Vittles for Vicars

From Good Housekeeping

I became an adult (as described in another post) and made dinner for my vicar and his wife, who just had her 3^rd child. Nevermind you that she had NaNeil and I over for dinner last week with a week-old infant and made a magical veggie lasagne (which consequently crossed my idea of making HER lasagne off the list).

Now, I originally wanted to make this recipe. With the root beer. But I wasn’t sure I would be able to find root beer (I didn’t). And it said to add your favourite BBQ sauce. So easy! But, seeing as I live in a weird country, I feared this wasn’t that easy. I had a sneaking suspicion I would only be able to find “brown sauce” which is essentially A1 steak sauce, and not proper BBQ sauce, in my humble Sweet-Baby-Ray-lovin’ opinion. So I went with the recipe below from Good Housekeeping (triple tested!).

Time: 9-11 hours

Servings: 12

Difficulty: EASY

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1/2 cup(s) ketchup

• 1/3 cup(s) cider vinegar

• 1/4 cup(s) packed brown sugar

• 1/4 cup(s) tomato paste

• 2 tablespoon(s) sweet paprika

• 2 tablespoon(s) Worcestershire sauce

• 2 tablespoon(s) yellow mustard

• 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt

• 1 1/4 teaspoon(s) ground black pepper

• 4 pound(s) boneless pork shoulder blade roast (fresh pork butt), cut into 4 pieces

• 12 soft sandwich buns or ciabatta rolls, warmed
• 
  

Directions

1. In 4 1/2- to 6-quart slow-cooker pot, stir onion, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, tomato paste, paprika, Worcestershire, mustard, salt, and pepper until combined. Add pork to sauce mixture and turn to coat well with sauce.
2. Cover slow cooker with lid and cook pork mixture on low setting as manufacturer directs, 8 to 10 hours or until pork is very tender.
3. With tongs, transfer pork to large bowl. Turn setting on slow cooker to high; cover and heat sauce to boiling to thicken and reduce slightly.
4. While sauce boils, with 2 forks, pull pork into shreds. Return shredded pork to slow cooker and toss with sauce to combine. Cover slow cooker and heat through on high setting if necessary.
5. Spoon pork mixture onto bottom of sandwich buns; replace tops of buns. Serve sandwiches with pickles, potato chips, and hot sauce if you like.

I loved it. And I stole some for my breakfast. Muahahahahaha.

But I still want to try the root beer one. I’m sure I can find the [overpriced] beer of root at Whole Foods or dirt cheap at British Wal-Mart (Asda). And, turns out,

I did find proper BBQ sauce. At the nice grocery store (Waitrose) that I am too poor to shop at but choose to anyway because it is well organised, has a magical wine and cheese selection and has much better meat and produce (and Helena Bonham Carter as a patron, as NaNeil found out one Sunday afternoon when he ran out to pick up some groceries.) They only had one real BBQ sauce. Newman’s own. Which is another reason to love Waitrose.

Because I love love. Love love. Love Paul Newman. So much that I have a mug and matching coaster with his handsome face on it. And sometimes, when it’s cold and I am annoyed with life, there is nothing better than a hot mug of herbal tea, a good book and Paul Newman looking back at me.