Pulled Pork with Roasted Tomato Barbecue Sauce

Greetings brave humans!

It's coming up on late March and here in Kentucky we are staring down yet another snow forecast tonight. This is the fourth snow forecast/snowstorm this month (to reiterate, this is the month of MARCH) and I am going to have a for real nervous breakdown/move to Florida if it doesn't warm up to Spring temperatures soon.

We had one warm, magical day last weekend and Sam and I took it upon ourselves to pretend like it was summer and make some slow cooked pulled pork with roasted tomato barbecue sauce. At first we were going to just buy a bottle of sauce, but M gets reflux from most bottled tomato-based sauces. Fresh tomatoes don't bother him however, so we decided to slow roast some to see if we could achieve a loophole in the whole our-baby-gets-reflux-with-all-commercial-tomato-sauces problem.

First cover 3 lbs. of Boston butt pork with brown sugar and kosher salt, about 1/3 cup of each. You can wrap your meat and let this marinade sit in the fridge overnight, but we didn't have the foresight to do this, so our meat just sat for a couple of hours, and it still turned out super tender.

Behold. A pile of meat.

Meanwhile cut up 8 medium tomatoes, cover them with a drizzle of olive oil, minced fresh garlic, salt and pepper. Roast them for about 45 minutes at 300 degrees. And don't they look pretty right out of the oven!

Next put the meat in your slow cooker and let it cook on high heat for about 4 hours, flipping it once halfway through.

Let the tomatoes cool, then blend them in the food processor til smooth.

Break up the meat with some forks, so that they are in smaller pieces. Our pork was well cooked on the outside and a bit pink through the center. We poured the tomato sauce over the top, along with a few generous shakes of garlic powder, a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and another few tablespoons of brown sugar. Give the mixture a good stir and let it cook an additional 2 hours.

Pour off about 75% of the sauce and break the pork down into little pieces. We had a little bowl of sauce on the side if people wanted to add more. We also served green cabbage, cucumber, and dill slaw (similar recipe here. The only modification I made was to add about a Tablespoon of vegenaise to the dressing to cut the vinegar flavor down a bit) to go on top of the sandwiches, and man was it the perfect combo!

This turned out to be a great alternative to using bottled sauce. We will make it again soon!

Here's the whole recipe:

Dada is the funniest guy I know...

It's so fun watching babes start to develop a sense of humor. Judging by what has made this guy burst into his first long, loud giggles over the past couple of weeks, we're going to be making a lot of turkey calls in the coming months (or it could just be that Dada has the magic, funny touch--I have yet to get any giggles like this!)

McClain is 3 months!

Here's the little dude looking pensive in his three month pics:

Three months was a little rough because we figured out M gets bad reflux when I eat tomatoes/acidic fruits (pineapple, orange)--and it turns out I eat a lot of things with tomato sauce! We've had to get super creative with recipes so he's not up screaming in pain all night.

 Also at three months:

 --M is starting to laugh out loud (if you're really, really lucky and really, really funny)

 --His dark newborn hair is starting to fall out and blonde strands are coming in along the sides of his head!

 --He is figuring out how to suck his thumb and is starting to prefer it over his pacifier.

 --He will bat at and grab objects that are dangling above him.

The Adventures of Apollo & McClain: Part 1

Our nutty terrier mix, Apollo (I make sure everyone who meets him knows he was rescued from the streets of Harlem, as if this somehow explains his entire personality) is obsessed with McClain. He will run in and sit next to the crib when McClain is crying, and wedge himself under McClain's feet whenever I am feeding him. His latest antics involve licking McClain whenever I put him on the floor for tummy time (On Cindi's fabulous homemade quilt, no less!)

It starts like this:

But soon devolves into this:

Lest you think this is a super sweet interspecies moment, I will tell you that the above actually makes Apollo look a little too good. So I offer exhibit B:

McClain giggling at Apollo digging into the carpet is priceless. He seems to be cheering him on in his own, four-month-old baby way. You can almost envision the shenanigans these two are going to be getting into in a couple of years based on this interaction.

And so it begins. The faces of trouble.

Oscar party 2014

We had so much fun eating and watching the Academy Awards with good friends. It turns out having a four-month old made it harder to finish the perfect tablescape this time around, but didn't dampen our enjoyment

Above: Lone Star Fruit Salsa and pita chips (Dallas Buyer's Club) Similar recipe here.

Above: First Date Pizza (Her) and Philomena's birthday cupcakes (Philomena). It was one of our party guests' birthdays so this was in her honor!

Double bonus that Sam got a snow day off work the next day!

The 86th Annual Academy Awards Dream Menu

Y'all. I am an Oscars nerd. Every year for the past 6 years I have invited over my best movie loving friends and assigned every one a best picture nominee. Each guest brings a dish or drink that correlates to their assigned movie. It's weird and delicious!

Now, I don't know what all my friends are bringing this Sunday, but here's a sample menu with some dream dishes for each best picture nominee. Every year has a different vibe (a few years ago it seemed almost everything on the menu was french food), and this year has a decidedly seafood spirit. Links to recipes for similar dishes can be found below. Pictures from my party to follow Monday!

1) Homemade Moon Pies 2) Perfect-mom-point-cupcakes 3) Caesar Salad with Salad Bar Croutons 4) Texas Caviar

1) Stuck-at-sea Grilled Shrimp Cocktail 2) Clams Casino 3) FBI Agent Lobster Dip 4) Assorted Local Beer 5) Blackberry Gin Fizz