It is no secret that I am not a fan of pork. Please do not try and feed me a pork chop. I don’t want to be ungrateful or rude, but I really don’t want to eat it. There is one exception to my nose-wrinkling (potentially unwarranted, I will admit) distaste for pork — barbecue pulled pork sandwiches. Mmm yummy.

I’d never made it myself before, but I’d heard that it was super simple in the crock pot. I was browsing Pinterest a couple of weeks ago when I saw a picture of 4 ingredients with the caption “Easiest and Best Pulled Pork Sandwiches Ever.” Alright, you got me. I was a little nervous because I’d never cooked pork before (see earlier note of dislike), but I needn’t have worried because it really was super simple. Even if you include my agonizing in the grocery store over what to buy. “The recipe said pork butt! Nothing here is labeled pork butt! Tenderloin? Shoulder roast? Boston something? WHAT DO I BUY?” Ahem. (I bought what was on sale, haha!)

I got my pork home, patted it down with Lawry’s seasoned salt and finagled it into my slightly-smaller-around-than-my-chunk-of-pork slow cooker. Poured some Diet Pepsi and BBQ sauce over the top and walked away. Several hours later, I came back and pulled the pork out to shred. The recipe suggested putting it back in the juices, which I did for a little while because I wasn’t ready to eat it yet, but that’s not really the way I like my pulled pork. I like mine extra saucy, not pulled from the juices with a little BBQ sauce poured on your sandwich. So when I was ready to eat, I removed it and kept only the tiniest bit of juices and instead mixed up the whole batch with some of the Sweet Baby Rays that was left. Served up on a kaiser bun with some potato salad on the side, delicious!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Source: Sweet and Savory Food

Pork butt
1 can Diet Pepsi
1/2 bottle Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce
Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

Generally coat pork butt with Lawry’s seasoning salt, don’t be afraid to cover it all! Place in crock pot and pour in soda and barbecue sauce. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours. If you have a larger piece of meat, it will probably take longer. After 4 hours or so, take two forks and shred the meat into bite size chunks. Let it sit in the juice to soak up all that flavor. It can stay on warm in crock pot while serving, and can easily be reheated the next day. Serve on a kaiser roll and add more barbecue sauce if needed.

I like my pulled pork really saucy, so I discarded most of the juices and mixed it all up with some of the remaining BBQ sauce.

Stop. Before you do anything else, go get your grocery list and add two things to it: Kraft caramels, and apple cider mix. You probably have all the other ingredients on hand already, and you are going to want to make these cookies as soon as possible. It didn’t take me long to get these cookies from bookmarked to baked, and I’m so glad I did.

I may or may not have eaten these cookies for breakfast with a steaming glass of hot chocolate every day until they were gone. I shared them with a couple of my coworkers, and the derby girls, and they received rave reviews all around. Accompanied by a few threats of bodily harm if I was not forthcoming with the recipe.

They were easier than you’d expect a stuffed cookie to be (I’d never made anything like that before) and not particularly time consuming. They were delicious and smelled heavenly! I will definitely be adding these to the make-again list. And I probably won’t wait all that long to do it!

Make them. Make them now.

Caramel Apple Cookies
Source: Scrambled Henfruit

1 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 box (7.4 oz) Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink mix -not sugar free- all 10 packets
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups all purpose flour
1 bag Kraft Caramels (14 oz)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment. (Don’t skip the parchment– you’ll be glad it’s there if some of the caramel leaks!) In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
With your mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy.Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.

Refrigerate for about an hour. When you are ready to bake, unwrap your caramels.

Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut. (I used a rounded cookie scoop-full. My scoop holds about a Tablespoon.) Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets 2 inches apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Please don’t over-bake! Once the cookies are done, slide the parchment off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment or on a rack.) If you forget about them and they cool too much and stick to your parchment, put them into the freezer for a few minutes and they’ll pop right off.
Store in an airtight container.

I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for a really long time now. Last week though, I was looking through my bookmarks again and decided that I was finally going to make it. So I added the ingredients to my grocery list (all four of them), and stuck them all in the crockpot on Sunday morning before I left for roller derby practice.

It couldn’t have been easier to make. Rinse four cans of white beans, toss in 2 cups of salsa and cube up some cheese… sink the chicken breasts in the mixture in the crock pot, turn it on low and walk away. 7-8 hours later, I came back and pulled the chicken out. It just fell apart. I didn’t have to work to shred it at all, I just looked at it, maybe poked it with the fork a little bit and it was done.

I have to be honest though. I just wasn’t crazy about this as a chili. It was alright, but I didn’t want to curl up with that whole bowl of it and eat it as is. It did, however, make an AWESOME taco filling! The next day, I swung by the grocery store again and picked up some soft tortillas, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream and put this chili in the bottom. It was delicious!

White Bean Chicken Chili
Source: Pink Parsley

4 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
8 ounces Pepper jack cheese, cut into 2-inch cubes
2 cups salsa

Combine the beans, cheese, and salsa in a crockpot. Nestle the chicken breasts into the mixture, and cook on low 6-8 hours. Remove chicken breasts, shred with a fork, and return to crockpot. Stir to combine, and serve with desired garnishes.