A pulled pork parade

I am SO excited to tell show everyone a new recipe I tried this week for shredded pork from The Pioneer Woman, who is just amazing! Much like this recipe, actually :) It just has so many of my favorite things in it that I was almost too excited to eat:

1) Delicious, moist, tender shredded pork with almost no time in the kitchen

2) Fresh ingredients that I literally grabbed right out of my garden

3) Pork Shoulder, which also happens to be on sale at our local Kroger for $1.27/lbs right now!!!

4) The help of my two best friends in the kitchen


5) And most importantly for us busy mommies- VERSATILITY!


I took my own little spin off the Pioneer Woman's recipe and was able to knock out several great meals in one with this little piggy.

Ingredients
* 4 pounds (up To 7 Pounds) Pork Shoulder
* A few sprigs of Fresh Oregano finely chopped, or 1
teaspoon dried
* 1 heaping teaspoon Ground Cumin
* 1 heaping teaspoon Chili Powder (we like it really
spicy, so I actually did 3)
* 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Salt
* Pepper To Taste
* 3 cloves (to 4 Cloves) Garlic
* 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Olive Oil
* 2 Tablespoons (to 3 Tablespoons) White Wine Vinegar
* ¼ cups Brown Sugar
* 1 whole small to medium sized onion
* Lemon wedges (It's probably better to use lime, but I try to
keep all of our family meals under $5 and wanted to use the
lemons from our garden).
* Optional 1/2 teaspoon Serrano peppers for extra heat!

Directions


Gather those best friends we were talking about.

Simply toss the oregano, cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper, garlic, olive oil, white wine vinegar, brown sugar and serranos if you're using them into your first blender buddy:

Once you've given it a few runs, cut the onion in quarters and let it join all that fun. Blend the mixture until it is completely combined.

Rinse and pat dry the pork shoulder.
Rub the mixture all over the pork until it is spread through every tiny hidden part you never thought there was. Place the meat into your other bestie (the Crockpot) with any remaining rub and about 2 cups of water (depending on the size of your pork).

Set the Crockpot to low and cook for at least 7 hours and up to 13. One tip that I always like to do with my Crockpot, and especially when it's hot, is put it in the garage or out on our back porch to cook. That way it doesn't heat up the house and you still get the faint smell of delicious cooking, but not the all day long nagging of it that makes you want to cheat and peak the lid open!

When you're done cooking simply shred the pork shoulder with two forks directly in the Crockpot. Make sure you spread some of those yummy juices back over the pork once it's shredded.

If your family is anything like mine, you're probably going to have to shred far away from sticky fingers and fast! I almost thought it wouldn't make it to the table my husband wouldn't stop "having a little taste" it was so good....


But once it did, we enjoyed ours with warm corn tortillas, fresh salsa, lemon wedges (from our garden, otherwise I recommend limes), refried black beans and a little extra flair of our garden fresh cilantro.

On the second night we changed it up a bit by adding our favorite bbq sauce to make pulled pork sandwiches. This was perfect with our sides of coleslaw and sour cream n' chive potato chips.



On the third night I would've loved to make enchiladas or a soup with the leftovers, but there must be a little raccoon living with us because I just checked the fridge and it was almost gone!!! I guess I'll just take that as compliments to the chef :)

I'd love to hear if you try this and any changes you thought to make. Feel free to comment or email anytime!