Pork and Some Other Stuff

There was leftover pork roast in the fridge and lots of pasta in the cabinet. That didn't sound particularly good together until I decided to toss them with the leftover broccoli-slaw.

Pernil

Pork shoulders were on sale. I bought one and put it in the freezer. I just didn't feel like eating it. Weeks went by. I let it thaw for days in the fridge, but to be sure it actually cooked all the way, I turned off the oven a few times during the roasting process and covered it. This might be my favorite batch yet. Or maybe that's because I finally served it with yellow rice.

Two Meat Combo

There was pork, there was chicken, there was not a lot of time. I decided to mix up some BBQ sauce and hope it tasted like a meal.

Pork Tostadas

The tostadas are becoming my go-to method of recycling leftover meats...

BBQ Pork Biscuit

We still had leftover pork in the fridge and I knew no one would be excited to eat it for lunch if I said, "Just microwave it," so I made a big production of lunch. Biscuits from scratch with homemade barbecue sauce and frozen vegetables. Who eats vegetables at home for lunch? Not us...

BBQ Pork

I made a combination of the previous barbecue sauces I'd made before—white vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce—and marinated half the leftover pork. Then I made yellow rice with green beans and served it on tostada shells. Easy enough for a Monday.

Roasted Pork

This is boneless center cut pork roast. Something like that. Something that was not listed on the chart for roasting times in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. Whatever it was, it was tasty. That's salt, pepper and chili powder for seasoning. The bed of onions and garlic burnt to the pan because the piece wasn't quite fatty enough. But that's okay.

Pork Shoulder

The clock is ticking very loudly the whole time you're cooking with an infant. Do I have time to go look up that recipe for the rub? No. I should have written it down last time. Do I have time to look at a recipe at all? Probably not. Baby isn't really about to give me the time to even lay the ingredients out on the counter. He began wailing as soon as I picked up the first garlic clove. Going from memory and without measuring utensils, I think this turned out well.

Leftover Pernil

I saw this picture in the hopper and thought, Didn't I already post the turkey? Oh, that's right. I used up more of the leftover cranberry BBQ sauce on leftover pernil and fresh egg noodles. ("Fresh" in the sense that I just boiled them. Not that I just rolled them out by hand. I haven't begun making pasta yet. There are too many things to try long before that.) Between the pernil and the BBQ sauce, there was a whole lot of flavor going on in this dish.

The 501st!

No, it's not Star Wars. It's pernil. I thought I would take a picture before it became completely blackened.

A gigantic pork shoulder with the skin on does not look that appetizing. But give it enough time and it's delish! ("Enough time" for this particular shoulder was about 12 hours at 250 degrees.)

Baby Food and BBQ Biscuits

I made a dozen biscuits, thinking I'd eat those during the week. But then dinnertime rolled around and I realized that I could use them for dinner again tonight. I don't know why (I don't think I've seen any TV chefs pushing the idea lately), but I was inspired to take the leftover pork roast and mix it with a chopped onion, some bottled BBQ sauce, some homemade BBQ sauce (ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, dry mustard), and serve it hot over frozen vegetables. Yeah, frozen vegetables are my friend. Scrappy really liked it.

Meanwhile, I've decided the baby is ready to start learning to eat from a spoon. (The self-timer on this camera goes nuts flashing a red light on the subject, hence eye contact from baby.) I bought the rice cereal, but for now he's starting with milk on a spoon. It's not like he takes more than a few tastes.

Pork Roast

I had made my first pot roast, so now it was time to embrace the pork roast. This time I included the potatoes in the dish while it baked. So good.

Grilled Pork and Yellow Rice

I didn't feel like baking the pork chops, so I seasoned them with the usual chili powder and grilled them instead. No complaints...

Christmas

I've seen that commercial for Pillsbury cinnamon rolls a million times. When I saw they were two for $5, I had to get them. I think I was the only one who was excited, though.

Last night I made the crust. Even though I've seen on a dozen TV shows that you should use something to weigh down the crust, I skipped that step. And didn't bake the crust long enough. And so even though I thought the quiche was delicious (I had been up since 6 (there's more of that broccoli from last night, too)), Scrappy had a hard time cutting it.

Having conquered first big cuts of beef and then big cuts of chicken, I felt ready to move on to a new challenge. Giant cuts of ham were on sale for the holiday, so we bought a shank portion the size of my head. I scored it, made a glaze, and overall was pretty happy with my first attempt at a ham. I think we'll still be eating it in February.

Grilled Pork

The usual grilled pork with pasta and frozen vegetables... I didn't mean to shoot it like this, but I think it adds some flare to the meal.

Leftover Shredded Pork

I like when LV asks if there's anything I need him to pick up on his way home. Today I needed tortillas; I had an idea for that leftover shredded pork.

There was a box of frozen chopped spinach in the freezer (again, from early in the pregnancy when I wanted to have lots of this kind of stuff on hand) which I thought could make for a good filing. "Good" in the way that it's not beans and we didn't have any rice. Then I made a sauce. Something like "ketchup + ground cumin + something runny + something else that's tasty." And when LV got home, I wrapped up the pork in flour tortillas and toasted it in the oven. They were okay.

Shredded Pork

Continuing in my adventures with "family size" packs of meat, I cooked up this giant hunk of pork for a long time at a low temperature. It ended up looking so small... I decided that if I shredded it, it would mean more bites and seem more filling. Mmm self-deception.

Grilled Pork and Yellow Rice

I'm getting really tired of pasta. Luckily yellow rice packets have been on sale lately.

More Pork

Bone-in pork chops were back in the meat department, so they were back in our oven...

Pork and Lima Beans

LV picked up the latest bag of frozen vegetables. He didn't notice that the blend he picked included lima beans. I thought this was great. I could finally get rid of all the other lima beans I've had in the freezer. (I went a bit nuts investing in beans at the beginning of the pregnancy...) He did not think this was so great, but he also didn't know just how many more lima beans I was throwing into the mix.