This Life Well Loved

Pork Carnitas

I was totally planning to make this post about the vegetable sandwich I mentioned the other day, but then I came across this post that I'd started a few weeks ago with my recipe for pork carnitas. This was the first time I attempted to make carnitas, and I am hooked! They were super simple to put together (you can probably throw all of the ingredients into a slow-cooker and let it do all the work!) and the leftovers I froze fed our family FOUR meals! I served it with roasted poblanos topped with melted chihuahua cheese and diced peppers and onions, homemade guacamole as well as pickled onions. The yummy carnitas were served on flatbread (it's actually a naan recipe, but who's counting, ha!).

Here we go!

Ingredients:

1 3 1/2 to 4 pound pork shoulder, cut into 2-3 inch pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 red onion, roughly chopped

1/2 tablespoon ancho chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

juice of one lime

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup orange juice

2 bay leaves

pepper to taste

The assembly is crazy complicated.

The Catfish pretty much did it all herself...

Just place all of the ingredients into a stock pot or Dutch oven (or crock-pot, if you're so inclined).

Bring it up to a rolling boil then simmer, uncovered for five minutes.

Cover and place the pot into the oven, cooking at 300 degrees for roughly two hours (until the meat shreds easily).

Remove from heat and allow to cool enough to remove the meat without burning yourself the shred the meat with two forks.

Strain the liquid through a sieve then return the liquid back to the pot and bring it to a boil then simmer it until it reduces by half.

Place the shredded meat onto a lined pan then broil it for up to five minutes until the edges get crispy. Add the meat back to the broth and serve!

I will post my pickled onion recipe soon. I am obsessed and make these all of the time!

For the flatbread/naan recipe, click here!

Playing Catch Up

I've taken a little break from blogging to spend time with family as we said goodbye to my father-in-law early last week. It's been a difficult time for us, but we're incredibly thankful for the extra time we spent with the people we love most in the world.

Now we're back home and trying to get back into the routine of kindergarten, preschool, blogging, errands and play dates while just taking things one day at a time. In this giant game of catch-up, we've managed to squeeze in a few fun activities this week.

We received a sweet little package from our very best friends back in our old state that included these delicious candles. Delicious! The package also included my favorite Cinnabon k-cups, mint chocolate dove squares and a gift card to our favorite date night spot.

We are so thankful for this sweet family- they always make us feel so loved!

The leaves here are just past peak, so we had to hurry outside on the last warm day for some fall photo fun.

Got a whole lot of these...

In search of this! I have to admit though, that the goofy picture above is probably my favorite of the bunch.

The Catfish and I took a nearly five mile walk down the trail near our house. It was an eighty degree late October day, so we couldn't resist.

Pretty sure we found where the American Horror Story clown lives...

It was a picnic-perfect day, and we took full advantage.

My little witchy-woman adores this little wooden witch.

She loved posing for pictures in her favorite Halloween shirt (thank you, Auntie M!).

And, after eating SO MUCH restaurant food over the past week, it was nice to get back to some home cooking. We ate as many vegetables as we could get our hands on, and it felt so good to eat something a little healthier.

This is one of my favorite vegetarian meals that my carnivorous husband actually requests! It's a grilled portabella with just about every vegetable around topped with pesto mayo and red onion marmalade. Melted provolone and homemade Italian bread make this my hands-down favorite sandwich.

So yummy.

Recipe coming soon...

I also bought myself this fantastic wine this week.

I was a little ashamed bringing my 3 year old with me into the liquor store, but they did have a basket of stickers and lollipops for kids, so clearly I'm not the first desperate mom to have done it! Anyway, I have every intention of buying this stuff by the case.

SO.GOOD.

That's all for now- back very soon with some yummy recipes perfect for fall feasting!

Leaf Pile Madness

It's October, so you know that that means.

We had a break in the seemingly endless stretch of rainy days, so I steeled myself and busted out the rake and lawnmower yesterday.

Let me just tell you: it is RIDICULOUSLY easier to mow a yard once you are aware that your mower has a self-propel feature.

Just saying.

Anyway, once the leaves had been gathered and the yard mowed, it was time for one of our very favorite activities. In fact, when we bought our house, both my girls almost immediately inquired about fall leaf piles!

When Daddy got home, it was time to party.

These two were fearless!

They raced and jumped and squealed with delight.

They also got a big kick out of hiding in the leaves...

Nice mommy that I am, I raked a dog-bomb free pile from our side yard.

Sweet Thing took breaks here and there to munch on some late-season cherry tomatoes from our garden. She is hilarious with those tomatoes!

And, before I go, I thought I'd share this fun site I found that gives you the dates for peak foliage color in your area. Click here to visit the site.

Happy Fall to you all!

Cranberry Pecan Granola

Granola is definitely one of my favorite foods! It fills me up and satisfies my craving for something sweet and crunchy. I tinkered around with Alton Brown's basic granola recipe until it met all of my criteria for the perfect granola. Crunchy, sweet and a little bit salty with the toothsome nuttiness of whole and chopped pecans, I almost always keep a batch of this on hand for a quick breakfast or a delicious snack.

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

2 cups whole pecans

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup Craisins

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees

Add the oats, coconut and brown sugar to a large bowl.

Put your pecans in a bag and give them a few good whacks with a rolling pin.

Great for stress relief and gives you a perfect combination of whole nuts and nut pieces.

Add the nuts to the bowl and combine with a fork.

In a measuring cup, add the syrup, oil and salt. Stir to combine. Pour over the oat mixture and stir.

In a 9x13 pan coated with nonstick spray, spread the oat mixture evenly.

Bake for roughly an hour, stirring every fifteen minutes.

While still warm, add the granola back to your large bowl.

Stir in the chocolate chips and Craisins.

This granola will keep for up to a month in an airtight container ~~if you don't wolf it all down sooner~~.

It makes a fantastic gift when added to a mason jar or decorative container.

I love to eat this granola mixed with Greek yogurt and frozen raspberries.

Feels like an indulgence, but it's just so simple to make!

Definitely make this recipe your own by changing up the type of nuts you use or adding different mix-ins like raisins or chopped, dried apricots. The possibilities are endless!

Enjoy!

A Visit to my Fall Garden

It's a dreary, windy, temperature-dropping-twenty-degrees-rapidly kind of day here, so during my few minutes of quiet, I snapped some pictures of our fall foliage. Slowly but surely my black thumb is greening up a bit...Hopefully I didn't jinx myself by putting that in print!

I'm a novice, novice, novice behind the lens- I will admit that up front! I do love snapping pictures of EVERYTHING though! In fact, when I was a special education teacher and kept a classroom blog, my poor students would often yell "cheese" anytime I called their names (my kids do this too, for the record!).

Here are some shots I captured while wandering the yard during a break in the rain:

The last of my summer containers...