chosing my focus (and a recipe)

Sometimes its so easy to focus on what I didn't get done. The pile of Fall/Halloween decorations is still sitting on the dining room table, so its hard to miss. The straightening and cleaning I have to do to even put those out is hard to miss too. Less obvious, but very apparent to me, the blog post I hoped to get written yesterday (not due yesterday, but wanted to get it out of the way), and the work project I wanted to do, but realized I didn't have what I needed to actually do it.

::sigh::

Looking at all that it's easy to get frustrated with myself. But I know that sometimes the best way to get myself motivated to do more is to take it easy on myself. To acknowledge that we all have days when the To Do list is just too long, and there aren't enough hours. And it helps to focus on what did get done. Yesterday I had a great visual for that one:

Recipes after break.

A home cooked meal for my family. Filling, delicious, and nutritious. Enough leftovers to feed a small army. Now that's something!





Fall Inspired Slow Cooked Pork Butt 
The night before I made a spice rub out of pepper, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, red pepper flake, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. I added a touch of olive oil to give it some good sticking power and mixed it well before rubbing it vigorously into my pork butt. I then cut a few large slits into the butt, and added garlic. It spent the night getting happy in the fridge.

Morning of I put 1/2 a diced onion and the pork butt into the crock pot (fat side up). I added apple cider to about 1/2 way or a little less, added a good dollop of honey BBQ sauce, a few shakes of liquid smoke, a little more red pepper flake, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours.

I flipped the butt twice, but it would be fine with no flipping if you are cooking it while you're at work. Because of opening the crock pot, I turned the heat to high for the last hour.

Remove the butt from the crock pot (making sure the meat pulls apart easily... if not, it needs more time), and let it rest while you remove as much fat from the top of the juice as possible. Shred the meat and return to the crock pot to keep warm until read to serve. Good over pasta or in a sandwich (use the juices as a sauce or an au jus).


Roasted Apples
Apples and pork work so well together, and these brought out the flavors from the spice rub. 

Pre-heat oven to 350.
In a small bowl mix cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, ginger, clove and a smidge of flour. 
Peel, core, and cut your apples into 8th. Drizzle with enough lemon juice to lightly coat.
Line your baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper, add apples, then add spice mix, turning to coat well.
Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, until tender.


Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Pre-heat oven to 350.
Trim large or browned stems, and halve sprouts. Drizzle with a healthy dollop of olive oil (enough to coat well), and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake for 40 minutes, turning half way through.