BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and free soup

Have I mentioned that I love my crockpot? Cause I do. I made two great meals in it in three days. First off, I made barbeque pulled pork sandwiches. All you do is cook a pork roast in the crock pot while you are at work. Add a little water so it doesn't dry out in the beginning, but it will add its own juices to cook in. when you get home, save the juice (mason jar in the fridge is perfect) and shred the meat with a fork. If you are familiar with how soft and tender the crockpot makes meat, you will understand that this is really simple and quick. In fact, it was halfway done just getting the meat out of the crockpot. Return the meat to the crockpot with half to a whole bottle (depending on how much meat and how saucy you want it) of barbeque sauce. I use sweet baby ray's cause I can get it easy at costco. I am sure there are good homemade sauce recipes out there as well. cook it for 20-30 minutes on high if you are hungry, or about an hour on low. I enjoy it best when served on buns, but regular bread works too.

When the delicious leftovers are all gone, you still have a jar of broth to use as a soup base. On a cold day, I poured the juice in the crockpot and started adding things I had around.

-cream of (insert variety you have on hand here) soup
-potatoes (from the farm's garden)
-onions (always have those on hand!)
-can of black beans (I wanted some protein, and it seemed like a good alternate to meat)
-spices

When it was nearing the end, it still seemed a little boring to me, so I decided to add bisquick dumplings to it. I think that was the key to making it delicious. It was hearty, warm, and all stuff I had on hand. Next time I make it, I am sure it will taste completely different. But the nature of "free" soup is not the ingredients, its what I have available!

breaking bread: enchilada casserole

I have been participating in a Bible study called "Experiencing God" with my Sunday school class at church. It has been a great study so far, and I look forward to getting deeper into it. Because the weekly meetings take longer than the allotted hour and a half of sunday school time, we came up with the idea to "break bread together." So the eight of us meet for Sunday school at 9:30, go to the main service at 11, and come back together to make lunch, finish the study, eat, and fellowship together. I am blessed with the opportunity to coordinate the food efforts. One week, we made an enchilada casserole. in addition to tasting amazing, it is one of the easiest things in the world to throw together.

Here's what you do:
before hand, someone makes up taco meat. I did two pounds. Have someone grate cheese, someone else chop up onions, while the assembler starts the assembly process. Fill a pie pan with enchilada sauce. Dip tortillas one at a time in enchilada sauce and line the bottom of dish (5 qt rectangular baker in my case). Cover with a layer of cheese. Have someone open a can of black beans, as assembler's hands will be very messy at this point. Mix half the meat, onions, and can of black beans on the next layer. Add another layer of tortillas dipped in enchilada sauce. At some point, the assembler will probably need another can of enchilada sauce opened and dumped in the pie dish. Add another layer each of cheese and meat/beans/onion mix, and tortillas dipped in the sauce. Top with remaining cheese, cover with foil, and bake in the oven. Since there is no meat that has to cook, the whole baking process is just to get the cheese to melt and really blend the filling together.
I love this dish because you can assemble the casserole any time, and pull it out of the fridge and throw it in the oven. 30 minutes later you have a really yummy meal. But in this instance, we assembled it together. The point was to do something together, and enjoy each other's company in the process of making the meal.

Usually when I prepare this dish, I just do meat, cheese, tortillas, and enchilada sauce. One of the others had the idea to add the fresh chopped onion and black beans. And it tasted really really good. That's the biggest blessing for me in coordinating this. I get the ball rolling. Gather ideas from the rest of the group, find a recipe, and get a shopping list. Everyone volunteers to bring a couple things, and we cook it together. It always comes out great-better than I could make it on my own.