Apple Bacon Pork Roast

 

Today, being Sunday, I decided to try a roast in the crock-pot. I chose this recipe from Moms with Crock Pots for Crock Pot Apple Bacon Pork Roast.

Adjustments
I used a 500g tenderloin of pork, which is plenty for 5 people. The two apples were pink ladies, which had been left in the fruit bowl over Christmas and weren't otherwise fit for consumption. I reduced the amount of sugar to 2tbsp, since 1/3 cup seemed like too much. I left out the glaze altogether.

Ingredients in the crock pot

Preparation

This took just minutes to prepare. I cut 3/4 of the way into 1 inch slices as suggested, and put slices of apple into each of the cuts. The rest of the apple went on top. Then I covered the meat and apple with 5 slices of bacon, which were part-cooked under the grill. Finally, the sugar was sprinkled over the top. We put the cooker on low and left it for 7 hours.

Near the end of cooking, I prepared some mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots.


The Result 

The pork came out beautifully tender, practically falling apart, so that it was not even possible to carve (see picture). The juices from the pork and apple were delicious and I just poured it over the pulled pork - there was no need for a glaze. The bacon didn't crisp at all, but provided some good flavour. The apple pulp made a nice sauce on the side, just like apple sauce.

The Verdict

Definitely another success. My kids don't like cooked apple, but they enjoyed the pork and Miss Fussy Eater ate all her meat without (much) prompting, probably because it was so easy to eat. She gave the recipe a solid 10/10. Mr Teenager gave the meal 8/10, though went back for seconds. He said it lost marks because the bacon wasn't crispy and it was a "funny colour".

We had no leftovers, and the plates were left clean.

Sara's chilli con carne

So, today we tried the crock pot for the first time, with the recipe for Sara's chilli con carne. I went for this recipe because we haven't done a grocery shop since the New Year and I knew that I had some minced beef in the freezer.

Adjustments
I didn't have quite all the right ingredients though: I used 600g lean minced beef, and no oil. We just had one pepper, and only hot chilli powder. I reduced the spices slightly, according to the advice contained in the machine's instructions. We had no sundried tomatoes, so I used a few tablespoons of sundried tomato paste instead. 3 tins of kidney beans seemed like a lot, so I just used one.

Preparation
I followed the Tip near the end of the recipe, to use a slow cooker. This meant browning the onions, adding the garlic, spices and herbs, and then browning the meat, before putting everything in the crock pot. Luckily I was not working today, so I had time. But I couldn't do this on a normal morning. Otherwise, everything was amazingly easy and I found myself at 6pm twiddling my thumbs, wondering what I needed to do, apart from cook the rice.


The Result
The chilli was delicious: lovely texture and flavours. Everything was beautifully cooked. Next time I might add a little more chilli powder, for an extra kick. It easily fed a family of 4, with leftovers. As expected, there was quite a bit of liquid, but not excessive, and could easily be mopped up with the rice.

The Verdict
Everybody here gave it a thumbs up! Even Ms Fussy Eater herself did not complain about the onions, though she gave her beans to her brother. When asked for marks out of ten, the result was unanimous: both kids gave a 10/10.

New crock pot

So, yesterday I bought in the sale a new crock pot, a slow cooker. I haven't used one before, but I have been thinking about one for some time. Apparently it is great for low fat cooking, and I am feeling the need to detox a little bit after the Christmas excesses. Also, it could be very useful in the next year, when both the kids will be at secondary school, and we will not longer have an au pair. From the blurb, I can just throw the ingredients into the cooker in the morning, and a lovely hot meal will be ready when we get home.

But first, I need to learn to cook with it. So, I thought I would use this very old blog to document my experiences and the recipes I try. So far, I have come up with a few places to start.

The bbcgoodfood website has a collection of recipes, including this one one for chilli, which I might try tomorrow.

Sara's chilli con carne | BBC Good Food

I also like this site, Moms with Crockpots, which seems to have some great recipes. They also have a Facebook page, which I have started to follow.

The Channel 4 4Food site has another collection of recipes, including some from Jamie Oliver.

Chef in Training is not just slow cooking, but has a nice collection of slow cook recipes.

Another large collection of recipes is found at Allrecipes.com. This also has some chilli recipes that I will take a look at.

And finally, for tonight, here's the crock-pot site. It doesn't appear easy to navigate or browse, but good to know about.

Ramblings of a working mum

I am starting this blog today as an outlet for my observations, frustrations, ramblings and joys of being a working mother.

I have two wonderful children, boy-child is 10 and girl-child is 8. I love them very, very much. I have a supportive husband, without whom I could not function. We also have au-pair#4, a lovely German girl who lives with us, but more about that later.

I have a full-time job. I have always worked full-time, apart from maternity leave and one year sabbatical some years ago. I love my work and I am good at it. I make a difference. I make no apologies for working, without that activity I would go insane.

But, it's not easy. Sometimes it is very, very difficult. So, to vent some of my frustrations, I have started this blog. Even if I am just talking to myself, at least it's an outlet.