At some point I will get a smoker, but until then the crockpot will have to do for my BBQ fix.

1 lb pork shoulder
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon mustard
1 teaspoon each of the following:
garlic powder
onion powder
paprika
chili powder
black pepper

Bun
BBQ sauce
coleslaw

My crockpot is tiny, so I had to cut down a 3 lb pork shoulder to fit it. If your crockpot can handle it, I recommend increased the proportions.
I mixed up all the seasoning in the crockpot, then tossed the shoulder in. I spun the meat around a couple times to make sure it was covered in juice, then let it sit for about 4 1/2 hours on High. If I would have had more time, I would have tried to let it sit for 10 hours on low. I will likely do that with the rest of the pork shoulder after I finish this stuff up. At the end, I pulled the meat out, took two forks and shredded it all up. If it isn't really easy to shred, then you need to cook it longer.

I like my pulled pork Memphis style with BBQ sauce and coleslaw.

If you make it just right, you'll end up looking like this guy.

I wasn't planning on posting this dinner when I first started cooking it, but when it was almost done, it looked to good, and once eaten, tasted too good not to post. I had a bunch of vegetables from the farmers market that I needed to use and figured that a salad was the best use of those veggies. This is what I came up with.

Romain lettuce, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
Carrot, chopped into disks.
Fire roasted corn
Fire roasted green bell pepper, sliced
2 chicken tenders
1 chipotle pepper
Black pepper
Salt
Cesar salad dressing
Parrano cheese, grated
Lemon juice

I found some of the cheapest per pound chicken was the frozen chicken tenders. While I would prefer fresh chicken, I can't really afford it and these aren't too bad. After defrosting these, I chopped up a single chipotle pepper and rubbed it onto the chicken with some salt and black pepper. I cooked these on a cask iron skillet that I had, though grilling them would have been preferred.

I recently am a big fan of roasting fresh corn over my gas range. I first rub some butter onto the husked corn, then slowly rotate the corn over the flame making sure there is just a tiny bit of black all over. While doing these the butter melts, starts to dip and ignites making the corn flame broiled, all the while some kernels are popping and cracking. I roasted a green bell pepper as well. I used a fork as a spit and to turn it.

All of these was tossed together and covered with some cesar salad dressing and some amazing freshly grated Parrano cheese, and lemon juice. I ended up making and eating two plates.

So I made a salsa. And it turned out great. I then used it to make things. Here is one of those things.

The salsa was really easy. Mostly I had some ingredients that I wanted to use up.

2 Corn, roasted and shaved
1 can black beans Black Beans, rinsed
1 pint Pico de Gallo
1 Chipotle pepper, chopped fine

I roasted the corn again, like I've done before; husk, rub with a pad of butter, hold and slowly rotate over open flame burner.
I then mixed it up with a thing of Pico de Gallo salsa. I though about making it all from scratch but that would have cost a considerable amount. I added the rinsed black beans, and a single chipotle pepper that I diced up real fine.

For the rest of this meal, I pan fried some chicken tenders with salt, pepper, and cumin, and added some Colby cheese. So simple and delicious.

Alright, I decided to take Stew up on his challenge (and finally get around to posting something again) and make a nice stew.

The recipe I used was originally intended for pork, but we had a bunch of chicken around so here we are.

The fry bread is even more straight-forward than that is.

3-4 cups of flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup water1/2 cup milk

First, as always, combine all the dry ingredients and then add in the wet ones. Give it a light knead.. The dough should be relatively soft but dry enough to be handled. Add a little extra flour if you need to. Then just portion it out however you want, flatten it into discs, and fry it about a quarter of an inch of preheated oil until both sides are golden.

Alright, I think it is about time for some crazy Vittles and Mangia posting time. To start us off, I'm challenging all y'all in making either a soup or stew and posting it. It's the Soup Stew Challenge. So come on, lets see what you got. Soups are easy to make, or at least some are. Put your veggies and meats together and try to beat this stew that I just made last night.

I made this not really having a plan ahead of time. I just started chopping and ended up making really too much. The largest pot in my house was filled to within a half inch of the rim.

Here are my ingredients.

1 onion
2 potatoes
1 large zucchini
4 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper
2 ear corn, fire roasted
1 whole chicken
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 inch cube fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon Pho paste
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon black pepper
salt
water
cilantro
1 lemon, juiced and zested
oil or butter

I had all these ingredients at home before starting except the chicken. I ran out to the store, grabbed the chicken and was ready. I wanted to give the chicken a little more flavor, so I put it on a baking sheet, greased up the skin with oil, and rubbed on a healthy dose of kosher salt. I put this in the oven at 400 degree. My aim was to get the skin all crispy and golden before tossing into the soup. While the chicken baked, I prepared all the veggies. With the corn, I have a gas burner and so I was able to slowly turn the corn over the flame and get it nice and roasted. I chopped everything up, and sauteed them in a couple tablespoons of butter with some salt to help them along. All in all this took about 30 minutes. The chicken was just about done so I pulled it out and let it cool. I added enough water to make it soupy, rather than stewy. I added the seasoning as the soup heated up. I didn't add any more salt because I knew the chicken would be pretty salty. If you need more salt, you can always add it right before it is served. Once the chicken cooled, I sliced off the breasts and chopped them into cubes. I removed the wings and drumsticks and put them in the soup, bone in. I would have added the thighs and the rest of the meat but the soup pot was too full, so I just put them back in the oven to finish cooking and then pulled it and put it in tupperware.

The soup stayed on the heat for another 30 minutes. Right before serving, I juiced a lemon and added the zest. I also chopped some cilantro and put that in my own bowl. Cilantro looses a lot of it's flavor when it cooks so it is best to put it on right before eating.

So yeah, that's my soup contribution to The Soup Stew Challenge. I don't expect people to try to replicate this exactly. And there isn't really a way to taste all the soups and judge them to see who's is best. There will be no contest. This is just a challenge. Make some soup or stew. Ring the Bell.

I tried my hand at a new dish, and though I made some major changes to the original recipe, it turned out really good. And yes, I know I am a king at plate presentations.

6 chicken drumsticks
1 large onion
2 potatoes
3 carrots
(1 red and 1 green bell pepper, but only if you have room in your pot, which I did not)
1 and 1/2 cups basmati or long grain rice
3 cups water
14 oz can diced or chopped or whatever Tomatoes
3 Tbsp Canola oil (or really any type of cooking oil is fine)
chopped Cilantro
1 jar Patak's Biryani curry paste. (the most difficult but most essential ingredient)


You will want to use the largest pot you have a top for, or cut the portions down. I started by chopping up all the veggies into similar size pieces. I put the oil in the pot and tossed in all the veggies and the chicken drumsticks setting the burner on high. I let these cook for a bit while stirring it down. I also added some salt to help it cook down. After about 10 mins, I added the can of tomatoes, rice, water and the whole jar or Biryani paste. I mixed that up and turned the heat down to medium. I put the top on and and let it do it's thing. I still opened it and stirred it every once and a while, once every 5-10 minutes so the rice on the bottom didn't burn. Once it all got real hot and bubbly, I turned down the heat. Essentially it is like making a jambalaya. It seems pretty wet at first but the rice ends up absorbing it all and it thickens up. This all cooked for about 30-45 more minutes. Now at this point it was probably done, but I had to go do some other stuff. To keep it hot and just to make sure the chicken was cooked all the way through, I turned on the oven, let it heat up, then turned it off and put the pot, with the top on into the oven. I left it here for about an hour and a half. When I took it out it was really hot still. Actually after it sat out for another hour, the rice was still steaming when I dug through it with the spoon. Who'da thunk rice with all it's starch held onto heat all that well. The final step is to add some chopped cilantro to the top.

So I don't really know if the last 2 hours of being in the warm oven did much, but it turned out really good. The rice was nice and sticky, the veggies were all soft, and the chicken was tender and moist. I would probably do things different next time however. I would decrease the portion size, by a lot. I might increase the veggie ratio to get more of that flavor, specifically on the onion. And finally, the chicken, while having perfect texture didn't really have a lot of flavor. I might try grilling it up first, or maybe marinating it in plain yogurt and tandoori paste.

So my roommate, Michelle, bought some stuff for spaghetti puttanesca, but she has been working a lot recently so I asked if I could make it. It is a real simple recipe. If you ever find yourself with a tin (or two) of anchovies, capers, and olives, this is the dish you want to make.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tin anchovies (or two if you want it to be rich and salty), drained
1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
Small can of black olives, diced
3 Tablespoons capers
32 oz Marinara, or crushed/diced tomatoes (maybe more if you want more sauce)
Black pepper
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley (optional if you have it. I didn't.)
1 lbs Angel Hair pasta
salt

In a large saute pan, saute the garlic, anchovies and red peppers in the olive oil. Make sure the garlic is all soft, the anchovies should become a past (if not mash them around with a spoon or spatula), and use enough red pepper to make sure you can get some heat. Puttanesca is suppose to be spicy, yeah. Then just dump in the olives, capers, tomatoes, and black pepper. I let this simmer for about an hour with a top on it so it didn't reduce too far down. If you don't have a top, just add water to keep the consistency nice.

With the pasta, I put a good 1/2 cup of salt in the water before it started to boil. This makes some damn good pasta. Give it a shot.

If you have the parsley, put it in right before mixing it with the pasta. I mixed this all up and put some good Parmesan on top to serve.

In the pic above, you can also see some nice crusty bread. I was pretty pleased with this so I'm including it in the post. The bread was a small loaf of artisan bread from the store. I took a few Tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and sauteed up some garlic. I then spread that garlic oil on the bread and put it out on a pan. I topped it with a good bit of fresh ground black pepper, Parmesan, and baked it in the oven at 400 for 5 minutes. I then topped with some fresh chopped basil. Good stuff.