Pulled Pork Sandwiches

So back to Rachel

She posted this recipe for Pulled Pork Sandwiches back in March.

I found it on Friday and immediately sent it to the husband and demanded I make this for dinner one night. A man to turn away BBQ Pork sammiches? Marinated in Beer? Yeah right so of course he was already hungry for it.

Decided to make these yesterday (prep on Monday night) and invited the family over since there was no way I'd fit into my dress this weekend had I eaten 2 of the 4 lbs of Pork Shoulder I was about to make.

Prep work was minimal, took maybe 15 minutes... only because I trimmed some of the fat and the bone from the pork. And I'm squeemish with raw meat. Gives me the heebie jeebies.

I'll not post the whole recipe here since I really really want you to go check out the southern hospitality over here.

I made 1 obvious change. Instead of Miller Lite (eeew in our household) I substituted Budweiser Select since it is what I had in the house.

5 simple ingredients, 1 delicious outcome.


6 people ate this last night (everyone agreed it was delicious!) and we had enough for a couple more sandwiches as leftovers.

The pork smelled awesome when I put it in the crock after marinating all night. When she says "Resist the urge to dive face first into the crockpot." She isn't kidding. Seriously. It was so moist and tender after cooking all day that it shredded easily and was ready and waiting for the BBQ sauce. I may get the bigger bottle next time for a little extra BBQ flavor. But this recipe will be repeated again I'm sure. Probably pretty soon.

And now that I've discovered Mouth Watering Mondays hopefully I'll be able to post here more than once a month with some new recipes that we've tried!!!

Find the Recipe Here.

Enjoy!

Roasted Red Potatoes

This was the perfect side dish to the Crockpot Roast Chicken last night! I improvised with what I had and it turned out great. I'm sure there are lots of versions floating around there but this is what I came up with.




Ingredients:

5-6 larger Red Potatoes (or the smaller ones too, I made enough for 2 plus leftovers)
1.5 T Minced Garlic or 2-3 cloves of garlic
2 T Rosemary
Kosher Salt
Ground Pepper
2 T Olive Oil

Directions:

I washed off the potatoes and cut into 6ths and 8ths because they were so big. If you have smaller ones quarter or halves are fine. I tossed them in a bowl with the oil and seasonings and mixed them all together to coat everything evenly. Lay them out on a baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 450*-500* depending on your oven, flipping at least once. I actually cooked ours for 20 min at 450*, flipped, and then another 10 minutes at 500*. They were crispy and golden on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside. Plus, the house smelled excellent while they were roasting away!

Enjoy!

Crockpot Roast Chicken

So I'm sure everyone knows that Crockpot cooking is simple, delicious, easy, and pretty darn near impossible to screw up. This recipe proves all 4 to be true.

1 Whole Chicken (my 6lb chicken fit well into the 6qt. crockpot)

Salt

Pepper

Herbs/Seasoning to taste (I used Rosemary)

1 Onion

Carrots

So the carrots didn't really add anything for this but I had in mind that we would be eating them so they can be (and will be for us) excluded in the future.

I skinned the chicken after reading Stephanie's post about globs of chicken fat simmering all day. UGH I think I just dry heaved thinking about it. Anyways, I got as much of the fat/skin as I could and just today relized that using my Chicken Shears would have made things much easier than my chefs knife. I'll know for next time.

I bought a Tyson chicken that luckily didn't have the neck and giblets waiting for me inside. If yours does, remove that stuff and try not to gag. I cut the onion in pieces and stuffed about 1/3 of it into the cavity after sprinkling with salt and pepper. Season the rest of the chicken with the salt, pepper, and herbs as desired. I tossed the remaining onion and the carrot slices in the crockpot and placed the chicken on top. No liquid necessary. This made plenty on it's own. I cooked it on low for about 9 hours and then switched to warm until dinner. (Cook 8-10 hours on low or 6-8 on high depending on the size of your bird)

Enjoy!

This was a fantastic and tasty chicken that stayed unbelievably moist, plus it just fell away from the bones it was so tender. I was pleasantly surprised since I had removed the skin and it wasn't greasy like it usually is. I will continue to use this recipe as a base for lots of other things.

Now, what to do with the leftovers?

Panini- Italian

Okay so if one thing is consisent in our house, it's that on (most) Monday's we have Panini's. Thus the name, Panini Monday! When we first got married we wanted to settle into some routines that would hopefully make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Plus, I wanted to play Suzie Homemaker and make all sorts of delicious meals for my husband and I to enjoy. Well- not so much. In fact, there was more days of trying to decide what to have for dinner that by the time it was all said and done it was neither easy nor delicious. One week we tried panini's (thanks to the WONDERFUL bonus gift that we got with our stylish calphalon one cookware) and we were hooked. This is the first recipe we made and it has stuck. It is our go-to meal on Monday's and couldn't be easier. It's hard to screw up a sandwich, I haven't met one I didn't like!

It's all about the bread! (We favor Italian)













Then we fill it:

Provolone Cheese
Hard Salami
Sliced Pepperoni (Hormel Sandwich is our fav)
Hot Capiocola

(I add italian dressing and Pepperoncini's to mine)

Brush the bread with a bit of olive oil

Place on the pan (I preheat my panini pan on medium while I am assembling the sandwichs)

Press with the weight (or use a pan with a canned good on top)

Flip after 4-5 minutes when the bread gets browned and crispy.

Cook another 4-5 minutes on the other side

Cut in half (on an angle if you'd like) and Enjoy!















Be careful they're hot!