Two weeks ago today Taylor and I moved into our new house here in Texas! I’m not a California girl anymore!
I’m here in the Houston area. We’ve really been loving the last two weeks. All of our stuff is out of boxes, we have settled into a fairly regular routine, and it’s been wonderful and scary all at the same time.
Wonderful:
- New beautiful house!
- The friendliest people
- 77 cent mangoes (everthing is cheaper here. EVERYTHING!)
- We are closer to Taylor’s family
- Cute baby frogs everywhere on our night walks
- The adventure of moving to a new place where everything is new.
Scary:
- Driving across the country towing our entire life in a Budget rental truck (including one very sad cat)
- 100 degree weather with 50-70% humidity every day
- snakes, roaches, fire ants, mosquitoes, and basically every other creature besides the cute baby frogs on our night walks
- Not having Wifi for TWO WEEKS!
- Trying to keep our freshly laid sod alive in this heat.
- The adventure of moving to a new place where everything is new…
We can’t wait to see what God has in store for us as we get settled here.
One thing about the heat is that it makes me very hesitant to turn the oven on. Even with the air conditioning, it’s not exactly chilly inside. Doing anything to raise the temperature inside just seems crazy, which is why I’ve been having so much fun with my Crock Pot for the last two weeks.
Pork butt has to be the best cut of meat for a slow cooker. Thanks to it’s high fat content, it doesn’t really matter what you do to it, the dish will come out flavorful and tender.
Yesterday, I tried a recipe from Real Simple Magazine’s weeknight dinners. It was so easy and delicious, I have to share it with you (I can’t say y’all yet. It still feels weird).
All I did was add the ingredients to the slow cooker, let it cook all day, shredded the pork, and poured the delicious sauce over pasta. I chose a hand crafted pappardelle, basically just so the pictures would look better. It ended up being really tasty. The sauce clung to it pretty well.
Look at that pretty pork butt! Did you know the butt is really the shoulder of the pig? I didn’t until recently.
After I shredded the meat in the sauce and poured it over the pasta, I added a little shredded parmesan (plus a bunch more later when it was on my plate…)
This was a delicious change from the usual jar of canned sauce and spaghetti that I usually make on pasta night, and almost as easy! Isn’t that pappardelle so pretty? Enjoy!!!
- 1½ lbs of boneless pork butt, trimmed and cut in half
- 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
- 1 large carrot, peeled, cut once down the center, and then chopped ¼ inch thick
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
- 2 tbl tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper
- ¾ lb pappardelle, or pasta of your choice
- Trim pork butt of excess fat and skin. Don't worry about getting every little speck of white off. A little fat will just make for a tastier sauce.
- Add carrot, onion, garlic, thyme, oregano, ¾ tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, tomato paste, and tomato sauce (with juices) to slow cooker. Stir to combine.
- Add pork and coat it in combined ingredients. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.
- minutes before you're ready to serve, cook pasta according to package instructions, drain, and return to pot.
- While the pasta is cooking use two forks to shred pork. Shred it smaller than bite-size. You want the pork to be well incorporated with the sauce. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust seasoning to your taste. if the sauce seems too thin you can simmer it for 10-15 minutes over medium heat. Pour the sauce over cooked pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan and serve hot.
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Great job on using the crock pot – this looks wonderful!
Thanks so much! I love that my crock pot has my initials written on the side of it. It will always remind me of the few weeks when there were three Boubel women living in one house!
Do you have a recipe for carnitas? This one looks beautiful. Would love to see pics of your new home! Haven’t seen you for so long. Texas is full of friendly people.
One of my favorite food blogs, http://www.pinchofyum.com has a tasty recipe for carnitas I’ve made it twice and it’s so good! I’ll post some pictures soon 🙂 Right now the house is pretty empty since we moved from a one-bedroom apartment. It has been a very long time! I hope you’re doing well.
Wow! This looks really good – I’m a huge fan of pork in the slow cooker, and no, I didn’t know that the butt was the shoulder. . . weird!! Can’t wait to try this! Congrats on your move!! Hope you’re settling in ok!
Thanks so much! We are settling in pretty well. It’s been overwhelming, but wonderful!
I was so excited to see your post and hear about you two settling in. I remember when Eric & I moved from Phoenix to Ojai 17 years ago. It was wonderful (our new life together) and scary (moving from a huge city to a small town that closes up at 6 p.m.). Oh what fun! I love frogs! I am jealous. But I do not envy you for the roaches. That reminds me of Phoenix again! I am excited to try this recipe. I love pork and I love my crock pot. We use it at least once a week. Thanks for posting this!
I bet Phoenix to Ojai would have been a big shock! We can’t get over the fact that you can’t walk anywhere. Everything is really spread out. Plus, it’s too hot to walk anyway. I’m glad you like the recipe! You could serve the sauce over rice if you didn’t want to eat the pasta.
I actually like the Rice Pasta from Trader Joe’s. I think I’ll serve it over the rice spaghetti. Yum!