Man Meals!

Lest you think that we are a family that just sits around drinking lemonade with our pinkies extended, you should know that we have real men in our family; strong men who like man meals with lots of meat. So in keeping with my trend, this post will include one old favorite and one new.

The ribs are so, so, so good. It's not a good idea to give you the nutrition information, but let me say that even big, strong guys who burn lots of calories won't want to turn this into a weekly meal. Two of our guys love this so much that they pick it every year for their birthday dinners, so that's the two times of the year we have it. The coke adds sweetness to the ribs and the carbonation helps tenderize the meat. This recipe is finger-licking, falling-off-the-bone good. Oh, and spraying cooking spray inside the slow cooker is most necessary. Your life will be better if you remember this tip. Even better, use the Reynolds brand slow cooker liner bags. You'll be glad you did! BTW: For a big group, I double, triple or quadruple this recipe.

Slow Cooker Barbecued Ribs

Cook: 10 hrs.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 lbs pork loin back ribs
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 T. liquid smoke flavoring
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 c. cola
1 1/2 c. barbecue sauce

Directions:

Spray inside a 4 - 5 qt. slow cooker with cooking spray.

Remove inner skin from ribs. Mix brown sugar, pepper, liquid smoke, garlic and salt; rub mixture into ribs. Cut ribs into 4 inch pieces. Layer ribs and onion in slow cooker. Pour cola over ribs.

Cover and cook on low heat setting 8 to 9 hours or until tender. Remove ribs from slow cooker. Drain and discard liquid. (I like to save the onions to serve with the meat. They are tasty.)

Pour barbecue sauce into a shallow bowl. Dip ribs into sauce. Place ribs in slow cooker. Pour any remaining sauce over ribs. Cover and cook on low heat setting 1 hours.

4 servings

Betty Crocker "Soup & Crock-Pot Meals" Jan. 1999


This second recipe is my new pick for a good old-fashioned Southern favorite. I've only made it twice, but it was easy, easy and got mm-mm good reviews.


Slow Cooker Southern Pulled Pork 




Ingredients:

1 T. butter
2 lbs boneless pork roast
1 T. Cajun seasoning
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 cups water
1 T. liquid smoke flavoring
Buns
Barbecue sauce (for this recipe, my son favors KC Masterpiece Hot & Spicy)

Directions:

Cut the pork roast into large chunks. Season generously with the Cajun seasoning. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork, and brown on all sides. Remove from the skillet and transfer to a slow cooker.

Add the onion and garlic to the skillet, and cook for a few minutes until tender. Stir in the water scraping the bottom to include all the browned pork bits from the bottom of the pan, then pour the whole mixture into the slow cooker with the pork. Stir in liquid smoke flavoring.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 6 hours, or until meat is falling apart when pierced with a fork. remove pieces of pork from the slow cooker, and shred. Return to the slow cooker to keep warm while serving. Serve over buns with barbecue sauce (optional).

6 servings

Notes: Shredded meat is very freezer friendly. Simply put in a freezer friendly container or zip top bag and label and date it. When you are ready to use it, defrost it in the fridge overnight and reheat it in the microwave. So easy!

And remember, real men like barbecue! And real women like to do it easy!

Updated 9/12/2012: My Mom challenged me to find some additional uses for this pulled pork recipe since we often have leftovers when we make big batches.  I will add my additions as I find them!

Above: Forgive the blurriness of this picture.  There was steam rising off of the food that made all of my pictures blurry.  As I was looking for different ways to use up this leftover pulled pork, I searched through my old cookbooks and food magazines for inspiration. A suggestion I found in one of my old Everyday Food magazines was to serve leftover pulled pork over mashed potatoes or polenta.  You can find that recipe here.  I had a package of corn grits (aka polenta).  I simply followed the package directions for the polenta and topped it with the reheated leftover pulled pork.  It was fantastic.  You can cook the polenta to your desired texture and thickness.  The Martha Stewart recipe served the pork over a much creamier polenta.  I cooked mine a little longer so that it would be thicker--more like the texture of mashed potatoes.  Which would also be heavenly served with this pork.

Above: The quest for different uses for this leftover pulled pork continues! It makes a fantastic BBQ Pork pizza. Use your favorite BBQ sauce in place of the pizza sauce, top with shredded mozzarella, and top that with leftover shredded pulled pork that has been warmed. Delicious! Don't skimp on the barbecue sauce. It is integral to the success of this pizza! I also thought I would get creative one time and I used pepper jack cheese in place of the mozzarella. I didn't like that nearly as much as the mozzarella.