Crock Potting: Pulled Pork & Sweet Potatoes

As I may have said before, last week was HOT!  I was desperate for cooking ideas that didn't involve me turning on my oven (which would heat the entire house much past my happiness threshold).

I decided to crock pot it.  I don't usually use the crock pot for summer meals; I usually make pot roast, chicken and rice soup, or meatballs and sauce in it when I'm working so I can come home to a fully cooked meal.

I was inspired by my sister-in-law who made me crock pot pulled pork when we visited her a couple of years ago.  I modified it to make sure it was gluten free, and added some sweet potatoes (and for the record, I was totally prepared for my sweet potato experiment to fail once again).  However, everything worked and it was delicious.

I started with a pork butt (2-3lbs maybe?) and rubbed it down with my favorite spice mix for BBQ.   I have used McCormick Grill Mates Sweet and Smoky Rub for awhile now when I make pulled chicken or pork.  Like it says, it has the right amount of sweet and smoky (and spicy and salty too).  Taken right from the McCormick website, the ingredient list is as follows:

There are two controversial ingredients here for a gluten free diet.  Maltodextrin frequently looks suspicious to me (after all, I can't eat anything with wheat, rye, barley, or malt, so maltodextrin looks a bit shady).  However, most maltodextrin produced in the United States is derived from corn (YAY!). However, in Europe and Asia, maltodextrin is often derived from wheat (BOO!).  The second ingredient that catches my eye is "vinegar solids." Vinegar solids can be made from any vinegar (including malt vinegar which is a GF no-no), but they are more frequently derived from apple cider or white vinegar.  Given that I have used this rub several times and have never gotten sick and given that McCormick claims to label their wheat containing spice mixes appropriately, I feel comfortable using this spice rub.

After coating the meat with the spice rub, I put it in my crock pot and poured a bottle of hard cider over it.  This time I used Sam Adams Angry Orchard, but in the past I've used Woodchuck.  Most hard ciders are safe for Celiacs, while beer and other malt beverages or not.  I had seen some recipes for pulled pork that included beer and figured I might be able to get a similar effect with hard cider.  Angry Orchard and Woodchuck are both gluten free and delicious, and are great as beverages along with this dish as well.

I turned the crock pot to low (at 8am) and let it cook all day. 

Around 3pm, I was trying to figure out what to make for a side dish.  I usually make a GF corn bread (which I love) or cole slaw (which I hate but my husband loves).  I wanted something easy (and not baked in my oven), so I opted for sweet potatoes.  I peeled 3-4 sweet potatoes, cut them in manageable even-sized chunks, and placed them around the pork butt in the crock pot.  We went to music class and came home around 5:30 to cooked pork and sweet potatoes in the crock pot.

I carefully pulled out the potatoes with a slotted spoon, put the pork on the cutting board to pull, and poured the cooking liquid/fats into a measuring cup (just in case I needed it to moisten up the pork later on).  Using two forks, I pulled the pork apart...it was pretty tender, so this was an easy task.

I added it back to the crock pot and mixed it with some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.  This is BY FAR my favorite BBQ sauce.  I've tried the cheap ones, the expensive ones, the organic ones, etc., but this one is my favorite.  It's gluten free and pretty inexpensive.  It does have high fructose corn syrup which can be a turn off for some people but I'm an "everything in moderation" girl and since I wasn't about to drink a bottle for dessert, I figured it was okay.  I used to make my own BBQ sauce but since kids and jobs and general craziness came into our lives, the bottled grocery store kind is the way to go.

I toyed with the idea of mashing the potatoes or just eating them as-is.  I ended up leaving them alone and they were amazing.  They still had a sweet potato flavor and had soaked up all of that yummy pork fat, cider, and spice rub as well.

I eat mine on a plate, but my gluten-loving husband prefers to eat it sandwich-style. This is a great dish that can be modified for gluten and non-gluten eaters alike without anyone missing out on something delicious.  The challenge every night is for me to make something that I can eat and that my husband and toddler can eat too, and make sure it isn't "weird" or "different" or a bad imposter of gluten deliciousness and I think this meal does that.

Dinner: An Exercise in Failure

So I might as well be honest about dinner tonight.  It was a major fail.  My intentions were good, but it just. didn't. work.

I will start by saying it was HOT today.  Like end-of-August HOT.  I don't love the heat unless I'm sitting by a pool with an icy drink in my hand.  With two kids and no pool, this makes me a sweaty mess.  No Caribbean fantasy here.  And the rest of the week...not much better.

 I decided that due to the fact that we do not have air conditioning on the first floor, I would cook our dinner on the grill (if you ask my husband, I think he will attest that I have above average grill skills).  I didn't go grocery shopping this week...not a good plan, so I scoured the house and found two things I could grill: sweet potatoes and chicken sausage.  Both are gluten free, and we always make sure our grill is clean (and free of gluteny sauces and bread products), so I thought this would be delicious and nutritious (and cooler than cooking inside).

I looked up some recipes for grilled sweet potatoes, and most of them suggested boiling them.  BOIL? Nopey nope nope. Not gonna do that.  So, I cherry picked a recipe that didn't need me to heat a pan of water to 212*F inside my house.  I peeled and cut sweet potatoes into 1/2" thick slices, brushed them with vegetable oil, and sprinkled them with a little sugary spice rub of brown sugar, salt, and pepper.

 I heated up the grill on medium heat, and put all of my delicious food on the grates.

I let them sit for four minutes (like the recipe said), and I turned them...they smelled delicious and had cute little grill marks.  Unfortunately, after the next four minutes, I got distracted by a diaper emergency (no details here I promise), and by the time I was done dealing with it, this is what was left.  Charcoal coated potatoes.

Luckily, the sausages were salvageable. And delicious.  I don't usually buy that brand, (Al Fresco is my go-to sausage) but I had a coupon and got these puppies for free, and with that little "gluten free" symbol, how could I resist?  So I ate sausage for dinner.

I made some instant mac 'n cheese for my toddler, but while cutting up the sausage for her, this happened:

So, I made another batch of instant mac 'n cheese, cut a second sausage, and ate the two that were left. 

On a positive note, dessert was a success. Jell-O never fails me.  It's gluten free, and delicious, and amazing.

 Moral of the story?  Document the fails, because they make the successes that much sweeter.