Carnitas, Taquitos, and DIY update.

No school for nearly a week gave us time to get a few things accomplished. We made groundhog graham crackers, started some seeds, played in the snow, put up some decorations, painted, and baked, baked, baked.......Here are a few pics of some of the things the girls and I worked on during our 4-day surprise snow-cation, or as some were calling it 'Snowpocalypse 2011':

I promise you we are still doing DIY home projects. It's just that nothing has been at a good stopping point in a while so I wanted to wait until I could show some good before and afters. They are so much fun to look at, but no one wants to have to see the before and then wait until the after, right?

Anyway, we did a lot of baking and came close to finishing some DIY projects and I should get some good before and afters this week.

The basic recipe for this week is from Homesicktexan.com who adapted it from Diana Kennedy. (apparently this recipe gets around) There is so much meat leftover that I almost always wind up making a 2nd recipe of something. The recipe below the basic carnitas recipe is one I created myself. Below is the step by step, super easy way to cook the meat.

First, you want to take at least 3 pounds of pork roast. I almost always buy the weekly specials when it comes to meat. This usually determines my menu for the week unless we just have a huge craving for something. It just helps to have one less thing to have to figure out and plan.

This package was closer to 6 pounds so I cut up about half of the meat and froze the rest for use later. So, that 10.00 sale price is already cut into at least 2 meals at $5 each.

Cut up your meat into strips about 1" by 3" and add them to a stock pot.

Add 1 cup of orange juice and 3 cups of water, or enough to cover over the meat, and add 2 tsp of salt.

Bring to a boil and then simmer for 2 hours. After that time period, bump up the temperature to medium and cook another 45 minutes. This will really help those liquids soak into the meat. Just wait, flavor overload ahead...

And that is IT! You heard me. The hardest thing to do is cutting up the meat. So easy & so tasty. Corey didn't believe in me. He didn't believe when I first cooked this dish that it would taste as good as it did. In all honesty, at first the cooking pork is not the greatest smell in the world, but just wait, it gets better. I promise. With that first bite, he changed his tune. This is now a staple in our house and I got to give him a big fat 'I told you so'. OK, I didn't, but he knew I was thinking it.

Now, after this process and before the assembling stage, I like to take about a tablespoon of oil and fry the meat up on high a bit until you start to see some crispy bits. You don't have to do this. You can just eat it when it's finished cooking in the liquids, but you should. Oh boy is it good!

Then throw some of the meat on a tortilla, add some cheese, onions, or anything else you like on your tacos and you are good to go.

This is just a small portion of how much it cooks up. We usually have another meals' worth of meat:

With the leftovers you can either freeze them or save them for another meal later in the week.

Here's what I do when we have Carnitas meat left over:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Soft fry 10-12 corn tortillas.

Saute onions.

Take a tortilla, add 2-3 tablespoons meat, 1 tablespoon cheese, & 1 teaspoon onions, roll up and put a toothpick in them. Repeat for the rest of the tortillas.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 25-30 minutes.

Viola, carnita taquitos! Enjoy with your favorite gauc, salsa, or queso.

The taquitos are perfect to take along to a potluck, or the Super bowl, which is what we did this past weekend. They are always a hit.

CARNITAS

ingredients:

3 pounds pork butt roast

1 cup orange juice

3 cups water

2 teaspoons salt

procedure:

1. Cut up pork into 1x3 inch strips.
2. Add to stock pot along with OJ, water, and salt.
3. Bring to a boil and then bring temperature down.
4. Simmer for 2 hours.
5. Turn up temperature to medium and cook for an additional 45 minutes.

Without further ado, the.....

WEEKLY MENU

Sunday: Fajitas at a friend's house for the Super bowl (of which we brought the above-mentioned taquitos).

Monday: London broil with French fries.

Tuesday: Sesame noodles with shredded chicken, broccoli, and cauliflower. (for a super quick dish you can cook up the noodles without the additions)

Wednesday: Baked Shrimp Scampi, jasmine rice, salad, & toasted baguette

Thursday: Sloppy Joe's, baked potato.

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Dining out.