Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Put on your britches and get out your slow cooker, bitches. It's time for some BBQ. Dr. Pepper stizzyle.

Ridiculous. Anyways, Dr. Pepper More than Mesquite Marinade is a wonderful, highly recommended, but not necessary ingredient. I happen to find it at a local gift shop that happen to have a HUGE variety of BBQ and hot sauces. Very handy for Father's Day. However, it might not be as easy for someone in say . . . Botswana to find any Dr. Pepper Marinade in just any old store. I found a few online stores that carry it including right here at saucenspice.com.

Moving on, the slow cooker is a very important tool for any amateur chef. It's great for those days when you got a lot of errands to do and need a lot of food later on. It's great for roasts, chicken, rice, potatoes, soups, stews, chili, really anything. You can throw all your ingredients into it and let it cook for at least 3 hours, longer if you want it more delicious. Personally, I like to start a dish at about 4 AM (bed time) so it can simmer at least 12 hours. Plus, they're cheap. So there's really no reason for you not to have one.

For this recipe, you will need:

• 3-5 lb. pork butt roast, size really depends on the size of your crock pot or slow cooker and amount of people you're serving
• 14 oz. bottle Dr. Pepper More than Mesquite Marinade
• 24 oz. bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
• 1/2 cup spicy mustard
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large white onion, sliced
• 2 limes
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• salt
• pepper

Wash off the pork roast and place it on a plate with a paper towel underneath to absorb the extra run off. Season the roast with salt and pepper. Transfer the roast into the slow cooker. Cover it with half the bottle of Dr. Pepper More than Mesquite Marinade, half the bottle of BBQ sauce, the green peppers and onions.



Pop the top on the slow cooker, crank it to Low Heat and leave it alone for hours upon hours. Like I said, I'll leave that sucker in there half a day, I don't even care. But if you're in a hurry, wait about 4 hours until checking how tender the roast is. It's incredibly important to leave the top on at all times and not to fuss with the temperature or anything else until the pivotal moment. Once the urge is upon you to definitively surmise that the roast is tender enough, the sauce should be gently bubbling and the vegetables should appear wilted and soggy.

Now, transfer the roast onto a pan or clean plate. At this point I usually throw away the juices and vegetables in the pot. I find that the onions and peppers completely absorb the taste of the sauces and offers no yum factor. But if you think you'd like them, be my guest.

Return the pork roast to the slow cooker. Grab 2 forks and sort of use them to rip apart the roast like a hermit crab digging into the sand. Strange analogy, I know, but it's the only thing I could think of that came close enough. If it doesn't start to rip up so easily, don't worry.

Dump the rest of the Dr. Pepper, BBQ sauce, spicy mustard, brown sugar, and diced garlic. Take the limes and roll them with the palms of your hands on your counter or any flat surface. This loosens up the juices in the limes. Cut them in half and squeeze upside down onto the roast, assuming that you've kept up with washing your hands during this episode.

Keep the slow cooker on low, let it simmer for a few more hours. After about 3 hours, start ripping it up again. Continue to rip apart the pork and let it cook for about an hour. You'll know when it's ready because you'll have eaten most of it just through "tastes", but as a general guide: the more you pull apart the pork, the more the sauces can seep into the meat and penetrate the porky flavors.

Serve it on a nice toasted bun with a slice of Colby Jack cheese and some pasta salad (my new favorite side!).

Next week, shallots and why you'll never bother with red onions again. Ever.

Love,

Liz

BEST TACOS I EVER MADE.

I was sitting in my house at about 2 AM deciding on if I actually wanted to eat. I could make BLT, which had been sustaining me for quite a while, OR I could bite the bullet and take the time to make tacos.

Problem: no Taco Bell taco mix. I had assumed yesterday when I spent my last $10 that I had a stash of it somewhere. Under this assumption I bought all the fixin's, sans sour cream. But I'm a plucky gal and made my own combination not knowing if this would turn tragic. In the end I was rewarded. REWARDED GREATLY.

Here's what I had:

• 1 lb ground sirloin
• salt
• pepper
• chili powder
• cayenne powder
• Pico de Gallo (can be found in most supermarkets)
• 1 lime
• 1 jalapeno (you could buy a jar, but 1 jalapeno pepper costs approximately $0.07)
• olive oil
• taco sauce
• tortillas  you can choose the regular hard shell or soft shell, I chose the kind you fry up, so much better)

First brown the beef, put it in a frying pan at medium heat until all the meat is cooked through. DON'T add olive oil, the meat will create it's own grease. When it's ready, drain out the grease and return the beef to the pan on medium or a little bit lower, depending on your stove top.

Next, add about 1/4 TSP of salt, 1/4 TSP of ground pepper, and 3/4 TSP chili powder. This is important: use cayenne powder sparingly. It is very powerful.

Now, using your palm, roll the lime about on your counter top. This will get them citric juices going. Cut it in half and squeeze over the meat. Wash the jalapeno and chop off about a third and dice it. If you like it really spicy, try going for a half. Don't die though.

Toss in about four big spoonfuls of Pico de Gallo and stir it all together. The Pico de Gallo should consist of tomatoes, onion, herbs, and jalapenos and all this will mix into the beef nicely. Just for some extra flavor and tenderness, pour on some taco sauce or hot sauce, 3-4 TBSP should be fine. Continue to cook on medium for about 7-12 minutes.

If you got the kind of tortillas you have to fry up:

Pour about 1/3 cup of olive oil into a heated frying pan. Once the oil is hot, toss on a tortilla, but not literally because the oil might splash up and burn you. Fry tortilla on both sides for about 10 seconds then dry on a paper towel.

Top them with whatever. Sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, Pico de Gallo, taco sauce, more jalapenos, onions, lime juice, it is AAAAALLLLLLL good.

AFTER THOUGHT!! As soon as I was going back for my fourth and fifth taco, I realized I could have gotten a much richer, saucier kind of taco meat by adding maybe 2 TBSP of tomato paste. Try it out, see what happens, let me know. Odds are I'll be trying this recipe again REAL soon.

I had six of these tonight. Shut up. I pedicab for a living, I'm allowed to be a fat ass, haha.

On a side note, sometimes I really have to laugh at the grotesquely poor quality of my photography, and I find it necessary to apologize. Sorry.

Love,

Liz