Carnitas

This is a recipe I found in a library book I rented called New World Kitchen I renewed this book for many months.

While you could eat Carnitas on their own, you probably would be more satisfied using them as a filling in tacos, gorditas, pupusas, or any other Latin American dish. It's kind of like pulled pork, but it's fried.

I love Carnitas.They're so delicious. It takes some thinking ahead, this isn't a "30 minute meal", but it's sooo worth it.

To make them, we'll need some pork.

I used country ribs but you can use shoulder or butt. I actually had more meat than the recipe called for but it was fine. The recipe calls for 3lbs boneless pork butt, shoulder, or country ribs, cut into 1.5 to 2 in pieces. So mine had some bones...but I think that adds flavor. 

I cut 'em up with our ceramic knives. They are WONDERFUL. I might have sung their praises already, but you can cut anything a lot easier than any other knife. Tomatoes slice very well without tugging on the skins. We got ours at Harbor Freight hardware store for $Cheap (I'm talking less than $20/knife).

We also need 1 large spanish onion, roughly chopped. Again, I varied a little here. We didn't have "large spanish onions" so I used two smaller white onions. 

Next,  2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped. This is a very rustic dish, there's a lot of "rough chopping".

Now,  2 stalks of celery, roughly chopped. 

Time to get cookin'. We need 1/2 C. canola oil in a large pot.

Once the medium heat has gotten it hot, we add the onion, carrots, and celery.

Then, another inconsistency here, we add 6 cloves of garlic, sliced. We didn't have any fresh garlic so I used the canned already minced variety. I really suggest having this in your fridge all the time, it makes life so much easier and if you've forgotten to restock your fresh garlic you've got a back-up.

You'll want to cook that for 5-8 minutes,  until the veggies start glazing a little.

Let's talk spices. We'll need 2 bay leaves, 10 sprigs of thyme, and 12 black peppercorns toasted. I didn't have fresh time so I kind of just added "some" leaves from the shaker. The peppercorns came from our pepper grinder. I didn't toast them, but I have before. It's worth it, it smells wonderful and I'm sure it adds to the dish, but when I made this I was also dealing with the California Cake and wanted to make things simple. I'd suggest using cast iron to toast them if you do, heat them until they get nice and aromatic. 

 Mix that in with the veggies, and add your pork.

Cover with just enough water to submerge the meat (my pot's too small to do this effectively, I forget every time to use a bigger one) and get the water simmering.

According to the recipe there are "impurities" that come to the surface. I can see them, I try to get them, but it never really works out. I use a spoon and try to skim them off like he tells us to, but I quickly give up because it doesn't work for me. From there, we reduce the heat and cook for about 1.5-2 hours until it's very tender. I like when it falls off the bone.


We're going to need a strainer, to separate the meat from the liquid. You'll want to keep the liquid so strain it into a bowl.

Then with a spoon or your hands after it's cooled, separate the meat from the veggies. You can throw the veggies out now.

Once the meat cools enough, it's time to start pulling. 

Once you have it into small pieces, it's time to get back to that braising liquid we saved. The recipe calls for separating the fat from the liquid. If you've got a fat separator, knock yourself out. If not, you can either put it in the fridge and let it separate there when it cools (this takes longer than I've ever been patient enough to wait for), or you can do your best to catch those fatty bubbles with a spoon. You'll get some extra liquid but that's ok, and it's not too hard to see the separate layers. This time I used a baster to suck up the fatty layer and it worked great. 

Heat that until it sizzles when you add the meat. Add the meat when it's ready and brown it up. It gets golden, crisp, delicious. 

Yum.

It smells great.

You can eat it plain. It really tastes good either way, but it's better if it's got a sandwich or tortilla around it somehow.


The recipe calls for us to reduce the remaining liquid (that we didn't use the fat from) and then pour it over the meat, but I really don't think this adds to it in my kitchen. In fact, I think it tastes better before that step, so from now on I'm leaving it out.

California Cake

Well, the internet addiction is possibly waning. I'm still afraid to re-activate my Facebook account though. I know what will happen when I do that.

I was commissioned last week to make a cake for my Aunt who's been without an oven since EASTER!!? How could you survive? I guess it's a separate stove top deal so it's not as bad as I'd thought. But STILL. I suppose I haven't used our oven that much, but it would be a challenge.

The recipe I followed was Boston Cream Cake. It's basically a box cake mix with pudding in the middle.

Sounds easy enough...

I used Betty Crocker's Butter Yellow cake mix. I just now noticed that there's pudding in the mix too...good choice.

I followed the instructions and mixed the four ingredients together, greased my pans, and let it bake.

The cakes were very sticky. I don't recommend using your hand when you flip them out.

Next, (actually a few hours before hand) I made the pudding. Seriously though, I suggest making the pudding as early as you can, maybe even the night before. The more it sets the better for this. Mine could have probably set longer. 

I only used about 1.5 cups of milk instead of the 2 the box called for. This is per the recommendation on All Recipes comments.

Mixing that wasn't hard at all.

Then into the fridge it went.

The cakes cooled and I attempted to flip them out of the pans...

The bottom layer lost a little mass, but I managed to carefully get the piece off the bottom of the pan without breaking it more and slipped it in.

I layered on the pudding filling and put the top layer on.

There are many things that might have lead to this cake earning the name "California Cake" but I think putting the slightly larger cake layer on the top was the most contributing factor.

Icing it was messy but easy. I melted a full container of store-bought icing i  the microwave. I went for either 20 or 30 seconds, I don't remember but it was melted well and easy to stir.

I poured that icing over the cake and tried to gather it off the bottom of the pan, but it was messy...and this was when I realized the tragedy that ensued...

California Earth Quake Cake is what I started calling it.

It had to be moved in the car so I tried to at least poke it with extra long toothpicks to help it hold up some in the car. I also put it in the freezer for a little while to help it harden up but I dont think it was in there long enough.

I hear tell it was delicious just the same. I'll probably try this again someday...it did smell wonderful! And...I'm counting this as my new recipe for last week. Sure, I've made all of the ingredients before but I've never combined them this way and learned from doing it: so it counts.

Too Many Forks, Not Enough Fire

It's been one week...without Facebook.


I'm sort of working on my internet addiction. I wouldn't call it an addiction entirely, but I spend WAY too much time in front of the computer. Like now...

I deactivated my Facebook account in an attempt to help reduce the time I spend online. I miss it in some ways, but in others my life is brighter and happier without it.

I haven't spent as MUCH time on the computer, but I have somewhat replaced my Facebook time with craigslist time.

I also am still a "board fly" (there's no alcohol involved or that would read bar fly) on a forum I subscribe to.

If it weren't for school, I'd probably be willing to try to break free from the internet all together for a week trial. It's one of my 43 things. Well perhaps avoiding the computer all together is on my 43 things.

The thing is, I don't realize just how much time I spend here. I get stressed, behind, bogged down.

Being a full time mommy/student/girlfriend/homemaker all at once all the time is hard enough, but then when I spend most of my free time here on this computer...well nothing gets done entirely. Things get started and abandoned. Like this project (I will blog about later) that still isn't totally done...so much for it being a Mother's Day gift, perhaps it'll be accepted as a belated one.

I have piles of things waiting for me to finish/start them. My bookshelves overflow with cookbooks and activity books filled with post-it flags marking things I'm going to do "one day". Even more pressing are the library books. IF I get a chance to look through them, I end up copying the most intriguing pages and returning the books; leaving me with stacks of papers in the "one day" pile.

That blue thing is the above pictured mold, with a coat of paint. The yellow cup has squash seeds I meant to plant this month. That orange folder sticking out of the basket has cut outs of car ads to make a car book for Aidan while we travel (ok so I have a while to finish that still...). The Tylenol is recalled that I'm waiting for the refund on-holding on to it just in case I need those numbers again. Etc...the list goes on!!




Realizing this is what has helped me stop buying more books. I would love to,, especially when I find bargains, but I also try to think about everything I already have at home that I haven't gotten to yet. The same goes for "junk" because cleaning out the attic (and all of my stuff in general) is high on the list too.

On top of this I'm trying to exercise a little "self-care" every day or so which means I need to be MORE lenient in my schedule and make sure it get it in. It really, really makes a difference.

We're planning on going on a camping trip for a week in June as well, so I find myself thinking of this a lot too. I've made a good list of everything we need to bring, though I'm sure I'm still forgetting something. The list fills the first margin of the page and then some...and this doesn't include the FOOD we'll have to bring or exactly what "cooking gear" means.

So...I'm hoping to cut back on my computer time. Seriously. I have a lot to do before the end of this week, and while I'll be trying to take pictures and things, I think I'm going to try to stay off the computer unless totally necessary. There are a few necessary events coming up...like my paper and a recipe I plan in making (though realistically I could print it and might have to to avoid the temptation to go wandering on the internet) in which I will need to  use the computer...otherwise I think I'm going to really try to avoid this necessary evil.


My dear readers and Facebook friends, I will be back...very soon. BUT hopefully after I get a handle on my priorities and don't revert back to my old habits.

Time for some paper writing, or perhaps Calculus?

Let's take a closer look at that test, in case we needed another reminder that I need to DO my homework and study for once.

That's right. It's bad. It took me from a B to a C overall. Even with the curve, it still is in the 50% family. But I made the Dean's List last quarter!! So we'll see what I can do about this C...