we've created a monster

Last night during dinner, I let E have some chocolate milk. Truth be told, it was bribe to get her to actually *drink* her milk since she is on some sort of milk strike at home. When A saw that she began grunting and madly gesturing, I figured she wanted some, too. So I scooped up her sippy, added a little syrup and announced that dessert was served.

A couldn't get enough of it. She slurped every last drop in her cup and looked at me with wanting eyes and said, "Muh peese, muh muh muh PEEESE!" Luckily we were able to distract her with promises of NHT upstairs.

But...this morning, we went downstairs to get her morning sippy of milk and turn on the crockpot. I handed her her sippy cup, she looked at me and said,

"No!"
"What do you mean, no? It's your sippy...of milk." I told her.
"Chalk-a-ut," she responded.

Luckily, she seemed to accept my explanation that we don't have chocolate milk all the time, only for dessert. But I'm forsee a tantrum about this issue very soon in my future.

Side Note:
Sweet Pea Chef (or any other crockpotters "in the know")...I'm making your Carolina Pulled Pork BBQ with a Boston Butt (heh). when I went to turn on the crockpot at 7 this morning, I neglected to actually plug it in. Luckily I figured out my mistake at 8:30 before leaving for work. My two questions are:

1. After sitting out on the counter for an hour and a half not cooking, is this Butt still safe to eat?
   
2. We try to eat at 6 or so...which puts us at 9 1/2 hours on LOW. Should I jack up the temp to HIGH when I walk in the door to get it to cook more, or do you think it'd be fine? It's a small Butt (5 pounds) if that makes a difference.
   

cooking...slacker style

While I'm no Iron Chef, I actually do enjoy cooking when I get the time to do it. However, being a working mom with two small children, I don't often get the time. That's why I love these two things, both of which I made this weekend. They are great, homemade recipes and they are easy peasy to make.

The carnitas are great to feed a crowd because it utilizes an inexpensive (and awesomely named) cut of meat. The Teets had Boston Butt on sale last week, so we were able to feed 6 adults and *still* have leftovers for under $7. It's also a great thing to have when you have people over since you aren't slaving over the stove. All I had to do to get this to the table was heat the tortillas, shred the meat and dump the guac, salsa, sour cream and cheese into my cute serving bowls. (Note: Thanks to Kiki for introducing this recipe to me! Also, Sweet Pea Chef has a version of this recipe on her site...it looks yummy, too!)

Carnitas
Take a Boston Butt (heh), trim the fat and salt and pepper it. Cut slits all over it and insert (about 4 cloves or so) garlic cut into quarters.

Slice an onion and put that and a whole jalapeno on the bottom of the crockpot. Throw in your garlic-studded Butt and a can of beer. Turn on LOW and cook for about 10 hours. Shred the pork and serve with corn tortillas and guacamole (and your other favorite fixins).

To make BBQ leftovers: threw the pork in a non-stick skillet with enough BBQ sauce to generally coat. Heated on medium until warmed through. Note: we used your basic BBQ sauce, and my BBQ-connoisseur husband thought it would have been better with a Carolina (vinegar-based) sauce.

The ice cream is great because...well, it's ice cream. I use the basic recipe that came with the ice cream maker because that whole tempered eggs things that the more involved recipes use kind of scares me. Also, this recipe is quick and super easy. E helped me make this while A was napping...and she loved telling Maura and Maggie that!

Thin Mint Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream (well chilled)
1 cup whole milk (well chilled)
3/4 cup sugar
1 - 2 tsp vanilla (I use Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Paste)
1 sleeve of Thin Mint cookies, crushed (about 1 cup...minus a few for snacking!)

Mix the sugar and milk together until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cream and vanilla. Pour into the ice cream maker and turn on. Run for 20 - 25 minutes, adding the cookies in the last 5 minutes or so. Transfer to a separate container and freeze for a few hours to harden a bit. Enjoy!