It's Summer Now!

Summer Dinner and Summer Fun Day

 

Another great weekend - good food (and lots of it) and a Saturday packed with fun. Saturday my husband planned a full day of fun things for us to do. Starting with breakfast - bloody mary bar and monte cristo sandwich. Then early afternoon at the zoo, which I hadn't been in years followed by a relaxing couples massage then home to get cleaned up and prepare dinner. That evening we had some friends over for dinner and then we went to an outdoor concert in a neighboring city. Today we played bocce ball (I won!) then I did some light yard work and cleaned the house. It was a relaxing and fun filled weekend (but also managed to get some house things accomplished). I really feel like summer has finally begun - summer foods, yard and garden are looking great and the weather is finally sunny and hot. Looking forward to Independence Day week - I took the 5th off just to make it a long weekend. My husband still has to work so I'll probably use the day to get some gardening done and lay in the sun.  

 

Summer Dinner

For dinner Saturday night I made pulled pork sandwiches and a corn bread layered salad. Perfect combination for a quick, easy, delicious summer dinner.

 

Cornbread Layered Salad

Ingredients:

• Small loaf of cornbread sliced into chunks (I bought a really small loaf of cornbread in the bakery section of the grocery store, but if you are really ambitious you can make cornbread muffins and use those)
• 1 can pinto beans (rinse really really well)
• About a cup of corn (I used frozen but you can also use 1 can, or you can use hominy instead of corn)
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 or 2 tomatoes - diced
• 1 orange bell pepper (or 1/2 orange and 1/2 yellow or you can use green too but I like to use orange or yellow to make the salad more colorful)
• Ranch dressing
• Croutons 
• Can also add bacon (I planned on adding bacon but forgot until I got to assembling and then it was too late to make it)
• Lettuce (you don't need much lettuce because the salad is so packed with other ingredients, I think I used about half a bag of mixed salad greens) 

 

 

Layer salad - if you have a trifle bowl use that because then you can see all the colors and layers!

Here's how I layered mine I'll list from the bottom up-

1. Cornbread chunks
2. Cheese
3. Dressing (drizzle so its all over but not a lot because you will add more at the top too)
4. Beans
5. Corn
6. Lettuce
7. Tomatoes
8. Peppers
9. Cheese
10. Dressing
11. Croutons (and bacon if you are including bacon as well)
     

 

Pulled Pork

I've made pulled pork twice in my life and I'm pretty sure I've mastered it. I use pork shoulder and there wasn't one big enough for 4 adults so the butcher told me to use a pack of pork ribs rather than buy a whole other pork shoulder. That turned out great! You want to buy about 1 lb of pork per adult for this. I also prefer to serve the pork without the BBQ sauce already mixed in for two reasons: 1. everyone likes a different amount of BBQ sauce so then they can add their own and 2. the pulled pork I make is so amazingly juicy and good that you really don't even need BBQ sauce at all.

 

Ingredients:

Pork shoulder (and pork ribs if needed) - 1lb per person

1 can beef broth

1-2 teaspoons of liquid smoke

salt and pepper

 

BBQ sauce

Buns

 

 

Steps:

1. Salt and pepper the pork
2. Place pork in crock pot
3. Pour in can of beef broth
4. Add a can of water
5. Add 1-2 teaspoons of liquid smoke (you really do not need much of this, its a very powerful flavor, I used about a teaspoon but if you really really like the flavor you can add 2 teaspoons)
6. Cook until pork is done - it took me about 5 or 6 hours on low
7. When pork is done lift out and set on a plate and pull the pork off the bones until its all shredded and no more bones - I also pull off some of the big fat chunks at this time too.
8. Then you can cool and refrigerate if you made this ahead of time. Otherwise put back in the crock pot and set to lowest setting or "warm" until you are ready to eat. I served it with BBQ sauce but like I said I don't mix any into the meat itself.

 

 

 

Yum! Here was my monte cristo I had for breakfast! So good! Ham, turkey, cheese sandwich served on french toast and with a strawberry marmalade to dip it in. Just rich enough, just savory enough- so good. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I want to make this sometime. Maybe I'll try next weekend. It seems like a perfect brunch item because of the french toast and ham/turkey sandwich.  

 

 

Ahhhhh - nothing like a bloody mary filled with fun toppings of your choice. I don't do spicy foods or drinks but I can still make a bloody mary fun enough to drink!

 

 

Flowers just outside the zoo

 

 

The conservatory - we didn't go in but I just love how it looks

 

 

I love flamingos - its so weird how they bend their legs!!!

 

 

Huge tortoise - he looks surreal!

 

 

And of course penguins - they are just funny animals.

 

I love the zoo - all the animals and flowers. I couldn't believe how much it changed since the last time I was there. They have added so much. Most of the animals were just sleeping so they were kind of boring, but still fun to see them all. My husband and I both couldn't get over how big some of the animals were - like the polar bear and the gorilla. It said the gorilla was like 350 lbs! If we thought they were big I can't imagine what they look like to kids.