Crockpot Pull Pork

My husband LOVES the Waikaloa Hilton's Pull Pork. He can't stop raving about it when we went there on our family trip. He also said he'll "love me long time" if i could make it just as good. Yeah right! I decided to give it a try...

5 lb pork butt (aka pork shoulder...I still don't get it)

1 tbs hawaiian salt

3 tbs paprika

1 tbs brown sugar

2.5 tbs mustard (1 tbsp if dry, but i didn't have any)

3 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)

1 can of cola

1 onion (slice)

1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce

1) rub the first 5 ingredients on the pork butt, marinate for at least 5 hours or overnight.

2) place sliced onions on the bottom of the crockpot.

3) place marinated pork butt on top of onion slices.

4) pour in a can of cola.

5) set crockpot on high for 5-6 hours, or until meat can be easily pulled apart by a fork.

6) remove pork and place into a big bowl, shred meat with two forks

7) discard the rest of the things in the crockpot, do a quick wipe and dump the shredded meat back inside, add your favorite bbq sauce, toss, and let it cook for another 30 min to an hour.

8) serve!!

I made a few mistakes while I was doing this recipe as I was trying to speed up the prepping 1) I didn't let the pork defrost all the way. 2) I didn't marinate for 5 hours. I really only rubbed the ingredients on and pop it into the crockpot right away *shame on me*. 3) I cooked it for only 4.5 hours. With all those mistakes, the pork ended up not fallen off the bones and I was having a very hard time shredding with my fork. I end up using my fingers to shred them. But still turned out delicious, even though I tried to speed it up. I served it with rice and salad the first night, with some pull pork nachos on the side. I still had alot of leftovers so I made pull pork sliders the next day. I packed them up last night and put them in the freezer. Will be using it to make quesadillas on a rainy day. (aka don't-wanna-cook day)

UPDATE! I just made this again and it is definitely WAY better when the pork is completely defrosted!! Woohoo!!

Salad in Fit & Fresh container

Haven't had salad in awhile. So I decided to make salad and pack it in my Fit N Fresh Lunch On the Go container. This container is pretty awesome, it actually comes with an ice pack that sits in the middle of the box so you can keep the bottom (the salad: lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, olives, soy beans, croutons) AND the top (nectarine and spinach/tomatoe/garlic bread) cool! Unfortunately I cannot show you the ice pack because I can't seem to find it in my freezer. But you can see it's fairly easy to pack even without the ice pack!

I have other Fit N Fresh products (Salad bowl, cereal bowl, 2-cup containers, chilled shaker) in my house and they all come with ice packs. I didn't realize how much of their products I have until I listed them!

The cereal bowl though, the ice pack ring gets thicker when it's frozen, so I did have some difficulties closing the lid. Most times i leave it out, or I let the ice pack ring chill a bit first before packing and putting the lid on. But it does come with a spoon that is fitted on top of the lid. how cool is that?

Overall, Fit N Fresh products are good. I have been seeing their kids line at the grocery store now. I am tempted to get them, but decided against it. Because they seem to have similarity with what I have, and I'm happy with what I have. :)

Tamale Pie

This is a very very simple yet delicious recipe. You get to bake an entree and cornbread all at once!

1 box of cornbread mix
1 can of cream of corn
1 lb of ground beef (with minced garlic and black pepper)
1/4 to 1/3 cup of Salsa (add chopped olives if you wish)
Cheese

1) Mix the cornbread mix with the cream of corn (omit cornbread mix instructions), and place it in a greased square or pie-shape baking pan, push the cornbread mixture to create a "crust" for the bottom and side of pan.
2) In a skillet, cook ground beef with minced garlic and black pepper, drain the fat.
3) Add in Salsa and chopped olives and mix with ground beef.
4) place ground beef mixture in the center of the cornbread crust, spread evenly.
5) Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until cornbread is cooked.
6) sprinkle cheese on top and cooke for another 5 minutes.
7) serve!

Grilled Pork and Fried Rice

I finally got a copy of Susan Yuen's 2nd Edition of Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook a few weeks ago. Although I'm not doing much bentos anymore, I am a HUGE fan of her recipes. This edition also has alot of delicious recipes, much like her first book. Her garlic sundried tomatoes butter is the bomb! She also has a good recipe of grilled pork! It was good, but it doesn't LOOK half as good as hers in her cookbook. :(


I realized i don't have a recipe for fried rice besides Kim Chee Fried Rice. So I'm going to share my recipe with you here.

1 cup of leftover cooked rice (microwaved warm)
1/4 cup of diced meat** (portuguese sausage, spam, chicken, pork, bacon, duck, etc. any meat from leftovers would work really well also)
1 egg
1/4 cup frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn, etc)
1/4 cup diced kamaboko (optional)
1 tbp soy sauce (add more if desire)
2 tsp of sesame oil
dash of black peppers

1) In a large skillet (or wok), pan fry diced meat, push the meat to the side of the skillet. 2) Scramble the egg on the same skillet, try not to touch the meat (it's okay if you do).
3) Add in frozen veggies and toss the meat, egg, and veggies together.
4) Add in cooked rice, and continue to stir fry.
5) Add in soy sauce, and black pepper, continue to stir fry.
6) Drizzle sesame oil, continue to stir (this is where the smell comes in!!)
7) Serve!

There are many versions of fried rice. Some people add salt, some people add garlic salt, while others add oyster sauce. Fried rice variations are endless! It is best to put together using leftovers, it's a yummy transformation for leftovers! :)



**leftover beef or steak is probably not a good choice in fried rice...but I've seen it done...

Cookies and things

C is for cookies, it's good enough for me!

I used to bake alot, but not anymore. Lately I have been making various desserts for Lil P to compliment his dinner so I decided to bake some shortbread cookies to share with his cousins.

















Shortbread chocolate chunk cookies


1/2 c of butter, soften
1/4 c sugar
3/4 c flour
1/4 c cornstarch
2 squares of semi-sweet chocolate (I used Baker's), chopped


1) In a big bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy
2) Combin flour with cornstarch, then toss into the butter mixture
3) Add in chopped chocolates
4) Use your hand (with glove) and mix dough evenly
5) Use a spoon, (or a cookie scooper) and place cookies on a cookie sheet about 1.5 inch apart
6) bake on 325 degrees for about 25-30 mins


They're not too sweet, just the way I like 'em. Lil P also confirms that he likes them. His cousins, however, had mixed reviews. Couple of them did not like cookies that are crunchy. I guess I can't please *everyone*...


On another note, Lil P needs extra fiber to get him going, aside from his normal consumption of fruits and veggies. So I always have to add some extra boost each day. I give him an extra 9 grams of fiber each day, such as Pop-tarts Extra Fiber, Double Fiber bread or english muffins, Fiber One bar or cereal, and Target brand fiber bar. I don't give Lil P the same thing everyday. He actually enjoyed the fiber bars (chocolate chips, peanut butter, or caramel) in the beginning, but he's showing signs of getting tired of them because he always end up bringing the bars back home, most of the time it's smashed or flattened. I was quite disappointed because I need him to eat it when given to him and would ask him to "EAT IT!" But sigh, I can't always win. So instead of throwing away the flattened bars, I just recreate them into something he would eat. All I did was add some mini M&Ms on top and reshape them. Lil P is a sucker at M&Ms so whenever he sees them, he'd dive into them.



















Sure enough, he gobbled them all up!! So I guess it does the trick...for now. Does anyone have any other ways to load kids up on fiber?

Chicken and Dried Scallop Jook

Lil P has been sniffling and coughing started on Sunday. In an effort to get a speedy recovery, I have been giving him EmergenC twice a day, load up on orange juice, and acai blueberry juice. Couple times previously, I was able to catch him with the first symptoms of watery eyes, stuffy nose and gave him the same drinks and he was able to not get sick, but this time it was too late. :(

I wanted to make him chicken noodle soup last night, but he insisted that he doesn't want to eat all of the veggies that comes with it. So instead, I made him saimin (from S&S saimin packets). What he didn't realize is I used chicken stock instead of the soup base it came with and that I have pureed broccoli, carrots, and cabbage in the broth so that he is getting enough veggies needed to get him recovered faster. I have topped it off with slices of spam and grilled chicken. I didn't take a pic of it because it didn't look appetizing to be captured. :p

I decided to make jook (chinese rice soup) last night to get ready for tomorrow. Lil P noticed what I was doing and pleaded to me that he doesn't want that for breakfast. He's a rice lover but some odd reason he doesn't like jook! So I told him I'll pack it for lunch the next day for myself.

My jook recipe is not what you normally see in a chinese cookbook. To make jook taste good, authentically, you have to cook them for a long period of time. My mom use to leave the big pot of jook simmer for HOURS! I don't have that kind of time, so I have been making mine using cooked rice and chicken stock for years now. Coincidentally, Susan and I had the same idea. You can check out Susan's recipe here, or read below for mine:

Chicken and Dried Scallop Jook

1 cup of cooked rice

2.5 cups of chicken stock

1.5 cup of water

Chicken pieces

2 dried scallops

Place cooked rice, chicken stock, and water into a pot and let boil. Meanwhile, shred chicken and scallops and throw in pot (you may want to add a couple slices of ginger at this point, if desire). Lower heat and let it simmer until thicken. Add more water if it gets too thick. You can serve this with white pepper and a drizzle of soy sauce, then garnish with chopped green onions, and peanuts.

Leftover chicken is BEST. Like leftover Costco rotisserie chicken (you can even throw in the bones for extra flavors!) I actually take the rotisserie chicken apart and then freeze them for jook. Another good leftover to throw in Jook is roast duck. It makes it sooo yummy!

I am using my Fuel bento box for my lunch today. top tier I have nectarine and mangoes, bottom tier is my jook. The bottom tier is microwavable so I'm going to heat it up at lunch. I had totally forgotten to bring a soup spoon...looks like I'll be eating my jook with a regular spoon...small sips!! Am putting this on "What's for Lunch Wednesday" as I'm finally able to post one that is my real Wednesday lunch! :)

Hamburger Steak

I've been cooking alot more frequent lately, thanks to lil P's sports break. Last night I made spaghetti, but it's nothing out of the ordinary so I didn't post anything. This morning I knew exactly what I'm going to make-Hamburger Steak. But I didn't have any onions and needed to pick up at my nearest grocery store, Safeway.

I was very proud of myself for not spending any money at work this week, I have been bringing home lunch. So I was quite disappointed I needed to go to the store. And you know how it goes, once you go to the store, you'll *always* pick up something else. They had these Fuel containers right in the front by the produce section, how can I not look? It's a two-tier bowl container where you can put soup on the bottom and dry snacks on the top...so it says. It also says that the bottom tier is microwave safe. That means I can put whatever else I want in it. Yup, i got it. I guess it can go into my container collection (I am a fan of Fit N Fresh products). So...I guess they're consider bento collection too, right?

Top tier I have soy beans, carrots, and mangoes (my favorite!!). The bottom tier is hapa rice (half brown and half white rice) topped with hamburger steak, gravy with mushrooms and onions. Below you can take a better look at the hamburger steak.

I kinda winged the hamburger patty, but here is a jist of what I have in it.

1 lb ground beef

1 piece of bread end (since you don't eat that part anyway)

1 egg

2 garlic (diced)

half an onion (diced)

2 tsp salt

2 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp worchestershire sauce

3 tbsp of puree broccoli (optional, but great for kids)

1) Mix them all together with your hand (I used a disposable glove)

2) Divide them up into 4 equal parts

3) Shaped each into a ball

4) flatten with hand

5) Slightly indent the center of the patt (about the size of half dollar coin, or using the back of a tablespoon). Doing this will help keep the patty from forming a dome.

6) Put it on a skillet/grill and LEAVE IT ALONE until it's cooked halfway. (don't press it down to make the sizzling sound, this will push out all the juice from the patty)

7) Flip it and cook through

8) Serve it over rice, top with sauteed onions and mushrooms, drizzle brown gravy on top.

Of course, you can't end a good meal without a nice dessert. A quick cookie sandwich ice cream (chips-a-hoy cookies with chocolate moose track ice cream) made lil P VERY HAPPY!