July 4th Celebration
July 4th is a great time to celebrate your country’s freedom and spend valuable time with family and friends. I believe one of the best ways to spend time with family and friend is around the dinner table. Here is a great recipe to share with those you love. You may consider doubling the recipe; you will want seconds. The recipe is for a BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. They are delicious! They are always a hit at my house. Serve them with cole-slaw for a little extra touch.
BBQ pulled pork
Ingredients:
1-4lb Boston Butt Pork Roast
2- extra large cans chicken broth
¼ cup garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup barbeque dry seasonings
2tbsp onion powder
1 bottle KC masterpiece BBQ sauce
Directions:
Heat your 6 qt or 5 qt slow cooker at med to med high heat until water beads up and dances in pan. Sear meat on all sides. Add chicken broth and dried seasoning. Cook until pork is falling from the bone and pulls apart easily (approximately 5 hrs.). Pull pork apart, discarding all fat. (Keep broth- place it in a bowl we will use it later). Add ½ bottle KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce. Place pulled pork, and BBQ sauce, and 3 cups of broth back into 5 or 6 qt. Cook on med-low heat until heated through. Add extra dried seasoning to taste. Add extra broth if extra moisture is needed for the pork. Serve on a hamburger bun and enjoy!
Wedding Day Countdown
Okay, so I have to apologize for being a horrible blogger lately. I’ve just been so busy planning my July 3rd wedding…yep - July 3rd - that’s 4 days away!! I am so excited and so nervous at the same time! Since it’s been so hard for me to blog, and I knew I needed to sit down and write out all my last minute thoughts and plans for my wedding day, I thought I would turn it into a blog and kill two birds with one stone.
Well, I just had my bachelorette party last night and I think my Bridesmaids are more stressed out than I am! They think I’m being too laid back about everything. I disagree. I know all I need to get married is the Preacher (got that taken care of a few days ago… phew!), the groom, and me! Oh, and the paperwork so it’s all legal and official (I still need to get that license!)
My list of things to do:
1.) Start looking for a wedding day hairstyle
(one of my BMs freaked out that I hadn’t even looked around yet…she said she looked for 3 days before she found the perfect one :))
2.) Find a linen rental company (okay…so, this one I am a little nervous about…can they rent out this close to the event day? Well, there’s always Party Galaxy, right? ;))
3.) Find shoes
(can‚t I wear flip flops? lol)
4.) Bridal Party jewelry and mine too
(I’ll be taking care of that today before I go to evening service!)
5.) Delegate the cleaning up and rental return jobs
(Here’s where I hit up the people that keep asking for something to do to help!)
6.) Music
(I need to make sure my fiancé has that under control. But I might want to look into some things…like our first dance song, father/daughter song, wedding march…things like that)
7.) Wedding Dress
(just kidding!! I do think it’s funny that I went to a prom store 3 weeks ago, picked out a beautiful white dress and was done with it, and one of my Bridesmaid’s is having her dress custom made, lol!)
8.) Oh yea…the Wedding license
(almost forgot ;))
Well, I hope I haven’t stressed out any other Brides that are reading this. Remember…It’s more than a day, It’s a lifetime. I’m really more excited about our future together; the wedding is just going to be a fun party to celebrate the start of it 
The Perfect Steak
This Saturday I decided to try and make The Perfect Steak. The three main things to be concerned about: the quality of meat, proper seasoning, and the heat of the grill. For my steaks, I chose to get them from Sam’s Wholesale. A better choice would have been a butcher, but, hey, Sams has pretty good lookin’ steaks!! I went with a sirloin because even though they may not be as tender as a filet mignon, it will definately be the most flavorful without a lot of fat. After getting the Sirloins, I used an old trick I learned from a steakhouse I used to work at: I marinated the steaks in Italian dressing. Normally, you would marinate them for several hours but I used some Ultra Vacs I got from Simplicity Gourmet. The Ultra Vacs pull all the air out of the container and open up the pores in the meat, so it marinates in like 20 minutes.
Then, I patted the steaks down with a generous amount of Robi’s Darn Good Seasoning for flavor. Once I got the steaks seasoned to perfection, I loaded up the grill with charcoal and let it start preheating. The hotter the better because it will sear it and lock in the natural flavors and juices. I let it heat for almost 45 minutes unitl it was about 700 degrees. Then, I slapped those big fat, well seasoned bundles of protein on the grill and let it sear perfect grill marks in one side; then, I flipped them and let them cook to Medium Rare on the other side.
One Trick to getting good sear marks is to lube up the grill rack with olive oil. Once it was cooked to perfection, I served it with a Sweet potatoe and green beans. Talk about juicy! The steak was full of flavor and spice. I believe it may be the perfect steak. So, remember…Good Meat, Good Seasoning, Good Heat! Happy Grilling!
Pink Apron Preview Gets Praise…
Just wanted to let everyone know that one of our new bridal teams, the engaged team of Chris & Danielle, received very high praise from an attendee of one of their very first solo shows last night. I want to congratulate them on their outstanding performance and let them know how very proud we are of them! Welcome to our family, Chris & Danielle!
From: Meredith Baldwin [mailto:mfbaldwin@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 8:33 AM
To: Info
Subject: Chris and Danielle
Just wanted you to know that I went to a show in West Memphis, Arkansas last night and Chris and Danielle are awesome!!!! Had a lot of fun. Thanks!!
Meredith
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The Easy Way to Keep A Clean Kitchen
Sometimes I feel as though all I do is clean my kitchen; and I don’t really like to clean. I have two kids, a dog, and of course my husband and I dirtying it up all day long and sometimes it just never stays clean long enough. I have found a few ways I can cut down on the time it takes me to get my kitchen clean and presentable. Simplicity is key here. I do deep cleaning on specific days and otherwise i move quickly. The first thing I do is give myself a time limit. This is how long I can spend. It makes me move faster. Next, I unload my dishwasher as soon as it finishes the cleaning cycle so it will be ready for the next load of dishes going in. I don’t know how I would function without my dishwasher. I find that the area that has the ability of getting messy the fastest is the sink. Every product I use in the kitchen is dishwasher safe. That is a must in my house. As I use dishes throughout the day, I load as I go. This gives me less to do at the end of the night after dinner. I also use a spay bottle of 1 part vinegar and 1 part water to mop my floor. I spray the solution onto the floor and then mop it right up. This way I don’t have to wring out my mop each step of the way; and I don’t have to wait as long for the floor to be dry. I also love the pre-moistened kitchen wipes. I hope these suggestions help you spend more time with those you love and less time cleaning a dirty kitchen.
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Sticky Pasta? ugh!
Have you ever made pasta and after draining the water the pasta is sticky? Ugh, is all I have to say about that! I am all about Simplicity in the kitchen so don’t fret, I will let you in on a little secret on helping reduce the sticky out of your pasta!
Once you have put your water in the pan to cook your pasta just grab your pam and spray the top of the water and then give your water a little stir so when you add your pasta and cook it, it will come out smoother! Ta-Dah! Simple & Quick Trick that puts Simplicity back into your Kitchen! Now who doesn’t love that!
Simple Yet Elegant Dining at Home
My husband and I were invited over to an old friends house this weekend for dinner. It was a perfect night out. It was a relaxing, yet elegant atmosphere. There is no better way to catch up with friends than around a dinner table where you are close and relaxed. This is the ideal setting for great talks and fun. We have large parties at our house all of the time, but rarely entertain just one or two couples. For a few years my husband and I ate out in restaurants a few times a week. Many times, we had friends with us. The unfortunate thing about going to a restaurant, however, is that you have no control over noise levels and atmosphere. There is nothing that will kill a conversation faster than having to ask, “What?” every few seconds. Our dinner this weekend was completely opposite of those annoying restaurant situations. It was a great way to rekindle our friendship with the Trotters. They created an ambiance with dim lighting and candles. There was no overpowering music. They pulled out their china to serve us. We ate a simple salad, a zucchini and squash mixture, steak, and sweet potatoes. It was cooked in about 25 minutes using waterless and greaseless cookware and clean up was a breeze. Thank God for dishwashers! The whole evening made us feel great, and went further than words could in reminding us that we are special to them. It was a perfect evening! I hope we can do the same for them very soon. You don’t have to go out to a gourmet restaurant to have a great time. In fact, the simplicity of the evening reminded me how easy it is to dine and entertain at home. No matter what the size of the group, the next time we catch up with friends or entertain business associates or clients, we will be at our house!
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