Shredded Asian Pork, Slow Cooked In A Dutch Oven

     While driving home from work today, I realized I had a problem, missing potatoes. No potatoes for dinner is a huge problem for a girl from Idaho who learned how to cook from her Grandma, who also lives in Idaho, growing potatoes. So when faced with this problem and having already commented to pork loin roast for dinner I had to think of what else you can do with pork loin, so I shredded it!
       Since I haven't made this before and I wasn't sure if it would be any good or if I had wasted a couple pounds of pork, I didn't take a lot of pictures and really only could snap one in between Ryan taking bites. Well it turned out, how could it not, I am a genius!

      Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place pork roast in dutch oven and add soy sauce, water, ginger, garlic, brown sugar and sriracha. Cook for 2 hours, basting every half hour. Add carrots when there is half an hour left of cooking time. 
2. Make you som rice. I used the minute version but be warned, it actually takes five. (grrr) 
3. When the pork is done cooking, let it rest and then slice it into about 4 chunks and put it in your mixer with the paddle attachment for a minute until shredded. 
4. Put it all in a bowl and mix it up and eat it. Nom! 

Mmmm look at that caramelization, this is why I love my french oven and its so easy to clean. 

Recipe

• 2 pound pork loin 
• 2 cups water 
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon ginger 
• 1 tablespoon sriracha
• 2 tablespoon garlic 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar 
• 2 to 4 cups of carrots 

In The Dog House Now

     I am completely obsessed with pinterest these days, I believe it takes up more of my time than facebook... So if you haven't noticed already, I would like to call attention to my new "pin it" button that I added to my blogs all by myself, big moment for me.
      There are a couple of big changes that my little family is going through, one being that we are moving! We will be moving in to a house with a dream kitchen, a back yard for Beau and a garage for Ryan. The other big change, Beau is now sleeping on the floor instead of in our bed... I know, I am a sick person.
      Beau sleeping under the bed is not a problem at our condo because we have carpet but at the new house there is only hardwood so I decided I should make Beau a bed. I started my search and found lots of distressed painting tutorials on pinterest. I decided that finding a used side table would be my best option for the new dog bed.

      So Ryan and I found this hexagon side table for $8 at the Salvation Army. I liked the idea of an enclosed area for Beau because I think he likes to hide. After we shaved Beau on top of this table, I started to take it apart, taking off the two doors and then filling in the hole with wood filler.
   

     Then I painted it with the left over paint from my bathroom and aged it with a light wash of a mustard yellow and browns. I really love how the color turned out.

     Next I made a pillow and stuffed it with all of the plastic bags I had saved up, I still have more...

      As a last and final attempted to get my dog inside of his new house I went out and bought him a zoom and mounted it on his wall, it didn't work, he prefers the couch...

       At least I got a pretty side table out of it all.

Chicken and Waffles

      I am not from the south but I do live in Alabama and I am trying my very best to embrace the new culture. I wear crimson, love houndstooth, say, "y'all" from time to time and eat fried chicken with a sweet tea from Zaxby's just about every weekend. Mmmhmm. Fried chicken and sweet tea are staple dishes here, its like the fries and fry sauce of Alabama.
      I went on a coupon shopping trip tonight and came home with Eggo waffles and dinosaur chicken nuggets which made Ryan crave chicken and waffles for dinner. Me being me, I couldn't just heat of the waffles and chicken nuggets and serve them for dinner so I came up with this.

      Niether Ryan nor me have had chicken and waffles before but this dish was amazing. It was dinner with familiar notes of breakfast. Really it was my favorite combination of savory and sweet. I think I will make this dish again tomorrow night and omit the asparagus, it really had no place in the dish but I wanted to eat it with bacon.
       I started by frying my bacon, and used the grease from the bacon to fry the boneless skinless chicken breasts in and added about half a cup of sliced onions to the dish.

      When the chicken is just about finished cooking and is browned on each side add about a 1/4 cup of maple syrup and deglace your pan with a tablespoon or more of Jack Daniels.

      When you chicken is cooking, cream together a mixture of half cream cheese and plain yogurt. Add 2 chopped green onions, a tsp of garlic powder and some salt and pepper. This mixture will replace butter on your waffles.

     And then come the waffles which are the easiest part, just toast em. Assemble your dish with waffles on the bottom and spread the cream cheese onion mixture onto the waffle and top with bacon. Add the chicken to the side and caramelized onions on top. Drizzle the jack and maple glaze over the entire thing.

      There it is, familiar, yet different and all delicious.