Borrowed Dr. Pepper Pork Roast Recipe

I wish with all my heart that I had come up with this recipe all by myself, but actually I borrowed it from my favorite female cook (besides Ina Garten) of COURSE! Who wouldnt love a gal who sovingly dotes on Jeffrey? Hmm?

This delicious Dr. Pepper pork roast recipe actually belongs to The Pioneer Woman, my almost all-time favorite lady in the blog-cooking world. But I did change a few things.

I didnt quite have all the ingredients she called for, so feel free to follow her recipe on her page, and oogle at all her lovely pics. I dont have that kind of time… I took one.

INGREDIENTS I USED:

1 whole onion cut in wedges
salt and pepper
1 can of Rotel
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cans of Dr. Pepper
1 pork shoulder (I think mine was 6 or 7 lbs)

Preheat your oven to 300. Put the onion wedges in the bottom of your roaster or Dutch oven.
Set the roast on top of the onions, and season with salt and pepper.
Pour the Rotel and sauce on top of the roast.
Put the Dr. Pepper on top, and sprinkle on the brown sugar.
Cook for 6 hours.

Thats it. Preparation takes about 5 minutes. And in a few hours you will have the most tender meat ever. Seriously.

To serve, we put it on tortillas with cheese and sour cream. You can add any fixin’s you want! Oh man, its delish!!

Chicken in a Pot

There is a recipe in a Food Network cookbook I have, but I didnt have the ingredients it called for (big surprise) and I only had 2 cornish hens. So I changed up the recipe, and made not only ONE incredible dinner, but used the lefover broth for a 2nd incredible meal (my Lima Bean Soup ).

Ingredients
enough water to cover 2 cornish hens in your crock pot (this amount will vary)
4 chicken buillion
2 cups chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 whole garlic cloves (you can pull them out after they are done cooking)
4 basil leaves
salt/pepper
the zest of 1 lemon

Throw everything in the crock pot. Put it on high and let it cook for about 6 hours. Stir it every once in awhile. Take the basil out about half way through cooking so its not too strong.

You can eiher pull the chicken off the bone and eat it all as a chicken soup. Or you can just put the whole chicken in your bowl with some carrots and broth and eat it that way. Thats what we did. So I had lots of broth leftover for my lima bean soup. Which was ah-mazing by the way. Enjoy!

(this is the meal before it started cooking)

Vegetarian dinner- Ms. Brenda’s Pablanos

One of my dearest friends/mentors in Dallas, Ms. Brenda, introduced one of her favorite meals to me a year or so ago. At the time, I wasnt pregnant, so i was still a vegetarian, and this was the PERFECT meal. Oh so yummy. She made it for me a couple of times since then, but I have been hesitant to make it myself. For one, my husband likes meaty meals, and for two, I never cooked a Pablano pepper before. Feeling brave this evening (and alone for dinner), I attempted to make these fabulous Pablanos, and it turned out, well, fabulous.

RECIPE:
1 pablano pepper per guest
1 box of yellow rice (Ms. Brenda uses Saffron rice, but I had yellow rice on hand)
1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
handful of cherry tomatoes (I just cut up a whole tomato since I had one)

1 squash
Rosemary seasoning
salt
2 tbsp EVOO

For my side dishes, I had potato salad (store bought) and broiled yellow squash. (Directions below)

Since the rice takes the longest, go ahead and start it. Just follow the directions on the box.
While the rice is cooking, put the pablano peppers in the broiler for 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally so each side gets roasted.

While those roast, slice your squash, and cover with rosemary, extra virgin olive oil and salt. Broil for 20 minutes.  
When the peppers are done, place them in a ziplock bag to “sweat” them. Leave them in there for about 10-15 minutes. 
By now, the rice should be almost done. So take the peppers out of their baggies, slice one side open and cut the seeds and stem out. MAKE SURE YOU GET RID OF ALL THE SEEDS! Those things are insanely hot!
Lay the pepper flat on your plate and cover with Mozzarella cheese. You can place it back in the oven to melt or just put it in the microwave for about 45 seconds.  
Top the pepper with rice and tomatoes.

Serve with broiled squash and a glass of Merlot. Unless you’re pregnant. In which case, you can serve with a glass of white grape juice like I do.

Sauteed Mushrooms

I just wanted to say really fast that if you sautee mushrooms in butter on medium heat for about 6 minutes, you just might think you are in heaven. I have been buying them a lot lately (mainly to try them in different French recipes) but I have used them on everything lately! They are just what the pregnancy craves! Here are the things I have eaten them with lately.

in spaghetti sauce
on salads
in pastas and cassaroles
on burgers
on fish

And there will be more to come, I’m sure!

Monday Funday!

I wanted to start by saying I made the  Potage Parmentier again last night but I made a couple of variations. I added carrots and pepper to the soup while it simmered, and I cooked some lentils, lima beans, kidney beans, and a couple other random beans with butter in a seperate saucer. I pureed it the same as before, but just added the beans to the end. It is heavenly! I have a whole pot to last me the week!

I got really excited this morning to go to Michaels and the Dollar store because I am hosting a little Valentine’s party in a couple of weeks. SO I wanted to pick up some stickers, and crafts and activities, which I did for $10.

On top of that, I had an idea for a little home decor. I bought Do it Yourself magazine the other day, and one of the crafts was a white wall cube, covered in either fabric or craft paper and had a little spring flower situated in the middle. I have had wall BOXES forever, not cubes, but I never knew what to do with them. They just always looked so plain when I tried to decorate with them. So today, while I was at Michael’s, I bought 2 bundles of fake daisy flowers for $1 each, popped the flowers off, found a few decorations and frames still left in a box from moving, and ta da!!!

This is the small wall to the right of the fireplace.

This is the wall opposite of the first, right next to the stairs.

And here is the fireplace. I have had these decorations since we moved in but nothing was really situated properly. I bought those orange flowers right after Thanksgiving for $4 at Michaels and they mathc my new ones! Doesn’t that turquoise Julia Child Cookbook look perfect there???

For the rest of my day, I do HAVE TO finish the laundry, but I have a couple craft ideas I may begin… to be posted soon of course.

And tonight- MOCHA MONDAY!