So I was sitting around and trying to think up something to blog about and seriously, you guys, I was coming up completely dry. I have some maintenancy stuff I want to talk about here but I want to do some more exploring and detail settling before I do that. Everything else I thought up seemed…bleccch.

And then I ate dinner. And Zee Oh Em Gee. OMNOMNOMNOM.

Apparently I have a gift for shredded pork.  Here’s how I made it.

Preheat oven t0 350-375 (my oven cooks low so my dial is usually closer to 375, but it depends on your oven.

In a glass baking pan (or whatever you have handy, I bet any baking dish would do, put some thickish pork loin chops–as many as you think you’ll need to feed your family or can fit into the pan. I used four so that I would have some left over for lunch tomorrow.

Pour in some beef broth–you don’t need the chops to be completely submerged but you want there to be a solid pool in the bottom of the pan. Aim for about half an inch to an inch of juice to keep things from drying out.

Toss some butter in there too–a couple of “healthy” tablespoons should be enough. I used a little more because I like using butter but if you aren’t a butter person, you can use less. It’s mostly to help flavor, since you’ve already got the beef broth to keep things moist.

Cover the pan with foil (or if you have an oven safe lid, that would work too, obviously).

Bake for 45 minutes or so.

Take the pan out of the oven and use two forks to shred each pork chop (make sure they are fully cooked first). Put the shreds right back into the broth/now-melted butter mixture after you finish shredding each chop.

Spice to taste. I used a healthy shaking of salt, pepper and garlic but you might want to try others.

Stir everything around in the pan so that the spices can get evenly distributed and mixed in.

Put the pan back in the oven, UNcovered this time.  Lower the baking temperature to 250-300 degrees.

Bake for fifteen minutes or so–this helps the butter/broth/spices cook into the meat while drying things out just enough that the meat is still fairly juicy won’t feel like a soup or be all drippy when you take it out of the oven.

Take the dish out of the oven.  Serve the shredded pork however you like–I put mine on some slightly toasted sesame seed hamburger buns.

Eat.

Faint from happiness.

I did not end up cooking last night.  I lost the urge around seven or so when I asked my husband if he was hungry yet (we had big lunches) and he said “not even a little bit.”

Meet my husband–the man who has the digestive system of a snake.  The dude could eat a tic tac on Monday and still feel full on Friday.

I wasn’t about to make all of that food just for myself (especially since I don’t actually liked mashed potatoes and was only going to make them because they had been requested).  So the chicken went into the fridge to be kept until tonight.

And that’s okay because I didn’t really read the directions for the Pioneer Woman’s recipe until late yesterday afternoon–and the first thing it says is to marinate the chicken in buttermilk overnight.  Oops.

So tonight we will be making the Better Homes and Gardens fried chicken recipe (because I kind of did not have time to set up a marinade for the chicken before I left the house this morning), corn on the cob and mashed potatoes.  Maybe.  It depends on how this afternoon and evening go.

In other news, I am downtown for the third time this week.  Monday was planned.  Tuesday was a whim.  Today is annoying.  I’m not here because I particularly wanted to be.  I’m here because Will ran down the battery on his phone super early today and needed his charging cord that was sitting on his nightstand and because I am one hell of an awesome wife.

Also–if you get a chance, stop by Pause || Comma.  It’s a brand spankin’ new blog started by one of my old high school pals who finally decided to join the blogosphere.

Welcome to Friday–the day I venture out of the house into the wide world and enjoy being amongst the people.  And figuring out how to work the webcam on my netbook.  See?

That’s me, sitting in the back corner at the Starbucks at PSU.  It is loud as frack in here right now.  That’s what happens when the rain comes back.

So.  Last night I made baked potatoes in the oven for the very first time.  And I made baked chicken.  And some canned corn.  And got so stuffed I had to change into looser pants.  I used this recipe for the potatoes and this recipe for the chicken (except for the 12 pieces of chicken part, I only used two chicken breasts).  Usually I’m not abig fan of lemony chicken but this turned out pretty good.  Tonight’s menu is round steak, more baked potatoes and, probably, salad.

It’s funny but I was never ever ever ever into cooking (I didn’t learn how to make mac and cheese or brown hamburger until high school.  Spaghetti eluded me until I was in my 20s).  Since moving out on my own and becoming responsible for feeding someone else (and getting thoroughly sick of fast food) I’ve gotten more into it.  I actually kind of look forward to the cooking part of my day, even though I know it will inevitably result in a sink full of dishes for me to do.

In other news, today I went to the library and returned a book.  I did not check out any other books since I am currently building a ginormous stack of books from two different libraries at home.  I was extremely proud of myself for not giving in and checking out at least one or two books or videos.  I might have even said (inside my head, of course) “congratulations self, you’ve learned how to exercise some self control!”  And then when I was leaving I stopped to browse in the used bookstore…and spent eight bucks.  I bought some crochet pattern cards (for $5) and a paperback copy of Chasing Harry Winston (for $3).  Um.  Whoops.

Happy Friday!

Since the last few days have been on the crazy cold, wet and windy side I decided that tonight I wanted to make something hearty and thick and filling.  The result was my very first “stick to your ribs” stew.

Basically what I did was buy a couple of “beef stew” spice packets and follow the directions on the back.  Basically.  I used a pound and a half of stew meat, two packets of beef stew spices and then a crap ton of veggies and potatoes.  Mmmm.  Spuds.  I also only used four and a half cups of water which created this great gravy for me to dip my bread into after I fished eating the “body” of the stew.  Tonight my bread was a hamburger bun because I forgot to get better bread when I was at the store (after I searched all over for bread bowls I got distracted by the super awesome potato sale and forgot about getting any sort of thick rolls to go with the stew).

My stew/pot roast veggie collection is pretty standard: potatoes, carrots, celery and an onion.  Will has asked a few times that I add some variety to the veggies but I’m not sure where to start.  I wandered through the produce section at Fred Meyer this afternoon looking at all of the different vegetables and thinking “radishes? good idea? bad idea?  green beans? yes? no?  peppers? yay? nay?”  and in the end stuck with what I know.  I am contemplating tossing in some chunks of red and green pepper next time.

Have I mentioned that I’m falling a little bit in love with red and green peppers?  The more I use them the more I like them, which means that pretty soon I’ll be adding peppers to everything just to see how the taste will change.

In other news I spent the last couple of days doing laundry and today I discovered that Will’s super thick Columbia Sportswear pants do not lend themselves nicely to ironing.  Martha Stewart says that it is best to iron stuff while it is still a little bit damp so I decided to iron Will’s pants today after I pulled them out of the washer instead of just tossing them into the dryer or hanging them up to air dry and then ironing them later.  I was so smug.  I was all “look at me! I’m thinking ahead!  I am an ironing rock star!”

I should never think so highly of myself because? It only leads to disaster.  I spent almost an hour trying to iron the creases out of the Columbia Sportswear pants and you know what?  I think I ironed more creases into those mofos than out of them.  I finally gave up and decided to just let them air dry the rest of the way.  Will said he doesn’t care of those pants are wrinkly anyway since they aren’t really for dressing up.  His dress pants, however, were perfectly ironed in a matter of minutes…and then smashed into the closet with the rest of the clothes so I’ll probably just have to iron them again anyway.

Oh well, it’s good practice right?

So: what is your favorite stew for cold wintry nights?