Vacation Dinner

Cooking away from home is not easy. I know it's mostly because I'm spoiled with my kitchen set up and equipment. It has taken me years to get it the way I like it. In our 21 years of marriage we've slowly accumulated just the right things to make cooking and creating a breeze. We've been careful not to have too many gadgets that only serve one purpose. There are some things we try to never run out of. Perhaps I should begin a list of some of those things. I will give this list to my mom. I'm not sure if we had all the right stuff in the kitchen when I was a kid but I do know that my mom still has that stuff. Some of it good and useful, some of it old and in need of replacement. All of it bringing back childhood memories.

This last week while visiting and going through every drawer at moms I came across the old aluminum scoops that used to live inside our sugar and flour canisters. They are very cool. I asked my mom to give them to me when she is ready to part with them. They don't have duel purpose but I really like them. Even the teenage daughter thought they were special.

Anyway back to cooking away from home. It can get really hot where my mom lives so I'm always thinking of ways to cook that don't heat the house or put me in front of a 500 degree grill. One of my sisters would be there with her 3 kids so there would be 10 of us for dinner when you add in my favorite cousin and aunt. So I needed a meal to serve a lot that satisfies, everyone likes, supports left-overs, doesn't use complicated equipment and doesn't heat the whole house. BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches to the rescue! Easy, fast and mostly hands off.

I seasoned boneless pork ribs with seasoned salt and pepper and put them in a crock pot. Poured a bottle of BBQ source over, put the lid on and set it on low for about 9 hours. Musclely son carried the whole thing out to the sun room where is was out of the way and not heating up the kitchen. At dinner time I carefully removed the super tender meat (this is where a good pair of tongs would be handy) to a dish and with 2 forks pulled it apart. There wasn't really much pulling since the meat was falling apart. I wanted more sauce to dress the sandwiches with but had used the whole bottle in the preparation so I ladled sauce from the crock pot into a cup and allowed the fat to raise to the top. I then took the fat off with a spoon and put what remained into a small sauce pan and over medium heat reduced it to thicken. Once I finished with the meat I poured the thickened sauce over. This did two things: moistened and heated the meat just before serving.

Served on buns with cole slaw and fruit salad and everyone was happy. Note in photo below all 6 grandkids are happy.

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