Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Delicious dinner tonight...pulled pork sandwiches served on homemade buns with homemade pickles and salad! We figured out this meal cost us less than $1 per person! That's a great deal! Dinner for less than $5 because we had most things in our house or were given the item for free. The pork shoulder/butt I bought for $13 made three meals!  We love good food and great deals!!


I originally made the pulled pork for the baby shower we threw a friend on Saturday.  The pork shoulder/butt was almost 10 lbs so it was going to feed a lot of people.  We had a good turnout but I still came home with plenty to feed my family with.  We still have some leftover that will make a good snack for the boys after school tomorrow.


I used a recipe from Chef Emeril Lagasse.  I mean who doesn't love Emeril?  Well okay, if you are a vegetarian or you have some aversion to pork you might not but I personally love him!  I even have a cook book signed by him that my husband stood in life for hours to get signed for me.  Anyway, I'm sure you are wondering about the recipe, not my infatuation with Emeril...so here it is!  You can also find it on the Food Network website with a recipe for coleslaw and fried pickles.

Don't freak out about all the parts to this recipe, they are all relatively simple to do!  The process is long because of cooking time but I promise it's worth it!  My pork shoulder/butt was double the size of this recipe so I doubled the ingredients and the time cooking.  I did use the mop sauce but since I cooked my roast over night while I was sleeping I only basted it twice and it was still moist and delicious!

Barbecued Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Homemade BBQ Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 boneless pork butt, about 4 pounds
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Essence, recipe follows
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon cayenne
• Wet Mop Basting Sauce, recipe follows
• Barbecue Sauce, recipe follows
• 8 Hamburger buns

Directions

Place the pork in a baking dish. In a bowl, combine the sugar, Essence, salt, cumin, paprika, pepper, and cayenne. Rub the seasoning evenly over the pork to coat. Cover with plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat an oven or smoker to 225 degrees F.

Bring the pork to room temperature and place in a roasting pan, fat side up. Slow cook in the oven, basting with the wet mop basting sauce every 45 minutes, until tender and the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F. (The cooking should take about 6 to 7 hours.) Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

With a knife and fork or two forks, pull the meat apart into small slices or chunks. Toss with the barbecue sauce, to taste, and divide among the hamburger buns.

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup

Recipe from "New New Orleans Cooking", by Emeril Lagasse and Jessie Tirsch. Published by William and Morrow, 1993.

Wet Mop Basting Sauce:

• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
• 1 tablespoon salt

The night before you cook the pork, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well. Refrigerate and let the flavors blend overnight.

Yield: 2 1/4 cups

Barbecue Sauce:

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and whisk well to dissolve the sugar. Place in a squeeze bottle and dress the pulled pork sandwiches to taste.

Yield: about 2 cups

Baby Shower Ducky Bath Punch!

 A few months ago when one of my sweet friends told me she was expecting again, I was thrilled!  I just love her and her family.  For those who know me, know I'm not a fan of baby showers.  You can imagine my surprise when I was suddenly inspired to throw this friend a baby shower!  I didn't hesitate and recruited some of our mutual friends to help me with the planning (good thing I did otherwise who knows how this party would have turned out!)  Anyway, we figured out what we wanted as far as decorations and food and as we were looking through Pinterest for baby shower ideas, we came across this cute looking punch!!  We all agreed immediately that we had to serve this punch.  It was quite delicious and easy to make!

Adorable Ducky Bath Punch – The blue Kool-Aid makes it look like bath water and the sherbet mixed with the ginger ale gives it “bath bubbles”.

Ingredients

• 1 packet blue, unsweetened Kool-Aid
• 1 (2 liter) bottle Ginger Ale
• 1 (64 oz) bottle White Grape Juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 scoops pineapple sherbet
• 2-3 Rubber Duckies

Instructions

1. Chill ginger ale and grape juice over night
2. Remove sherbet from freezer about 1/2 hour before serving punch to soften
3. In a large bowl, combine Kool-Aid packet, sugar and chilled juice. Stir to blend.
4. Slowly add chilled ginger ale.
5. Float 8 scoops of softened sherbet on top
6. Add Rubber Duckies (don’t forget to wash before using)

No Bake Energy Bites

Two of my three boys are wrestlers and are constantly watching what they eat. We are not in the "let's get serious" time of the season with state championships coming up. What tends to be a habit for many wrestlers is to watch their weight and what they consume all week only to fill themselves up with junk at the concession stand the day of the tournaments. This absolutely drove me crazy so I have been packing coolers (yes, more than one) and filling it with healthy snacks. I've been all over Pinterest looking for ideas and came across this one (be sure to click on the link and see the way more awesome picture on that blog entry!)

These we a hit with all the wrestlers who hovered over our table snacking away. I love when I control what goes into the food that my boys and their friends put into their bodies.

This was also super easy to make which is just an added bonus!

No-Bake Energy Bites Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (dry) oatmeal (I used old-fashioned oats)
• 1 cup toasted coconut flakes (toasted it myself which impressed my boys...haha)
  
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used the one I made, added bonus!)
  
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Method:

Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour. Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. (Mine were about 1″ in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Makes about 20-25 balls.

Basil-Garlic Oil

I love this simple flavored oil on fresh pasta. It is very refreshing.

Basil-Garlic Oil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6-8 whole cloves garlic
10 whole fresh basil leaves
Generous pinch crushed red chili pepper flakes

Heat a small saucepan over low heat with 1/4 cup olive oil, garlic cloves, basil leaves and pepper flakes. Keep the heat on low to allow the ingredients to warm slowly and release their flavors. When the garlic is lightly browned, turn heat off and let cool for 10 minutes. The longer you let the oil sit, the more infused the oil. Strain the oil, discarding the solids.

Homemade Fruit Snacks

Today I attempted another Pinterest find. I can't say that I am completely sold on these. The idea was a good one, but I'm just not sure it is worth the effort or cost. Perhaps if my kids were younger and I fed them fruit chews on a regular basis as a snack I would feel different, but my boys are 15, 14 and 10. We buy fruit chews on occasion but they are no longer a staple in our home. That being said, I know I have friends who do have little ones who may find this recipe useful and I also know lots of my friends repinned this on their own Pinterest boards so I thought I'd post my results.

Homemade Fruit Snacks (original recipe can be found here, with other comments and discussion)
1/3 c. 100% fruit juice
3 pkgs unflavored gelatin
molds
As you can see I was prepped and ready to fill up quite a few molds! (Kristi, I was going to use those cute football molds I borrowed and need to bring back, lol) I TRIPLED this recipe and still didn't fill up one of the jello bean molds. It was about that time that I became discouraged because I used almost 2 1/2 boxes of the Knox gelatin and hadn't filled one tray. Because of that, I did not pay as much attention to detail about how I filled it up. You can see in the picture below that I didn't trim it up any so they aren't as pretty as they could be. My oldest son is the only one who has tasted them so far, he says they aren't bad, he actually likes them. I used the cherry juice and he could taste the flavor. Overall, not a bad idea, just not sure its worth it for my family.

Pour-It-On-Peanut Butter Smoothie

We have this little cookbook of sorts that I bought one day, years ago while grocery shopping. You know, the ones that are in the checkout aisle that entice you with the glorious pictures on the cover? This one is all about drinks, it's called Smoothies and Summer Drinks. My 10 year-old is always wanting to try a recipe from it so this morning I made him this Peanut Butter Smoothie...changing it a bit of course.

The original recipe:

Pour-It-On-Peanut Butter Smoothie
2 cups vanilla frozen low-fat yogurt
2 bananas
1 cup fat-free skim milk
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tablespoons honey
2 cups cubed or crushed ice

1. Combine all ingredients in blender, process until smooth, stopping once to scrape down sides.

2. Pour into 4 glasses, serve immediately.

Nay's adapted recipe..

Pour-It-On-Peanut Butter Smoothie
2 containers Vanilla Honey Greek Yogurt (I don't think I have ever bought frozen yogurt)
2 bananas
1 cup fat free milk
1 cup homemade honey peanut butter (that's what's in the red container)
2 cups Sonic ice (what? You don't have Sonic ice in your freezer??)1. Combine all ingredients in blender, process until smooth, stopping once to scrape down sides.

2. Pour into 4 glasses, serve immediately. (You only see 2 glasses, but there was plenty leftover for a couple more glasses)

Daniel and Kevin both gave this recipe two thumbs up!

Cinnamon Orange Pull-Apart Bread

One of my favorite Pampered Chef Recipes ever..my kids always want to take this to breakfast events!

Cinnamon Orange Pull-Apart Bread (Monkey Bread)
1 orange
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
18 frozen bread dough rolls, thawed (1/2 of 48 oz pkg)
1/3 cup light corn syrup, divided

Spray fluted pan/bundt pan with vegetable oil. Zest orange to measure 1 tablespoon zest. In small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and zest; mix well. In microwave safe bowl, melt butter on high for 3 seconds or until melted. Cut each roll in half. Dip half of the cut rolls in butter, rill in sugar mixture to coat. Arrange in pan. Drizzle with corn syrup. Repeat with remaining rolls and corn syrup, sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over rolls. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80-85 degrees F) until they double in size, about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Uncover; bake 30-35 minutes or until top is deep golden brown. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Carefully invert onto serving plate. To serve, pull apart or slice with knife.