PULLED PORK AND COLE SLAW

Canada Day was an absolutely gorgeous day. We went to the country for a day spent relaxing with family, swimming, talking,laughing, reading and of course eating. As usual there was way too much delicious food An easy recipe was the Carolina-style pulled pork mainly because I was able to prepare it ahead in my crock pot and the Cole slaw was also bought ahead and prepared earlier that morning.

As a matter of fact it was nice that most of the food was prepared ahead, this way even the men were able to enjoy the day and not have to slave over the hot BBQ.

There are many pulled pork recipes out there all of them excellent, even for those who don't desire to go this route it can be prepared as easily as jut using your favorite bottled bbq sauce, I like to prepare a rub for the meat and marinate it over night before I do it in the crock pot. This recipe is actually intended for the oven but the thought of putting the oven on and dealing with all that extra heat in the kitchen made me ill, so thank goodness for those crock pots!

This recipe came with the crock pot and over the years has been changed and added to and quite frankly I do it differently every time I make it, so it really doesn't matter so long as the basics are there. In my opinion tangy sauces are pretty standard for pulled pork, so whatever works best for you goes.This was how it was prepared this time.

DRY RUB

For a 6lb pork shoulder

1/4C brown sugar

1/4C paprika

1/4C cumin

1T cayenne pepper (or less optional)

1tsp. both onion powder and garlic

1/4 tsp.salt and pepper

Mix ingredients and rub on pork.

Refrigerate overnight

Carolina-Style BBQ Sauce

In a pot bring to boil the following ingredients. Use half of this sauce for the crock pot reserve other half for extra sauce when serving.

2/3C apple cider vinegar

1C ketchup

1/2C tomato paste

1/2C brown sugar

3T Worcestershire sauce

3T mustard

2tsp.paprika

2 tsp.garlic

1tsp. salt

1tsp. pepper

3/4C water

Peel and thinly slice 1-2 onions and place in bottom of crock pot. Take marinated pork and place on top and cover with half of the boiled sauce. Heat in crock pot for 6-8 hours. Pull out pork shred with 2 forks and return to sauce in crock pot. Can be kept in pot on the warm setting. You can either add reserved sauce at this stage or keep it on the side fir those that like it extra saucy.

Serve on a bun with a Cole slaw on the side or on top.

COLE SLAW (with or without mayo)

In my house everybody but me likes their slaw with mayo, while I prefer mine without. This recipe solves that dilemma, I cheated and bought the ready sliced Cole slaw prepared by the supermarkets, but homemade is still best in my books,

1 clove garlic minced

1C apple cider

1/3C sugar

1tsp salt

1tsp pepper

1tsp celery seed

Bring above ingredients to boil,to dissolve sugar. Set aside to cool

1 red onion diced

2T oil

Add the onion,oil and cooled vinegar mixture to Cole slaw mix everything and adjust salt and pepper seasoning. (At this stage you can refrigerate as is or add the MAYONNAISE, like I have to,I shudder to tell you how much...so you do it to your family's individual taste.

HAPPY CANADA DAY TO YOU,HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED YOUR DAY AND SAW SOME FIREWORKS.