Sunday, September 1, 2013

Pulled Pork and Industrial Parks

The other day I was wandering the aisles at Kroger, which happens sometimes when I realize on my way home that I just need one thing but then start thinking of other things while I'm there even though I don't have a list and shouldn't shop without one, and I noticed a new (or just new to me) product with coupons next to it:

slow cooker sauce

Hmmm, I thought, staring. I like pulled pork. I have a slow cooker. Maybe I should try this.

It seemed really easy, but everything in the slow cooker is usually really easy: pour in, walk away. I've even made pulled pork in the slow cooker, using a recipe that calls for rootbeer and onions. I didn't blog it, but did take photos:

loaded cooker

pulled pork sandwiches

Those turned out well, but this seemed even easier, as it didn't require any mixing. Intrigued, I picked up some pork and decided to give it a try.

Following instructions on the pork and the pouch, I removed the netting:

raw pork

placed the pork in the slow cooker, and poured the pouch of sauce over it:

pour sauce over pork

and then got started on ignoring it for eight hours.

To speed the process of ignoring along, I left the house. I promised my friend Kate earlier in the week that I would go somewhere and take photos of something, as part of a goal setting workshop we were doing. I've noticed that I've drifted away from going on little day trips or exploring the city, and want to get back into that, so I set a goal and attempted to follow it. The first place I went to had too many people, so I didn't get out of the car, and then I decided to just drive around until I saw something interesting.

Mission accomplished:

footbridge

crossing

tracks

numbers

Critter Barn

cement plant (1)

cement plant (2)

truck route

company

I'm apparently only seeing in black and white, but at least I got out of the house and saw something.

I also went to the store, and when I got home, the pork was almost ready. It was somewhat difficult to continue ignoring, since the whole apartment smelled like barbecue, but I somehow made it, mostly by telling myself that trichinosis kills. Finally, it was time to pull the pork out of the crockpot and shred it, although it partially shredded itself by disintegrating while I tried removing it:

shred the pork

After I fork-shredded it, I returned it to the slow cooker on "warm", so that it could really soak up the sauce:

return to cooker

and then I ate it:

pulled pork sandwich

Will I use this product again?

No, probably not. The pork is fine, but it's salty. The rootbeer pork doesn't come out salty, so I'm sticking with that recipe.

And I've already moved on to wanting to make this pasta recipe I saw in "Food and Wine".

2 comments:

Justin Bower said...

Great shots, and now I'm hungry at 1 AM.

Marcheline said...

Hi, Joel. Last night I was at work until 11PM, and I decided to graze some blogs and see if anything interesting was out there. I found you.

Rather than go through and leave comments on every single post back to 2007, I will leave you one honkin' large comment right here. Go get a glass of wine and come back. Comfy? Ok. Here goes.

We have a lot in common - I was born and raised in NY, and moved to TN. I lived in Nashville for 5 years, then some other places, and now I'm back in NY where I can finally get a decent slice of pizza, thank you very much. But my time living in TN was completely awesome and I loved it. So there's that.

I also love to cook, and try new recipes.

I was also raised being soundly thumped by the Bible, and have long since found that life is better relying on my own sense of what is right and wrong, and that a lot of the Bible stuff is outdated and no longer relevant to our lifestyles, especially as it relates to who is supposed to love whom, and how. Complete bunk. Love is love is love. It's all good. End of story.

Last thing I'm going to say here is that your sense of humor completely tickles my funny bone, and I was totally snorting out loud at work last night. Since I'm a radio operator, everyone else in the room had headsets on listening to static too, so no one heard me snort.

I'm adding you to my blog list and I'll be back to haunt you. If you get bored sometime and want to wander around in my brain, stop by my place and take a gander.

Oh, also - you made several mentions of movies that touched your heart about friends growing up and going in different directions. If you have never seen the movie "Withnail & I" (British flick), do so immediately. Do not pass "Go", do not collect $200.

On second thought, go ahead and collect the $200. You could buy a couple of D-list super heroes with that, eh?