The Yum Yum Factor

*I don't know what is going on with my template but at this time, I can't do anything about this damned all caps sitch, so my apologies in advance. I am not screaming at you. I haven't met a pulled pork that I don't love. I love South Carolina style with a mustard mop, I love it with tomato based BBQ sauce and a carnita will never be kicked out of my bed for eating crackers. All that said, the one I like to make at home is this recipe - gochujang is my spirit animal.  Before getting this pressure cooker, this was another one of those dishes that required planning a day before. Even if I didn't marinate the meat overnight, I had to get it ready first thing in the morning so it could sit for at least an hour or so and then get into the crock pot by mid morning to make sure the meat was cooked by dinner time. Frankly, I am just not always that together so it means that I don't make it all that often. The pressure cooker means that I can actually ru...

It is a new year and so it is time for a new pulled pork recipe. If you read this blog from time to time, you can't help but notice that we like our pork. Although we love all parts of the glorious pig, we do really like our pork shoulder. Some favourites have been an apple pulled pork , a Korean pulled pork , and   a second Korean pulled pork , we have done the momofuku pulled pork in the oven with nothing but tons of salt and brown sugar and make pork for tacos all the time like these carnitas . A pork shoulder jumps into the crock pot at least a couple times a month in the winter time and although I can't recall the last time we met one we didn't like immensely, I have been tinkering with something a bit more classic to make The Kid happy. Shack  makes a mustard mop that is out of this world (and I still can't get the recipe out of him because he is not a nice man) but I thought it would be good to come up with a bbq sauce version too. The Kid loves B...

There is a small grocery store near my house that marks meat down every day so that they can make room for the day's new shipment. Most of the time the meat is still a good day or three from it's best by date and there is ALWAYS a pork shoulder or pork butt marked down. Every time I go in there it's like they crawled into my brain to see what kind of meat I want to find on sale that day. Last week I got some lamb stew meat for half price and chicken thighs for a song.  This particular pork butt was marked $5 off so how could I not buy it? I am unable to walk past a discounted chunk of pig. It is what it is. It's also gotten really cold and stupid out there so suddenly I find that my crock pot is calling to me. It also helps that my kitchen is STILL not all put back together so I can't get really exited about making anything that involves too many appliances or surface prep area. I feel like we are living in a dorm and relying on nothing but a rice cooker, a cro...

I made these  Bibimbap Sopes  a couple of weeks ago and it opened up a whole new world of pulled pork for me. Out of that single batch of pork we ate tacos, sopes and sandwiches. I ate the last dregs of it over some rice for lunch and the only reason I haven't made it again already is because Shack has been working on a frozen lake far too north for me to even acknowledge his exact location. We weren't expecting him until the weekend at the earliest but he called to say he was on his way home AND it just happened to be Valentine's day so guess what I made? He had spent ten days eating wings, poutine, wings, fries and more wings at one of the two or three truckstops that were available to them so, to be honest, I could have just made him a  sandwich with nice italian cold cuts on really nice bread and he would have been thrilled. I could have done that but everyone knows that the way to a man's heart is through his pork gland. As much as we all loved it the...

I am such a lucky girl lately. I was asked to take a programable  Crock-Pot© for test drive and give it a review. I was giddy at the offer because I am still using the crock pot that my mother gave me over 25 years ago. To be very honest, after she gave it to me, I never used it. I packed it away and it followed me from house to house, city to city, unused and mostly forgotten, much like her gift of a dreaded red, orlon sweater with a giant asian dragon embroidered across the front. I would wear that hideous sweater once a year when I went to pick her up from the train station at Christmas. She would see that red dragon peaking out under my coat and squeal with delight "oh, that's the sweater I bought you!" and I would say, offhandedly, "did you buy me this? Oh that's right, you did" like I wore the thing so much I couldn't remember when it came from. The things we do for love. Yikes!

Who doesn't love pulled pork? Crazy people, that's who. Making pulled pork in the crockpot is such a no brainer, easy meal that requires almost no time, skill or finesse that I wonder why we don't eat it every single day to be honest. I have still never found THE ultimate pulled pork recipe so I am always tinkering and trying new sauces, new rubs and one day I will find that pulled pork love of my life and I will shout from the rooftops. The best thing about pulled pork is that there is almost no such thing as bad pulled pork. Even if you just throw a pork butt in the slow cooker with nothing but some salt, pepper and a slurp of chicken stock or soda pop or apple juice and then toss it with a good bottled sauce afterwards, it's going to be good enough that your family will still think you are a rock star.