7 Quick Takes Mostly About Food

1.

Apparently last week was Doughnut Week!  And no one told me!  And I read ZERO blogs about doughnuts!  It's like I just missed Christmas or something.

Imagine me singing this.  Right now.



Fortunately, I follow @CatholicFoodie on Twitter and he linked to this piece about Spiced Banana Donut Holes on the Healthy. Delicious. blog.

Yes.  I said on the Healthy. Delicious. blog.  These donuts are made with whole wheat, so that makes them a health food.  They are also made with bananas which also makes them a health food.  Eating one of these is like eating kale.  But better.  Because it's a donut.

Don't like bananas?  Healthy. Delicious. also did a Salted Peanut and Honey donut recipe this week.  I can only imagine that Salted Peanut and Honey donuts taste like a Payday married a Krispy Kreme and they had delicious little babies.

2. Catherine at Catholic Mom Apologia linked up to my weekly What We're Reading Wednesday Virtual Bookclub, and mentioned that she read a borrowed book on Kindle.

WHAT!?!?

YOU CAN BORROW Kindle BOOKS FROM FRIENDS?

Did you feel that minor earthquake?  Like tectonic plates just shifted?

YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO HAVE A KINDLE TO BORROW OR LEND E-BOOKS!  You just have to have the free Kindle app!

So, I have a copy of Laura Pearl's Finding Grace that I would like to loan to somebody, because I really like Laura and everybody loves her novel.

I would also like to borrow somebody's Kindle copy of Rebecca Frech's Teaching in Your Tiara, because I'm new to this homeschooling thing, and my tiara keeps slipping down over my eyes when I'm demonstrating math on the dry-erase board.  My email is in the right-hand sidebar if you want to be a borrower or a lender.

3.  The Show 24, Pork Shoulder Roasts, and the Easiest, Most Delicious Dinner Ever.

Have you ever bought Pork Shoulder Roasts from Costco?

They come two to a vacuum-sealed package, and they are roughly the size of human heads.

Patrick and I have watched exactly one episode of 24 ever in our lives.  It was the episode where Jack is toting a human head around in a duffle bag.  I believe the part of the human head, may have been played by a pork shoulder roast.

I know.  I know.  Everyone says it's a great show, and normally not that gruesome, and that we should give it another chance.  One of these days...

Anyway, pork shoulder roasts, aka Boston butt roasts (which come from the shoulder not the butt, c'mon Boston butchers!  What the heck?), are very inexpensive.  They can also be very work-intensive.

It takes a lot of hours to cook one of these heads roasts, and you don't want to be off by an hour or two come dinner time.  Not around here.  You could lose your head.

I had a brand-new double-head package in the fridge and googled "easiest pork shoulder recipes."

This Pork Roast Recipe is what I found, and made, and Patrick said it was the best pork shoulder roast in the slow cooker that I've ever made.

Here's what I did:

Trimmed off some of the thicker pieces of fat, because there is a lot of fat on a pork shoulder roast.

Put the roasts in the slow-cooker.

Shook Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce all over the roast, about 10-12 shakes.

Shook some dry rub over my now wet roast.  I used Penzey's BBQ 3000 rub, but salt, pepper, and paprika would have worked just fine too.

Turned the slow-cooker on low for 10 hours.  TEN HOURS!

Approximately 9.75 hours later, I used a slotted spoon to remove the tender morsels of meat and put them on a cutting board where they shredded easily.  I removed some more of the remaining fat.  Poured a little of the de-fatted juices back over the now-shredded meat, and served a side of TJ's tortellini and a skillet Mexican corn salad.

We used the leftovers to make pork tacos, but they would work well with soy sauce over rice, or on a bun with barbecue sauce too.

5 and 6. That last take was not-quick, so I'm counting it as two.  I'm counting this quick take as two too, because it has two recipes in it.

Have you ever seen this 20 Meals from Costco for $150?

I've only made two of these recipes and both were vegetarian, and both were surprisingly good!

The Potato and Egg Breakfast Tacos are my Friday morning staple now, minus the apples, plus the salsa and cheese.

And last night, I made the Spicy Quinoa with Kidney Beans, Corn, and Lime.  Even my pickiest eater (Patrick) ate a big bowlful and said it was good.  He also said it could be better, if it had slices of grilled strip steak on top.

I ate my quinoa dinner with cotija cheese.  Susan doused hers with Frank's Red Hot.  Patrick sprinkled chipotle chili powder on his.  But the main thing is, we had no leftovers.  Except for Jill's untouched bowl.

7.  If you're not following me on Twitter or Instagram (see those cute buttons on the sidebar again), you're missing out on gems like this:

Which carried the caption:  Guess I'm not the only one around here with a bun in the oven.

Go see Jen and the more timely quick-takers.