Crock Pot Pork Carnitas

After doing pulled pork in the crock pot for many years, I decided to try making carnitas instead; because it's really just different seasonings.

After consulting a carnitas making momma that I'm friends with as well as about 20 recipes online, I found that this is my favorite way to make carnitas that is kid friendly (aka flavorful, but not spicy).

Ingredients:

---

• 4 - 5 lbs of boneless pork shoulder or butt
• 2 Tablespoons of dried oregano
• 3 Teaspoons of ground cumin
• 1 Onion, large roughly chopped
• 4 Tablespoons of minced garlic (depending on size of cloves, could be 4+ cloves)
• 2 jalapenos, chopped (optional and I usually remove the seeds and ribs if it do use it)
• 2 Oranges, cut in half
• 2 Bottles of amber or fruit beer (I have used SA Oktoberfest and Pineapple Shady, Lemon Shady)
• 1 cup Orange Juice (optional) - Sometimes if I feel my oranges haven't provided a lot of liquid I'll add orange juice as well
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons oil (optional) I usually prefer to rub the seasonings directly on the pork

Directions

---

1. Chop the onion and jalapeno (optional) and put in the bottom of the crock pot (I prefer this method because I have found that no matter what meat I'm making in crock pots, when it's directly touching the bottom it tends to cook faster than the rest of the meat).
2. In a bowl mix together dry seasonings and garlic (with or without oil)
3. Mix in half of the seasonings with the onion (and optional jalapeno) on the bottom of the crock pot
4. Squeeze one orange over the seasonings in the bottom of the crock pot. Place the squeezed orange halves on the sides of the bottom of the crock pot.
5. Prepare the pork. Cut off some of the fat, do not rinse it and rub on the rest of the seasonings mix
6. Set the pork into the crock pot.
7. Pour in the first beer, if it doesn't come close to covering the pork, add another beer.
8. Squeeze the second orange over the meat and put into the crock pot. Add additional orange juice if the pork isn't covered. If you shove the oranges down the sides, it will often raise the liquid level.
9. Cook until the pork pulls easily apart. The times vary, but in general cook on high for 1 hr to bring all of the ingredients up to a good temperature and then lower to low for 8 hrs. If you want to cook it faster, keep it on high, but monitor it.
10. When tender, pull out the carnitas and let it cool before pulling it apart with forks or bear claws
11. Often, we immediately pull off some of the pork and eat tacos for dinner and then pull the rest later when it's cooled.
12. My kids don't like the carnitas to be crispy so we skip the pan frying or oven crisping that a lot of recipes recommend, but you can pan fry the carnitas if you do like it crispy.

This recipe is versatile, pulled pork recipes with bbq sauce doesn't work in tacos, but carnitas can become bbq pork. We often mix the pork carnitas with bbq sauce and make pulled pork sandwiches, to keep dinner interesting.

Lola's Lab - Only One Week This Summer! Register Early!

Lola's Lab is a fun and creative day camp that fills in when the schools are closed (Holidays, sometimes snow days) as well as offers summer camps.  My daisies Love, LOVE, LOVE Lola's Lab. We usually spend at least one week of summer at a Lola's Lab camp.

So imagine my surprise when reading an email about a camp for grade preparation day (February 3rd), I find out that great things are happening for Lola (I truly am happy for her success), but that means there will be only one week of summer camp! The selfish part of me doesn't even want to tell you about Lola's lab, but ultimately I want Lola's Lab to continue to be successful for my girls, so here's Lola's big announcement:

Finally, the BIG announcement from Lola

Lab families, there's only going to be 3 more camps until fall: FEB 3,MARCH 3 and AUG 21-25. What? Only 1 week this summer? That's a lot of time off in between.

Yup! I'm going on a writing sabbatical. I've been in the Lab for 7 years and written over 40 plays performed for the kids! I'm excited to say that my plan to supercharge the creativity in children has attracted a creative producer from Hollywood. He loves our stories and is assisting me in the pursuit of my dream -- to produce an educational webisode series for kids!  

So if you're interested in sending your child to Lola's Lab this summer, register early as it's sure to sell out.  Registration begins February 1st and Lola offers early bird discounts. The regular price is $360.

Why I like Lola's Lab Camps:

• They offer before and after care for an additional fee.  Which is great if you work; you can have coverage from as early at 8 am to a late as 6 pm.
• They keep the content fresh! It's never the same camp. Lola keeps creating new and wonder inspiring stories and activities.
• BONUS I don't have to take my kids to two different camps! They break the kids up into age appropriate groups at the same location during the same week.  

Learn to Bike, Skate, etc - American Inline

The first pre-registration for summer camp of the 2017 summer camp season came across my email back on December 17th from American Inline. They offered a great deal - $75 off a full-day camps. As much as I wanted to take advantage of this deal, the holiday rush and feeling poor after holiday shopping meant I didn't take advantage.

This promotion worked out great for American Inline though... Four weeks of their full-day summer camps are already sold out as of the writing of this blog.

The camps that American Inline offers all involve wheels, from bikes, to roller blades and skate boarding. The most popular camp is the "Learn to Ride a Bike Camp" for obvious reasons.

My oldest daisy has been to two of their camps where she first learned to ride and the second year she went to "Bike Riding Camp".  Despite being outside all day, she LOVES this camp. So I'm signing up both of my Daisies now before anymore weeks sell out. My youngest will be in the Learn the Ride camp the same week at the same location as my oldest who'll be improving her bike riding skills.

Why I like American Inline Camps:

• They offer before and after care for an additional fee.  Which is great if you work; you can have coverage from as early at 7:30 am to 5:30 pm.
• They teach a skill that is difficult to learn when you live in a very hilly neighborhood.  "Going bike riding" for us, means loading up the bikes and driving to an open area or bike trail.
• BONUS I don't have to take my kids to two different camps! They offer the different skill levels at the same location during the same week.  
• After care, often offers other activities, such as swimming, which is a great way to cool off after a day biking in the sun.

Other reasons to like this camp:

• While we already had bikes, some may not.  You can rent a bike for the week.

Leftover Cranberry Sauce Muffins

Once I learned how crazy easy it is to make homemade cranberry sauce for holiday dinners I can't go back to canned.  The only downside... the homemade sauce is so good, I feel compelled to use every last bit of it. Hence Cranberry Sauce Muffins! My daisies love them.

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

This is the recipe that I've pulled together after trying a few different recipes.

Cranberry Sauce Muffins:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar (I used a 50/50 mix of coconut sugar and regular sugar)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, beaten
1 cup leftover homemade cranberry sauce

Directions:

• Heat oven to 400°F. I prefer paper cupcake liners to send these in lunches with my kids, but they come out better if you use cooking spray and put them directly in the muffin tins or use silicon baking cups.  Recipe makes about 18 muffins.
• In a large mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
• Add the wet ingredients: butter, milk, beaten egg and vanilla; mix until all ingredients are incorporated and you have a thick batter.
• Stir in the cranberry sauce
• Put batter in muffin tins, filling each cup 3/4 full
• Bake 18 - 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 
• Cool before serving, tastes great with butter or a cream cheese icing or whipped spread.

Cranberry Sauce is Crazy Easy to Make! Ditch the Canned Stuff!

About 7 years ago I went to someone's house for Thanksgiving dinner and she had homemade cranberry sauce.  Wow! It was amazing! And spooning the sauce onto my plate was so much easier than trying to get that slippery, jiggling, jellied slice of canned cranberry sauce onto my plate.

I asked how she made it and I was astounded at how easy it was.  Three ingredients.  You can get fancy and add more, but for a basic sauce that everyone will love start with the basic three:

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice (I used Orange Mango)
1 12 oz bag of Cranberries

Directions:

• In a medium or large skillet or frying pan bring the sugar and orange juice to a boil. I prefer the wide flat pan because the cranberries cook more evenly.
• Rinse the bag of cranberries, remove any questionable cranberries (shriveled and/or mushy) and any stems.
• Add the cranberries to the boiling juice and sugar, return to a boil before reducing the temperature to a simmer.
• The cranberries begin to pop, simmer the cranberries for about 10 minutes or until all the cranberries have popped.
• Remove the cranberry sauce from the heat
• My family doesn't like whole cranberries in their sauce so I mash the cranberries or if I'm feeling particularly fancy, I throw the sauce into the food processor to puree it.
• Pour the sauce into a serving bowl.  I like to measure out 1 cup of sauce for my Cranberry Sauce Muffins and set it aside for later. 

And that's it, you're done. So super easy and you've just elevated Thanksgiving dinner!

Not Quite Jimmy Fallon's Crock-Pot Chili

I've been making Chili for years and I've tried out a lot of recipes, but the one I've settled on is a modified version of Jimmy Fallon's Crock-Pot Chili recipe. To be fair, I've never made this recipe as written, partly because I needed to make more than this recipe calls for and partly because I don't like using beans in my chili.

I tried it out initially as the "spicy, grown-up" chili that I offered at my daughter's November birthday party. I leave out the jalapeno and don't use as much cayenne pepper in my "chili powder" when making a not so spicy version of this chili.

If you don't do well improvising when you cook, please use Jimmy's recipe.  I tend to season to taste and amounts are merely suggestions. 

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• Ground beef (use whichever leanness you prefer - I usually go with 85/15)
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 large white onion
• garlic, finely chopped (I use a lot!)
• 1 Jalapeno (Jimmy used habanero)
• Chili Powder (I usually make my own, which means I add:
• paprika
• garlic powder
• cayenne pepper
• onion powder
• oregano and
• cumin
• 28 ozs or so of petite diced tomatoes.  If I'm in a rush I use canned otherwise, I try to dice and season my own (less salt and preservatives).
• 1/3 cup of fresh cilantro, plus more for serving
• 1 bottle of beer - I prefer Sam Adams Oktoberfest, but any amber beer will also work.
• Lime juice - I like to add some lime to the crock pot
• For serving
• Tortilla chips for serving
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Diced tomatoes
• Diced onion
• Sour cream
• lime wedges

Directions:

1. Finely chop the onion, jalapeno and garlic. I like to make it small enough so my kids can't pick it out.
2. In a large skillet lightly saute the onion, jalapeno and garlic with olive oil with some chili powder and a smidgen of salt and pepper. 
3. Leave 1/2 of the onion mixture in the skillet and add 1/2 of the ground beef.  Cook until only slightly pink. Repeat with the 2nd 1/2 of the onion, garlic and ground beef. I like to season the meat even during the browning, not just in the crock pot. I like to use a slotted spoon to move the beef mixture to the crock pot, draining off some of the excess fat, but not all.
4. Combine the ground beef and onion mixture to the crock pot, with the diced tomatoes, the rest of the chili powder, cilantro and beer.
5. Stir everything together, cover and cook on high for 5 hrs.
6. Stir occasionally
7. Serve with toppings and corn bread.