Super Bowl Sunday!! I decided on my menu last night. We might have a couple of people over no big deal. If you want to know the truth, I am not really into either team, so this year I suppose I'll just watch for the commercials and eat the yummy food. Any excuse to eat for the heck of it!
So I am going to slow cook a pork shoulder, have cubed sweet potatoes, salad and roasted red pepper hummus with veggies for an app. The best thing about all this is that everything will take me no longer than 30 minutes to prepare.
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Can of garbonzo beans, jar of roasted red peppers. Dump them in a blender, food processor or whatever you have. Add salt & pepper if needed and voila! Now just cut a few veggies and your done!
Yummy Salad dressing
Take balsamic vinegar about 5 tbsp, 3 tbsp olive oil, and jam or jelly (I like to use raspberry preserves but use whatever you like or have) plus salt, pepper and garlic powder, stir it up and your done!
Pork Shoulder
Okay, if you have never slow cooked a pork shoulder before, go get one at the store now. I'm telling you this is one of the easiest if not the easiest thing to make and your husband and any guests you have over will be kissing your feet after taking a bite of this bad boy. You can just grin and revel in the joy and success of knowing that you did basically nothing to get this love from all.
You can either cook it in a crock pot or the oven. The crock pot is good if you aren't going to be home through the cooking (I personally don't like leaving the oven on when I am not at home but will leave the crock pot? Probably doesn't matter just one of my things..) Another thing is that my crock pot although big sometimes doesn't hold the huge pork shoulder plus the crock pot cooks much slower so if you are limited on time, go with the oven. Either way, I rub the entire shoulder generously with salt and pepper occasionally I add a little paprika but that's it. If you want you can take a skillet and brown all sides, that helps hold the flavor in and makes the outside crispy. I don't always do this because well, it is still really freaking good anyway and sometimes I don't feel like it :) If you are using the crock pot just toss that baby in and turn on high. You will need at least 6 or 7 hours. I like to turn on high and then check it after 5 hours, you can always turn it down if it is near done. For the oven I use a big roasting pan with a rack on the bottom, make sure the shoulder is covered completely, either with a sealed lid or aluminum foil. I use aluminum foil almost always. Put it in the oven on 300 if you have plenty of time. if you don't have plenty of time turn it up to 350 or 400. You can gook about an 8 lb shoulder at 400 in about 3 hours. You can also turn the temp up in the oven to 400 or 425 and crisp the top, I usually do this at the end. Your shoulder is done when you can stick a fork in it and the meat literally falls apart. The outside will naturally be more dry than the inside, so don't worry that just means the inside will be just right. Plus there is more inside than out! Now you can add BBQ sauce and make sandwiches or just eat that bad boy plain, such goodness! Later if there are leftovers you can put on a tortilla and make a little pork taco too, yum!
Cubed Sweet Potatoes
I peel and cut the potatoes. When cutting try to make sure to cut the potatoes all about the same size, so they will cook at the same rate. Then I just get a cookie sheet, dump all the pots in, drizzle with olive oil ans sprinkle with salt pepper and the garlic Mrs Dash. Bake on 350 for 15 minutes, take out stir around and bake for another 15 or until a fork slides easily in.
Happy Super Bowl!!
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