Dinner Tonight: Must LOVE Bourbon

Today, I didn't want to spend hours in the kitchen, but wanted something yummy, so I decided to do Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker, with a Bourbon BBQ sauce, topped with Blue Cheese Cole Slaw with a side of Brussel Sprouts.

The pork was easy - 4lb pork tenderloin, spice rub, broth to cover the bottom of the pot, 10 hours (6 hours on high, 4 hours on low) in the crock pot. Take out the pork, shred it with a fork. Drain the remaining juices from crock pot. Put the meat back in the crock pot and pour the below BBQ sauce in, stir to cover the meat. Let it simmer on high another 30 min to an hour. Delicious. I made an extra batch of the sauce to pour over our open faced sandwiches.

I just knew I would love this sauce because it had bourbon in it... I must warn those people that just kinda like Bourbon - this sauce will be too strong for you! Even after cooking it down, you can taste the Bourbon. Love it!!! NOTE: Just use the part of the recipe to make the sauce, the ribs look good too though..

Bourbon BBQ Babyback Ribs

To serve the pulled pork, I split a slider bun, topped with meat, then this Blue Cheese Cole Slaw, and more Bourbon BBQ sauce.

For the side tonight, I made these Brussell sprouts. My friend Mindy was telling me that the recipe was out on the web and I had to try them. They are from a very high-scale recipe here in Cincinnati (BOCA) and are awesome. Well worth the wait (they take about 3 hours to cook). If you are looking for something healthy, it won't be these... There are only three ingredients, the sprouts, butter and salt.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

1 4lb boneless beef sirloin or rolled rump roast
1 0.7 oz pkg Italian salad dressing mix
2 tsps dried Italian seasoning
1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
10-12 kaiser rolls or French style rolls split
Roasted red peppers, cut into strips (optional)

1. Trim fat from meat. Cut into 2-3 inch pieces. Place meat into slow cooker. In small bowl, combine 1 cup water, dressing mix, Italian seasoning, red pepper, and garlic powder. Pour mixture over meat
2. Cover; cook on low setting for 10-12 hours or on high for 5-6 hours
3. Using slotted spoon, transfer meat to a cutting board. Using 2 forks, shred the meat. Place meat on bottoms of rolls. Lightly drizzle some of the cooking juices over meat. If desired, top with roasted red pepper strips
I have not served this with red peppers but have served it with horseradish.

Easy Creamy Chicken

Throw in a crock pot:

4 chicken breasts (whole, can be frozen)
2 “cream of” soups (one cream of celery and one cream of mushroom- low sodium)
Chopped celery (I do a whole stalk- whatever your family prefers)
Diced onion (about half)
Season to family’s taste (I do some combination of pepper, thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage)

Cook on low for about 6 hours. Chicken should just shred apart.

Serve over egg noodles (or rice if you prefer). You can add different things to make it your own…milk and sour cream to make it creamier, more soups, chopped mushrooms, etc.

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

There was a lady on Good Morning America the other day and they highlighted her Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Lasagna recipe. She has an interesting blog, "A Year of Crockpotting", see link to the right, where she made it her New Year's resolution for 2008 to use her crockpot everyday for a year - WOW! There are a lot of interesting recipes on her blog, very creative! I really liked the recipe, but Tim thought it was a little too spicy for him - after all, it does call for a whole cup of hot sauce! I will make it again, but will probably cut back on the hot sauce so Tim can eat it without complaining.

Click here for the recipe!