Shoulder Cut Boston Butt

Jeff is the Young Mens President in our ward so he is over the boys ages 16 and 17 years old. This Saturday they are doing an activity where they will be cooking a picnic dinner for the girls of the same age in our ward. Rillz, Mindy's boyfriend (can't stand the word fiance, sorry) will be guiding them along as they prep the food. They LOVED having Rillz show them cooking skills last time and wanted him back. Anyway, last night Jeff took the boys to the store to buy the food. Jeff said that it was a huge learning experience for all of them but the list just said pork butt. They got there and had no idea which one they should get. Jeff text Rillz for a better description. Jeff had me laughing because when he described it he said that it was something like a Boston Butt. Boston butt!? What is that. He told me Rillz said something like a Shoulder Cut Boston Butt. I was laughing so hard! Say that about 10 times. It will having you laughing too. As Jeff and I were watching TV late last night, one of the PBS channels had the America's Test Kitchen people on it. AND they were talking about pork and different cuts. Actually I don't even know what they were actually demonstrating because Jeff and I immediately gravitated towards the gigantic pig behind them with the different cuts drawn out on its sides. We were laughing so hard and then we were in awe that ham is actually the pigs bum and shoulder butt is the upper shoulder section and picnic roast is the lower shoulder portion and then so on. I found it funny that we had an entire conversation about Shoulder Cut Boston Butt and then this pig outlining it on TV. We then crashed into bed after that.

Lately I have been thinking of other stupid cooking things that I have done in my past and they make me laugh. These both happened while living in this house so about 5 years ago. I am so dumb when it comes to cooking, actually I should say I was so dumb. I have actually wised up with all of the things I have learned from blogs. Anyway, I was cleaning out the chest freezer in the garage and ran across an entire 1 or 2 bags of Rhodes rolls that had thawed a little and were a total blob when refrozen. In my dumb mind I thought they were goners. So what did I do, I just through them on the top of the garage garbage. (Now I realize I could have done so many things with the dough like remade the rolls, made pizza dough, really it could go on). The next day the lid of the trash can was totally popping off. The dough had expanded to huge proportions. It was pretty funny and Jeff was beside himself with what I did. Yes, he knew that other things could be done with it.

My other retard-o error was along the same lines. I was cleaning out the deep freezer and we had lots of cow bones or big game bones that my dad had given us for the dogs. They had been in there for a long time so I decided to throw them away. By the way, every time I did these things, it was not really that near garbage day. Anyway, I proceeded to throw out the freezer burned meat in the trash can. Little did I realize, the trash can had a hole in it and it was not the best to have raw meat sitting in a garage. About a day later, we were in the garage, noticed blooding trailing to the low spots (like under the work bench and near our inner wall) and little tiny white maggots everywhere! It was SOOOOO gross! And not very fun to clean up. Learned my lesson there. Do it the night before or morning of garbage day and maybe put it in a trash bag. Gross! I've since come to my senses a little and will never repeat those mistakes.

Shoulder cut Boston Butt. Seriously say that a few times fast and it will have you laughing...okay maybe just me.

Gluten Free Website

Man oh man I have so many things to blog about. I just got back from St. George Utah with my mom for a week visiting family. I also need to post about my square foot garden this year. It is SO awesome! I love going out there and just staring at it as if it is going to get up and walk away at any point. I also need to post about Brecken turning 11 months but he turns one years old next week so that is way behind. I wanted to post about why I love craigslist and all of the random fun things that I have aquired recently and how I plan to transform them. But here I am writing this post solely to post a link to a gluten free blog. Why!? I have 2 cousins that could greatly benefit from this.

I was at a family get together a couple of days ago and one of them asked if we had a gluten free Sacrament at church. I had no idea what they were talking about. One mentioned that they served rice cakes for those that needed something gluten free the other stated that they had a section of the chapel where all those that needed gluten free sat and were served a special whatever for their sacrament. They mentioned that visitors reactions are quite funny when they get a different sacrament but didn't know any different. Then one person started questioning the gluten free diet eluding to it as a fad. Okay, I do understand that some people just choose to have a gluten free diet because it does seem like the fad thing to do, however I have 3 family members that I know HAVE to have a gluten free diet for their health. Two of them (they are married) have Lyme disease and in order to battle the disease a gluten free diet is so incredibly important. The other one is a cousin that has a 3 year old daughter with celiac and in order to stay healthy she must have a gluten free diet. So much that sweet little Ivy can't even play with normal play dough. Anyway, I was on Pinterest. Heard of it? One of the greatest sites for ideas on anything. You "pin" it to your board for future reference. Anyway, one of my friends posted a gluten free site on her board. It is called Gluten Free in SLC. I was blown away with the extent of their recipes. They had anything from brownies, to panda express orange chicken, to chicken parmesan. My cousins may already be aware of this site but I figured it was worth mentioning because they had so many yummy things that were all gluten free.

Sweet & Salty

This year as our gift to neighbors and friends, I made chocolate covered pretzel rods. I originally started out with plain chocolate but really wanted to make caramel ones but couldn't find one ingredient that I needed in time for our bake day at my parents. I searched high and low and could not find them. Let me tell you how to make these super easy Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Rods.

First you need these caramel apple wraps. I could not find these at 3 different stores including an Albertsons. I went to the other Albertsons for something else and finally found them there. You will find them near the apples in produce.

Five wraps come in a package. Cut one of the wraps in strips. I used my pizza cutter.

Stretch one of the strips slightly and then wrap it around the pretzel rod. I was amazed at how much I can get one to stretch. I was able to do 2 bags of rods with one package of wraps.

Melt chocolate melts in the microwave 30 seconds at a time and then roll the rods in the chocolate. I use the melts from Winco in the bulk section. I really like the dark chocolate ones. I read a tip on line that was a lifesaver for these. Put two pieces of wax paper on a plate and then melt the chocolate on it in the microwave. Then roll the rods in it. Using wax paper on the plate allows you to lift the ends to get the chocolate on better.

I used these little round sprinkles to distinguish the caramel rods from the others. Another combination that I really liked was dark chocolate with crushed peppermints.
I definately know that this form of caramel does not compare to the really yummy, totally stressful homemade version but this works for me in half the time with fun results.

Are you doing treats this year or completely forgetting about it? I was actually totally shocked that I even did any of this.

Grilled Eggplant Panini with Rosemary-Garlic Aioli Sauce

I am not an eggplant fan but when I saw this Grilled Eggplant Panini with Rosemary-Garlic Aioli Sauce recipe online, I decided I had to try it. It looked so good. I convinced my friend that she just had to give me her last hard earned eggplant from her garden. This recipe was so easy and let me tell you, that sauce was to die for. I seriously could mix a little of that up and eat it with swiss cheese dipped in. It was goooood. Anyway, we made these babies up and happened to have the corn on the cob on hand too.Gunnar lives for picnics. He loves them so much. So we decided to eat these yummies outside. It was cold. It was a bit chilly but that didn't stop us. I was sick of trying to get a descent picture of Gunnar and gave in and ate. So this is all that you get. Seriously write this recipe and write it down. You will be glad you did when you are handed an eggplant.

Have You Tried This Coconut Goodness

I am sitting here on my laptop writing out recipes on notecards as Jeff is still away at church meetings and Gunnar is watching a movie. I suddenly remembered that I bought Coconut M&M's yesterday for the second time and wanted to write about them on here.

Okay...so have you tried them!? They are so stinkin' good. It helps immensely that I love coconut. Jeff and I were pleasantly surprised at how yummy these things were. The coconut flavor is just right and not really overpowering. The packaging is cute with the cute green m&m girl on the front. You will want to grab them soon if you want to try them as they are limited edition and probably won't be around long. I got mine at Walgreens so I am not sure who else is carrying them.

Cupcakes Anyone?

This is posted way late but too fun not to mention. I have never been one to do anything for April Fool's Day. With the help of fun blogs that I follow, I found this idea for cupcakes...or are they.

They are actually mini meatloafs with mashed potatoes on top. I do not really like meatloaf but this recipe was really good. I really liked them and so did everyone else. I used potato pearls so the frosting wasn't as creamy looking but it worked. It was really funny. When Heidi and Gunnar got home, Gunnar of course wanted a cupcake. Heidi was a little leary. I didn't tell them what they were. I just said that dinner was ready. I told Heidi to take a taste of the frosting. She thought that it might be playdough or something not edible. It was pretty fun. Gunnar ate it just like he would a cupcake, the frosting first and off the top.

Ren stayed home from work because he did not feel well so he headed over. Heidi asked him if he was hungry. He said that he was not but he would probably eat a cupcake. We had to tell him that they were little meatloaves. It was funny. The entire thing was pretty funny. I looked and looked for the link but am sick of looking for it, so an easy search would easily bring it up.