Fresh Green Bean and Red Onion Potato Salad

This was a favorite growing up. Still is. You can eat it warm or cold.

• Fresh Green Beans
• Red Onion
• Red Potatoes (or other waxy type)
• Red Wine Vinegar (or your preference)
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• bacon optional

-Boil Potatoes in salted water, drain.
-Saute Red Onions and Green Beans for a few minutes until semi-soft
-Mix together and add olive oil and vinegar to taste.
-Add salt and pepper to taste.

You really can't mess this up unless you dump tons of vinegar in. I like to add a little at a time until its just right. Eat hot or cold. With bacon or not.

Shelly's Berry Crisp with Port Sauce

Yesterday I made a simple dessert for friends with ingredients on hand, plus fresh berries.

6 cups of fresh berries (I used strawberries and blueberries)
1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, dash of cinnamon
mix above together in large bowl and put in greased pie plate

Topping:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter chilled cut into small pieces
dash of salt

Mix above ingredients together with pastry knife until a crumb texture is formed. Pour on top of berries and bake for one hour until bubbly at 350.

If your pie is very full, put foil underneath it to save your oven from the spill over.

While pie is cooking, make port sauce. 2 cups port, 2 tablespoons sugar simmer until it is thick (approx 20 min) then chill.

Serve pie with port sauce drizzled on top. I also added a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A nice summer evening dessert.

Vinegar Pulled Pork

I'm going to adapt this for oven cooking and less servings. I'll put a 3-4 lb pork butt in a covered casserole in the oven at 300 deg. for 4 or more hours.

Serves 10

Ingredients

• Pork butt or untrimmed end-cut pork shoulder roast, 7 to 9 pounds
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Hickory wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes
• Vinegar Sauce (recipe below)
• Carolina Coleslaw (recipe below)
• 8 plain white hamburger buns if you want to sandwich it

1 .Build a charcoal or gas grill for indirect cooking.
2 .Do not trim any excess fat off the meat; this fat will naturally baste the meat and keep it moist during the long cooking time. Brush pork with a thin coating of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside on a clean tray until ready to cook.
3. Before placing the meat on the grill, add the soaked wood chips. Place the chips directly on gray-ashed briquettes or in the smoking box of your gas grill. If you are using a charcoal grill, you will need to add charcoal every hour to maintain the heat.
4. Place the pork in the center of the cooking grate, fat-side up, over indirect low heat. Cover and cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours at 325°F to 350°F, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the middle of the pork registers 190°F to 200°F. The meat should be very tender and falling apart. If there is a bone in the meat, it should come out smooth and clean with no meat clinging to it.
5. Let the meat rest for 20 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Using rubber kitchen gloves, pull the meat from the skin, bones, and fat. Set aside the crispy bits (fat) that have been rendered and look almost burned. Working quickly, shred the chunks of meat with 2 forks and "pulling" the meat into small pieces from the butt. Alternately, you can chop the meat with a cleaver. Chop the reserved crispy bits and mix into the pulled pork. While the meat is still warm, mix with enough Vinegar Sauce to moisten and season the meat (about 3/4 cup).
6. Serve hot, sandwich-style on a hamburger bun and top with coleslaw. Serve more sauce on the side if desired.


Vinegar Sauce

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients

• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup tomato paste
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a large nonreactive bowl and let sit at least 10 minutes or almost indefinitely, covered in the refrigerator.

OR even simpler just try:
white vinegar, cider vinegar, salt, pepper and tabasco


Carolina Coleslaw

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients

• 1 recipe Vinegar Sauce
• 1 medium head green cabbage, chopped

Toss the sauce and cabbage together until well mixed and not quite wet. You may have sauce left-over. Refrigerate. Let sit for at least 2 hours or overnight before serving.