Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Happy November, everyone! I can't believe how fast this semester is flying. In a little over 2 months I'll be moving out of Boston and working full time for Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey until July. So crazy how fast this is sneaking up on me! I had an amazing dinner party for Halloween with some girlfriends last night, and it made me even sadder to leave this city. I'm planning to squeeze in all the dinner parties I can before I move, so get excited for a lot more posts to come.

This was the main dish I served for the Halloween party my roommates and I threw yesterday evening. I woke up at 7 to put the pork in the slow cooker before my 8 am class, then took it out at 7 pm right before the party started to shred the meat and add the sauce. I swear by Dinosaur Bar-B-Que sauce, and since the original restaurant is in my hometown I'm a devoted fan.

Also, I definitely recommend cooking the pork for the full 12 hours because the meat literally melts in your mouth. Considering we fed about 12 girls (and 2 lucky boyfriends) I'd say this is the easiest and most delicious go-to party meal I can think of!

Here are some quick shots of the party:

Some of the girls

Snapshot of the dinner

Feeling a little full...

Dylan and me

Hope everyone else had a great Halloween weekend. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Makes: 12 sandwiches  Prep: 20 minutes  Total: 12 hours, 20 minutes

Ingredients
5-6 lbs pork shoulder
1 large onion
4 tbs red pepper flakes
4 tbs paprika
3 tbs salt
3 tbs pepper
2 19-ounce bottles of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que sauce
Sandwich buns

Directions
Slice the onion through the center to create large rings of onion. Lay in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Prepare BBQ rub by combining red pepper flakes, paprika, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Pat the rub all over the pork shoulder, covering evenly. Place the pork on top of onion and fill the slow cooker two-thirds of the way with water.
Turn the slow cooker to low and leave on for 10-12 hours.
When the pork is done, remove from the slow cooker and shred with two forks. Place pulled pork in a large bowl and add 1 bottle of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que sauce. Mix well.
Dump most of the water and juice out of the cooker, leaving 1/4 cup and onions for flavor. Add the pulled pork back into the slow cooker and keep on low until ready to serve.

Recipes Online

In the age of a generation raised online, information can be accessed instantly by the click of a button. Today hundreds of thousands of recipes are available on the internet, providing never-ending opportunities to expand your food tastes and discover new recipes. Some of these websites and blogs cater to experienced chefs, while others are targeted at people with limited cooking ability. Though I have a plethora of recipes I've inherited from family members, I often find meals on these food sites when I'm looking for a quick fix. Here are a few useful websites I wanted to share as well as recipes I've found on each.

allrecipes.com

This site is great for finding tons of variations on a simple recipe.

These are stuffed peppers I made last week. The baked green peppers are stuffed with ground beef, rice, onion, cheddar cheese and topped with condensed tomato soup before baking for 30 minutes. I was skeptical about the soup at first, but it did a great job of keeping the beef and rice from drying out in the oven. These reheat well too, so don't hesitate to make extra.
Click Here to try it!

supercook.com
By entering ingredients that are in your pantry into the Supercook search engine, this website pulls up hundreds of recipes you can make using the food you already have. (Note: This is a database that will lead you to other food sites to view the actual recipes, so go to the supercook.com for the original website.)

Here's an easy cheeseburger pie I whipped up for dinner last night. I needed a way to get rid of the pound of ground beef in my freezer using what I had. All this recipe requires is ground beef, Bisquick, an onion, 2 eggs, milk, salt and cheddar cheese. Bakes for 25 minutes and leaves plenty of leftovers for lunch on the go.
Click Here to try it!


tastespotting.com
If you're an adventurous eater, then you'll love TasteSpotting. This is a site I discovered today and am really excited to try. Recipes ranging from Korean Pumpkin Porridge to Banana Avocado Pancakes are sprinkled across the site's homepage, with pictures that'll instantly make your mouth water. It premieres a culturally diverse representation of regional cuisines, and you know it's authentic because some of the recipes are still written in their native language! (I found a French onion soup recipe that's written in Polish. Pretty cool, right?)

These pork chop sandwiches are called cemitas, originating from Puebla, Mexico. Cemitas are slider-sized sandwiches, this particular one layered with pork, avocado, sweet cherry peppers and mozzarella all on a homemade roll that takes 8 hours to rise. Whoa. This might be my next culinary feat to tackle.
Click Here to try it!