Old Hippie Chef: Walking, Pork , Mother-In-Law & The Slow Cooker

I hit the trail early today, and got in 4 miles of walking. It's absolutely gorgeous outside. It's the perfect N. California winter day, sunny, 63 degrees. The best part of the walk this morning was when I realized that my flu, or whatever affliction I had for the last 2 and half weeks, is almost completely gone. Finally. U know I'm no Walt Whitman so leave this section of the blog now.

Before I went out to the East Bay Regional Park this morning I started a crock pot of slow cooked BBQ boneless pork shoulder. I bought this pork shoulder roast about 2 months ago right when I started my new gastronomic direction. It's from organically raised pigs, and supposedly the food they ate were vegetable scraps from the farm. Produce not pretty enough for human consumption. I wrapped it in freezer bags with tin foil, but I wanted to use it before it was freezer burnt. I defrosted it for two days in the fridge, patted it dry with paper towels, and went to work.

I gave it a dry rub of salt, crushed black pepper, and cayenne, and browned it all around in a cast iron skillet, added a mirepoix, 6 garlic cloves, 4 bay leaves, teaspoon of herbs of Provence, 1 cup of Evert and Jones BBQ sauce, 2 cups chicken stock, an ounce of Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, and two cups of hot water. I set it on low and forgot about it. I put it in a 0800 and pulled it out at 5:15 PM. I flipped it a couple of times during the process, and opened the lid just to smell it every once in a while.

I have a couple of wonderful clients, Darren and Christine, who have this dog Omar that I have been taking care of for around 10 years. Christine is a teacher and Darren does computer animation, and I walk Omar 4 days a week when school is in session. The have two great children named Riley and Zoe. Christine is the queen of the slow cooker. She has a meal going in there EVERY day. That house smells of food every time I go there. She makes light of the fact that it's "just slow cooking", but I know Daren and those kids are eating some great meals.

My mother-in-law Sandy gave us our slow cooker one Christmas, and it's the best thing that bitch every did for us. You can use the oven, like the oxtail ragu recipe I just did, but the slow cooker is so easy. Once you have all your mise en place together this truly is a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal, well, 30 minutes to prep it. The cooker does the rest.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Food Consumption 1-19-13

Breakfast: 1 medium fried potato, 2 eggs over easy, plain black tea, orange juice

Lunch: Bowl of pasta with oxtail ragu and Pecorino Romano cheese

Dinner: Large salad compliments of Geraldine

Exercise: 4.5 miles

Snacks: None