Mexican Pulled Pork Over Yellow Rice

My friend, Letty, gave me the Augusta, GA Junior League cookbook, Par 3, a few years ago.  YUM.  I've long been a devotee of Junior League cookbooks, and I think this one is my favorite so far.  The following recipe is one of many I cook on a fairly regular basis.  My two-yo daughter likes it.

1 onion, chopped
1 3.5 pound boneless pork shoulder roast (I generally use a pork loin, as it's much leaner, but it's a little tougher)
1 can Rotel
1 (4oz) can diced green chiles
1 can yellow corn, drained
1 t garlic powder
1 t salt
2 t cumin
1 1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t cayenne pepper (I don't use quite that much)
3 T tomato paste
1 package yellow saffron rice
sour cream and chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

Combine onion and pork in slow cooker.
Mix rest of ingredients - except tomato paste and rice - and pour over roast.  Cover and cook on high for 5 hours.
Remove roast and shred with fork.  Remove 1 1/2 cups of the liquid and discard.
Add tomato paste to cooker and cook on high for 30 min.
Return meat to cooker and heat through.
Cook rice and serve with pork and garnish.

Pimento Cheese

Christine's Pimento Cheese


Rarely can I claim a recipe to be my own (versus something I found), but this one actually is-:)  I was tired of following pimento cheese recipes only to be disappointed.  Like anything, good pimento cheese is a subjective thing, so you may not like mine, but I sure do!   I make mine up as I go along, so here's as close as I can get to an actual recipe:

8 oz sharp cheddar - grated

4 oz pepper jack - grated

2 T parmesan - grated

1 4-oz jar chopped pimentos, drained

as much mayo as seems right to you (somewhere around 1/2 cup, I think) - I always use Kraft full-fat, but everyone has a mayo preference

1 T dijon mustard

a pink of cayenne

Mix and serve with crackers, crudités or on a sandwich.  

Not love.

The last post I wrote was about love.  This post is the antithesis of love.  This post is about violence. I recently followed this story about a young UVA student who was beaten and killed by her fellow-UVA student ex-boyfriend (here's a link to one of many stories about the murder) http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TheLaw/yeardley-love-death-warning-signs-missed-ahead-university/story?id=10581761.  Not surprisingly, Love's friends are now coming out and saying that there was a history of violence in the relationship.  Shocking.

We all know someone who has been in a violent relationship, don't we?  I know too many women - young and old - who have allowed men to physically and mentally abuse them.  I find myself getting angry about this as I type.

Don't let this happen to you.  As I told someone very close to me when she was lying for her then-boyfriend and to herself:  You could end up dead.  Why do women think it'll never be them?  Or - perhaps an even better question - why do women not value themselves enough to care?

If someone - man, woman, boyfriend or not - has tried to control you, threaten violence toward you, or even worse, acted on that threat, hear me now:  GET HELP NOW.  Don't be embarrassed to admit the situation to those you trust; you will likely need help to separate yourself from the psychological hold the person likely has over you.  You may also need help to physically separate yourself from that person.  But - know this:  He will not change.  And - let's say he even could - do you want to risk the chance he won't?

We have this one life here.  We're all worth something.  Don't let someone who clearly has his own issues take your life away from you.  I feel so sorry for the UVA student and her friends and family who wish they had done something.  Please recognize this could be you.

Love.

Music never fails to conjur up memories.  I'm sitting here - with the intention of doing some work after Anna went to bed - and I'm listing to some music.  One of the songs (True Companion,if you must know the title) brought back a memory as clear as day.

I've mentioned my friend Jane a few times on this blog; she was a great friend to me.  One of her unique characteristics was that she could really "see" people; see through whatever face you were putting on and get to the core (boy, do I wish I could do this).  I recall one day when I went to her house to vent about B.  I was so incredibly frustrated and angry with something or other he had done (or not done).  Of course, the details of the offense are insignificant today (so much so that I don't recall them).  Truth be told, I thought the early days of our marriage were some of the most trying of our relationship.  I could guess why, but that's another blog post.

Anyway, she said two things that will always stay with me (as I was complaining and talking out my feelings, as I tend to do, etc.):

1) "Christine, you should read this book called Loving What Is."  She went on to explain that the core message of the book was to sift through the clutter and simply love someone for who he/she is, regardless of faults.  That's not to excuse dangerous/damaging behaviors, etc., but to suggest that many of us are constantly trying to make someone who we want him to be (and subsequently forget what we initially loved about that person in the first place).  And, she went on to remind me that none of us is perfect.  I think - no, I know - that I needed that reminder at the time.

2)  The second thing she said to me during the course of our conversation was, "Christine, you just really, really love [B] him, don't you?"  Now, that statement may not seem so strange (he is my husband, after all), but it was the way her face completely shone when she said it.  It was as if the feelings I clearly had for him were simply wonderful and miraculous to her.  Here I was, complaining and venting, and she saw through it all to the core truth.

This is where there's the risk of me getting mushy...because she was right.  I have numerous pics of B & Anna, but I'm posting one here that I love.  My two loves-:)  Okay, enough mush.  Need to change the music!

Home.

Toward the end of my recent European travels, I found myself too tired to blog.  I really wanted to capture in writing my reflections on my day of site-seeing in Istanbul, namely because it was a simultaneously lovely and bizarre experience.  I will take some time soon to write a post about that day - and my final thoughts on my trip - but not right now.

Right now, I simply want to share my thoughts on coming home.  Here's what I know:  I knew it was important that I go on this trip (in addition to being something I had to do for work), because it was an opportunity to stretch my perspective and learn about some new cultures I hadn't previously experienced (I've been to Europe a few times, but never to these places).  But, I was anxious to leave Anna.  I cried the day I left.  And, I thought numerous times about the responsibility that I have as a mother to be there for my child.  the realist in me knew that all would be fine, the week would fly by, and I'd find myself back at home wondering if the incredibly experience even happened at all. But, the super-freak in me thought about all the opportunities for things to go awry, leaving Anna without her mother.  Sounds silly, I know.

My point?  The gratitude I felt for the opportunity and experience didn't come close to matching that which I felt when I arrived home late Saturday night and hugged Brian and Anna.  Brian had a bottle of wine waiting for me (he knows me well) and was ready to hear "all about my trip."  I woke up Anna, and she grinned from ear to ear; I can see it as sweetly in my mind now as if it was just a minute ago.

I will always try to stretch myself and learn new things, if for no other reason than to become a better and more balanced mother for Anna.  But, at the end of the day, I belong here with B & Anna.  My life is far from perfect (for many reasons), but I've spent some time recently thinking about how the Universe (or God, or Mother Nature, you get my drift) knew what it was doing on that day in the Fall of 1995 when I met B for the first time.  It hasn't been a straight, smooth road, but the good ones never are.  That day led us both to this life we're living now, which is rich beyond what I could have ever asked for.

It's good to be home.

Great Speakers.

I'll write more later, but I thought I'd post a link to a blog post I wrote for http://embatalk.com for UNC Kenan-Flagler.  This highlights some of the insights I gleaned from our speakers today in Istanbul.  Truly fascinating; I can't do them justice.
http://embatalk.com/2010/03/onemba-european-residency-days-fourfive/

Follow up.

It's 1:44 a.m. in Istanbul; I arrived at my (beautiful) hotel about an hour ago.  Just in case anyone is reading this (unlikely), I thought I'd just note that I am feeling much better about this trip, and I'm genuinely excited about seeing this city!

More tomorrow.

p.s. here I am in Taksim Square