Homemade Pulled Pork

Since moving to Arizona, the crock pot hasn't come out of hiding in over eight months! Thinking of this fact, and also my longing for some pulled pork, we bought some pork loin at Target last weekend. Slow-cooked pulled pork was in the near future.

Ingredients:

• A generous cut of pork loin/shoulder
• 12 oz. cola
• large white onion, quartered
• chopped carrots
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 c water
• 2 bay leaves
• pepper and cumin for seasoning

Crock pot meals are the easiest things in the world. I basically seasoned the meat, placed it in the bottom of the slow cooker and put the remaining ingredients on top. With the lid in place, I set the concoction to medium and let it simmer away for about six hours.

When ready to prepare, strain the meat from the liquid (be careful to keep the entire cut of meat intact) and place on a large cutting board. Using two forks, shred or pull the pork into bite-sized pieces.

And that, my friends, is it! Now it is ready for whatever preparation you choose! Since you're here, I'll show you two of the ways we've eaten this pulled pork :)

Carnitas Nachos (for lunch & dinner)

...and BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

To transform into BBQ pork, simply fill a pot with enough pork to prepare two sandwiches. Top with 1/4 of a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce and let it heat up together at your desired temperature/consistency.

Famous Dave's BBQ sauce is a personal favorite! For a sweet kick, try the Apricot Bourbon BBQ sauce. My mouth is watering thinking about it.

Easy, delicious and this yielded enough meat for at least four meals (for two people)! We're going to be eating pulled pork for days.

...Or until I leave for California on Tuesday. Then I'll probably have J.D. throw out whatever remains. And by "throw out" I don't mean into Woodstock's mouth.

Eating Nemo was amazing

After turning down a job last week I've been a train wreck. When I was 20 and my first boyfriend broke up with me, I couldn't eat for days. Anytime I tried my stomach was just a big mess. Five years later, I had that feeling again. Not regret for having turned down a job after interviewing for 21 in this economy, but more so that disgusting sick feeling inside, like you know you've done something totally wrong you can't take back.

Clearly, I need to lighten up. But finances are a BIG deal when you don't have any. However, this week I've been lining up a few more part time gigs and interviews. I think something is bound to fall into my lap one day soon. That being said, I'm starting to eat again.

And man did I ever eat yesterday. J.D. and I went to the Arizona State Fair and then kept the day going by celebrating the 3rd of the month, which we do every month for obvious reasons, at a fancy-looking sushi place near our house. Thank God my boyfriend has a job...

We kicked the fair's festivities off with some lunch, a compromise between disturbing fried stations (for J.D.) and something healthy (for me). BBQ it was!

Then we made our way to the midway and I desperately wanted to search for the livestock area to catch a glimpse of the -- wait for it -- WIENER DOG RACES!

Eeeeeeee they were so cute!!!!!(#*&&#^@%%@!!!!!!! The wieners were dressed up in hot dog costumes, just like little Woodstock was for Halloween :) There were also tiny piggy races too. The guy running the show explained to us that pigs are the fourth smartest animals in the world, behind humans, primates and dolphins. Dogs were all the way down to No. 9 or something like that. So basically, anything you could teach a dog, he could teach his pigs in half the time. Man those suckers were fast. Just wait a couple of months before they hit the 1,000 lb. mark....

They were so fast I couldn't even get a decent picture. Oh well.

After seeing the country's largest Ferris wheel on wheels -- no way I'm getting on a ride that can be taken down and shipped off in a day -- we finally made it the livestock area.

And in the petting zoo area they had kangaroos! I really wanted to go in and pet one, but I would have felt weird being the only person over 8 without a child in there.

After the fair, we went home to feed Woodstock and cool off for a little bit since it had been close to 90 degrees outside. J.D. looked up a local sushi/martini bar and discovered it features a 50% off menu from Tuesday until Saturday during Happy Hour! By the time we made our way over, there was still over an hour left! :)

We sat down at our table at Blue Wasabi and checked out the drink menu while they actually brought us blue wasabi for the sushi.

As much as I had wanted to order the Nice Melons, it wasn't half off for Happy Hour. So I went with the Berry White instead. Good Lord that thing was dangerous and tasted like a Jolly Rancher.

Then back to the menu we went to figure out our dinner:

While I would have loved to order the Dirty Sanchez or Me Soy Horny rolls just for the sheer comedic value of saying those in public, at a classy bar no less, I wasn't too thrilled with the ingredients. So instead we split the Eating Nemo and the Wango Mango rolls. Along with a slew of appetizers.

We had two 8-piece rolls, three appetizers and three drinks for under $40 (and enough leftovers for a third lunch/dinner)! I think if we'd paid full price beyond Happy Hour it would have cost over $70 without the tax. Yikes! If ANYONE ever comes to visit me in Arizona, we're going to this place between Tuesday and Saturday, no questions asked!!! It was really amazing sushi. And it led to waaay too many inappropriate jokes.

Now I think it's time for me to get back to my writing. I'm at 2,080 words with a long road ahead of me....