To recap, I have over 60 cookbooks and I haven’t cooked anything from some of them. I decided to cook two meals from each of them and blog about it. This is Book 2 and Meal 4 from #turnthecookbook adventure. It is from the red cookbook by The Pioneer woman called Dinner time.

I used a pork roast and it set in the fridge marinating for two days.

The fact that I got it cooked is a miracle. I pulled it out to cook a few days ago and since than we have had one carpal tunnel surgery (hubby).

Our house flooded from a storm that came though the area.

Last but not least, my son fell while skate boarding and broke his hand.

Like I said – it’s a miracle it even got cooked and not wasted by sitting in the fridge too long. I did that last week with hamburger meat. It was not a pretty smell. I tried cooking it and my whole house had to be aired out.

The recipe calls for wrapping the meat up tightly in aluminum foil. I did not do that.

I was wrong. I admit that.

I used my cast iron braising pan that had a lid. About 3.5 hours into the 7 hour cooking time I noticed the smell had gone from AMAZING to questionable . It had a slight burnt smell. I took the pan out and there was zero liquid in the pan and the recipe clearly talks about using the excess liquid and reducing it.

Sadly, it had already reduced itself to vapor. The evidences is in the pudding or in this example, the pan.

I removed the meat and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was already cooked through and ready for the BBQ sauce.

Overall this meal was simple to make but I will be trying it in the slow cooker next time. It will make excellent sandwiches and leftovers this week.

Here is the spices she used

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1 TBS paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 TBS chili powder (the original recipe calls for an additional tsp of cayenne pepper but our exchange student does not like spicy so I wanted to tone it down.

Mix all the spices and coat the meat with spices. Cover with plastic wrap and set in fridge for a few hours or overnight or two days like I did. 😂

When it’s time to cook, remove the plastic wrap and cover the meat with aluminum foil. Place it on top of quartered onions. Cook for 7 hours or until meat tears easily with a fork.

If you did it properly and have excess liquid in your pan, pour 1 1/2 cups of liquid into a sauce pan and add about 3 cups of your favorite bbq sauce. I used a gluten free sauce to keep mine GF. Reduce for about 20 mins on low heat. Pour over shredded pork and serve. I ate mine on some toasted GF bread and added mayo. It was delicious.

https://thepioneerwoman.com has a ton of other recipes, so go check out her page.

FYI: the pan cleaned up perfectly.

You were scared for me.

Ya, me too.