Pulled Pork and Cornbread with Honey Butter

We had our good friends over for dinner last night, and since I am on break from student teaching, I cooked dinner for the four of us. Steve has been begging for pulled pork since I made it last month, and since I had all day, I went to work.

I used about 4.5 lbs of Pork Shoulder Butt (this is my favorite cut for pulled pork) and put it in the crock pot with 1 coarsely chopped onion, 1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce, and a drizzle of honey around the outside. I let it cook on high for about 3 hours and on low for another 2 hours. Usually, I prefer to put it on low from the beginning, but I didn't have the time.

Once the pork was falling apart when poked with a fork, I took out the pork roast and put it in a pyrex casserole dish. I like to pull the pork when it is hot and the sides of the dish keep me from making too much of a mess. Then, I poured the sauce into two metal bowls and put them in the fridge. The fat will rise to the top and congeal (yum!) and I like to scrape it off prior to putting the sauce back in the meat.

Once the pork was pulled, put it back in the crockpot and after the fat is scraped off the top of the sauce, stir it all together. I reheated it on low for about an hour and served it over a sweet potato with cole slaw and cornbread.

I made the cornbread with Gluten Free all purpose flour, just using the recipe on the back of the quaker cornmeal. I whipped up some honey butter using the recipe below and it was great:

Honey Butter

1 Stick of butter (softened, not melted)

1 cup of honey (I used a little less than a cup)

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1/2 t. cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a dish and stir until well blended.

I could eat that honey butter all day, it is fantastic! On an english muffin, toast, cornbread.... I must be hungry. This whole meal was gluten free and was delicious. We were all stuffed by the end of it!

Cornflake Chicken

This is one of my favorite chicken recipes.  It only takes a couple of ingredients, is so easy to make, and is delicious. This recipe would be good for an appetizer or a quick dinner. 

1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 c. corn flakes, crushed
1.5 T ranch dressing mix
a couple tablespoons butter, melted
Boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenders

Mix together the cheese, corn flakes, and dressing mix in a ziploc bag. Cut the chicken into small pieces - depends on how small you want them. Roll in butter, then shake in bag with flake mixture. Place on a cookie sheet covered in foil. I usually drizzle the remaining melted butter over the chicken. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken cubes.

Homemade Turkey Soup

I know. It is less than a week until Christmas, and I am finally using the Turkey stock I made after Thanksgiving to make Turkey soup. Sometimes time gets away from me! I took the frozen turkey meat and turkey stock from the freezer and threw some things into a pot. Hopefully it turns out ok!

Turkey Stock:

One turkey carcass

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1 onion, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

2 cloves garlic

water enough to cover

Parsley

Add all ingredients and bring water to a simmer. Once the water is simmering, turn down the heat to maintain the simmer for at least 2 hours. I let mine go for about 4-5 hours. Then strain the liquid through cheesecloth (I used two strainers because I never have cheesecloth) and refrigerate. After it is thoroughly chilled, you should be able to skim the solidified fat off the top. It should be sort of gelatinous, that's good! I froze mine after this point.

Turkey Soup

1 onion, diced

olive oil

2 stalks celery, diced

2 carrots, diced

4 cloves garlic, diced

2 shakes italian seasoning

1/4 cup white wine

1 palmful parsley

1 shake dried basil

sea salt and pepper to taste

2 handfuls of egg noodles

shredded turkey

turkey stock

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add onions and cook until golden. Add diced carrots and celery and cook about 10 minutes. Add garlic and herbs. Cook another 5 minutes. Add splash of white wine and turkey stock. Add as much turkey meat as you want and bring to a simmer. Add egg noodles and simmer at least 10 minutes. I like to simmer my soup for a while to really ensure the flavors mix and then add the noodle at the very end. 

Mine is simmering on the stove as I write this. I. am. starving!

wow... first blog post! here's hoping to many more :)