BBQ Pulled Pork Sliders

Peter's birthday always falls near Mother's Day, if not ON Mother's Day. So this year we did a combination Mother's day/Birthday party all in one day. After church, we came home and had a Mother's Day brunch in honor of Sherry (my mommy-in-law). Then we went for a little hike, a game of frisbee, and finally a walk on the beach. Then we came back home and switched gears to a BBQ birthday celebration for Peter. I knew I had to build in some short cuts if we were going to successfully throw two parties in one day while still getting to spend time together and not spend the whole time in the kitchen. 

These little pulled pork sandwiches were the perfect dish for our double-celebration day. They are so easy... in fact, they are like the anti-cooking dish! All you have to do is put the meat in a crock pot with BBQ sauce, and then go about you're day. When you are ready to eat, the meat is ready too! It practically falls apart at the touch of a fork. All you have to do is toast some King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls and eat! 

As soon as Pete and I woke up, we put the meat in the crock pot with a bottle of BBQ sauce and set it on low for 8 hours. Then we went to church for mothers day, came back and made brunch, enjoyed the afternoon with everyone, and never had to stop to make the food for Peter's BBQ. It was all done in the crock pot on its own! :) We toasted the sweet rolls, grilled the corn and enjoyed an effortless birthday BBQ.

Ingredients (feeds 10 adults):

• 4 to 5 lbs Pork
• 1 medium sweet, yellow onion
• approximately 40 ozs  BBQ Sauce, divided  ***(I LOVE Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ sauce)***
• 3 dozen King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Slice the onions and place them in the bottom of the crock pot. 

Place all the meat on tope of the onions. 

Pour about 30 ounces of BBQ sauce on top of the meat. 

Cover with a lid and set the crock pot on 'low' for 8 hours. 

8 hours later, and NO time spent actually cooking, you will have juicy, sweet, tender BBQ pork ready to eat!

 I use a pair of kitchen tongs to pull the meat out of the crock pot and place in onto a serving platter. Drizzle some of the liquid from the crock pot over the meat to keep it moist, and add the rest of the reserved 10 ounces of BBQ sauce. As you mix it together with a fork or with the tongs, break up the meat a little bit ('pull' it) and you will see that it is so tender that it basically falls apart on its own!

All you have to do is toast the rolls and these sliders are ready for the party!

STUFFED French Toast

So I've said before that one of Peter's FAVORITE breakfasts is french toast made from a fresh loaf of homemade challah bread. Well, we both had a mid-week day off, so I decided to go big for breakfast on our day off together. I took his favorite french toast and kicked it up a notch... stuffed french toast! Of course I was inspired by all the fresh strawberries in the markets right now :) 

I basically followed my regular french toast recipe, except I added some orange zest as well as I bumped up the eggs and milk a bit since I am using just a few more slices of bread this time.

Recipe: 

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Zest of one Orange, plus a few squeezes of juice from   that zested orange
• Bread (I used 6, half-inch thick slices of sweet homemade challah bread)

Filling: 

• 10-15 Strawberries
• 1 Tbsp. Sugar
• 4 oz. light Cream Cheese or 'Neufchatel' Cheese

The night before, I washed, chopped, and tossed my strawberries with 1 tablespoon of sugar. I covered it with plastic wrap and let that juice overnight in the fridge. In the morning, I very lightly pureed the strawberries with a hand blender (I didn't want it totally pureed because I wanted to get some actual strawberry pieces in our bites of french toast :)

Then, I whipped the light cream cheese for a little bit...

...and added the strawberry puree into the mix (reserve some of the strawberry puree for serving later):

Then, just like in my other french toast recipe, I soaked the bread in the egg mixture, but only for a few seconds on each side because these slices are much thinner and will 'sog' faster and thus fall apart more easily:

As I soak each piece, I lay it on a cookie cooling rack that has been set up over a jelly roll pan to catch any drippings. 

I spread some of the strawberries-n-cream filling on one slice, then top it with another slice.

While the bread is still somewhat soggy, I lightly squeezed around the edges to help seal the filling inside the seams:

I grilled the french toast on my big electric griddle until it had a beautiful golden crisp on the outside of each side:

When all the stuffed-toasts had been grilled 'till golden, I slid them back onto the cooling rack and into a preheated 350 degree F oven for about 5-10 minutes (I didn't really keep track of the time, I just put them in 'till they puffed up and until we were ready to eat). 

This serves multiple purposes: 1) it cooks all that soaked bread all the way into the center, and 2) it keeps them hot until you are ready to eat.

I sliced each piece diagonally so that you could see all the sweet, creamy, pink filling inside the french toast!

Served with some fresh fruit, whipped cream, syrup and some of the strawberry puree.... this is to die for!!!!!

Of course Peter had the double-decker serving! hehe

Island Rice

We served our Island BBQ Kabobs over a bed of this sweet and scrumptious 'Island Rice'...and yes, just because there's pineapple in it I am calling it 'Island', hehe. I had been dying for the chance to make a marinade and heat up the bbq, so I jumped on the opportunity when it arose last weekend. However, my afterthought was, "oh wait, I can't just serve meat alone! What should I make to go with it?" This rice was the last minute 'mad scientist' creation that ensued. Sometimes those end up being the best recipes, and we think this one definitely earned that ranking :) The pineapple and cilantro gave the rice a light and fresh flavor that was perfect for a summer BBQ and complimented the flavors in the kabobs as well. 


Recipe: 

• 2 cups Rice
• 2 cans Pineapple, crushed or chunks (reserve juice)
• about 4 cups reserved Pineapple Juice (from above pineapple in rice, and from kabob pineapple cans if serving with kabobs) 
• 1/2 bunch Cilantro, chopped (plus extra for garnish)

Cook rice according to instructions on its packaging, but substitute pineapple juice in place of the water. If you don't have enough pineapple juice, then use water to make up the difference. 

When the rice is done cooking, fluff with a fork and stir in the pineapple and the chopped cilantro. 

Serve on a platter and top with Island BBQ Kabobs. Garnish with extra cilantro from rice, and lime wedges from kabob marinade.