Easy Pork Chops and Lima Beans (not gross!) and
Fast Way to Upgrade Canned Stew

Well is has been a while now since I thought about this blog - I really doubt I have any readers, but it lets me put some of my ideas out there at least! I was recently fired (or 'let go') from a job I started at in August - at least they gave me a severance - and I now do some independent consulting work from home while looking for a new full time gig. I don't mind working from home really, I certainly don't miss being around people all day or trying to keep up with office politics - but sitting in a chair for 12 hours a day is wearing my back down!

I should also stick with a better gym schedule - I stopped because I was commuting about 2.5 hours a day each way and my day started at 5am - I didn't get home until 10pm (not fun)- hence I got out of any sort of gym schedule. It is really hard to get back into the swing of things, but after seeing some beach photos of my self from my honey moon I now know I have to!

I am also starting a five day juice fast next week- strange I know, but I've heard some good things about detoxing your body that way, and it might save on my food bills. It will also be gross I feel, cleaning out your colon is as good of a reason as any to not be around people - and I can see why so few people except rich and retired people take the time to do such a thing - you certainly can't go to work!

Anyway, I will write a little about that after I attempt it!

So here is my first recipe in months:

Pork Chops and Lima Beans

Ingredients
Package of 4 bone-in pork chops (you can go boneless, but they will cook faster and dry out, so you will need to remove them prior to the beans being done)

2 packages of frozen lima beans

1 14 oz bottle of ketchup

salt, pepper to taste

Steps

1) Preheat oven to 350
2) Place lima beans in pan, squirt on all ketchup
3) Mix
4) Add pork chops to pan - cover with beans and ketchup, add salt and pepper to taste
5) Cook for an hour

I would leave a temperature probe in the chops until they read about 150 or so - then remove them and cover them with foil. I like the ketchup to caramelize around the beans, so I would leave them in until they start to blacken and become crunchy- but it is all up to your personal taste since the beans are done as soon as the chops are done.

Enjoy! This is ridiculously easy and fast - and pretty darn good (though I hated it when I was a kid..)

Easy way to Perk up canned stew or thick beef soup:

Sprinkle on some Worcestershire sauce to the pot as it cooks - that's it. It really adds something to the flavor and makes it taste more like homemade!

Well that 's all for today - hopefully I will remember to update this weekly or so from now on, even if I have no readers at least I enjoy it!

Got to catch up on some sleep- just woke up...ahhhh.

Started making some Pulled Pork BBQ yesterday- really really easy here but it's looking and smelling great so far...

Pulled BBQ Pork

OK- You NEED a Crock Pot for this - like I've written before, get one. They are so easy to use that you really can't go wrong with using one for an easy meal like stew, chili, soups, etc.

Ingredients:

Brine:
1 Cup Kosher Sale
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Table spoon whole pepper corns
1 Gallon Zip lock bag

Pork:
1 Pork shoulder, pork butt, or pork something - it doesn't really matter though Pork Butt is traditional (I used Pork shoulder this time just because it was on sale for like $1.99 at the store).

1 bottle BBQ sauce - I used Stubbs Origninal for it this time, I haven't had it before so I'm hoping its good. I would avoid thick BBQ sauces if you can, and stick w/ a 'real' bbq sauce that is a little thinner in texture.

Some Ground Pepper

Thanks it!

What to Do:

1) Make brine as shown above- just pour ingredients into bag, add pork, and cold water- mix. Put in fridge for at least 3 hours, overnight is better.

2) Take out, rinse well.

3) Put pork in crock pot- add bottle of BBQ sauce.

4) Cook on 'High' for at least 8 hours, 12 is better. I did this one on 'Low' overnight so far (12 hours) and just turned it up to 'High' for another 5 hours. The longer and lower heat the better, as it breaks down the muscle fibers more and makes the meat more tender.

5) Take out meat when done. Move to a cutting board and shred by pulling at the meat with a fork. The meat should come off in little shreds, like pulled pork is normally. If this does not happen easily, put back into crock pot until done. The meat literally should fall apart.

That's it! Simple, Easy and really really cheap. It will also make a lot so you will be eating for a while.

I like mine on a nice crusty roll, but you can use hamburger rolls- or even put over egg noodles (the wide, flat, short noodles).

You can change this receipe up by using a teriaki marinade instead of a brine, pouring some of the marinade in with the Pork when in the crock pot - maybe adding some scallions near the end. I would probably put that over white rice or something, though egg noodles would do great as well.


By the way- is it just me or is the spell check on this blog site suck?

Also, let me tell you about the pork shoulder I bought. It was pretty funny, what I thought was a layer of fat on it was actually a thick layer of actual pig skin! I've never seen that before- maybe that's why it was so cheap! Anyway, I made sure to cut off the skin (it came off in one big strip) leaving some of the fat layer below. You need fat when BBQ'ing, as it helps with the flavor, and also helps keep the meat tender.

One of the things about pork (which I just heard on Good Eats last night) is that it is really lean and doesn't have much sodium in it (contrary to popular belief) and needs some help to not dry out. Hence the need for brining pork before cooking it. If you don't feel like brining the meat though, don't worry about it- because you are cooking it for so long I think the pork will still become very tendar and flavorful regardless!