Italian Beer Bread with Sun Dried Tomato Butter

This was my final contribution to my grandma's happy hour birthday party. Back when Boy #1 turned six in February, he requested Little Ceasar's pizza for his family birthday dinner. Since no one other than my two kids are big fans of that, I made an executive decision to have a happy hour type party for him, so he could still have his pizza, but the rest of us wouldn't be forced to eat it. My brother and his girlfriend came down from Seattle for the party, but she ended up getting really sick while they were visiting, which meant no one wanted to touch our house with a 10 foot pole, meaning my family didn't end up coming over for his birthday dinner. Instead we had our best friends over to celebrate with us. I had this bread recipe slated to make for it, so I went ahead and made it. We all liked it so much I decided to make it again so my family could actually try it!

Italian beer bread and sun dried tomato butter
Source: SnappyGourmet.com via Pinterest

Bread:
3 1/2 cups (15oz.) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
12 oz. beer
2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (optional)

Butter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×5 inch bread pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cheese, baking powder, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon pepper until well combined. Pour in beer and stir until just combined.

Place dough in prepared bread pan. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of butter on top of bread if desired.

Bake bread for about 50-70 minutes or brown and crispy around edges. Cool slightly then remove from pan.

Meanwhile, place 1/2 cup butter, sundried tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in food processor and process until smooth. Serve with bread.

Notes
SNAPPY TIPS: Be sure to cook the bread until is browned and crispy around edges so that it’s cooked through the middle. If you don’t add butter to the top of the bread, you can cover the bread halfway through the cooking time to help prevent overbrowning before the bread is cooked through.

*****

Like I said above, I had already made this before, so I knew it was a winner. I love a good quick bread recipe, and this comes together really easily. The sun dried tomato butter is tasty, too, although it is really hard to spread if you keep it in the fridge. This is a relatively easy appetizer to make, and I know it's one that I'll make a lot in the future.

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

I am finally, FINALLY done with P90X!! There has been much rejoicing from me today, let me tell you. I need to have the husband take after pics of me so I can compare with the before pics to see how I improved. I'll post them on my fitness/weight loss blog once I have them. So now my afternoons are free to do things around the house (I'm fairly certain I've accomplished more in the hour Boy #2 has been napping than I have on most days total while doing P90X) and update my blog. Again, much rejoicing!

In one of my many recent catch-up posts, I once again professed my love for the Meal Planning 101 blog. As I was scouring it for recipes at one point I saw this one for a pork shoulder. Conveniently soon there after I found a pork shoulder on sale, so I figured I'd buy it and try this out. I had never been steered wrong from there before...don't you love finding blogs like that?!

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
Source: Meal Planner 101 blog

4 to 5 pound pork shoulder, bone-in
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onions, peeled and cut into wedges
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 12 oz beer (use chicken stock or water here if you prefer, but we used a brown ale and it was perfect)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

If the pork shoulder has any thick layers of fat you want to trim that off. Mix together the cumin, paprika, brown sugar, salt and pepper and rub it all over the pork shoulder. Let it rest with the spice mixture on for about 30 minutes.

Once the pork has rested, heat up a dutch oven with the olive oil over medium high heat. Place the pork inside and brown on all sides. Once it has a nice brown crust all over, remove from the pot and add the onions, garlic, tomatoes and beer. This is the part where you scrape up all the delicious bits off the bottom. Place the pork back in the dutch oven, cover and slow roast for 3 1/2 to 4 hours until the pork is extremely tender and pulls apart with a fork.

Remove the pork roast from the dutch oven to a cutting board. Using two forks, shred the meat and place on a platter. Remove any bits of fat. Serve the pork with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots and spoon the delicious sauce over the top. You can also puree the beer/tomato/onion mixture to get rid of any big chunks...it becomes a beautiful thick gravy that is just delicious. Enjoy every bite of this incredible roast.

*****

I had never cooked a pork shoulder before, so I was a little excited to try something new. This was super easy to put together, too. Mix rub, rub on meat, walk away and do something else. Heat oil, throw in roast, put away some dishes, turn roast in pot, put away some more dishes, turn roast in pot, put dirty dishes in dishwasher, turn roast in pot, finish loading dishwasher, finish roast steps. I'm all about multitasking.

This smelled AMAZING while it was cooking, I could not wait for dinner. And, folks, let me tell you, this did not disappoint. Oh man...it was so good! We all really loved it. It yielded quite a lot of meat, too, so we had pulled pork sandwiches with it later in the week. The meat was so tender from the slow roasting, it literally just fell apart once I started shredding it.

One of my local grocery stores had these on sale recently so I picked up another and can't wait to have this again, although the husband just got a smoker and wants to smoke it, which I would probably be okay with too. He can have part of it, and I'll slow roast the other.

Carnitas

We ended up not having dinner last night because we were still so full from lunch. Well, the boy had chicken nuggets, but the husband and I weren't hungry. We went on a hike in the morning with some friends and then came back to our house and got Mexican take-out for lunch from Carolina's. Lordy mama, was it ever good. Definitely some of the best Mexican food I've ever had. Their tortillas have won awards for being the best in Phoenix. Were they ever!! I wanted to wrap myself up in them. I was glad I had the husband pick up a dozen, although it took a lot of self control on our parts to not chow down on all of them yesterday.

I had planned on trying a new risotto recipe tonight, but I wanted to use the tortillas for something other than just snacking. I recently checked out a make your own take out cookbook from the library, so I checked the Mexican section of that for ideas. I saw a recipe for carnitas and went, "That's it!" The recipe for them in that cookbook sounded weird, so I started Googling. I wanted something I could do in the crockpot, and I found a basic recipe to follow and then decided I'd change it up a bit. I love carnitas, so I'm really excited and hope this turns out well. The recipe below is how I'm doing them.

Crockpot Carnitas
1.5 pounds boneless pork ribs
4 cloves garlic, each cut into four pieces
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/8 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1 small can diced green chilies
1 bottle beer
Tortillas
Burrito fixings (tomatoes, cheese, olives, onions, lettuce, cilantro, guacamole, sour cream, etc.)

With a knife, cut several small slits into the ribs. Insert pieces of garlic cloves in roast. Place pork in slow cooker. Sprinkle cumin, coriander, and chili powder over pork. Sprinkle cilantro and chilies over pork. Pour beer into crockpot. Cover. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or until pork is done. Once pork is cooked through, remove from slow cooker and shred with two forks. Add in some of the cooking liquid. Serve with warm tortillas and burrito fixings of your choice.

*****

I'm totally excited for this, and I'm excited to smell them cooking all day. This will be a great way to use up the remaining tortillas from yesterday's feast. I think I might make some of Jen B's pinto beans to put in the burritos, too. I found a recipe on RecipeZaar.com for carnitas where you cooked beans with the pork, but I don't have any dried pinto beans, and I really wanted to make this today. So I figured I'd make Jen's beans instead. I seriously cannot wait for dinner tonight--I don't know what I'm more excited for, the carnitas or having more of these tortillas!

*****

My review of this is tricky because I woke up with a nasty cold and have no sense of taste. To me they tasted like they could have used some more flavor or spice, but they may have been right on. I think I read somewhere that when using dried spices in the crockpot you should use more because of the long cooking time? Or maybe that was for fresh. Hmmm. Either way, I think jacking up the spices some more would help and maybe adding some fresh cilantro to the shredded meat as well as putting it in the crockpot. I'm always looking for a new way to use boneless ribs, so I'll probably try this again. Jen's pinto beans were really yummy in the burritos with the carnitas.

Slow Cooker Italian Sandwich Beef

It's almost bedtime, but I wanted to get my post in before I go to sleep. It will be so nice when I adjust back to my normal time zone! Of course, if the baby would sleep longer than three hours at a time during the night I might be a bit more well rested. Sigh. The boy was sleeping through the night by this point, so it's a bit annoying. I'm sad I don't remember what a full night of sleep feels like. Double sigh.

Anyway, I've had this on the menu plan for the past few weeks, but it keeps getting pushed back for whatever reason. But, I decided tonight was the night. Mostly because I needed to use the roast I had, but also because I wanted to use the amazing, wonderful, fantastic, generous, superb birthday gift my mom got for me--the All-Clad slow cooker. I know, I know...my mom is the best! Want to see what it looks like? This is from the Williams Sonoma website.



Beautiful, isn't it? I'm in slow cooker heaven!!

My friend Jen B. made this a couple months ago, and I thought it had looked tasty and easy, plus it would use up one of my many cans of beef broth. And it would get rid of the roast that had been in my freezer for way too long (the downside of not doing freezer inventory more often).

Slow Cooker Italian Sandwich Beef
Makes 16 servings; from Margaret Metz

Ingredients:
1 (3 to 4 pound) rolled and tied beef rump roast
1 (10 ounce) jar pepperoncini peppers
1 (12 ounce) can of beer
1 (14 ounce) can of beef broth

Serve with hoagie rolls

Directions:
Put the beef roast in the slow cooker. Add the pepperoncini peppers with liquid, beer, and beef broth to the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve the meat piled high on hoagie rolls. Spoon juice over top or serve on the side in small cups for dipping. Cut the sandwiches in half to serve.

*****

Since we already had dinner I'll cut right to the chase. This was tasty. I had a 16 ounce jar of pepperoncinis, but I don't think it made a lot of difference. I took the roast out and shredded the meat, then added in some of the juice. I also put a few of the pepperoncinis on each of our sandwiches to spice it up a bit. We really liked it; the boy just had the meat, and he ate every bite on his plate without being forced--amazing! That doesn't happen very often.

I made some fancy fries to go along with it, but I'll have to post that recipe tomorrow because I'm tired. Tomorrow begins day one of potty training the boy at our house, so I'm sure I'll be even more worn out tomorrow night. We aren't starting until after naptime because we have a commitment in the morning, so hopefully I can update the ol' blog during naptime.