Kalua Pork

Who doesn't love a crock pot meal!!  The best part about this recipe - I have multiple meals you can use this in!!!  You can totally just make pork sandwiches with this..OR Pork Sliders with Mango/Pineapple Salsa ...OR Kalua Pork Hawaiian Pizza!!

Ingredients:

2.5-3.5lb boneless pork shoulder (butt) roast
Sea salt (pink Hawaiian sea salt if you can find it; SMOKED Hawaiian sea salt if you can find that)
Hickory-flavored liquid smoke (if you can’t find smoked sea salt, or for a little more smokey flavor)

Rinse the pork roast and pat it dry. Pierce the entire roast with a fork. Sprinkle generously with the liquid smoke (about 1 tablespoon, more if you have a very large roast) and sprinkle with the sea salt (start with about a little less than tablespoon and see how far it gets you; you can always add more after it cooks). Rub the salt into the roast. Place the roast in a slow cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until the meat shreds easily with a fork.

Remove the roast from the pan and place it in a serving dish or on a serving platter. Shred it, discarding any large pieces of fat. Drizzle enough of the cooking liquid over the pork to re-moisten it and keep it from drying out. Plan on 6-8 ounces of pre-cooked meat per person–pork shoulder is quite fatty, so the weight will really cook down.

Kalua Pork Sliders with Pineapple-Mango Slaw

SOOOOOO GOOOD!!!!  This was so easy to make - and was so delicious!!  I don't really know what else to say except SOOOOO GOOD!!!

OBB Cookbook

Ingredients:

Slaw

2 cups shredded purple cabbage (cut shreds into about 1″ pieces)

1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced

1 rib celery

1/3 cup sliced green onions

3 heaping tablespoons chopped cilantro

1/2 cup diced mango

1/2 cup diced pineapple

Dressing

3 tablespoons mayo

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 tablespoon sugar

1 heaping teaspoon orange zest

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1-2 dozen Hawaiian Rolls

1 Kalua Pork Roast about 3 lbs

optional: bbq sauce

Note:  Since you’re putting the slaw on a small bun, make sure to dice everything relatively small so you get a little of everything in each slider!

Combine all slaw ingredients and gently toss.  Whisk dressing ingredients together.  Add dressing to slaw and toss gently until everything is lightly coated.  Chill for 15 minutes.  Slice Hawaiian rolls in half, top with shredded Kalua Pork and a generous spoonful of slaw.  Top with other half of bun.  (If desired, you can squirt just a wee bit of bbq sauce over the pork.  I don’t like to use a lot because it takes away from the simple smoky flavor of the pork, but if you have a sauce you really love, it’s pretty good in there.)

Yield depends on how full you make them. I would estimate 1 1/2 dozen very generously filled sliders and 2 dozen moderately filled ones.

Thanksgiving Craft

Again - something SUPER easy but very thoughtful and cute for a Thanksgiving Day Card....OR for a baby book / scrapbook in my case :)

Spaghetti Bake

Ross LOVES spaghetti...and I like it, but never really am in the mood for it.....but THIS - I would eat this every single day!!  This was soooooo yummy!!!!  Such a fun twist of your typical spaghetti!  DO IT UP!

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground beef

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

8 oz of cream cheese

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 lb cottage cheese

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 pkg spaghetti 16 oz

Grated cheddar cheese

Preheat your oven to 350°. Boil your spaghetti noodles until al dente (firm).  Drain and set aside until ready to assemble.

Combine the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese until well blended.

Brown  your hamburger and when done, drain well.  Combine the hamburger with your spaghetti sauce.  Ready for assembly?

Put a few slices of butter into a 9×13 pan then pour half of your spaghetti noodles on top.  Take your cream cheese mixture and pour on top of the noodles. Spread well over noodles.  Pour the rest of the noodles on top of the cream cheese mixture.  Put a few more slices of butter on top of the noodles.  Pour your spaghetti and meat sauce on top of your noodles.

Now it is ready to put into the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pour the desired amount of grated cheese on top and return to the oven for 15 minutes to allow cheese to melt

Spray Painting Light Fixtures

I HATE GOLD

Of course, all of our bathrooms have gold light fixtures....um no thank you!  Instead of spending tons of $$ replacing all these bad boys - I SPRAY PAINTED!!!  Yes, that's right...You can spray paint light fixtures and they look amazing!!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Supplies:
Primer
Spray paint
Sander (is that what they are called?!)

Take your light fixture down - clean it - sand it - clean it again - sand it again...repeat this until you think it's good and sanded!  This helps hold the paint in :)

















Then spray the fixture with primer - this is what I used!  (you can get this on Amazon, Michaels, or Home Depot)

After that dries (we let it sit overnight) - then you spray paint the color.  Again, I got these on Amazon but I saw the same ones at Michaels and Home Depot.  Let them dry overnight - and BAM!  You have new light fixture for the total cost of $10 :)

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Ahhh Rossy....he really wanted to make chicken noodle soup from scratch - so  I finally found a recipe that didn't take all day....and this was really, really good!  Even Brody liked his 1st taste of chicken noodle soup :)

Ingredients:

6 cups chicken broth (1 1/2 boxes or 3 cans) - this recipe works great: Homemade Chicken Broth

1 lb cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (rotisserie chicken is perfect)

1 cup sliced carrots

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 onion, minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 bay leaf

1 handful of chopped fresh parsley (or 1 Tbsp. dried parsley)

1/2 teaspoon basil

Creamette noodles

In a large pot, heat some olive oil over medium heat and add onions and garlic. Saute for a few minutes and then add chicken broth, chicken, bay leaf, and basil. Bring to a boil. Add carrots and celery and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until carrots and celery are tender. When carrots and celery are almost done, add chopped parsley. Increase heat to boiling and add noodles - Cook until noodles are tender.

Homemade Chicken Broth

Ross was adamant about having "homemade" chicken noodle soup.....SO here we are!  This was surprisingly really easy :)  We made up the broth - and then used it with Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup - YUMMY!!!!

Ingredients:

1 leftover chicken (aka carcass) with excess fat removed (rotisserie chicken works awesome)

2-3 ribs celery, if they have leaves on- don’t cut them off!

2 carrots or a handful of baby carrots

1/4 of a large onion, or 1/2 of a smaller one

3 cloves garlic, smashed with a knife

10 peppercorns

1 heaping tablespoon kosher salt

Herbs:  fresh sprigs of parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf.  Rosemary and sage also good.

OR use dried herbs.  I use 2 teaspoons each of sage, rosemary, and thyme, and also a handful of fresh parsley.

Trim any excess fat off of chicken.  Place all ingredients in a large stock pot and fill with water until it reaches about 1-2 inches over the top of the chicken (Generally that’s about 4 quarts for me, which is 16 cups).

Bring to a simmer and cover pot.  Simmer for 1 hour.  Strain mixture to remove solids.  Cool broth to room temp and then store in portioned containers in the freezer for up to 3 months, or in the fridge for about 5 days.  Quantity varies, but it will reduce in volume after simmering.