Pulled Pork Al Pastor Style

Heyo! I did not die or somehow got eliminated from the face of the earth! I was just having way too much fun to cook anything decent. That, and I also made a bunch of culinary flops not worth sharing. But now I'm back and hopefully to stay. Let's see if I can get my creative juices flowing and cooking again.

A quick back story of why this is "Pulled Pork Al Pastor Style" and not just "Pulled Pork" or "Al Pastor Taco": the boyfriend really likes al pastor tacos but we're trying to eat less carbs because we are getting fat. So I can't make al pastor tacos, I decided to make the al pastor meat anyway but instead of chopping it up in cubes and fry them, I'd just make it pulled pork. I'm a genius, I know.

Moroccan Lamb Shank and Chickpeas

Sit down, make yourself comfortable, I have a story to tell. I found this recipe sitting in my inbox (from me, no less) with the label "Recipes" attached to it. That was great and all, except I didn't recollect reading this recipe or emailing it to myself. It's from Blue-Kitchen which is a new food blog to me. It's a very good one, by the way. Somehow, I led myself to discover this wonderful dish without knowing it. Thank you, past me, you were great!

I had a bag of dried chickpeas from the Dixon fruit stand on the side of I-80. I remember deciding to stop by the fruit stand one weekend while I was driving toward Sacramento. Reason? None! Not only that, I was in my pajamas from the night before. Yes, I like to drive long distance in my pajamas. So, I stealthily stripped off my pajamas in the parking lot and pulled on some jeans and a hoodie from the laundry basket in the back seat before heading to the fruit stand. Somewhere in the sky, a dramatic baritone voice said "She's the epitome of class. Yes, she is."

And that was the story of how I started to make this dish, a recipe from a sleep-walking recipe search (or something along that line) and the chickpeas from a randomly classy act on the I-80.

Velvet Pork Stir Fry

My boyfriend asked me if know how to velvet meat. The answer to that question was "No, who do you think I am? Some kind of fancy pants chef?" Nevertheless, it isn't a bad idea to learn to velvet meat, so I looked it up. I got this recipe from Serious Eats.