Recipe of the Week: BBQ Pulled Pork

We had Catalyst at our house on Sunday night and before when we have had them over we grill something but this time I wanted to do something different. This recipe is one that I came up with on my own. It's slow cooked in the crockpot in root beer. I got that idea off a recipe I found on allrecipes.com however I found that it was way too bland and just one note so I added to it and made it my own. It's seriously some of the best pulled pork I've had and I have had a lot of BBQ. I used bottled BBQ sauce with this one since I was cooking for a lot of people but when it's just me and Jeremy I make my own sauce. I really hope you'll try this recipe. If you do, please leave some feedback and let me know if you liked it!

 What you need:

1-2 pork loins

Root beer

1-2 Bottles BBQ sauce(depending on how much sauce you like)

1 clove garlic minced

Salt & Pepper

What you do:

Season both sides of your pork with salt & pepper. Throw them in the crockpot and sprinkle garlic on top.

Pour the root beer in the crockpot until it almost covers  the pork. Cook on low for 7 hours.

Reserve about a cup of the juice in the crockpot and pour the rest out.

When you pull it out it should just be falling apart! Take two forks and use them to shred the meat.

Big thanks to my handsome and sweet hunny for shredding all the pork. There was a lot!

Pour your sauce over the pork and use your tongs to toss it all together.

I eat mine with beans and coleslaw on top. When we went on our honeymoon to Hawaii, we stopped and had pulled pork sandwiches at a place on the beach and they served pineapple coleslaw with it. It was so delicious! Jeremy absolutely loved it. So I came up with my own rendition of it and I make it every time I made pulled pork. Try this sandwich out, it's so delicious!!

Broccoli & Cheese soup

This recipe is SO unbelievably easy and so delicious! My momma always made this growing up and I have always loved it. I haven't found another B&C soup that tops this one for me. Jeremy HATES broccoli so he was gone one night this week so I decided to make myself a big pot of it. I had a bunch left over so I put it into small ziplocks and froze it. Anytime I want a bowl, I can just thaw out the individual bags and dinner is served! :) 

What you need:

1/2 onion, chopped

2 T butter
2 pkgs frozen chopped broccoli (10oz bags)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
4 cups milk
3 oz Velveeta jalapeño cheese, cut into small pieces (not pictured)
1 tsp Accent

 What you do:

Sauté chopped onion in butter. When onion is cooked thru, throw broccoli in the pot and let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in mushroom soup, milk, cheese & accent. Cook over medium heat, stirring often until cheese melts. 

You can serve this with some bread OR in a bread bowl. So yummy! I promise you'll love it! :)

Leave me some feedback if you have been trying some of the recipes I've been posting and let me know what you think!

Recipe of the Week: Chicken & Dumplings

This recipe is unbelievably yummy! I am not a fan of chicken and dumplings but this recipe makes me a fan! It is my Granny Ashcraft's recipe that she gave to me a year or so ago. This is great for anytime really but especially if you or someone you know isn't feeling well. It's such a great comfort food!

What you'll need:

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 and 1/2 cups self rising flour 

3 tablespoons of oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon of water

one egg

2 cans cream of chicken soup

Salt & Pepper to taste

What you do:

Place chicken in a large stock pot and fill with water until chicken is just covered and boil until chicken is done.

In a bowl combine flour, salt, water, oil & egg. Stir together until the dough comes together. Add more water if needed. 

Lightly flour your surface & roll out your dough very thin. Let it stand for 20 minutes.

Remove your chicken from the boiling water and SAVE the broth. Now, you can shred your chicken by hand but I just throw it in my food processor and pulse a few times.

Using your whisk, put the cans of cream of chicken into the broth and whisk together until the soup dissolves. Add salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste. Jeremy likes his food salty so I added quite a bit.

Cut your dough into strips and then into rectangles.

Stir your water a few times to get a circular motion going then drop your dumplings into the broth mixture one at a time. If you drop them all together it'll just be a big clump and you don't want that! :)

Just thought I would throw this one in... She was helping me cook this meal :)

Try this recipe and I promise you'll love it. It's so rich and creamy but also that comforting feeling you always got eating chicken noodle soup growing up... BUT BETTER! :)

Little Miss Aubrey

I had the pleasure of photographing Jon & Amy's journey thru this pregnancy. I first did a maternity shoot with them, then her baby shower and now that Aubrey has arrived, a newborn session! She is so precious. This is just a small peek at our session from Sunday. Hope you enjoy!

My Favorite!

For session info please email me at larissafloyd@yahoo.com

A few of my favorite things- Kitchen edition!

Instead of doing a recipe of the week this week, I thought I might share some of my very favorite kitchen tools. These are some that I use weekly. Some of them I use for every meal. If you love to cook and don't own these tools, I encourage you to go buy these utensils for yourself! 

This is my collection of must haves!! Lets get started...

First off, CAST IRON SKILLETS. I love, love, love mine! I have three different sizes. The smallest I use for biscuits and the two larger I use for anything else. I use the medium size if I am cooking for me and Jeremy and the larger if I am cooking for more than two. They're such a great tool! They do take a lot of work to keep them clean and from rusting, but it is well worth it! I use mine mostly for frying and cooking skillet potatoes and even making apple pie but you can use them for anything really. Except maybe a crepe... But who is making crepes? Not me. I made double orange glazed pork chops last night and cooked them in my large skillets. It created such a delicious crust on the pork. If you don't have a cast iron skillet... GO GET ONE! You can find them at Wal-mart so you don't have to look far!

Next on my must have list is a stand mixer. My mom gave this one to me when I got married. I have to admit, it was my favorite wedding gift! :) It has endless attachments that you can purchase from a whisk to a ravioli maker to a sausage casing attachment. My favorite attachment by far is the paddle with a rubber edge that my husband got me for Christmas. It scrapes the side of the bowl while mixing, and if you have one of these, you know that you're constantly having to stop to scrape the side of the bowl! I make bread, cookies, cakes, frostings, whipped cream and more with my Kitchen Aid mixer.

I made this next image a little larger than the rest so you could see the text on the photo and know what each individual tool is.

First, a large chefs knife is a MUST HAVE. Chopping is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen. It's just fun to me. There's all sorts of different cuts you can do. Onions are probably my favorite thing to chop. I have a full knife block and the knife pictured is my favorite.

My Pampered Chef Mix'n'Chop is my next tool. I use this one for when I am browning hamburger meat. I HATE when a dish has ground beef in it and there are large chunks. Eww. This tool allows me to not only stir the meat to keep it browning evenly but also I can press down and it breaks up the meat perfectly. You can order it on Pampered Chef's website. Trust me, it's worth it!

Whisk. I think everyone, even if you don't cook, owns a whisk. Surprisingly, I only own one whisk. I don't think I need to explain what you need it for, but trust me you need one! They are so handy and perfect for mixing small batches of stuff up.

For Christmas, Jeremy gave me my very first microplane. I would watch all the TV chefs use theirs and be so jealous. I just never got around to buying one. I didn't even have this on my list, but Jeremy just knows me so well and is such a great husband. I have used it constantly since getting it Christmas morning. You can grate lemons, limes, oranges, garlic, etc. GO GET ONE NOW! :)

My scooper is next. I LOVE this tool. It's probably top three for me. Considering that where I do my chopping is on one counter and my stove is on the other end of the kitchen, this comes in handy almost every meal. I can scoop all my chopped goodness up and transfer it to my nice hot pan without spilling everything on the floor. I bought mine at Bed Bath & Beyond. 

Next up, my scoop! I actually have three different sizes of these but the medium is what's pictured here. Baking cookies is one of my favorite things to do and I use this scoop when I do. It makes the perfect size cookie. This is also pampered chef and was given to me as a wedding gift. Again, you can purchase these online.

Who likes peeling potatoes? I do. With my veggie peeler, it's a cinch! If I didn't have this tool, I would never make mashed potatoes. I'm dead serious. Actually, I would but they would always have the skin on them, which my husband hates. I also use this to peel zucchini, squash and eggplant when I am making Rylee's baby food.

Last, but certainly not least, a rubber spatula. Or, if you're Paula Deen a "rubber spatuler." I bought this spatula 2 years ago at Macy's before me and Jeremy got married. I also have the matching blue spoon. I have several spatulas, but this one is my favorite because I love blue :) Just like a whisk, I don't think I need to tell you what I use this for, but I do use it almost every meal. It's the BEST. 

Those are my favorite kitchen tools. What are some of your favorites?