Texas Crockpot BBQ
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup ketchup
1 cup BBQ sauce
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T Worcestershire sauce
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
Combine all ingredients in crockpot. Add 3-4 lbs of lean roast or boneless chicken breasts. Cook on high until tender (about 7-8 hrs for roast or 5-6 hrs for chicken). Remove meat, shred, and return to crockpot. Cook on low 30 minutes – 1 hour or until ready to serve. Serve on whole wheat hamburger buns with extra BBQ sauce as needed.
Second Up. Arugula.
I have been looking for a good arugula for a long time. It is one of my favorite lettuces in salad. Most fall short from bags/etc. Haven't found a farmer who has arugula regularly.
I finally found a good one: Dole spinach/arugula mix for salads plastic box. Not in a bag. In a box. The arugula has a distinct peppery taste and actually tastes like a strong arugula.
Eventually, all lettuce in a bag tastes like plastic. Most start out tasting like plastic. So I never buy bagged lettuce. OK, maybe not never. But SELDOM. I always buy fresh red leaf or boston bibb lettuce. Or Trader Joe's artisanal lettuce.
Third Up. The weather.
It is freakin' GORGEOUS today. Windy, sunny, highs in the 70's. It makes me miss Paris, but I realize Paris is like this - oh - I don't know - 2 months out of the year? :)
Fourth Up. My yard of trees.
I got leaves. Lots of leaves. And they haven't even changed colors yet, the trees. It's just dead leaves from the heat of summer. It is going to get CRAZY around here come fall. You got kids who want to jump in piles of leaves? Bring them HERE.
Fifth Up. Subject of Fancy salads.
I love fancy salads. My favorite is to get fresh lettuce leaves, sprinkle balsamic vinegar, a good olive oil (right now, my fav is hazelnut oil), salt, pepper - MIX. Then add in "the fancy goods."
What do I mean by "fancy goods?" My friend Kirsten (SHOUT OUT!) gave me an awesome cookbook called Chocolate and Zucchini. IN there, is my latest fancy salad that I simplify a bit so it doesn't cost me $25 per salad plate. But you basically mix arugula/spinach/lettuce with some cut up leftover roasted chicken (you know what I'm talking about), hazelnut oil, balsamic vinegar, and peaches. She has hazelnuts in there but it's hard to find those here. So i put in cashews because I love cashews. Oh, and be restrained with the balsamic vinegar and a little generous with the hazelnut oil. I found out the hard way today when I added a tad too much balsamic vinegar.
I toss this. And for my lunch, I had this fancy cafe salad. And in the middle of my seemingly ordinary stay-at-home mom kind of day, I had a fancy salad, and I felt fancy eating it.
I love food. Can you guess?
Sixth UP: Photoshop CS5
I downloaded it for my 30 day trial off the internet. HEAVEN. Almost as good as when I started reading Twilight. WATCH OUT. Just need to calibrate my monitor and then you'll start seeing some crazy stuff pop out of here. For now, I just have this SOOC of my nephew Quinn right before he left:
