Friday Friend Recipe #85 --Easy Pork Tacos

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook: I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 15 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

 

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

 

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

 

Which brings me to this... recipe #85

 

April's

Easy Pork Tacos

 

 

 

This is SO GOOD.  And so Easy.  And...well, so good!

I love pork and I love putting things in tortillas.

After cooking all day the pork really does just fall apart so the shredding is easy, and you don't need any salsa because the peppers give it just the right amount of spice.

April's Easy Pork Tacos

April Cain

Winnemucca, NV

 

1 pork shoulder roast

2 jars pepperocinis (I only used one)

warm corn or flour tortillas

 

Put roast and peppers (with juice) in crock pot.

Cook all day on low.

Shred pork and put back in crockpot with the peppers.

Put into warm tortillas and Eat!

 

 

I have tagged April 15 times in my blog!  But I do believe that this is only her 2nd time in the cookbook countdown.

April and Doug are retired now.

Shelly and I HATE IT.    Seriously, we do.  We can't keep track of her anymore.

She always used to be right where she was supposed to... now, she goes gallivanting off with Doug at a moment's notice.  A month at the Oregon Coast. Okay.

But when she says they are going to CA for a few days and doesn't come back for two weeks?!!

This has got to stop!

What if we want to do lunch at a moment's notice?

Noooo-- she's off on a motorcycle trip!

There is also something 'not fair' about this!

I'm still at my desk.  Shelly's still at her desk.

Not fair!!

 

Okay, now that I've whined, I will tell you another fun fact about April.

She is a HOOKER!!

And you know we live in Nevada.   It's legal!

She is a natural at it too.

She invited me to be a hooker too, and I go because my daughter-in-law likes to hook and she's a bit shy, so I am like the 'mother' hooker, but it started with April.

 

Don't be shocked----but here is a photo of her--hooking --while she was camping.

(and there's another thing she and Doug are off doing without us!!)

 

 

HOOKER!!

(fine!  It's a knitting and crocheting group--sigh)

 

Now even tho I go to Hookers with April, I  don't know how to knit or crochet.

I bought some needles and yarn tho...to make a dish cloth.

But April posted this photo on facebook!

and she said:

For a few years now, I have been very lucky to be with a group a wonderful ladies called the "Happy Hookers" Don't jump to conclusion folks...these ladies crochet & knit! I crochet cute little projects like butterflies & anything created from granny squares. But these ladies are KNITTERS- I don't knit! Because I think the world of my fellow hookers, on my camping trip by the fire and my HOW TO Book, I am knitting a DISHCLOTH. I am so proud of my not so square & a bit bumpy project!

 

And I wrote:

 

Debbie Stone SERIOUSLY???? This was our together project!

 

And Shelly said: (the three of us do lunch every week! Or--we did --until---the RETIREMENT!!)

Shelly Cass Noble You had a together project? You're kind of scaring me.

 

April never really answered me as to why she was hooking without me.  She just laughed.   I wonder why? 

I'll probably never learn to hook now.

I depend on Jessica (my DIL) to do my knitting for me.  Slippers please.

Shelly you can come hook with us anytime.

 

 

April.

Hooker.

Motorcycle rider.

Waterfall see-er.

Adventurer.

Retired.

 

Pork and Beans

As you are reading this right now, I am really in  Phoenix, Arizona visiting my son and his family, and my newest grandson, Christopher.  And hopefully, we are at the Spring Butterfly Exhibit at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens, where a butterfly is sitting on my hand sipping nectar from a cup.
But because of the magic of modern technology,  I wrote this on Sunday afternoon and am  scheduling it to post on Thursday.

It is Thursday, isn't it?

On Thursday, I will be feeling a bit melancholy because I'll have to go home and leave my sweet little grandchildren behind.  BUT, I'll also be tired, I know. They have such energy, that I can't keep up.
We will have gone to the Bookstore, made cookies,  seen the butterflies, played endless games and I can't wait!

I'll be leaving my poor husband behind, where he will have to fend for himself for supper,except for the night he has these left over pork and beans.

Pork and Beans?  Well, kind of.  It is pork and there are beans....it's just not what came to your mind when  you read pork and beans, is it?  It is pork ribs--and beans.  (this dish might be good if you used pork chops too)
My friend Brenda, who used to have a food blog called 'Brenda's Canadian  Kitchen' posted this once and  we've enjoyed it many times since. 
It's an easy, crock-pot meal.  ( I'm vowing to use my crock-pot more often because last week  I had cold cereal two times for supper while the Handyman had some frozen burritos one night and a peanut butter sandwich the next. )  And it was good.  And very simple. I said that already, didn't I?  Easy, simple--they mean the same thing.
These are spicy and tender and the beans do not turn to mush, which is what I thought would happen the first time I made them.
The recipe says   to use  SMOKING HOT HABANERO sauce.  I cannot do that.  If you like tons of  'hot' spice, you really should use it because that is what the original recipes calls for.  While I like a teeny bit of spice, I usually have to temper it with the sweet, so I found a great  SWEET AND SPICY sauce that we love.  Just use your favorite.
This is a classic meat and beans dish.

Slow Cooked Smokin' Habanero Beans and Ribs      
Or.... just plain old Pork and Beans.
from Brenda's Canadian Kitchen

2 racks baby back pork ribs, about  3 lbs.
3 cups of PC Tequila Habanero BBQ Sauce  (or your favorite BBQ Sauce.  I used Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet and Spicy, because, I was afraid of the Habanero )
3 19oz cans white kidney beans or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

Cut rack of ribs into 2 or 3 rib pieces. Place in a bowl and toss with 1 cup of BBQ sauce.

In the bottom of a slow cooker, stir together rinsed and drained beans and 1 cup of BBQ sauce.  Place ribs on top of beans.  Pour the remaining 1 cup sauce over it all.

Cover, set slow cooker to HIGH and cook for 6 hours.  Mine are usually done just the way we like them at around 5.5 hours.

When done, transfer ribs to a serving platter, drain the beans in a colander, discarding liquid.


Enjoy!