Lynse Leanne

I never thought that i would be the person that likes to cook and bake. i always thought i would do it because, well, that is what a wife is supposed to do. I had visions of what my married life would look like and what motherhood would look like and it was that my husband would come home from work and i would cook dinner. But i never thought i would like it. I would just do it.

But now that we have moved and i am trying to be more intentional about cooking dinner and what we are eating i am falling in love with it. It is odd…but oh so fun.

Last night we went to the grocery store and got some pork loins sliced thin like steaks…i am sure they have a name, but i sure as heck dont know it. but as i was getting ready to make dinner i noticed that we had some apples that we were not going to eat and would probably just end up going bad. I knew that apples and pork go nicely together. so i chopped those apples up and satued them in a pan with some cinnamon and salt. After they were looking pretty tasty i added the pork. Cooked the pork…and mind you, this was the second time to ever cook pork…the first time was in the crock pot, so it doesnt count. ;)

topped the pork with some of the apples, a dab of apple sauce, cinnamon and a touch of salt to go with the sweet apples. it was pretty good…the pork was a little over cooked, but i’m learning.

we also had asparagus cooked in EVOO, salt and pepper…super simple, but one of my favourites….and sometimes i satue it in orange juice…just a light citrus flavour. oh, and we had salad…just ice berg lettuce and celery with ranch and cheddar cheese.  simple.

but that was dinner.  and it was pretty good.

and i had so much fun. I didnt have a recipe for the pork, i just tried it. i took a risk knowing it could be horrible and bomb, but tried it anyways…and it didnt bomb. Chad actually said he would eat it again.

Whens the last time you just created something in the kitchen with what you had?

So like i posted here one of the things i wanted to do more of in 2010 was cook.

Now, i dont really know how to cook or bake. Most times i stumble my way through a recipe…but i am convinced that the more i do it the better i will get.

Friday when i went to pick Chad up from work he introduced me to one of the parents of a child he hangs with at the Y (he works at the YMCA…nothing creepy) and she writes for Southern Living and does this. She told me that her major goals was to come up with things that have minimal ingredients and that can be done quickly and the kicker….VERY LITTLE CLEAN UP. Which i am all about.

She gave me a quick crock pot recipe for Pulled Pork…you know, like if you go to a BBQ restaurant and get a pulled pork sandwich…ya, i can now do that. And if you know me well you know that i love BBQ and crave it and Mexican pretty much weekly.

This recipe is super easy….

1. a pork tenderloin
2. a can of chicken broth
3. one onion sliced
4. salt and pepper

This is what mine looked like going in….

here is when it started smelling so good and i wanted it right then…but it was not done….

put all that in a crock pot on high for 4-6 hrs. Then take it out and with two forks begin shredding….SUPER EASY! it practically falls apart.

once shredded you can put it on a salad, baked potato or a bun…or alone, and enjoy!  (oh, and for the record, no, my arms are not that hairy…that is Chad helping me.)

people…it was so easy and so good. maybe i can do this whole cooking thing…seems easy enough…follow the directions.

Do you cook?  What is your easiest favourite recipe?