Tasty Tuesdays: Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork

Good morning! Hope your morning is off to a good start. I didn't have a good sleep, but I'm in bed eating some of my favorite oatmeal so I'm pretty happy at the moment. If you read yesterday's post then you know we made pulled pork for supper on Saturday. We were having my Nan, Grandad, Auntie Judy and cousins Hannah & Philip over. I made a double batch (Hello leftovers!) but the recipe that follows is a single one.

Now if you read this blog at all, you know that I love simple recipes and this one is just that. You pop the pork in the slow cooker and go about your day for the next 8 hours or so. Then it takes about another 15 minutes of work to get it all ready. For this reason, it's great to make when you're having guests because no one likes to spend the whole time in the kitchen and miss out on the fun, right? Anyway, here is the "recipe":

Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork
Serves at least 4

1/2 large onion, diced
1 pork roast, shoulder or butt
1-3 c. apple juice
1 bottle of BBQ sauce
1 bag of coleslaw (or cabbage very thinly sliced)
coleslaw salad dressing
4+ buns, Kaisers are good
salt & pepper


1. Put your onions in the bottom of the cooker and trim the fat off of your roast.

2. Put your roast in the cooker, pour the apple juice over the top and season the roast with salt & pepper. The apple juice should be about 1/3 up the side of the cooker, if not, add a bit more.

 3. Set the cooker on low for 8 hours and go do some shopping or dancing or play with your puppy.

4. When the pork is looking pretty roasted, mix the coleslaw with the dressing. Add just enough dressing so the cabbage is coated, but don't drown it.

5. With a slotted spoon & a fork, transfer the pork to a large bowl, removing the bones & fat as you go. Shred the pork very thinly by pulling it apart with 2 forks. Try to break up all of the pieces so it's tender.

 6. Add a bottle of BBQ sauce, drain the slowcooker and plop the pork right back in the slowcooker for about 30 minutes.

7. Cut your buns, add the pork, some extra sauce & a big spoonful of coleslaw. Then, eat.

the final product, melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness.

I usually use just any old BBQ sauce, but this time I used PC's Pulled Pork Sauce.To be honest though, it was just okay. I think I'd rather use the Kraft stuff I used last time. For me, this sauce was too tangy and not smoky or spicy enough. Everyone else loved it though and the pork and bun were soft and tender. So I'd say if you're trying this out to just go with your favorite BBQ sauce because you'll be tasting a lot of it in this sandwich! Oh, and and trust me on this one, don't skip on the coleslaw. It brings a nice creaminess and it breaks up the strong taste of the BBQ sauce.

Do you like pulled pork? Would you try this one? Let me know your thoughts!

xo Janelle

Weekend Recap: The one with Weenieman, adult bibs & dog treats

Me + the new "firetruck"

Thanks for the blog visit! As promised, I'm going to recap my super exciting--for me, anyway--weekend! I hope yours was wonderful too. **This post is pretty photo heavy, FYI.

My parents arrived Friday night from NB. They got in around 10, so we got some groceries (thanks guys!), made some croissant-wrapped gouda & went to bed. We had already decided on going to Halifax's Seaport Market the next day, so we hopped in the truck and off we went. We brought along my uncle Bruce and walked around for hours. I have to tell you, I have a tumultuous relationship with the market. I love going there and sampling treats (who doesn't though, really?) but I can't help but feel tempted to spend money. And spend we did!

Some AMAZING industrial art. Forgot to check artist name.

First, we stopped at Red's Bakery and had some samples. I tried their bread pudding and it was super-good, not too sweet but still doughy and sticky. Dad tried the carrot cookie sandwich and loved it too. I'll definitely be buying some goods from this sweet lady soon. 

a very Easter-like display

 I tried some of this homemade maple salad dressing and had to get Dad to try it. This is his reaction when he was caught licking his sample cup. Classic Dad face.... guilty.

Here mom & I tried some Tofu dips by Acadiana Soy Products. I liked the curry dip & green onion dill dip. I think it would be really good with fish. Mom liked the cheeze spread, but I was a little weirded out by the spelling and the fact that it was not real cheese.

At this point we were starving and the samples just weren't cutting it, so Mom and I grabbed some samosas from Amin's Indian Food stall. It was her first time having one and I think she was surprised that they weren't spicy. They were tasty, but they were not as good as the ones at the Sackville, NB Bridge street market by a long shot.

 And now, for the reason some of you clicked on the post, introducingggggggg Weenieman! Get it? You roast weenies on his... you know. Naughty? Yes. Tacky? Yes. But, fun? I think so! Dad used to make similar things at work with nuts and bolts when he used to be a welder, so I ended up getting this for them as a trailer-warming gift which I'm sure they'll use.

And here's my uncle Bruce modelling the bib/apron he bought for Nanny. The perfect gift for a cat lady who loves to cook!

hand-crafted wine bottle holder

the man with the magic hands

I ran into Dad chatting it up with this guy who runs Scotian Ironworks , not to be confused with Ironworks Distillery who make mouth-watering liquors. He does all hand-made iron sculptures, hangers, railings, candleholders etc. etc. I can't believe that he does every intricate detail by hand. The pictures really don't do the wine bottle holder justice. It's stunning in person!

All in all, we had a great time. We tried some food, saw some pretty things and lost eachother in a sea of people. Here's what we ended up coming home with. I bought Abby some treaties from Katie's Farm. Abby liked the taste, but I think she found them a bit too crunchy because she really had to chomp on them. I also bought some organic soap from Oasa Mae to replace the Softsoap grapefruit body wash that I don't really like. The bar smells really light & fresh and not "goat's milk" or patchouli-ish at all and it lathers up really soft. I love it already! Mom & Dad bought some Jost wine that isn't available in NB and we also bought some buns from Aziz Best Baker. The buns were so fresh and worked perfectly for our pulled pork sandwiches. Check back tomorrow for my slow-cooker pulled pork recipe!

My little Sheppard after a wet walk.

 Thanks for reading! Gotta go because the fire alarm is going off for some reason. Probably some idiot burning toast.

xo Janelle

My mom was in some cute photos but she didn't want her pictures "on the internet", so I obliged! That's why she's missing from the photos here. Love you mom!

Casa Fridays: colorful art for a rainy day.

Photo from Baby Blackbird

I was so inspired when I saw this tutorial image on Pinterest, but when I clicked to the final product I was blown away by the possibilities.

Brandy from Baby Blackbird and her kiddos made this as a Father's Day gift for her husband/their dad. See the actual tutorial here. Isn't it sweet? All they did was take vinyl reusable sticker letters, stuck them on a blank canvas, painted over the whole canvas and then took them off. It's so simple, not to mention inexpensive, but the part that tickles my fancy is that you can make such a range of pieces of art using the same idea. Can you tell how excited I am?

I'm definitely going to make one of these, it's just a matter of narrowing down my options for color, words, shapes, brush strokes etc. I might try using song lyrics or a quote that I like.

 For a different variation, you could use round brush strokes for a hypnotizing effect or you could do various shades of all one color for a softer, soothing look. I would like to see what covering the whole canvas with words would look like. Too. Many. Options.

What do you think? Am I a little over-enthused? I think it's because our apartment is really crying for a fun piece of art and a lot more color. I'm looking to bring color into the bedroom by doing a hanging project where the clothesline is. Stay tuned for that little update in a couple weeks!

This weekend my parents are paying me a visit and we're going to hit up the Farmer's market tomorrow morning, shop around in the day and have the rest of the family over for pulled pork. And you know I go a little nutzo for pulled pork, so it should be a fun time. See you on Monday for a little weekend re-cap. I hope you have a great weekend full of sunshine!

xo Janelle

Tasty Tuesdays: Pride Pockets (Healthy Pizza Pockets)

Good morning! I hope my American readers had a great long weekend.

Today's recipe comes from Amuse Bouche. Whit, who writes the blog, is hilarious and if you like food blogs (which you must because you're here!) then you should check her out. You can read the recipe here, but I'll post my modified instructions here to help you out. Basically Pride Pockets are pizza pops or pockets but instead of being wrapped in god-knows-what they're surrounded by bread! They only take about 30 minutes from start to finish so they're almost as fast as making pizza pockets in the oven and the best part is you can change it up and stuff em with whatever you have on hand! Broccoli & cheddar pockets, greek pockets, meatlovers... 

Pizza Pride Pocket
Modified from Whit's Amuse Bouche

1 loaf of any kind of bread

Shredded Mozzerella

Pepperoni, salami or your meat of choice

Diced onion & green pepper (mushrooms if you like)

1 can or squeeze bottle of pizza sauce (time saver!)

Extra basil?

Salt

Pepper

1.  Preheat the oven to 350. Cut up your meat into very small pieces. Throw it in the pan and brown it with the onions, peppers, sauce, basil, salt & pepper. Add the sauce and stir until thoroughly heated.

2. While this is heating up, cut the crusts off the bread two at a time.

3. When the sauce mixture is heated, put it into a bowl and let it cool just a bit. Grate up some mozzarella and add it to the mixture. 

4. Take about a tsp-tbsp of the mixture and plop it in the centre of one piece of bread. Squish the bread down gently so it doesn't rip. Then crimp the edges of the bread with a fork to lock in the pizza stuff. Pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the tops are nice and crispy and you're done!

*The only big change to the ingredients, was that I used premade pizza sauce. I had some I wanted to use up and it ended up being faster. The only change I made to the actual instructions was to combine the sauce mixture and the cheese before putting it on the bread. Otherwise, I find it harder to keep all of the cheese contained to the middle, but feel free to do it either way.

I think this recipe is fantastic for people with kids, or for those who are kids at heart. They're healthy, nutritious and fun to make. I may have downed 2 of them and then had a little moment of realization that I had just eaten 4 slices of bread... woops. I think these would be great served with a little garden or greek salad, potato salad or pasta salad. Let me know if you give these a go! 

Almost gone...

Thanks for reading!

xo Janelle

Rock Your Body Til Canada Day + Dino Cake

I had to try it before giving it to people...

Making it happen.

attackkkkkkkkk

 

Happy Canada Day!

Instead of Casa Fridays, we've got another recipe today. I whipped up a cake on Wednesday and then the icing on Thursday. This cake was actually D's late belated birthday cake. I picked up these little dinosaur figurines at Wal-Mart and wanted to incorporate 23 of them into some part of his gift. And really, what's easier, or cuter, than popping them onto their own little oasis.

The recipes I used were pretty easy to follow. The icing recipe, however, called for a candy thermometer and I didn't have one so I just eye balled it. In retrospect, I probably didn't boil the sugar long enough, so next time I'll either get a thermometer or let it harden a bit more. So the icing is a bit runny, but it was all me. The cake turned out to be fudgier than I expected, but I'd say that's a good thing.

Everyone who tried it so far liked it, so I guess it was a success. And I'd say it looks pretty cute.

Thanks to Bree from Baked Bree (link above) for the icing recipe and the cake recipe is from Food.com (link above). Also, shout out to our visitors: T, Becky, Kavo & Brandon who's back in town. We're gonna celebrate tonight with music, drinks & food. Hope the sun's shining for you too!

xo Janelle