Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Strawberry BBQ Sauce

This is a nice summery version of pulled pork sandwiches.

Pulled Pork with Strawberry BBQ Sauce
Serves 6
You will need:

• a 2 to 2 1/2 pound boneless pork shoulder roast
• 2 cups strawberries, halved
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 2 T honey
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• salt
• pepper
• Rolls or buns

Trim fat from pork. Place roast in a crock pot. Sprinkle roast with salt and pepper. Add half the strawberries, ketchup, vinegar, garlic and rosemary to the crock pot. Add half the red pepper flakes. Cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or until pork is tender and shreds apart. Remove roast from crock pot. Shred pork apart using two forks, discarding fat.

To make the BBQ sauce: Skim fat off of cooking liquid. Add liquid to a medium skillet. Bring liquid to a boil and simmer for 8 minutes or until thickened. Stir half of the liquid back into the shredded pork. In the remaining half in the skillet and the remaining strawberries and pepper flakes. Stir in the honey.

Serve the pork on buns. Top with additional sauce and cheese if desired.

Parmesan-Stuffed Chicken and Melted Strawberries

Another wonderful strawberry recipe modified from Better Homes and Gardens.

Parmesan-Stuffed Chicken and Melted Strawberries
Makes 2 servings
You will need:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries (halve large berries)
• 1 T white balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 strawberry jam **
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2 large basil leaves
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• snipped basil for topping
• pepper
• salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a baking dish combine strawberries, vinegar, and jam. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cut a horizontal pocket into each chicken breast. Do so by cutting from one side almost, but not through, to the other side. Place a basil leaf into each pocket. Stuff pockets with Parmesan cheese. Secure pockets closed with wooden toothpicks. Sprinkle with pepper.

In a 12 inch oven-safe grill pan or skillet, cook garlic in oil over medium heat for 30 seconds. Add chicken and cook five minutes or until golden, turning once. Transfer to the oven. Bake, uncovered, 5 minutes. Add baking dish with the strawberries to the oven. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and the berries have softened. Serve chicken with melted strawberries. Sprinkle with basil.

Stawberry & Cheese Bruschetta

Strawberries are in season right now. You know what that means, tons of strawberries to cook with! Better Homes and Gardens May 2009 issue has lots of ideas. Of course I can never let a recipe be, so the strawberry posts will all be my rendition.

Strawberry & Cheese Bruschetta
Makes 6 slices
You will need:

• 1 baguette
• 1 T olive oil
• 4 oz. Sage Derby cheese
• 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/2 cup arugula
• Basil finely sliced
• sea salt
• freshly ground pepper

Heat the broiler. Cut baguette in half lengthwise, then into thirds crosswise. Place cut sides up on a large cookie sheet. Brush bread with the 1 T of olive oil. Broil for 1 1/2 to minutes 3 to 4 inches from heat or until lightly toasted. Slice and divide the cheese among the bread slices. Top with sliced strawberries. Broil 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese is melted and berries have softened. Remove from broiler, top with arugula and basil. Drizzle additional oil if desired. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Corn and Avocado Salad

Google Reader started suggesting blogs for me to read. I find this a little bit creepy, but when bored I will wander. It led me to http://ashleescooking.blogspot.com She has lots of great stuff posted and what is really creepy, she is from my hometown area. How does Google know!? Any who, I thought I would try out this tasty side with a few changes.

Corn and Avocado Salad
You will need:

• 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1 ripe avocado diced (I made my pieces fairly large so they don't mush completely when you mix it)
• 1/4 red onion, minced
• 1 T minced cilantro (Stephanie I think you could skip this and add more lime)
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
• Juice of one fresh lime (two limes if they are tiny)
• salt
• pepper

Add corn, red onion, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, salt and pepper into a bowl. Mix well. Add avocado by folding in gently. Again bigger pieces are good for keeping shape. Chill until ready to serve. For storing leftovers, place saran wrap flush with salad.

Grandma Mather's Potato Salad

My grandma made one of the BEST potato salads! I was fortunate enough to make this with her and have the recipe before she passed away. Nothing says summer like a good potato salad.

Grandma Mather's Potato Salad
Serves 6
You will need:

• 5 to 8 red potatoes
• 1 hard boiled egg
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 1 T sweet relish
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup mayonnaise**
• 1 T yellow mustard
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• Dash of garlic powder
• Pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes unpeeled for 30 minutes, covered, or until jackets crack open. (see photo)
Drain potatoes and rinse in cold water. Once potatoes have cooled, peel off jackets and cube potatoes to desired size. Put potato cubes into serving bowl. Peel and cut hard boiled egg. Add egg and chopped celery to the bowl with potatoes. In a separate bowl, mix mustard into mayo. Add Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, pepper, and celery seed to the mustard/mayo mix. Stir mixture into potatoes. Add more garlic powder and pepper to taste. Chill before serving.

**Last time I made this I only had Miracle Whip on hand. If you are going to substitute Miracle Whip for mayo you need to add more relish to counteract the tangy zip of the miracle whip.

Wordle

There is this really cool website called www.wordle.net You can enter a bunch of words or copy in a website or blog and it makes this word cloud. I thought it was really cool so I tried it out with the food blog! Try making yours :)