Boston butt, baked beans, and creamy slaw

My crockpot has probably been THE best kitchen purchase I've ever made, aside from the basics of course. I'm always looking for recipes that call for fresh ingredients and require few steps in preparation. I recently came up with this pork Boston butt recipe by browsing the Internet, listening to family and friends, and tweaking for our tastes. I've served it with homemade Boston baked vegetarian beans, and homemade cabbage coleslaw. Here are the recipes and ingredients I used:

Pork Boston Butt BBQ Crockpot

About 3 to 4 lbs Boston butt

Dry rub, lysanders BBQ

4 cloves of garlic

1 onion

Bottle of BBQ sauce

Trim excess fat off of the roast. Use scissors to slice deep holes in the meat, then stuff with garlic cloves. Chop onion and place in the bottom of the pot. Put the meat on top then sprinkle the dry rub generously over all sides. Cook on highest for about 5 hours. Drain fat once or twice before finishing. Put on warm and mix about a half bottle of BBQ sauce in the meat after shredding with a fork.

Creamy Coleslaw

Shred half a head of cabbage

Use one small bag of shredded carrots

Finely sliver and chop white onion (optional)

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over vegetables, then stir:

3/4 cup mayo

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbs olive oil

Boston Baked Vegetarian Beans

1 package of dry pinto or dry white beans, 1lb

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 medium onion chopped

5 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp dry mustard

5 tbsp molasses

2 tsp sea salt

Soak beans in water overnight, keep covered with water. Drain while preparing the bean pot. In a bean pot, place onion, garlic, sugar,mustard, and salt. Pour beans over the mixture then top with molasses. Cover all of it with water until about an inch higher than mixture. Bake for 6 hours on 300 degrees in the oven. Check after the first hour to make sure it hasn't dried up. After that, leave it alone. No need to stir at all!

I love other people's garbage!

Yes, you read that right...I love other people's garbage. I probably inherited this from my grandfather or at the least learned young....treasures WILL be found in the garbage! Lucky for me, I don't have to dumpster dive or paw through heaps of stinky bags at the landfill to find such treasures. Our neighborhood has one day designated each month for curbside pickup which means all the good stuff is saved for then to be discarded. I have found countless treasures, but the most recent tops them all! Check out this chair pair. I found them without the cushions, looking a little dirty, with the cushion supports falling apart. What I saw though were very easy fixes and potential for two reclaimed chairs in my living room....giving us some much needed extra seating!

First I cleaned them up. Then I replaced the supports with strips of feed sack, making that fix totally free! I measured the bottom seat and found replacement cushions, in a neutral color, online and made the back pillows with removable covers so I can change the look whenever I want. The fix ups cost a lot less than what two brand new chairs would cost and now I have stopped the fighting over the one chair we had before.

Leftover Mexican Medley

Leftover Mexican Medley

Tacos, burritos, quesadillas and the such are a common staple in our house. I can mix up the ingredients easily and everyone always walks away with bellies full & happy. Last week when I made soft tacos, I purposely doubled my rice and meat mixture so I could squeeze another meal out of one night of prep and cooking. Lets just say, it was a total success!

I took the leftovers, mixed them up in a bowl, added 1 cup of frozen corn, 1 can of black beans, and about 1 cup of shredded Mexican cheese.

I pressed this firmly into a deep pie dish (you can use any casserole pan or cake pan), then spread the leftover refried beans on top, and sprinkled more cheese across the top. Bake for about 30 minutes on 350 or until the cheese is starting to brown on top. Serve with scallions on top and a side of sour cream. This was a big hit with the whole family and works great being prepped ahead of time too! Enjoy!