I am posting another pulled pork dinner I made even though the pork portion isn't too different than other times I've done this. The big thing I want to save here is the vinegar coleslaw. It was cheap, easy and really good. But first the pork variation that I pulled from my friend Ross.

So I seasoned the pork as normal, except in the crockpot I left out the wet ingredients like soy sauce and vinegar and let it sit instead on a bed of a half of an onion, chopped. I let it cook up for 8-10 hours on high until it was all tender. By the time it was done, many of the juices had seeped out. I pulled the pork from the liquid, put it in a hot skillet, pulled it, and let it get crispy in a few bits. I then used the remaining sauce from the crockpot to deglaze the pan along with some cider vinegar (apple juice would work well, too). Most of the liquid reduced down and left the mess very sticky and perfectly shredded.

Now to the coleslaw

1/2 head small purple cabbage

1/2 onion

4 whole carrots

1 head bok choy

1 cup apple cider vinegar

5 Tbls white sugar

1 Tbls black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp rosemary

I started off shredding the cabbage, carrots and boy chow into thin strips, and sliced up the onion to match the size of the other vegetables. I put it all in tupperware, and added the rest of the ingredients. The seasonings there may or may not have made much of a difference. I was mostly just aiming for an approximate flavor profile as the pork. Any spices you want could probably work. I put the top on the tupperware, gave it a good shake, and then let it sit in the refrigerator for about 4 hours, giving it a shake every hour or so to keep it coated. Then it was ready to serve.

Knowing veggies, you might want to adjust the amount of sugar and salt and vinegar depending on how much you get from the veggies. Also, after I let it sit overnight, the coleslaw was even better. Still really crisp and sweet and tangy. Good stuff.

So I found a great Asian supermarket that has cheap diverse produce and meats. Here is what I made with them tonight.

1 lbs squid tube

1 lbs green beans

1 lbs baby bok choy

3 carrots

1 large yellow bell pepper

1 bunch Thai basil

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

19 oz coconut milk

2 Tbls Mae Ploy green curry paste

2 cups sticky rice

1 cup

edemame

soy sauce

sriracha

To start off, I got the rice cooking first as according to the package. I chopped up the beans, carrots and bell pepper into strips about the same thickness, and sauteed them in some oil with a little salt. While they were softening up, I chopped up the bok choy. I snipped off the base, washed them, and then chopped the bigger leaves into small strips as well. I added the curry paste and let it mix in with the sauteing veggies and oil. I chopped up the thai basil and cilantro and set them aside until the end. The squid tubes I bought were already cleaned and the cartilage removed. I had two tubes, that I cut in half length-wise, and then sliced horizontally also the same thickness as the veggies. I added the coconut milk to the pan along with a half cup of water, and then tossed in the bok choy and squid. About this time, I put on small pot of water to boil the edemame. Right before the everything was done, I mixed in the basil and cilantro.

To finish the plate off, I added some soy sauce to the edemame, and sriracha to the rest. Good stuff.

I was very proud of this dish of spaghetti. It tasted very unlike my normal spaghetti does. Which isn't to say my normal spaghetti is bad, just that this was really good. And there was no meat, or spaghetti in it.

1 spaghetti squash

1 jar herb and garlic spaghetti sauce

1 green and 1 red bell pepper

1 cup chopped green beans

1 package Enoki mushrooms ( I got from the asian super market. If you have the option, I recommend these highly)

1 package fried puffed tofu (also from the asian market. If you want tofu, but with a thicker more tearable texture, these will be your friend)

olive oil

salt and pepper

So I started by baking the spaghetti squash, cut in half, with some salt for 1 hour at 350 degrees. In a large sauce pan, I sauteed the sliced bell peppers in olive oil until they were soft. I added the green beans, mushrooms, and sauce and simmered for 10 minutes. In another pan, I heated some veggie oil, and fried the puffed tofu, turning until crispy and set out on a paper towel. Once the squash was done, I shredded it with a fork and added it to the sauce along with the tofu and served. I put Parmesan on mine, but you could do nutritional yeast if you want to keep it vegan.

I made this one morning when Jeremy was here with Grizz. It was super easy considering I had all the ingredients already in the house.

3 medium, very ripe bananas

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

2 Tbls molasses

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

I crushed up the bananas, mixed them with the applesauce, vegetable oil, and molasses. In other dish, I mixed up the sugar, flour, baking soda and seasonings. Then I mixed all that stuff together. Finally, I greased a baking pan, and cooked in the oven at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Right when I took it out to cool, I sprinkled some more cinnamon and sugar on top, and let it cool for 20 minutes. It turned out good, but next time I'd make sure my bananas were more ripe, and I'd probably add nuts to the mix, or maybe dried cranberries, or both.

I was scanning through an Alton Brown book I have, I'm Just Here for the Food, and I saw this recipe. Meat is expensive and tofu is not so I gave it a shot.

1 pound extra firm tofu 1 package hoagie rolls

1 package onion clover sprouts

1/2 pound Jack cheese

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

1/4 cup hot sauce

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 Tbls minced garlic

Salt and Pepper

(3/4 cup dark beer, I did not include this in my recipe opting to use more BBQ, hot sauce and vinegar)

I started the day before to allow ample time to marinade. The first step was the drain the tofu. In order for it to absorb as much sauce as possible you first need to get out as much water as possible. I cut the tofu into 6 pieces length wise, layed them on a paper towel, put another paper towel on top, placed a baking sheet over it and a two cans of beans to weigh it down. I switched this out once after it became saturated over the coarse of 30 minutes.

While this was working, I mixed up the BBQ sauce, hot sauce, vinegar, and garlic. After squeezing the tofu dry, I placed it in a Tupperware container, poured on the sauce, and closed the lid. I gave it a good few turns to make sure the tofu had good sauce coverage, including the area between the slices. The next day, I heated a pan on the stove. Tossed on the tofu and let it sear on each side. During this time, I sliced and toasted the hoagies, and melted a bit of sliced jack cheese on each roll. Then I put it all together with the sprouts and topped with a little more BBQ sauce and ate it all up.

Cooking time took maybe 10 minutes. The recipe made 6 sandwiches. I made them in two sandwich batches on three consecutive days. The tofu keeps in the marinade during that time no problem.

I just made this dish tonight. I was inspired this morning when looking through Alton Brown's book I'm Just Here For the Food, from which I pulled the chicken piccata and baked potato recipes. The green bean idea came from a dinner I had over at my friend Cat's house last week. I'd been craving them ever since and felt I needed something green on my plate.

I started first with the baked potato:

4 russet potatoes
vegetable oil
kosher salt
cheese and butter (for a topping)

I preheated the oven to 350. Washed the potatoes and pierced their skin many times with a fork. After drying them off, I rubbed a healthy amount of veggie oil on the outsides, and liberally added some kosher salt. I put them in the oven for an hour, then pulled them out, and topped with Parmesan, butter, and cheddar cheese. The oil and salt on the outsides made the skins perfectly crispy.

The Chicken Piccata:
3 chicken breast, pounded flat
Kosher salt
pepper
veggie oil
2 Tbls flour
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic
juice from 1 large lemon
1/4 cup water
splash of Mirin
splash of fish sauce
1 Tbls capers
1/2 cup chopped parsley

After pounding the chicken, I seasoned with the salt and pepper, and dredged with the flour. In a large hot skillet with a bit of veggie oil, I browned the chicken on both sides. It stuck to the pan quite a bit, but Alton Browns recipe said if that was the case you are doing it right. I pulled the chicken out and let it sit, while tossing in the chopped onions, and chopped garlic. I mixed up the water, lemon juice, Mirin and fish sauce in a measure cup (the recipe called for 1/2 cup vermouth but I had none so I used some other sweet liquids). After the onions had become soft, I poured in the liquid, did a quick deglazing, and added the chicken, capers, and chopped parsley and covered to braise for a few more minutes. After that, I turned off the heat and let it rest for a few minutes while finishing up the green beans.

Green Beans:
1 lbs green beans
3 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
salt
pepper
chili powder

I love green beans but they always take so long to go bean by bean trimming the tips. I trimmed them, then added them to a pan with a little hot olive oil and let them sautee. After they had gotten maybe half way cooked, I added the garlic, lemon juice, and seasonings. I stirred that up occasionally, and when the lemon juice had mostly evaporated, it was done.