Pulled Pork

This is a pretty popular meal on Bordeaux. I usually serve it up on a bun or pistolette topped with coleslaw and a side of corn pudding or mac and cheese. I know some folks would love it slathered in BBQ sauce.

Ingredients:

• Pork Butt...that's the cut folks. Love me some pig behind. Boston Butt and Pork shoulder are good too. I am not sure if it's the same cut of meat though, but it works. I think I usually get one that's about 4 lbs. Sometimes I get the one with the bone, depending on what's on sale. It is pretty fatty though.
  
• 1 cup vinegar, white or apple cider
• 1/2 cup water
• Seasoning salt or cajun seasoning or salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup worchestire sauce

Directions:

• In a dutch oven, brown all sides of pork over medium heat.
• Add remaining ingredients. Be generous with the seasoning.
• Cover and place in 350 degree oven for 3-4 hours or until pork is tender.
• Remove pork from pan and allow to cool.
• Shred pork and discard fat.

Variations:

• Add apple juice
• Add some brown sugar
• Cook on a lower temperature for 5-6 hours.
  
• Wondering if this works in the crock pot? Thoughts, anyone?
  

I usually try to buy a small piece of pork (on sale) but there is always plenty. That's ok though because I find that eating leftovers is a good way to save money...and time! So we'll have sandwiches for another night or two and then I place what remains in a pan with some salsa and cook it down even further to use for Huevos Rancheros or enchiladas! I have also frozen the pork after I've cooked it down with the salsa to use at a later date.

Huevos Rancheros

I am exploring other ideas for pork butt leftovers, so please pass on anything that comes to mind. An easy recipe for Pork Green Chili would be great!

Baby Food

Freddie is like a little bird when we are eating. He looks longingly at your cookie or burger. It is pretty pitiful. I just have to give him some of whatever it is, no matter what it is for the most part. He really, really enjoyed the gingery cookies on our Delta flight last week. I have been doing better at figuring out what he can eat from the meal I am cooking for dinner and try to set a little aside before making it too salty or spicy for him to enjoy.

Baby food is expensive. I figure when I give Freddie jarred food I am spending $2-3 per day currently and as he gets better at eating that is only going to go up. So in addition to feeding him foods we eat, we've been making our own food!


The Beaba is awesome and was well worth the $150. I know we will more than break even on it. It steams and purees the food all in the same little container.


I almost just invested in a regular steamer and food grinder, but I am *so* happy with this. It is small enough that I don't mind it on the counter so I can toss in stuff that I am preparing for the "adult" dinner.


After steaming and pureeing, the puree gets poured into an ice cube tray. The 2.5 cup pitcher will produce enough food to just about fill up an ice cube tray. The cubes are then popped into plastic bags for storage. I figure Bug is eating about 3 cubes per meal along with some rice cereal or oatmeal.


So far we've got:

• apples
• pears
• pears and pineapple mixed
• sweet potatoes
  
• acorn squash and corn mixed (a favorite of his)
  
• acorn squash
• butternut squash
• peaches
• mangos
• blueberries
  
• blueberries and pears mixed
  
• carrots (really likes one cube carrot and one cube apples mixed)
  
• spinach (likes this mixed with some baked potato)

I think we'll browse the produce section tomorrow and dream up some other yummy purees for you, my dear Freddie. Looks like we need more veggies.

Mondays

Mondays are for washing and red beans. Charlie doesn't like beans, but he tells me that he likes them simmering on the stove. I always feel like I smell of red beans for the day if I cook up a pot. But Charlie...."It feels homey," he says. I'll settle for that for now, but I have an agenda to make a bean eater out of him.

Beans are healthy, and beans are easy and cheap! $1.05 a pound (at Whole Foods!) and another buck for the seasoning packet. I like them without any rice, but how cheap and easy is rice, right? It is the quintessential south Louisiana meal.

Sometimes it crosses my mind to freeze some beans, but then I realize that there's really no need since they are SO simple.

Ingredients:

• Seasoning packet
  

• 1 lb of Camellia red beans
  

• Salt
• Browned onion and sausage, if I'm feeling adventurous

Directions:

• Soak beans overnight
• Drain in morning
• Cover with water and add salt and seasoning
  
• Simmer for several hours (all day), adding water as necessary
• Mash a few beans on the side of the pot to help give a creamy texture
  

Note: This can be done in the crock pot if you're not home washing clothes all day, but beans aren't as creamy.

New entries

I do use this blog as a garden journal, and have found it helpful to look back at prior posts to see what I had planted and what was doing well in the garden during a particular month. So with that in mind, I decided that I would start using the blog to document my budding hobby: cooking. (Stop laughing. And Charlie, I mean you!)

I'm not sure I can go as far to say that it's a full fledged hobby, but it has been taking up a lot of my time lately. I have been seeking new recipes to assist in our quest towards healthy eating. Easy sweet treat recipes are also high on my list. They cancel each other out, but I think I like baking more than cooking.

Over the summer we learned that Janet, Charlie's mom, who makes lots of new meals, uses a recipe once and then tosses it. Yep, throws it in the trash with the dinner scraps. And I've been doing that as well, but really because I am a neat freak and can't stand the recipe hanging around. I can't commit to some recipe filing system.

What I try in the kitchen I will be posted on the blog. Sorry if you're a reader, but this blog serves multiple purposes for me right now. Hoping it generates some comments with recipes for me to try!

I've come a long way

Meals around here have really improved since the days of casper chicken. Amazing what a year, a grill, and reading Real Simple magazine can do!

We are working to lose weight, improve cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and just generally eat well. If we stick to meals at home we do rather well. It's still lots and lots of chicken, but the things I can do with chicken! Everything is simple and quick, or else it wouldn't happen, and it tastes pretty good.

Charlie grills eight or so chicken breasts and then I find ways to reinvent them throughout the week. The craft of easy reinvention usually involves lots of minced garlic, which makes everything better.

The most popular chicken reinvention meals currently include:

• Chicken Salad Sandwiches: We do make traditional chicken salad, but the one from Real Simple is a welcome change and better for us (no mayo!). I shred the chicken and stir in some shredded carrots and bbq sauce, put it on a bun, and top with some shredded cabbage. Best served with a side of steamed or grilled veggies.
  

• Chicken Enchiladas: So easy, and Charlie's favorite. Again, I shred some chicken, and throw in some corn. Wrap it up in some corn tortillas, cover in sauce and low fat cheese, and bake. I serve this with fat free refried black beans and some Spanish rice from a box.

• Chicken and Veggies with Spinach Pasta: My favorite. Probably because it is the easiest. Dice some of that grilled chicken, brown it with garlic and olive oil, and throw in whatever veggies we happen to have (lots of squash and asparagus). Top it off with a bit of Parmesan and it's done.

I'm on the look out for more easy meals before we grow tired of these. So if you have any suggestions....

What's cookin'

Dinner time is getting more interesting around here with our new grill purchase. We finally replaced our flooded grill with a cheapy, bottom of the line model from Lowe's. It suits us just fine. Actually, I wish it was a bit smaller. We should have purchased it earlier in the summer, to keep the heat out of the kitchen.

This week I experimented with our usual side of boiled potatoes...I mashed 'em up with a hunk of brie...Y-U-M-M-Y. We'll be doing this again, but not too often. We're watching our waistlines. But, we will be having lots of salads with grilled chicken on top.