Carnitas (Pork Tacos)

These carnitas are fall apart tender and cook in the slow cooker. The taco garnishments are all your choice. My crew likes fresh jalapenos, sour cream, onions, cilantro, salsa and limes. One thing that is a must when I serve carnitas is fresh lime wedges. There is something about the fatty pork with the acidic lime that makes an absolutely perfect bite.

This pork can also be used for nachos, enchiladas, burritos-basically, anything that you can imagine. If we have leftovers, I may fry an egg in the morning and place on top of some pork for breakfast. You would be surprised at the things I have placed a fried egg on.

I had full intentions of making some fresh guacamole, but the grocery store didn’t cooperate. I had left over pinto beans from a couple of nights ago that I smashed a few times with a potato masher, threw a couple of tablespoons of salsa into and heated them up. I have a gluten sensitivity, so I had corn tortillas for me and flour tortillas for the rest of the family.

Here is the best part: I purchased a huge pork butt at the local grocery store last night. This morning, I pulled it out of the fridge, trimmed off a lot of the fat, cut into large chunks, coated the pieces with taco seasoning and threw into my large slow cooker and placed on low. That was at 8am. When I arrived home at 5pm, the entire house smelled wonderful and it only took me a few minutes to grab all the fixings.

This particular cut of pork is fatty. Before serving, I skimmed 4 cups of fat from the top of the meat. Then I took tongs and just broke up the large chunks and served it right out of the slow cooker. The pork literally fell apart. This cut is also inexpensive, I spent $15 on this large pork butt and will use it for at least 2-3 meals this weekend.

If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can cook it in your oven, covered, at 225 degrees for 8 hours.

Carnitas (Pork Tacos)

These carnitas are fall apart tender and cook in the slow cooker.


Ingredients


1 pork butt or shoulder
1/4 cup taco seasoning of your choice

Directions


Trim the fat from the pork and cut into large chunks. Sprinkle with the seasoning and place in a large slow cooker on low. Drain most of the fat from the crock pot with a measuring cup. Break up the meat chunks with tongs and serve.


Make this recipe your own. Add your favorite garnishments. Or go in an entirely different direction and omit the taco seasoning and add Asian components- sesame oil, teriyaki, soy and/or ginger.

Cowboy Caviar

It is football season and my husband, Jay, loves chips and dip. He has never met a dip he didn’t love. It is game day, so I decided to throw together some snacks and toss them on the kitchen island. I have a feeling the boys will come by- fingers crossed- and maybe even a few friends. In typical fashion, I made a little something (this cowboy caviar) and purchased some things as well.

Many recipes for cowyboy caviar call for avocados and cilantro, but here is my take on it. Avocados can turn to mush, they need to be perfectly ripe and they aren’t very good left over. As for cilantro- did you know 10% of people find it tastes like soap. Turns out, they share a common smell-receptor gene cluster called OR6A2. I am in this group. So if you love it, add it. Cilantro is a hard no for me.

Many of you have asked me to link to things in the pics. I am new at this and it is hard to link some of my things, especially my Memaw’s melmac bowls from the 50’s. But as for the cute table runner, I took a chance last year on this pvc table runner. Turns out, it is one of my favorite things. It was long, and it curls on the end, so don’t expect it to hang down. I cut a piece for our bar and a piece for the island. The edges curl around the top and it wipes off very easily. So I actually got two runners out of the one purchase. When I am done, they just roll right up and I throw them in the china cabinet.

There is a cute orange and white custom glass plate with a tiny square of red in the corner. It was a wedding present to Jay and I from our friends, Franklin and Jennifer. The plate was a custom piece from Kim Currin Creations- Glassworks. The red is for Jay- he is my Alabama guy.

I have a Nora Fleming cocktail napkin holder that I am a little obsessed with- the corner mini is interchangeable-and don’t ask me how many minis I have. Cocktail napkins are my thing and I even have them organized in zip lock bags. And if you ever see the Nora Fleming Frankenstein hand mini for a reasonable amount of money- text me immediately. Of course, today I have inserted the football mini. We have a great, local store called Southern Traditions and they carry many of the Nora Fleming pieces and also the minis. I always buy local when I can.

Cowboy Caviar


Ingredients


1 can black eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, rinsed and drained
1 jalapeno, diced
1 red onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced

Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Directions


Mix dressing ingredients into a jar and shake. Mix dip ingredients in a bowl and stir in the dressing.


Make this recipe your own. Add cilantro, add the zest of the lime. Turn up the acid and add an additional lime. Toss in a cucumber. Add white beans. There are endless options to change up this recipe.
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