauce would be perfect on top of a fried chicken tender sandwich. Hmmmm, I might have to try that tomorrow.

I am one of those people who eat what I have a taste for. If I don't have a taste for it, then it just won't do. I feel empty. I just have to have it. Of course, sometimes I have a taste for restaurant food but being a family with 4 growing children, eating out all the time is just not so economical. That means, I have to work some dang near magic and make it happen at home. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This was definitely a case of working!

I have been having the taste for blackened catfish for the longest. No catfish in the house and I was too tired and just did not feel like going to the grocer. Well....I had tilapia (we keep an endless supply of that stuff) so blackened tilapia it was. I knew I wanted some type of sauce to go with it. I had heavy whipping cream, a block of pepperjack cheese and a bag of shrimp. Hmmmm, this sounded like a good idea and boy oh boy it was! I think I died and went to heaven and came back just so I could finish it. It was that good.

Really, the recipe is so easy. It cooks in only a few minutes and believe me, it is worth it. If you like a little kick to your sauces, this is perfect.

You will need:

Half a Pint of Heavy Whipping Cream
3 slices of pepperjack cheese
1/2 tsp of creole seasoning
15 shrimp, peeled and deveined  (more if you are a shrimp lover like me)



*I cooked my shrimp and sauce in the same cast iron skillet I used to make my fish, so the oil you see if leftover from the Extra Virgin Olive Oil I used. You do not have to use this and the sauce will be whiter.

In a sauce pan on medium, begin cooking the shrimp, once they turn white,  begin pouring in your heavy whipping cream. Add in your creole seasoning and stir. Drop your cheese slices on top and stir until they melt. The cheese may get gooey but the cheese begins to incorporate into the cream.  Once the cheese has fully melted, continue stirring and turn off the heat. The sauce will thicken as it sits.



I served my sauce over blackened tilapia and rice. My family really enjoyed it and kept asking for more "gravy". I guess here in the South, every sauce is "gravy".