Pork roast redux

Tonight's Menu

• BBQ pork sandwiches
  
• tangy apple coleslaw
  

It was leftovers night here at Chez Badger, y'all. We have a TON of pork roast left from last night, so I took a bit of that, heated it in the microwave with some bottled Carolina-style barbecue sauce, and served it on buns with sliced onions. Yummy and fast!

The coleslaw recipe is here. I used savoy cabbage because that's what I had (half a head left over from last night's saute).

I probably should have rustled up some chips or pickles or something to go with this, but I couldn't be bothered. Leftovers night = lazy night, yo.

Barbecue!

Tonight's Menu

• barbecued pork on buns
• marinated cucumber salad
• sliced tomatoes
  

Finally, the boy was feeling good enough to eat "normal" food tonight! So I went whole hog (hee! see what I did there?) and made some barbecued pork sandwiches for dinner.

I have to admit, this pork was sort of an experiment. What I did was take a shoulder roast, rub it with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika, and stick it on a rack in a roasting pan. Then I added some water to the bottom of the pan and dropped in two large-ish whole sprigs of rosemary. The idea was to get the rosemary to barely scent/flavor the meat. I covered the pan tightly with heavy-duty foil and stuck it in the oven at 200 degrees F for about 5 hours.

When I pulled it out of the oven I stuck an instant-read thermometer in the roast just to be sure it was fully cooked, which it was, so then I removed it from the pan and set up the grill for indirect heat (two burners on medium, one burner unlit). I put the roast on the unlit burner and started basting it with a Carolina-style barbecue sauce (I buy this already made; it's a mustard-based sauce that goes great with pork).

After maybe 15 minutes total, flipping it from one side to another halfway through, the sauce had kind of baked on to the meat. There still wasn't any browning, though, so I flipped the roast over to one of the lit burners for just a couple of minutes per side to get some nice grill mark action going. Much better, aesthetically speaking! After resting it for a few minutes, I shredded it and served it on buns with thinly sliced sweet onions and more barbecue sauce on the side. Delicious! And not as much trouble as it sounds, honest.

This cucumber salad is one of my favorite things. DH and I first discovered it at a Hungarian restaurant near here and we absolutely fell in love with the way this refreshing, cool salad contrasted with the rather rich main dishes (I admit it, I'm a chicken paprikas addict). A couple of years ago I was poking around in an antique store when I found a little pamphlet of Hungarian recipes. Lo and behold, there was our favorite cucumber salad!

Here's how you make it: take two good-sized cucumbers, wash and peel them, then cut cross-wise into thin slices. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of salt, then set aside for one hour. After an hour, start squeezing the cucumber slices in your hand, discarding the liquid. Put the squeezed cucumbers into a non-reactive bowl, then mix together the following:

3 Tbs white vinegar
3 Tbs water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp minced garlic (I grated it with my microplane)

Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers, toss to coat, then sprinkle another 1/4 tsp or so of paprika over top. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. We like to serve it the way they do in the restaurant, with a tiny dollop of sour cream on top.

So yummy, and the crunchy, vinegary cucumbers were a nice foil to the rich barbecued pork!

Oh and P.S.: the cucumbers and tomatoes were from the CSA, natch.

Ribs on the grill

Tonight's Menu

• sweet & spicy grilled pork spareribs
  
• grilled potato-onion packets
  
• coleslaw
  

I've never figured out how to make ribs 100% on the grill without drying them out or undercooking them. So while these ribs were FINISHED on the grill, they were STARTED in the oven.

What I did was mix up some brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, sea salt and my secret ingredient -- garam masala. This is a blend of black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander and other spices that's used frequently in Indian food, and it gives a nice, sweet-spicy kick to dry rubs and marinades. I rubbed this spice mixture on both sides of a rack of pork spareribs, then put them in a rack in a roasting pan. After adding a bit of water to the bottom of the pan, I covered it tightly with foil and stuck it in the oven at 300 degrees F for about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Then I mixed up a wet sauce -- ketchup, honey, cayenne, sea salt and more garam masala, along with the juice and grated zest of half an orange. I put the meat on the grill over LOW heat for about 10 minutes per side, basting liberally with this mixture. The ribs came out sticky, tender and delicious! And fortunately, they didn't dry out on the grill. I think they would have over a higher heat, though.

The potato packet was my usual -- red potatoes sliced thin, along with a thinly sliced sweet yellow onion, then alternating layers on a sheet of heavy foil with some kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and blobs of butter. Fold it all into a packet, folding the ends in, and place it on the upper rack of your grill (if you have one, otherwise put it over an unlit burner or a pan of water) for about 30 minutes. They come out SO sweet and yummy! This time the potato (one GIANT one) was from our CSA share.

The coleslaw was made with savoy cabbage this time around, just for something different. I still made the dressing from mayo, vinegar and sugar with a bit of celery seed.

It is almost too hot to grill here already, y'all! I can't stand to sit out there and babysit the meat anymore. The back of our house, where the grill is, faces north and gets NO shade in the evenings this time of year. Oh no! What am I going to do?! It's to hot to use the oven much, either. I forsee a lot of salads in our future!

Lazy dinner

Tonight's Menu

• slow-cooker barbecued pork on buns
  
• leftover coleslaw
  

This could not have been easier if we'd ordered takeout. All I did was dump a pork roast (sirloin, I think? or shoulder? you could use any cut you like) into the slow cooker, pour a bottle of Carolina-style barbecue sauce on top, cover and cook on low for about 8 hours. When it's done just shred the meat with two forks and ladle some of the sauce on top. Serve with some sandwich buns and thinly sliced sweet onion, and Bob's your uncle.

The coleslaw was leftover from Wednesday.

The girl child ate a pork sandwich AND some coleslaw. Unbelievable! I don't know who kidnapped my daughter and replaced her with this changeling who actually LIKES TO EAT, but I'm sorry, I'm keeping this one.

Kick-ass dinner

Tonight's Menu

• barbecued baby back ribs
  
• coleslaw
  
• nectarines with mint
  

Every now and then I hit a home run. This was one of them, if I do say so myself.

I mixed together brown sugar, dry mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper and rubbed it all over a rack of baby back ribs. Then I put the ribs on a rack in a roasting pan, added some water to the pan, covered it tightly with foil, and cooked it in the oven at 225 degrees F for an hour and a half. Then I stuck the ribs meat-side down on the grill over medium-high heat for about five minutes, just to give them some color, before flipping to meat-side up and turning the grill down to low. After 10 minutes at low I basted them with some bottled Carolina-style barbecue sauce, then basted them again 10 minutes later and took them off maybe 2-3 minutes after that. They held together but were wonderfully tender and SO DELICIOUS. Unbelievable. I think this is the best rack of ribs I've ever made.

For the coleslaw, I shredded (with a knife) three parts green cabbage to one part red, then tossed it with a mixture of mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip), equal parts each white vinegar and sugar, and celery seed. Refrigerate for at least an hour, and toss again before serving.

The nectarines were one of those spontaneous things. I just chopped two of them and tossed them with a chiffonade of fresh mint and a TEENY bit of superfine sugar. I was hoping the sugar would macerate them a bit, but I didn't want them too sweet. It turns out they didn't really macerate at all, but they didn't oxidize either so it was all okay. They did a fantastic job of cutting the fat and spice of the ribs, and were the perfect accompaniment.

My only regret is that DH and I pretty much porked it all down in one sitting, so there's not much in the way of leftovers. Whoever gets to them first tomorrow gets to have them for lunch. Mwahaha!

Indoor barbecue

Tonight's Menu

• slow-cooker barbecued pork
  
• potato salad
  
• steamed corn on the cob
  
• mixed tomato salad
  

Hey! Hello there! I have not been posting! Sorry about that. We've been eating really boring crap, like hamburgers and tacos and ... leftover hamburgers and tacos. And stuff. This weather has me ALL MESSED UP. I like to grill all summer long, you know that, but it's been really rainy. So I went and planned some meals that did not require grilling, and since then it's been sunny. WHATEVER, Ma Nature. I think you're just trying to piss me off now.

Ahem. ANYWAY.

It did rain a bit today, so the slow-cooker pork was a good call. All I did was slice a big sweet onion, separate it into rings, layer them in the bottom of the slow cooker, whomp a pork roast on top (I used sirloin but you could use loin or shoulder or whatever), then dump on a bottle of barbecue sauce (in this case Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle, which was FABULOUS) and cook on low for a good 8-10 hours. If you're using a long-grained cut of meat, like loin, you can shred this and serve it on buns, but I just chunked it up a bit and we ate it like that. Really yummy and summery, but I didn't have to light the grill!

I'm convinced my potato salad is the only reason we get invited to the neighborhood 4th of July potluck every year. I have been told not to bother showing up if I don't bring it. Okay, nobody actually SAID that, but I KNOW WHAT THEY'RE THINKING. Seriously, this stuff NEVER fails to draw compliments. I take no credit for it because I cribbed it from an old issue of Taste of Home magazine.

All you do is take a bag of those small red-skinned potatoes (about 2-3 pounds), cut them in quarters or eighths depending on how big they are, layer them on a foil-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, bake for about 45 minutes at 425 degrees F and let them cool. Then dump them in a bowl with some chopped hard-boiled eggs, a bunch of crumbled cooked bacon, chopped sweet onion, and shredded cheddar cheese. Mix three parts sour cream to two parts mayonnaise, squirt in just a bit of yellow mustard, and toss that with the potato mixture. You can serve this right away or make it a day ahead of time. It's SO GOOD, I am not kidding. Bring it to a party and you might get invited back, is all I'm saying.

Oh, I almost forgot the mixed tomato salad! That was just chopped (well, cubed really) red tomatoes from my garden along with yellow tomatoes from my dad's garden tossed in just a wee bit of EVOO and apple cider vinegar (whisk those together first to emulsify), salt and pepper. I've done this with balsamic before too and it's really good, but I thought the cider vinegar would better compliment the barbecue.

Grilling again, hooray!

Tonight's Menu

• barbecued shrimp
  
• grilled apricots with mint
• a salad of new potatoes, cherry tomatoes (from the garden!), mozzarella, marinated artichoke hearts and basil
• sliced tomatoes (from the garden!)
  

It FINALLY quit raining down here so I was able to grill again. Yay!

Okay, for the shrimp I just cleaned and shelled (down to the tails) a bunch of biggish shrimp and stuck them on bamboo skewers (which I soaked in water, but they burned anyway). Then I combined some bottled barbecue sauce with some apricot fruit spread and a wee tot of bourbon and brushed that mixture on the shrimp while they were grilling (about 6 minutes total over high heat). Yum!

The apricots were dead easy -- I just halved some fresh apricots, removed the pits, and grilled them cut-side down for about five minutes. Then I gave them a rough chop and tossed them with a bit of superfine sugar and some chopped fresh mint. Yum, again!

The salad was my usual favorite summer salad. Way yummy.

We are DROWNING in tomatoes but I am not complaining! Is there anything better than a tomato right off the vine, sliced and salted and wolfed down with abandon? I think not.

In other news, the sidecar is the official cocktail of Make Your Own Damn Dinner, Summer 2007! Sunshine in a glass, people!

Ribs!

Tonight's Menu

• barbecued baby back ribs
  
• Ranch Beans from a can
  
• homemade coleslaw
• tomato salad
  

So hey, everyone! I'm back! Did you miss me? I sure as hell missed ... MY KITCHEN.

Okay, first the ribs. I did a dry rub with brown sugar, dry mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, dry oregano, cayenne, salt and pepper. I put the ribs on a rack over some water, covered the pan tightly with foil, and put them in the oven at 250 degrees F. After two hours, I realized that the kids had taekwondo tonight so we wouldn't be eating until about 45 minutes later than usual, so I nudged the heat down to 200. They cooked for about 3.5 hours total.

I had planned to finish the ribs in the oven because it was supposed to rain, but then it didn't so I finished them on the grill instead. Which was kind of a pain because they were already falling off the bone. But I managed to get them on there, slap on some sauce (from a bottle), and grill them for about 10 minutes on medium (meat side up ONLY because they were too flimsy to turn). They were very very yummy.

Coleslaw was my usual, shredded cabbage tossed with a mixture of mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar and celery seed.

The tomato salad consisted of chopped plum and yellow tomatoes from my dad's garden along with halved cherry tomatoes from mine. I shook some really nice balsamic vinegar and GOOD extra-virgin olive oil in a lidded container, poured it over the tomatoes, sprinkled them with sea salt, freshly ground pepper and torn basil, then tossed them and let them sit at room temperature. They were a nice accompaniment to the rich meat.

I am SO GLAD to be home.

Crock-Pot pork

Tonight's Menu

• Crock-Pot barbecued pork on buns
  
• homemade coleslaw
  
• sweet corn on the cob
  

Super easy dinner tonight.

For the pork, all I did was slice an onion in half lengthwise, reserving one half and slicing the other half cross-wise. I put the onion in the bottom of the crockpot, stuck a pork roast on top (I used loin because it's lean, but you could use whatever), dumped in a bottle of barbecue sauce and cooked it all on low for 8 hours or so before shredding and serving on buns.

The coleslaw was just shredded cabbage tossed with a mixture of mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar and celery seed.

The corn was fresh, cleaned and then wrapped in wax paper before being steamed in the microwave.

If you make the coleslaw right after you start the meat and just stick it in the fridge all day, you can have this dinner on the table in 10 minutes.

A cook-in!

Because it's winter, and too cold to cook OUT, silly!

Tonight's Menu

• oven-smoked beef brisket
  
• cornbread from scratch
  
• Ranch beans from a can
  
• coleslaw from scratch
  

No, I don't have an indoor smoker, more's the pity. What I did was rub the brisket with a bunch of spices and crap (brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, Jane's Krazy salt and freshly ground pepper) as usual. It was a small brisket and I didn't want to put it in my giant roasting pan, but I don't have a rack for my small pan, so instead I wadded up some tinfoil and stuck that in the bottom of the pan, the put the brisket on top. I added a bit of water to the pan and splashed in a few drops of liquid smoke (the mesquite variety), then covered the pan and cooked it 3-4 hours on about 200 degrees F. It got really tender and yummy and had a nice smoky flavor.

Brisket is really cheap down here and aside from the fat pad (which I leave on during cooking to keep the meat moist) it's solid meat. If you cook it "low and slow" it comes out really tender and can be sliced or shredded. Some people sauce theirs but I prefer a dry rub. Yum!

Yet more pork

Tonight's Menu

• oven-barbecued pork spareribs
  
• Ranch beans (from a can! I know!)
  
• coleslaw (from scratch! really!)
• sliced tomatoes
  

Okay, so here's what happened: I made the coleslaw yesterday, intending to serve it with the hamburgers we had for dinner, and then totally forgot I even made it and so failed to put it out. (Instead we had loaded burgers with pickles and blue corn tortilla chips. If you must know.)

And I KNOW I just made pork spareribs for New Year's Day but they had MORE at the store today and I love them so. This time I rubbed them with a mixture of brown sugar, dry mustard, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, Jane's Krazy salt and freshly ground pepper, put them on a rack in a roasting pan, added a little water to the pan, covered it tightly with foil and cooked them at 225 degrees F for about 2.5 hours. Then I cranked the heat up to 400, uncovered the pan, slathered the ribs with barbecue sauce (from a bottle, because I'm lazy) and cooked them for another half hour. They were falling-apart tender and SO yummy.

I loves me some pork ribs, y'all.

Day 72

Adult Menu

• grilled chicken leg quarters (with or without barbecue sauce, as you like)
  
• grilled nectarine halves
  
• cold salad of red potatoes, fresh mozzarella, homegrown cherry tomatoes and marinated artichoke hearts
  

Girl Child
Had a drumstick (no barbecue sauce), a piece of toast, and some raw baby carrots.

Boy Child
Had two thighs (one with barbecue sauce, one without) and a clementine.

DH worked late again so I picked up some chicken while the kids were at taekwondo. It was sooo yummy, y'all! I also made my favorite bastardized white sangria with a bottle of cheap pinot grigio, a can of peach nectar (I mixed a couple of Tbs. of the nectar with some bottled barbecue sauce for the chicken, though), some sliced nectarines, raspberries, and some club soda. If you're not going to consume it all right away, then just put the wine, nectar and nectarines in a pitcher and stick it in the fridge, then add the raspberries and club soda to each glass individually before serving. Otherwise the raspberries get weird and the club soda goes flat.

The potato salad is my new favorite thing (besides the sangria)(and grilled EVERYTHING, obviously). All you do is cut some little red potatoes in quarters, then simmer them for about 15 minutes, drain and let cool. Then you toss in some halved cherry tomatoes (or quartered, slightly larger tomatoes), some fresh mozzarella (either the little balls or a big ball cut in wedges), and a jar of marinated artichoke hearts (do NOT drain, the marinade is your dressing). Season with salt and pepper, stir in a chiffonade of fresh basil, and pop it in the fridge. Yummy! And it goes great with grilled meats, which are apparently the only kind I'm eating this summer.

Day 21

Adult Menu*

• leftovers from last night
  

Girl Child
She had Campbell's Double Noodle soup leftover from lunch, raw baby carrots, and whole-grain saltines.

Boy Child
Had whole grain bread with margarine (Smart Balance -- no trans fats), some shredded mozzarella, and some raw snow peas.

*Just me again.

Day 20

Adult Menu

• crockpot pulled pork sandwiches (bbq sauce optional)
  
• potato salad (from scratch)
  
• coleslaw (ditto)
  
• a big pitcher of decaf iced tea
  

Girl Child
She said the pork looked and smelled really good, tried a bite and liked it, so she had some on a bun with no bbq sauce. But then she decided she didn't like it after all, and didn't eat it. I was a big softie and at her request I saved out some shredded cabbage with no coleslaw dressing, but she decided she didn't like THAT either, after trying it, so she didn't eat it. She ended up eating a teeny tiny piece of leftover steak from last week, a few deli ham slices, and a couple of raw baby carrots.

Boy Child
He was hesitant to try the pork but the girl child told him it tasted like chicken, so he tried a bite and thought it was good and let me put some on his plate (no bun or sauce). But then he didn't eat it. He did eat a bunch of shredded cabbage with no coleslaw dressing, and he made and ate a peanut butter sandwich. He tried the tea and said he liked it but it wasn't his favorite and he probably wouldn't want it very often. Then, when I gave him permission, he switched to water.

Sigh. This is one of my favorite meals, and takes a bit of time to prepare, but its reception was less than enthusiastic all the way around. Even DH made a crack about the tea being decaf (I can't have caffeine for medical reasons) and passed on it because he'd already had two glasses of tea today. And he said this particular potato salad, which I love and get recipe requests for all the time, is not his favorite.

Screw 'em all, man. More pork, potato salad, coleslaw and tea for me. And if I'm the only one eating it, it'll probably last a week, at least. Anyone want to come over?

Day Six*

Adult Menu

• smoked brisket (leftover from Memorial Day; it was slightly undercooked so I re-heated it in a slow oven with some dark beer and that tendered it up nicely)
  
• red potatoes (parboiled, then chuffed up in a hot pan with some butter to form a nice crust)
  
• fresh green beans (simmered with onions, bacon and a lump of brown sugar)

Girl Child
Tried a potato and didn't like it. Tried some brisket and didn't like it. (We gave her props for trying them, though.) Passed on the green beans altogether. Ended up eating some deli turkey slices, whole wheat bread and margarine (Smart Balance -- no trans fats!) and raw baby carrots.

Boy Child
Initially passed on everything except the brisket, which he agreed to try because it smelled good while it was cooking. He liked it okay and ate a decent-sized piece. Had some bread and carrots like the girl. Then we convinced him to try a potato, which he LOVED, and he had a decent helping of those. The least healthy thing in the whole meal, but hey, he TRIED SOMETHING NEW! And liked it! So YAY!

* Days 4 & 5 were a Memorial Day picnic at my folks' house and the leftovers thereof. I don't even remember what the kids ate, nor do I care, because I didn't cook any of it.