Sunday suppers.

So Sundays are normally no electronics (TV, computer, Wii, gameboys, phone, etc) in our home unless everyone can do it at the same time (like a Wii game for four). Sundays are for family even if one isn't able to be there cause of work. But this morning I'm alone and trying to catch up on everything since we've been without the Internet since Wednesday thanks to the line getting cut up the street. I thought I would share my Garlic Pork that I did last Sunday. It has a lot of garlic in it but the taste isn't overpowering since half of the garlic is pretty much roasted whole and turns out sweet. You're friends won't avoid you the next day. I make enough for 5 servings usually but it can be adjusted easily. You'll need a crock pot; about a cup of some type of pork cut up (mine was from a huge Boston Butt I cut up into stew meat); about 4 cups worth of fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables; 1 onion (I ended up using 2 tsp onion powder cause my last onion was bad); 1/2 tsp ginger; 14 garlic cloves; salt (to taste, I didn't use any); pepper (to taste, some people like a lot we use it sparingly); about 2 tsp oil (I use olive oil); Parsley (unfortunately I was completely out)and water.

First you need to clean your cloves. You can get the skins off easier if you smash them gently first. The skin will usually slide right off. Now I cut off the ends (yes I know you don't need to do this, I just prefer to do that) and separate them into two groups. Half that the worst of the smashed ones will get minced up, the other half are left whole.
Put the pork (mine was frozen still this is fine), garlic, ginger, onion (onion powder in my case), pepper and olive oil in the crock pot. Cover it put it on high for about 1 and a half to 2 hours. Now here is the trick, you can't keep opening it up to look at it. It needs to act like an oven. Go do something, I went threw the kids closet and got rid of the clothes that were to small so I wouldn't keep looking at it.

I checked mine at an hour and forty-five minutes and there was a bit of a burnt part on the left side as you can see.(Sorry about the flash) I just scraped it out with a spoon. You want the golden brown everywhere. You'll get more with onions in it. Add you're water (be extremely careful when doing this as the oil is very hot and can splatter when water is added. I try to add the water as quickly as possible to avoid this.) and then scrape all that golden up, it's where your flavor comes from. Take your time and get all of it mixed up into the water well. You'll have a nice broth. Add all you're fresh vegetables. I added only celery and lots of it since my kids love it. Then cover it on high for another 1to 3 hours depending on what you put in (carrot usually take the longest, the celery only took about 30 minutes). By now the fresh vegetable should be turning tender and only need about half an hour more. If you are using canned or frozen vegetable this is where you'll add them. I used canned potatoes (I don't even know where they came from, probably something my 6 year old put in the cart when I wasn't paying attention.) and about 4 cups of frozen mixed vegetables. Cover, leave on high for about 30 to 45 minutes. I lowered mine to medium for about 3 hours since we went to see a movie (below in another blog). Grab a loaf of bread, make some cornbread up, crackers, or what ever else you like and there you go. The actual time getting it all together isn't that long. Even when I use all fresh vegetables in the summer it's still about 45 minutes prep time I would say. Once you get past the browning in the first part it's pretty hands off from there. We've added tomato juice to it before cutting the water in half and it is really good like that on a cold rainy day with sandwiches. You can leave out the meat even, we've used garbanzo beans as a meat substitute in it and that is really good too. We've used chicken, and beef in this too and it still turns out really good. The nice thing is you can add what you're family likes and leave out what they don't. If you don't like garlic leave it out completely. Experiment and see what you like, if it doesn't turn out the way you though there's always PB&J sandwiches! Although I really haven't found a way to ruin it yet. But my crock-pot is my energy saver, and time saver so that I can spend more time playing with my family on our family day! Grab a little hand, and play today!