the joys of crockpots and other miscellany

Miscellany is a word, isn't it? I should just go with it.

After cleaning out my fridge and freezer the other day I discovered the long forgotten about pork roast hiding in the back under random frozen fruits (bananas perhaps?). I thought I'd make it easy on myself and toss that hunk o' meat (all four pounds of it) into the crockpot with a few spices. Crockpots are fantastic. Seriously fantastic. I knew this before, but I think with each time it gets put away in my pantry I forget until I use it to make something else and discover its wonderfulness all over again.

Here's what I did. It was the best pork roast I've EVER made, and that's saying a lot since I had an ex-boyfriend whose favorite thing I made was a pork roast. He's an ex-boyfriend so it's highly doubtful that he'll ever get to experience the new and improved version. His loss. Ahem.

I carefully cut off as much of the visible fat as I could. Pork loin is very lean, but when it is sold in the roast form there is a large, hmm, how to say this kindly...large layer of fat on one side of the roast. I created a marinade of sorts that included a lot of freshly ground pepper, some salt and some EVOO. In hindsight next time I'll use a tiny sprinkle of salt or omit it altogether. After spreading all over the roast I put it in the crockpot and put some plastic wrap over it and let it sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning I put that baby in the crockery, tossed in a bay leaf , a little water and some dried onion pieces (since I didn't feel like cutting up a fresh one at 7am) and let it work its magic. I came home to a delightful smelling house and when dinner was served at my friend's house that evening the pork roast and I received many compliments. It was a bit too salty, but otherwise it was so freaking yummy.

Back to the freezer. There were bananas. Lots and lots of frozen bananas. So many so that I baked FOUR batches of banana bread on Tuesday night. It was a late night and I seriously considered skipping out (er, I mean rescheduling) my first gym appointment. Anyhow, four batches of banana bread were made. Banana bread, while sounds somewhat healthy, is nothing of the sort. Despite my lack of passion about bananas (it's gotten better through the years, but I mostly buy them for their health benefits) this is pretty fantastic. I make mine special by adding walnuts and chocolate chips. That's right. Chocolate chips. If it's gonna be dessert, you might as well add some chocolate chips.

So, I mentioned the gym just a second ago. I've decided to give it a go and sign back up to my old gym. I'm kind of excited about it. After sucking it up and making it on Wednesday morning after my banana baking bonanza (triple alliteration. woohoo.), I felt so good. It was such a great feeling bursting with energy. And, just today at work they announced a Biggest Loser Competition. I'm pretty competitive and I'd like to win some cold hard cash, so I'm hoping this will be another way to keep me accountable to my goals and ambitions concerning a healthier life. I better go on and give away the rest of that banana bread now. However, those snickers that are stored in my kitchen junk drawer are not on the giveaway list.

I'm just keepin' it real.