Chocolate Pudding with Peanut Butter Whipped Cream

Martha Stewart and Pinterest get all of the credit for this recipe! I really wanted homemade chocolate pudding (the stuff from the box just isn't the same). That's when I decided to look at Pinterest for recipes. I came across this recipe for peanut butter chocolate parfaits. I was sold when I read the recipe and saw that the whipped cream had 1/4 cup of peanut butter added to it! The original recipe was written to make mini-desserts. I don't eat dessert very often, so a mini-dessert wasn't happening! I got out my big Irish coffee mugs and filled them with the homemade pudding and peanut butter whipped cream. I didn't have the peanut butter sandwich cookies the recipe called for, so I used a few pieces from a bar of chocolate instead. I stand behind that decision. This is a great recipe. The whole family loved it. This would be easy to double or triple and put in a trifle dish and take to a pot luck. You could even add a layer of brownies or chocolate cake if you needed to. This is definitely on my "must make again soon" list.


Recipe for parfaits: http://www.marthastewart.com/356794/peanut-butter-chocolate-parfaits

Recipe for chocolate pudding: http://www.marthastewart.com/314077/vanilla-or-chocolate-pudding

Pork Shoulder (Double-Duty Dinners, Part 3)

BBQ pork sliders

One of my best friends in the kitchen is a nice, big Boston butt (pork shoulder) roast. Cooking one large roast in the crock pot for 8 hours leaves me with enough food for 4-6 meals. You can't beat that! The hardest part of this recipe is cutting all the big pieces of fat off of the roast before you put it in the crock pot. Just make sure you have a big cutting board if you buy a big roast. I've been  buying 8 pound roasts lately and using my large, oval crock pot.

Pork tacos

My family's two favorite ways to enjoy pork are BBQ pulled pork and pulled pork tacos. Both of these freeze really well. A quart-sized freezer bag doesn't take up much space in the freezer and it holds enough pork to feed all 4 of us. I usually make one big roast, then shred it. I put half of the pork back into a crock pot for 3 hours with bbq sauce to make pulled pork sandwiches. I freeze any leftover bbq pork that night. Then, the next night, I put the remaining shredded pork into a crock pot with taco seasoning and water and cook on low for 3 hours. Taco pork is great for tacos, burritos. taco salads, etc. Tonight I'm turning some  into nachos! I also freeze the leftover taco pork the same night. If you have more than 1 crock pot, go ahead and make both on the same day and stock your freezer with easy meals.

Taco pork lettuce wraps

Pulled Pork

1 Boston butt roast (any size that fits your crock pot), visible fat trimmed
2 cups water
2 onions, sliced
4 cloves

1) Place half of the onions in the bottom of a crock pot. Place pork and water on top. Add remaining onions. Cook on low for 8-12 hours, or until pork easily shreds.
2) Shred the pork, discarding any excess fat.

For BBQ pork: Add your favorite BBQ sauce and cook on low for 3 hours. I love my Grandma Louie's recipe.  Use as little or as much sauce as your family likes. We like a ton of sauce on ours.

For taco pork: Add 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning per pound of shredded pork. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and stir well.  I used about 3/4 cups of taco seasoning on half of an 8 pound roast. If you want to make your own taco seasoning, I recommend making a huge batch of my favorite recipe. Cook on low for 2-3 hours.