Homebound Day #8: Casualties of the Bar

As we head into our second week at home with no end in sight, we had our first casualty. I finished a bottle of Lawson's Super Spiced Scotch. This is a genuine problem as they do not make this particular libation any longer.

Which is why I bought a case and a half.

I have to hope that the 16 bottles I have left can hold. I also found a 1.75L bottle of Tito's Vodka that I had forgotten about, so the day wasn't a total loss. The find was bitter sweet as I realized we are almost out of white rum.  will have to make due with the handle of Admiral Nelson and the two fifths of premium rum I've stashed away. 

The pork loin has come and gone. It turned into carnitas and is now well on the way to turning into poop. Circle of life and all that. Tomorrow we're going to cook up some ground beef and make tacos. 

Spirits are medium-high. In a fit of boredom, I decided we would finally move a cabinet down a flight of stairs and convert it into a game cabinet for the Spud. This was accomplished with no discernible screaming.  That's it for now.

Stay safe! 

Homebound Day #5: Made it to Saturday

The first week of homebound is drawing to a close and we are officially shelter in place. It looks like there will be no real possibility of returning to school before April 14. Naturally, the weather is still cold and gloomy, so getting out into the yard is still not an option. Today, I decided to make something special for breakfast: French Toast. Granted, this is not really all that special but for bread, I'm using something I normally do not use for anything under any circumstance.

Panettone. I fucking HATE Panettone.

I truly hate Panettones. I am extremely vocal about how much I hate these. Naturally, my mother-in-law insists of inflicting these on us every year. This particular one has sat up on top of the fridge for over two years.  This is a testament to how unnatural they are. This was still squishy. I'd trust a Twinkie more. Panettones are the cockroach of the baked goods. They last FOREVER. However, The Wife likes them. The only way I'll tolerate them is if I can convert them into French Toast and drench them in butter, jelly, and syrup.

And they still have the consistency of gas station fruit cake.

With breakfast out of the way, we all found things to do on our own. The wife started getting seeds prepared for our garden, the Spud rampaged around the house until she discovered mahjong on The Wife's tablet. The kid has a knack for the game. I amused myself by playing some games on my Steam account that I loaded back up after a seven year hiatus.

Dinner was a simple affair. We made chicken wraps with the leftover chicken from last night, and served them with some more corn on the cob and the last of the jar of dilly beans. We finished up with some ancient rice pudding for dessert. 

A little spicy brown mustard and garlic herb cheese spread seals the deal.

There was enough chicken left that I'm going to try my hand at Pho for dinner tomorrow night. I'm pretty sure I have all the ingredients. So far my plan of using up all of one main ingredient before starting another is working well. We'll get at least 3 days of meals from that chicken, depending how much Pho I end up with. We are also defrosting a pork loin for use in the slow cooker tomorrow.

Toilet paper and booze supplies still look good. 

Stay Safe!

Slow Cooker Pork Loin and Sweet Potatoes in Beer and Tomato Preserves

     You can never go wrong with pork loin for $1.49 a pound. I wound up buying about 25 pounds. This is super handy because you throw a two or three pound hunk in a slow cooker and magic happens. I had been considering using some surplus tomato preserves with a pork loin for a while now. I figured the sweet onions and sweet potatoes would work nicely with the preserves and they do! I like to just mash the potatoes in with the meat and start shoveling it in. Granted, I have no manners or class. As always, notes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Pork Loin and Sweet Potatoes
in Beer and Tomato Preserves

Ingredients

• 2-3 pound pork loin
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
• 1 large sweet onion, quartered
• 1 can beer (I used Old Style)
• 1/2 pint tomato preserves (we made our own. If you need a recipe, give this one a try )

Directions

1. Load pork loin in 5-6 quart slow cooker. 
2. Arrange potatoes and onions around loin.
3. Pour in beer. Pour preserves over the loin.
4. Cook on LOW for 7 hours (the potatoes will be a bit mushy. If you like them a little more firm, wait a couple hours before you add them to the cooker)

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Pork Loin and Hominy

     The school year is in full swing, which means the slow-cooker has been brought out for heavy use. Generally we throw together a few things in our cookers on Sunday and eat on them for lunches and dinners during the work week. I started this week with an idea that had been knocking around in my head for a couple of days. Pork and hominy seemed like a good mix, so I decided to use those as key ingredients and give it a generally Southwest feel. I used my own home-canned chili tomatoes. Any canned chili tomato will do. The recipe below is written assuming you're using plain old canned tomatoes. If you find pre-seasoned chili tomatoes, omit the chili powder, cumin and paprika. If you drain the liquid, this makes a decent taco filling. It's also good over rice. It doesn't have a ton of heat, so you can fine tune it as you need.

Slow Cooker Pork Loin with Hominy

Ingredients

• Pork loin, about 3 pounds
• 1 can white or yellow hominy, drained
• 1 can black eye peas or bean of your choice
• 1 quart canned tomatoes, undrained.
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 3 cayenne peppers
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 can cream of celery soup

Directions

1. Heat some oil in a large pan. Cook loin about 3 minutes on each side, until just starting to brown.
2. Pour tomatoes and spices into slow cooker. Lay the loin, fat side up, on top of the tomatoes. 
3. Spread remaining ingredients over top of loin.
4. Cook 4-5 hours on HIGH or until meat breaks apart easily with a fork.

UPDATE: I have added a YouTube video of the actual cooking process! How exciting! Or not. Depends on how low you set the bar.

Good times!