Kalua Pork in a Crock Pot

When we were in Hawaii, we ate Kalua Pork everyday.  I'm not even joking.  We ate Kalua Pork pizza, quesadillas, spring rolls, tacos, patties, and just straight up.  It was amazing everytime!!!!  Andrew takes pictures of ALL his food when we are on vacation......lots of Kalua Pork......

Now that we've been home a week, we are having hard-core Kalua Pig withdrawls....

Now in Hawaii it's made like this:

I think Andrew would look really good in this skirt...

Since I didn't have the time to dig a hole in the ground, hire some Hawaiians, sew Andrew a skirt, kill a pig, etc....I figured out a better way to do it.  In comes the ever-amazing crockpot!!!

I first asked Andrew to get the crock pot down (it's on a high shelf, and that's the benifit of being married to a huge giant) before he left the house.  This is what I found sitting on the counter:

Oh husband.....this is clearly a roasting pan.  I guess this proves how much time he spends in the kitchen.....

Then hauled the real crock pot down (and almost broke my face) from its high shelf  & used some fancy Hawaiian salt to salt the pork.  That's all you do.....Honestly couldn't be easier.  The only pain was that it had to be cooked for like 18 hours! 

Husband - THIS is a crockpot!

You know it's good when there's a hula girl on the top....

After a million hours of cooking,  pulled it out and shredded it. 

Now, I realize that this doesn't look all that delicious, but that's becuase I forgot to take a picture at the end. :(  Mine ended up being a little dry becuase I bought a piece of pork tenderloin.  I would def. suggest buying a pork butt.  I went with the tenderloin becuase it is less fatty, but for a super long roasting thing like this, you need the fat apparently.  Also, it wasn't made by the topless Hawaiians, so it clearly wasn't nearly as delicious.

Another Night at the Village

I've posted before about how I live at a retirement community for 20-30 somethings.  It's seriously the best. They had another big party last Saturday night, and we were there to party it up!  This time, though, the music totally sucked.  Sometimes it's great and I totally embarrass myself with how much I love to dance, and sometimes I sit around just waiting to embarrass myself  (though at one of last summer's parties I found a way of embarrassing myself - falling down and getting a super bloody knee in front of a table of poker players.  I think my brain felt left out from the body-flinging and so it flung me upon the floor).  Anyway, we danced to like 3 songs, but then ate and drank and played poker and ate and drank and ate and drank.

Now can you see how I would fall down.  In my defense, though, I was carrying 2 appetizers for Andrew and didn't want to spill. I think that counts as a great defense.

Waiting on the amazing music...which never really came.

Andrew doubling his money (to buy raffle tickets) at the poker table

O.M.G.  No joke, these donuts deserve their very own post.  They were UNBELIEVABLE.  All the drunk girls were covered in powdered sugar from these, but it was SO WORTH IT!  They were making them fresh.  I only got one because the rest of the girls were stumbling over and snatching them up.  THEY WERE SO GOOD.  It was worth going out just for these donuts.  aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Obligatory bathroom shot (we forgot to have someone take one of us!)

Party For the Village People

Last weekend had it's Village ups and downs.  First the complex rejected my presence by locking me out.  But then there was a Saturday night party, so it redeemed itself.

I pretty much live at a retirement community for 20-somethings.  There are events almost everynight of the week, from movies, to gym classes, wine tasting to taco Tuesdays.  Everything is free (and by free I mean they jack up the rent so that these events are covered, but we will just call them free).

All you need to know about this party is that I liked my clothes, we split a bottle of wine, and there were free appetizers and a DJ.  We were pretty much in heaven.

It was cold, but a sweater would've ruined the dress...

Obligatory self shot

Andrew was in LAMB CHOP HEAVEN!

Andrew finished my cotton candy....

 I hadn't had cotton candy in like 100 years!

S'mores!

I think the lesson learned is that I liked my dress, loved my shoes, and the Brownells only photograph food....

Oh How I Love my Crockpot! - Pulled Pork Taco Edition

And now for another taco entry.....(who knew we loved them so much!)

Every Sunday, I ask husband what he wants to eat for the week.  Last week we ate mini cheeseburgers for dinner like 3 nights (we had a party and had lots leftover...I even made a meat sauce for pasta with the leftovers), so husband said he wanted a whole week of different dinners. 

Enter pulled pork tacos for an easy Thursday night dinner....

Before I left for work I put a pork shoulder in the crock pot (oh how I <3 it!)

Once I got home, I pulled it out and shredded it!

I fajita-ed up some veggies, and then set it up with all the fancy fixings.

Andrew walked in to dinner all set up and ready to go...

I wish I had a wife to make dinner for me!!!

I'm starting to use my crock pot at least once per week and heart it so hard!!!

Taco Asylum Review

Today we tried a new taco place, Taco Asylum, in Costa Mesa.  It was opened/started by the same person who opened Haven, in the Orange Circle.  We are big fans of Haven, and I had heard some good reviews from friends and Andrew likes to eat a new restaurant each and every weekend, so he was super excited.

WE TRIED: 4 different tacos - Duck, Beef Short Rib, Lamb, Ghost Chili Pork - Andrewe thought that each and everyone was delicious!  I thought the pork was too spicy (it burned my lips!), and I'm not a fan of lamb, so I didn't enjoy that one.

They are so pretty!

GOOD: The meat was delicious and ingrediants were really interesting. The location is small, but was pretty cool.  They serve lots of beer on tap  (we didn't have any, but pretty much everyone else in the room did).  Also, they had some homemade potato chips that looked pretty delish.

BAD: The tacos were pretty expensive - at $5-$6 each, meaning that we spent $23 on just 4 tacos.  Also, they didn't have any regular sodas, only natural hippy stuff (as a soda drinker, I don't like places like that!)

All in all, we really liked it!  Next time I think I want to try the "flight" of tacos.  For $18 you get a small (3") version of 8 of their tacos.

When is it Too Much???

The Brownells are wine drinkers!  So, the question is when is loving something become a problem?  I think when it comes to this.

For desert, Husband scooped himself a spoonful of peanut butter and poured himself a glass of wine.  Thought it was an odd desert, but then he called it "Adult Peanut and Jelly."

 Haha.

 I think that means he just loves it too much!

Today, I'll be Irish.

I am technically a mix of Scottish and German, but today we will pretend I'm Irish.  (My maiden name is McNair, so it will be rather difficult, but I'm going to just go with it......)

This morning I got dressed in my green finest (I like to think that a high school student would not pinch me for not wearing green, but let's all be honest, my cheerleaders would REVEL in being able to pinch me.)

I NEVER wear this skirt because it's just too much green....but it felt appropriate for today!

I made a delicious Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner:

I chopped up vegetables for dinner

Next I pulled out my birthday present from my parents - a big giant crockpot!  Yay!

Then I put it all together and set it in the fridge.  It was husband's job to put it in the crockpot and turn the crockpot on.  (sad truth is that my day is too long for it to cook all day, so he is going to set it when he leaves at 9:30 vs. my 6:45.)

 

Then spent my day at school explaining to ELD students why we wear green today.  After cheer practice, I headed home and finished preparing THE EASIEST dinner EVER!  I need to start using my crockpot a lot more often!

Clearly Andrew was happy with the dinner! :)

I teased him that his green shirt was a Nintendo shirt....

Ramblings of a "foodie" Husband...

So, my husband is totally crazy sometimes. Like seriously, sometimes I wonder what the heck is going on in his brain.

Tonight he said that someone should create a food computer that would create algorithims that would create new recipes and tell people what they would like to eat. Huh?

The joys of being married to a nerd.

UPDATE: he saw me writing this and then felt the need to clarify. He now says that it's incredible that we can give a computer enough data to understand eating. Arg.

Freebirds VS. Chipotle

YUMMMM!

Andrew and I are die-hard  Chipotle people.  Andrew literally eats it like twice a week.  We recently got a bunch of buy one get one free coupons that expire next week, so we've been eating it more often than usual.

Recently a Freebirds opened near my parent's house, and I heard that it's pretty good.

I would say that if you've never had Chipotle, Freebirds would probably be delicious.  We, however, weren't such huge fans.

Needless to say, we had Chipotle the next day......:)

Thursday Night = Date Night!

Tonight I went on a double date with husband and this lovely couple:

AKA my parents

My mom had gotten tickets to see a play I was super stoked about, and it DID NOT disappoint!  When I was in 5th grade, I read The Giver.  Since then, I have literally read this book about 50 times.  No joke, I love it so much!  The play was pretty good, and I thought it was so cute that it was filled with 11-17 year olds who love the book as much as I did/do!!!!! If you've never read it, I would suggest a read! :)

I <3 it SO much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Husband had to rescue me!

I always have really excellent plans.  Sometimes, however, my excellent plans turn out a little differently than I had planned. Usually that means that I'm screaming/squealing/whining/scared, while the husband laughs at me and has a grand 'ol time!

Last summer, in China, I thought it would be fun to ride bikes on top of an ancient wall.  In theory, this sounded awesome.  In practice we were riding old cheap bikes on top of a brick wall.  For 8 miles.  In the 95+ degree heat with 95%+ humidity.  We each had only 1 bottle of water, which was not nearly enough!

Wall of death!

Two years ago, I wanted to go the air boats in the Florida Keys to see the alligators.  Then, I made the husband sit on the outside, you know, so the gators couldn't get me.  Then I squealed and made him get away from the edge every time we saw one!

Clearly there were no gators present right now....

One of the best/worst of these examples was 3 years ago in Greece.  They gave us the option to ride a donkey down the side of Santorini.  I wanted to do it SO BADLY.  Andrew didn't think it was a great idea, but said we should do it.  It was the WORST hour ever!  Our donkeys were not attached to each other, and mine liked to both race AND hang off the side of the cliff.  It was super terrifying.  The Donkeys were going crazy, which ended in this little beauty of a picture.

Donkey Attack!

This brings me to my most recent "great idea."  Last week I bought a new bike.  My old bike was stolen and so I've been meaning to replace it.  Finally I got a chance to buy one and decided I would go for my first ride on Monday night.
Andrew and I were going out to dinner, so I said I would meet him there.
5 miles from my house.
At night.
 In the Winter.

Ugggg.  I made it about 3 miles and then called Andrew to come rescue me.  It was cold and dark.  Go figure.  Apparently it's cold and dark in Irvine.  At night.  In the winter.  The speed limit in Irvine is 55 MPH on the streets and apparently street lights are not pretty enough to be up in Irvine.  Luckily husband came to rescue me!

Need a name for her.  Haven't thought of one yet...

Puppy and chopsticks

Somehow I have become one of those crazy dog people. I take him with me wherever I can, and I even allow him to sleep on our bed! Before we got Maximus, I was never an animal lover...and I guess I stilll am not. I am just a Maximus lover. He is spoiled-rotten. He is very sweet and loving, and we bathe him every weekend. He even gets his teeth brushed weekly. As stuck-up as that makes me sound, I think I like him more because he is all squeaky clean. =)

Anyway, we take the puppy out to lunch when we can (and just sit outside and bask in the So. Cal. sun). He is allowed to eat a piece of our lunch once we are done eating (that way he doesn't beg). Last weekend he tried to steal a piece of my lunch, even though I was eating with chopsticks. After I was done, I decided to let him have a piece. For some reason this video makes me laugh my head off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!