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Hello everyone! I hope you all had a happy fourth of July last week! We sure did! My mother in law came to town to celebrate with us. It was fun to see our little BP playing with the grandma she doesn't get to see as much (since she lives out of state) and making special memories together!

Well of course, as we do, we had a party for the Fourth of July! We are the family with the pool, so it's kind of a necessity. We had a rather eclectic mix of people this year! Family, extended family, friends we consider family, and new neighbors who we hope will become friends! It was a great day!

Well a few days before the fourth my husband had stopped at the grocery store and came home with an 8 pound pork butt. He wanted to make something with it. My response was, "I don't know how many people you think live here, but only three do, and one of them is a toddler." 

However, since he had to work on the Fourth and wouldn't be there to start grilling as early as I would have liked, I decided we would do BBQ pulled pork sandwiches!

I debated trying my hand at doing pulled pork in the my husband's smoker, but in the end I decided I would use my crock pot! I have done BBQ Pulled Pork in the crock pot numerous times in the past, and it is really a favorite of mine!

Doing BBQ Pulled Pork in the Crock pot is not as difficult as you might think! You can still get a tasty, moist pulled pork when it is cooked in the crock pot. There are many principles to smoking meat to make it juicy and melt in your mouth, and you can incorporate those principles with your crock pot.

The key to this bbq pulled pork in the crock pot is the infusion of apple cider vinegar, and cooking it low and slow (which is really what crock pots are for!)

That liquid inside the pork is going to soak into the meat while it cooks, leaving you with moist, flavorful pulled pork at the end!

The low temperature also makes sure your bbq pulled pork doesn't go dry, or get over cooked.

I highly recommend still using a meat thermometer and make sure your meat reaches an internal temperature of 202 degrees Fahrenheit. Then you can be sure it has cooked all the way through!

When I pulled this pork out of the crock pot it was literally falling apart! Which is just how I like it!

We used Kings Hawaiian rolls (and some home made because I was worried about running out) and topped our pulled pork with our favorite barbeque (bbq) sauce and some cole slaw!

​Happy cooking!

BBQ Pulled Pork in the Crock Pot

For this Recipe, you will need:

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Alicia back with another American recipe! This year my family is picking a country from our ancestry and trying to make foods from that country once a week. Then I share the recipes here. This month we're doing American.

When asking my friends they're favorite American foods my husband replied that he thinks "barbecue is the most American flavor." Then a whole bunch of people agreed with him. There's so many different, and delicious, styles of barbecue across the United States, it's impossible (for me) to choose my favorite. Slow cooking the meat makes it fall off the bone tender without drying it out. Unfortunately, we don't have a barbecue that can slow cook our meat, so we have to use our crockpot. But it still results in a very delicious and tasty rack of ribs.

Today's meal is ribs, baked beans, cornbread, and potato salad. A meal suggested to me by my friend Shirley, who lived in Texas for awhile, so I trust her barbecue opinions. I made everything from scratch and it wasn't that intense or difficult despite being a full plate. The sides were delicious and a perfect compliment, especially the potato salad, a recipe which I'll share with you today as well. 

These ribs...THESE RIBS! They're so good! Oft requested by friends for gatherings, these ribs do not last long. Leftovers are unheard of. They're so delicious.

The rub for the ribs can be made in advance and kept in a container, ready for every time you want to make some delicious ribs. We always have some made up and sitting in our spice cabinet.

Ideally we would smoke them or cook them on indirect heat on the grill, but since we don't have that option right now, we just do it in the CrockPot. ​(I love my crockpot!) And lining the crockpot with parchment paper makes clean-up a breeze!

​Make these, you will not regret it.

Best Ever Ribs

When I knew we were going to make potato salad, I called my mom. She has always made the best potato salad and I was amazed she hadn't posted it yet. So here it is in all it's glory. The great thing about it is you can customize it to your tastes. I used red and golden potatoes because that's what I had on hand, but russet potatoes work just as well. Sweet or dill pickles, either one is great. I used a dressing that was slightly creamy instead of the regular Italian dressing. I was still so good! Play around according to your tastes and it's always sure to be amazing. I honestly love this stuff. 

​Although, if you don't like pickles, this may not be the potato salad for you. Otherwise, you can't go wrong.

Best Ever Potato Salad

I didn't want to overwhelm you with recipes so I'll post the baked beans and cornbread another day. Until then, dazzle your family and friends with these recipes. 

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     Hi everyone! I hope you had a great Memorial Day Weekend! For me, it was awesome because I was able to fly to the Bay Area in CA and visit my Daughter's family and we drove to visit my mom and family about 3 hours away.  It was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, when we got back to my daughter's house, I came down with some sort of bug and was knocked out of the action for a whole day! Fortunately was better by Sunday afternoon and we got to spend some quality time together. Since I was flying home on Monday, I didn't put up my normal Monday post.  But I hope that today's post will make up for the wait, because, TAH DAH, I am finally sharing the copy cat Beef Poutine recipe that you have been waiting for.  On this post we gave you Disney Tips and told you about Red Rose Tavern and I promised to share a the recipe with you.  So, here it is! 

     Hipster Beef Poutine

     Traditionally, Poutine is made with fries, cheese curds and brown gravy.  My son-in-law says that all of the variations on Poutine are kind of new and hipster syle, so since I love this way of making it, I am calling it Hipster Beef Poutine. 

• The first thing you have to do is roast until shreddable tender a nice beef roast.  I did mine in the crock pot.  Season it however you like, with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and when it is all done, shred it up and reserve the juices for the gravy. 

• Make some fries.  Maddy made some for this dish out of red potatoes, cut into steak fries.  She said that when she had been to Canada, she always had Poutine with steak fries.  She drizzled them with olive oil and seasoned them with salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic.  You can season them your favorite way.  Then, she baked them until they were tender.  At the Red Rose Tavern, they use waffle fries. 
• You also need cheese curds.  You can purchase these at Costco.  I couldn't find them at our local grocery store, but I did find mozzarella pearls that are very similar. 

• Just before you are ready to serve, make the gravy.  Here is my tried and true way:

Brown Beef Gravy:

1. Pour the juice from the beef into a skillet and heat to boiling.  While it is heating, you can start to season it with salt and pepper. 
2. Add about 1/2 c. water to the juices
3. In a 2 c. measuring cup, put 1 cup of water and about 3 T flour.  Mix together thoroughly.  Pour the mixture into the boiling juices slowly and quickly whisk it together, ensuring no lumps! If it doesn't get as thick as you would like, depending on the amount of juices that you have this can vary, make a little more of the water and flour mixture and add more to the juices. Allow to boil and simmer so the flour cooks and you don't have a raw flour taste.  Add seasonings to taste. 

     Now, here is how you put it all together! 

    You are not quite finished!  Remember last week I showed you how to make pickled onions!  They are the perfect accompaniment on top of this dish! 

     There you have it! I know you will love it! So give this traditional French-Canadian dish a try! 
​

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Alicia here with another ancestry food post. This year my family is choosing a different country from our ancestry and making one meal a week at home from that country. We choose the countries based on our family trees, and also our DNA results. We had our DNA tested with Ancestry and got the results back. There were some things we expected but also some surprises! It's been really fun doing this experiment and getting to know our ancestors through food. If you'd like to do this same experiment, Ancestry has the kits on sale right now! It's so easy (though slightly gross), all it requires is spitting in a tube and mailing it back to the company.

This month's country is France. So far we have made Gratin Dauphinois, Piperade, & Flammekueche. This week we are making a classic dish that's been around since medieval times, Boeuf Bourguignon. 

First made by peasants, this beef stew is a dish I'm sure my ancestors have tried.

Traditionally made with Burgundy wine, has a much deeper flavor than your regular beef stew. I have made this before and my husband loved it, so when we decided to do France this month he requested it again. 

Last time I used cooking wine, but I couldn't find any in stores this time. I didn't want to buy a whole bottle of wine because I don't have many dishes I would use it in, so I substituted grape juice, red wine vinegar, and beef stock for my recipe. So if you are cooking for some one who has liver problems or is sensitive to alcohol, this would be a great recipe for you. If you do use wine, use one less cup of stock and omit the grape juice and red wine vinegar, using the wine to deglaze the pan.

I also used baby carrots because it's fast and easy. I also love the look they give to the stew and the fact that they get soft without being mushy.

I love this stew, the first time I made it, it was very labor intensive. But with the crockpot it was so easy. We are adding this to our menu meals. I would wager that my stew is much closer to what the peasants of medieval times made than the bourgeois that made it later. But it's still so delicious, it's no wonder this meal has been around so long! If you don't have a crockpot, what are you waiting for? It's my favorite thing in my kitchen. It makes me so happy to know dinner is slowly cooking away while I'm attending to other things. Especially because my kids are more fussy and needy in the evenings when I'm trying to make dinner. In the morning while they are happily playing I can get dinner started by just tossing everything in the slow cooker. I lovemine.

Crockpot Boeuf Bourguignon

Let me know if you give it a try! It's pretty easy and so good.