Divine Swine

Oh Paula Deen, I do love you.

I have made many attempts at pulled pork over the last couple of years. Both of my children and I love pulled pork. Dude will eat it and enjoy, but not with the vim and vigor that the girls and I do.

There is a huge festival in our town called "Defeat of Jesse James Days" that happens the weekend after Labor Day every year. It brings in tons of visitors and it has really grown over the last 21 years that we have lived here.

They re-enact the famous bank robbery, there are arts and craft fairs, live entertainment, a midway, the rodeo comes to town, and there is food. Good food and bad food, but the town square shuts down and it become the food court for 4 days.

The Lions have a booth and serve the most delicious pulled pork sandwiches I have ever eaten in my life. Seriously, I think they put crack in it or something, because they are huge and I have eaten 2 in one day....along with the awesome grape Hawaiian shaved ice....but that is another story. They serve it two ways: plain or barbecue. I love plain the best. The flavor just shines.

While at the grocery store last weekend, they had a combo pack of loin pork on sale. It was $1.49 a pound and it had 6 pork chops, 6 Country style ribs and a roast in it. I so should have bought at least two. My cousin was on Facebook when I said I was cooking up a storm last weekend and he said his wife had pork roast going to make shredded pork and they were using his "favorite Southern Belle's" recipe. He has a thing for Paula Deen.

I looked up the recipe and hers cooks in the oven low and slow for around 4 hours. Because of my work schedule now, I would need to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to get it done or wait for the weekend. I didn't want to freeze the roast and thaw it and do it the next weekend, so I modified the recipe and used my slow cooker.

Here is my adapted version. Paula's can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/bbq-pork-sandwich-recipe/index.html

(yes, I STILL haven't figure out the link thing so it just shows a word and takes you to it-sorry)

Paula's Modified Pulled Pork Sandwiches

2 TBSP salt

2 TBSP black pepper

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP paprika

1/2 TBSP chipotle powder

4-pound pork loin roast (with nice fat layer on top)

1/2 cup apple juice

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp liquid smoke

1 tsp garlic powder

BBQ sauce

Combine in a small bowl the salt, pepper, brown sugar, paprika and chipotle powder. Pat the roast with paper towels so it is dry. Press the rub mixture into the roast and place in a plastic zip-top bag and put in fridge for at least two hours (I did mine for about 4). After marinading, place the roast in a slow cooker. Add all remaining ingredients except the BBQ sauce. Cook on low for 9 to 10 hours (I started it when I went to bed). When time is up, remove the meat from the slow cooker. Set aside to cool, then shred. While the meat is cooling, strain the juice from the slow cooker and pour back in. Stir in shredded meat, and squirt about 2 to 3 tablespoons of BBQ sauce in; stir and cover and cook for one more hour.

Serve on hamburger buns, topped with coleslaw (we didn't) and extra BBQ sauce.

This made about 8 sandwiches. Um, I ate 5 over 3 days....just sayin'

And she makes chili for the first time

Food can be a powerful memory. I think of my Grandma Oney every time I eat pot roast, and compare it to hers. Whenever I get to enjoy homemade lefse and really good Swedish Meatballs, I think of my Grandma Isabelle. And yellow cake with chocolate frosting bring me back to every birthday with Mom's cake on the pink cake plate. A certain smell will bring me to someplace in my youth.

December 1983

I was a Senior at Harding High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. I was in a class of 426, or thereabouts. We were all excited-we were coming into winter break. We were exchanging senior photos. We knew that when we came back, we had just over 5 months and our childhood would be giving way to college, the Armed Services, or working full time.

It started with a phone call. A friend called and asked if I had heard about an accident involving two of our classmates and a Junior. I hadn't heard anything, but made some phone calls to other friends. They had or hadn't heard. There were rumors, speculation. At 5:00 it was on the news. Our classmates had been in a head-on collision with a city bus. Jerry was dead and Eddie was brain dead, but was on a vent.

The next day at school there were so many stories swirling around. From reports from the police, friends and family, the story as we understand it was they had left to go grab some lunch. They were coming down a hill and hit ice. They were not speeding, just lost control. The city bus had no where to go to avoid the collision.

Eddie's parents took him off life support two days later. We were all in shock. People our age didn't die.

I was in choir with both of these boys. They were good boys. They played sports, sang, played instruments. They sang at retirement centers. They weren't bully's and they welcomed everyone.

I called my friend Denise who went to a different high school. When my parents got divorced, they agreed that it would be better for me to start over in a new school rather than facing friends who would point and whisper about the divorce. On my very first day at school, I met Denise, Leslie and Erica. They saw me walk into the lunch room all alone and frightened and called me over to sit with them. Denise and I became fast friends. Denise's Mom invited me over a lot because I lived with my Dad and he was gone quite often, either working or celebrating his Independence. We listened to John Cougar (now he is back to Mellencamp) on her stereo. We made homemade onion rings. We hopped on a bus and went to movies out at the mall. We used to drive down White Bear Avenue in her gold Nova and do the "Death Scream". It was like those screams you hear in scary movies before someone dies. We did indeed scare many people.

I called her to make plans to get together after Christmas. She had heard about the death of the boys at my school at the restaurant where she works, as some of the people she worked with there went to my school and some to hers. She said she had her senior pic ready for me, and I told her the same. I told her we spent way too much time with our boyfriends and needed a girls day, just hanging out and maybe making onion rings.

My Dad decided it was easier to give me money for Christmas since all the stores had the huge day after sales. I hopped on a bus on December 26th and headed downtown St. Paul. I made a rash decision to get my hair cut-super short. It turned out cute, but in the 80's we all had big hair. I found a couple cute things on sale and took off for home. I remember thinking my Dad was going to freak out when he saw how short my hair was, so I walked past my house and went to the store my Mom managed. I walked in and she said "What did you do?" and I almost cried. I told her that I wanted to try something new and I knew it was short, but I didn't think it was that ugly. She looked confused. She said that my Dad had called her, asking if she had seen me and that if I called her I needed to call or come home right away. He sounded angry. At this point I got really scared, thinking I had screwed something up. A side note-we were not getting along very good as my future step-mom had moved in and well, it was a mess. All good now, not so much then.

I waited until I knew he had left for work and had walked home. I don't know if I saw the letter on the table when I first came in the door or not. I put my stuff in my room, checked out the super short hair again, and picked up the note from the table. I read it and it didn't make sense. He said that there were a list of people next to the phone I needed to call. He said he was sorry and that he really liked her. (My father has HORRIBLE writing). Then I figured out the word.

Asphyxiated. Denise and her boyfriend Ron were dead.

They had been at Denise's house and wanted to be alone. Her sister Diane was a year older than us and was home on break and her boyfriend had come over and they were in the living room. Denise's parents were in the family room watching TV. Denise and Ron left in his car and went to the parking lot of the restaurant they worked at and parked. He had backed into a spot and left the car running. He had backed into a snowbank. There was no pain. There was no blood or broken glass like with Jerry and Eddie. They simply fell asleep.

I stumbled through the rest of Winter break and went back to school. Life as I knew it had changed forever. I lost 4 friends in the span of two weeks. I had lost that youthful innocence in a split second.

Now, you are probably asking yourself-what in good gravy does this have to do with chili? Honestly? Nothing. However, at the beginning of this post, I mentioned how food can stir powerful memories in us. So can music.

I hear "Up Where we Belong" from Officer and a Gentleman and I'm back in Mike's bedroom making out like crazy, knowing that we will be together forever.

I hear "Wake Me up before You Go-Go" by Wham! and I'm 18 years old at Dibbos bar in Hudson WI dancing with my friends and drinking Sloe Screws. I was 18-I had no taste back then.

I hear "I'm Alright" from Caddyshack and I think of Denise.

When we pulled up to the church for Denise's funeral, the song "Think of Laura" by Christopher Cross was on. The character on General Hospital had died and they used that song. I cried and cried before we went into the church.

We were leaving the church and I hounded my boyfriend (no, not Mike. Seems we didn't last forever) to make sure the headlights were on for the trip to the cemetery. He started the car and "I'm Alright" started playing. I started to cry and then laugh. Damn her-she knew I needed a sign that it would be okay, and here she was coming to me through the radio.

Monday while I was making chili, that song came on the radio. I stopped what I was doing and leaned against the counter and smiled.

Thanks Denise-I still miss you 27 years later but I feel you smiling down on me every time I hear that song.

Chili

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1/2 pound ground Italian sausage

1 medium onion, diced small

1-28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained

2 cans hot chili beans, undrained

1-14 ounce can tomato sauce

1-6 ounce can tomato paste

1 tsp. hot chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin

2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Brown all the ground meats, in batches. As it finishes browning, put in big pot and start on next meat. When all the meat has been browned, saute the onions for a few minutes in fat remaining from the meat. Scoop the onions into the pot. Pour all the canned tomato products in, and then the seasonings. Stir together and put heat on medium-low. Give a stir occasionally and press the stirring utensil down over the tomatoes to break them up. Simmer at least an hour or longer. I simmered the pot about 3-1/2 hours to let it thicken. Dude likes it thick and clinging to a cracker.

A ......Minneuban?

Not quite a Cuban, a little Midwest influence? I took 5 ribs out of the slow cooker before adding the BBQ to the country style ribs and made some shredded pork. I poured a little of the cooking liquid in and a little bit of beef broth and stored in the fridge for the next day. We heated up the pork, split open a small French bread loaf, placed a slice of Havarti on the top and bottom, piled on some warm pork, some pancetta, some slices of roast beef and some Dijon mustard and panini-ed that sucker. Oh, so good. We scarfed these bad boys down right quick.

Dude is teaching himself to tile and here is the progress as of last week. I need to go down and click the update. We (he) gutted our downstairs bathroom and is rebuilding from scratch. Whoever built this house should be shot as their simple math skills were lacking as they apparently couldn't figure in the size of a 2x4 when measuring out for plumbing. The plumbing is too close to the wall and the furnace and well pump sit right on the other side of the wall. The first time we built the bathroom, he built a niche into the wall for the toilet tank to sit. He was able to cut out a little bit of the stud to get it to work this time. We are tiling the whole thing in black and white and it is starting to really take shape. I will snap some new photos soon, but here is the shower floor. It is finally large enough to really take a good shower-the last one was the size of camper shower!

Cuban Pork Roast `a la POM

The gracious and generous folks over at POMWonderful sent me a box of 8 bottles of POM juice. I have made a punch with it, used it here-but have yet to drink it straight from the bottle. I should remedy that with one of the bottles left.

I first had a Cuban sandwich in 2001 when I took my daughters to Florida for a mini vacation at my Dad and step-mom's rental house. They were in the process of building their house and rented a home so Dad could oversee the construction. Since we went in June it was super hot outside. We literally went from air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned restaurant/store/other people's homes. They took us to a small restaurant and we had Cuban sandwiches. I of course don't like pickles so I had them hold those. That was one terrific sandwich. I have had a couple here in Minnesota, and while they were good, they didn't quite get the taste spot on.

I found a recipe for Cuban Pork Roast from Hamilton Beach while doing a search on-line. I didn't follow it exactly, but rather used it for a guide for some seasonings. It didn't taste like the pork in the sandwich either, but it was so good.

Cuban Pork Roast `a la POM

5 pound pork roast-used a bone in
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. southwestern season blend
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
3 TBSP fresh lemon juice, zest the lemon first
3 TBSP fresh lime juice, zest the lime first
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1/3 cup POM juice
the lemon and lime zest

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients except roast and zest. Store zest in zipper bag in fridge.
Place roast in gallon size zipper bag and place the baggie in a bowl. Pour the marinade over the pork, squish around to cover meat and place in fridge overnight. In the morning, remove roast from the marinade and place in a slow cooker. Sprinkle with the citrus zest. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.

We had this for dinner the first night, and I shredded the rest of the pork up, stirred in some barbecue sauce and served it as shredded pork sandwiches the second night. It was honestly delicious. It was flavorful and tender, not really sweet but had a small hint of the juice. The original recipe calls for red wine, but we are not huge red drinkers and I also made it on the work weekend, so I didn't want to open a bottle and have it sit in the fridge for 3 days until we could drink it.

Still looking at our options for the mini remodel of the kitchen along with the lower level bath remodel. I may have to lower my standards on the counter top and the dual fuel stove as our dishwasher broke and we needed to gut the downstairs bathroom because of a leaky shower and potential mold issue. I want to check with our remodel guy about the choices of the granite-look laminates and I found a stainless steel 5 burner, all gas model stove that is really nice-and about half the price of the dual fuel. While I would really like the electric oven for baking, I need to be realistic about what I want and what I need.

Had my MRI this week and just about tossed my cookies on the poor radiographer's shoes. I am so claustrophobic it isn't even funny. Everyone laughs when I tell them that I can't even watch people scuba dive on TV because I can't breathe. It is a pain and I feel like a big baby. I have a really high threshold for pain, but apparently narrow, white tubes that make loud clicky noises turn me into a sniveling mess. The only saving grace was that it was elbow they were looking at, so I had to put it up over my head in a kind of 'arm cuff' and they only pushed me in to about my chest. I was able to see out of the end so I didn't panic as much as I did last time. All that was running through my mind was how I could wiggle out of the cuff and escape if the power went out and they weren't able to get the slide to come out of the tube. I know, I need professional help! Hopefully we will know next week what we are dealing with and how long I will be out of commission. I need to get some more food made and pictures taken so I have some in reserves.

Off to catch up with every one's posts.

An Attempt at Brining

It seems to be the 'thing' to do; brining. I have read on many blogs about everyone's success and wonderful-ness of brining, so I decided to take it on, albeit in a small package. Pork chops are my least favorite pork product. My husband loves them, but they are always dried out and blah.

When we got home from work on Thursday morning, I set myself to brining. Being lazy, I didn't turn on the computer to research the brining 'recipe' as I knew I would be sucked into two hours on the 'puter and wouldn't get any sleep. I remember that people were putting in equal amounts of salt and sugar, and some water, wine, etc. Since I was only fixing 2 pork chops (Drama Queen won't eat them) I started small.

Brined Pork Chops

2 bone in pork chops
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup cran apple juice
4 shakes Worcestershire sauce
rosemary
basil
oregano

Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water in a gallon plastic food storage bag. Add the juice and sauce. Break up the herbs and put in mixture. Place chops in baggie and remove air. Squish the pork chops around in the mixture and then lay out flat so marinade is covering them. Place on a high sided dish so they lay flat and will catch marinade if bag has a hole in it. Refrigerate for up to 8 hours. Rinse off chops; pat dry. Sprinkle each side with pork seasoning and some paprika. Put into a scorching hot pan to sear. Turn heat to med-high and sear about 4 minutes. Flip and sear another 4-5 minutes. Check with instant read thermometer to make sure the temp is 165 degrees. Remove to a platter and tent to keep warm. Temp will come up the 5 degrees while resting. I actually removed mine at 155 because I had to reheat them at work. I made some fried, diced potatoes to go with the chops.

Delicious! Oh my goodness, they were so tender and flavorful! I'm a believer, I am.

I am trying to get some stuff made this weekend as I am waiting for a call back from the Orthopedic surgeon. I have been dealing with Lateral Epicondellitis (Tennis Elbow) for about 11 months. I have done two stints of Occupational Therapy with no relief. I have been on Light duty for 10 weeks and my co-workers pretty much hate me. We are waiting on confirmation from Worker's comp that I can have an MRI to check it out. He said it is one of three things:
1) No tear, but inflamed
2) Small tear
3) Large tear

For #1 and 2 they will pretty much give me cortisone shots and put my arm in a sling and I can't use it at all for 3 weeks. For number 3, I would have to have surgery, be casted for 3 weeks and then slinged for another 3, again not using it at all.

Needless to say, I won't be cooking (or scrapping, and little else) for awhile. I figure if I have a few things in the computer, I will be able to hunt and peck with my right hand to do a couple quick posts.

Who wants to run away? Anyone? Apparently my hubby. He said the other day that he wants to sell everything we own, buy a 50 foot sailboat and just cruise the oceans, go from port to port and find the bars, and sail nekked. I just keep smiling and nodding at him. I even played along while we looked up sailboats for sale on the Internet, all the while interjecting that even with selling all the cars, the house, the toys-I don't know that we could live for 20 years until we can get Social Security and our 401(k)'s. His answer? We will do fishing tours, snorkeling tours, booze cruises out of southern ports. Oh, did I tell you? Neither one of us know how to sail-at all. He said we could get "Sailing for Dummies" and read up on it. Plus the big sailboats have power winches so I won't have to unroll the sails and rigger them. I totally made that up, but I know I have heard 'rigger' about sailing.

Smile and nod, just smile and nod.....

Midnight snack

I have had Dude home for both our nights off this week which doesn't happen often. If he can find overtime at work, he is there pumping out the cereal. No overtime this week as most of the plant is going down next week for the holiday. Since it is our short week, we took Wednesday off as vacation and Thursday is our holiday so we have a full week off and have to use only one vacation day-score! I will be busy baking for the church bake sale and to bring treats up to our daughter. Last night I made dinner around 6 and that is pretty early for us to eat since we normally eat at work between 7:30 and 8:30. We just hung out in the house together watching TV and lounging. Tried to go to sleep around midnight and turned TV back on at 2. Caught "The Man with One Red Shoe". I love Tom Hanks, but that was a dumb movie! We had no snacks in the house, so he made a roast beef sandwich from our dinner. Tonight I had a plan for our midnight snack-smoked sausage and potatoes.

Dude stuck his beer in the photo-thought it would class it up a bit!

I just sliced up the smoked ring sausage and browned it off in the pan. Then I removed it to a plate to hold it while I fried up the potatoes. Once the spuds were brown, I added the sausage back in to warm up.

It was delightful!

Tofu was looking for some handouts. Check out her eyes-it looks like her left on is fully eye lined and her right one only has eye liner around part of it. And she doesn't have an eye booger-that is her marking by her eye. I keep trying to wipe it away for her.

Grilling out

No, we didn't grill the cat, but here is an updated photo of Tofu.I think I'm in like. We had a simple dinner on Friday night as we were heading to the races at our local track. They had trucked in dirt for dirt track racing. Don't know that I'm a fan since I got pelted with big pieces of clay/dirt. I think the one left a rather large mark on my chest. Ouch!

I picked up some nice, thick bone in pork chops and then went out and picked some veggies from the garden. We marinaded the pork chops in my favorite Lawry's marinade and put those on the grill with some Idaho bakers that I had partially cooked in the microwave. I made a foil packet for the veggies and threw in some zucchini, peas, green beans and a couple different peppers. I drizzled some EVOO over them, sprinkled on some Tuscan herb mix and some Lemon Pepper and put that on the grill for about 8 minutes. We were out the door in no time.

Here is my new car! It is a 2005 Dodge Magnum, which is a station wagon, but not what your Momma use to drive! I am super excited. The Dude was concerned since I test drove one about 5 years ago and wanted one then. I haven't driven one since and he thought that the view might be a little hard to get used to after the Caddy-the windows are a lot shorter. I sat in it when he brought it home and loved it. I have to wait a little while to drive it as he has to fix the rear end. It was a repairable he found on-line so he got it cheap. It only has 29000 miles on it. As you can tell, very excited!

I have to go shave my hubby now-he bought a clipper to shave his own head-saving $8 over a haircut you know, and he can't get around his ears or the back of his neck. Things I don't do for the man I love........

Some days, fast and easy wins

I was prepared to read into brining my pork chops, but in the end, I was just plain tired and took the easy way out. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work this morning (Dude hates this, but does it anyway) and we have been very good sticking to our non-weight related resolution of $100 a week for groceries-except for his movie purchase, but I digress. They had nice thick pork chops on sale and he salivated, so we picked up a package for the two of us. The kids don't really like the chops and who knows where they would be today. I had read about people brining the chops-and all sorts of other meats. I was going to do that today, or at least look into it as I know it takes awhile and I had other stuff I planned for dinner. Yeah, slept late, kids interrupted everything I wanted to do and soon it was 7 o'clock. Too late to make the Clucks-n-Spuds casserole, so I just took the easy way out. Marinate the chops in my favorite marinade, slap them in the cold cast iron pan and gently cook until 160 degrees. They were very tender and by the time we ate, I would have been happy with cold cereal. In case you need a quick pork chop option, here it is:




Easy pork chops:
2 bone-in chops (I threw away the wrapping, but they looked like a T-bone steak)
Lawry's Steak and Chop marinade





Place a small amount of marinade in a flat dish that is big enough to hold chops. Nestle the chops in the marinade. Place chops on top and then pour some more marinade on top. Man handle the dish to get the marinade all the way around the chop. Let sit on counter for half an hour. Place chops in a cold, dry skillet (I used my cast iron one). Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes until a nice sear appears. Flip and cook another 10 minutes. These were thick chops-at least an inch thick. Do not cook them this long if you have thin chops. The last 5 minutes of cooking, I added about 1 TBSP water to pan and it helped boil up the juices and fond on the pan and gave the chops a nice caramel color. Test with instant read thermometer to make sure the pork is done. I took my off the heat at 155 degrees and let rest for about 8 minutes and it hit 160 degrees no problem. Since it was so late and I wanted to gnaw the legs off the table, we used a box of potatoes and rounded out the meal with a bollioa roll (Mexican roll). They were tender and we both enjoyed them. Especially with the hurricanes I made-that will be another post!


He offered to help me 'undecorate' the tree, so I'm off in search of boxes. Don't judge me-I have worked a few days of OT lately and I just keep staring at tree, trying to will it to shed my ornaments and hop back in that box. So far, it just looks at me and mocks me. Stupid tree.

Pork in the Pot

I was reading my new magazine "Food Network Magazine" and it said that a trick for winning cooking contests was to have a catch name. Hmmm, pork in the pot probably won't win it for me. It wins over my tummy in a big way though. The pictures didn't turn out very well and I know part of it is my camera and part is that I cook at night. I work nights and sleep days. I stay on my schedule on my days off so I don't get my sleep pattern all screwed up. I make dinner at a normal time (usually) but only on my days off, unless I use the slow cooker. I used it today, but only because it is the best way to get a tender roast out of tough piece of meat. I wanted something nice a warm as we had another freaking cold day. School was closed but I made the Dude go to the grocery store with me. Very quiet there this morning. Picked up groceries for next week and we were good to go. There is nothing the Dude hates more than shopping, especially for food. Two aisles in and he is throwing stuff in saying, 'is that everything, are you done, we don't need anything down that aisle'. It would be easier to go by myself, but I like the company and needs to give a little input into our dining decisions. He got very excited when I bought lemons and bananas as he knows I am going to make him lemon meringue pie and banana cream pie next week. The man loves his pie. He bought me a great cookbook about 4 years ago called Diner Desserts. The bars I made tonight are from it (posting that probably tomorrow). He doesn't get the Lemon pie very often as it is pretty labor intensive, but I haven't done it for awhile and he deserves it. He talked to his parents last night and mentioned that his mom made Tom Thumb bars. I asked what they were and he mentioned what he thought was in them. I in turn had to kick the Drama Queen off the computer so I could email my MIL and get the recipe, so he knows that is coming soon, too. Tonight it was all about the pork. I'm a beef girl. I grew up on beef and nothing makes my tummy happier than a nice filet Mignon or some prime rib. As I am getting older I am developing a taste for pork. I love ham, LOVE BACON, but not a big fan of pork chops. But am starting to like the roasts. Oh, and those little tiny Hormel ones? Hello-goodness on a bun-that is what we do; grill, slice, put on a bun, cover with BBQ sauce and eat. And repeat. I think possibly it stems from some awfully dry pork I had made when newly married, so things are coming along nicely!

Pork in the Pot

1-3 pound pork roast

4 carrots, peeled and cut in large pieces

1/2 an onion, sliced, or one large shallot, sliced (this is what I used)

5 cloves of garlic, just crushed a little to slip off skin, left whole

Pork chop seasoning

Salt and pepper

Peel and slice carrots

Slice shallot

Crush the garlic

Season the roast with spice, salt and pepper

All the kids go into the pool, with veggies on the bottom. Pour over liquid of your choice. I used beef stock (not pictured). Set the slow cooker to Low and let 'er rip. 7 hours later, plate that bad boy up and let sit and rest for a few minutes. Serve with potatoes or any other side that floats your boat. I used fingerling potatoes tonight, but I steamed them instead of putting in with the roast.

It was so tender and flavorful. I am glad we have enough left for work!