Monday, July 11, 2011

july 4th meal, only a week late!

we finally celebrate the 4th of july with our annual huge american meal!  amy & ogden & lola joined us, of course.  have to have our foodie friends & tank's girlfriend.

blakey was post-call, so i got to cook all day long.  one of my favorite post-call activities.  i roasted pork shoulder, which cooked for 6 hours.  my kitchen smelled divine all day long!

for the appetizer, we had my favorite summer fruit: watermelon!


i found a recipe with an interesting twist on your classic potato salad: bleu cheese potato salad.  it was quite good!  the good new red potatoes instead of your boring idaho.  a little tangy from the bleu cheese, pretty creamy with no mayo, & a crunch with green onions & a little bacon.  you can find the recipe {here}.  i actually followed it pretty closely with only a few exceptions: more salt, more bleu cheese, a little shredded cheddar, & DEFINITELY let the flavors marry in the fridge for an hour or two.


 now this was the star of the meal: the pioneer woman's spicy dr pepper shredded pork.  oh.my.gosh.  so moist, so much flavor, a little spice.  perfect.  & incredibly easy.  you are going to go look at the recipe & laugh at how easy it is.  {the recipe is right here}.  do it.  go make this tonight. 

a couple of things:  my 3.5 quart le creuset dutch oven was not big enough for my 5 pounds.  guess i'll have to get a new & bigger one :)  i pretty much followed the recipe to a t other than that.  we did only have ddp & it worked just great.  diet pork.  right.

oh, we served it on wheat buns with sliced creamy havarti cheese.  i would definitely recommend it.  although pulled pork is good every way.  go nuts.  & tell me what your favorite was.


i don't think i know how to cook without sauteing some onions in olive oil.  i threw in a couple julienne jalapenos to kick it up.


& the most important part of the meal: dessert!  i followed my theme for the summer & made a blueberry cobbler.  still delicious my third time!  & insanely easy.  my base recipe is {here}.   i use less sugar, more lemon.  & i bake it in whatever baking dish i haven't already used.  if you are going to use blueberries instead of blackberries, up the cornstarch.  {hint for life: blueberries have a ton of water in them.  they need extra care when baking.}  & try your hardest to let it sit for 15 - 20 minutes after baking to thicken up.  we absolutely could not wait.  it was still delicious.

& homemade strawberry ice cream!  our cuisinart ice cream maker wedding gift is fantastic!  & it makes plenty.  we'll be eating the ice cream all summer.  & i'm ok with that.  the recipe-ish is {here}.  i used frozen strawberries that were thawed & food processed a bit, so it actually turned pink.  no food coloring here.

the two desserts were a little match made in heaven.  thanks, heaven.  we appreciated it!


hope your weekend was fabulous!!

love love,
kjp.

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