New Year

We kicked off the New Year tonight with food!

We bought a smoker last month, after receiving a notice from the city of Kansas City of our pending eviction, since we had lived here for more than a year without learning to smoke our own meat, and we were given 30 days to comply. (Okay not really, but it could happen.) Seriously though, #1 on my list for moving back to Kansas City was the barbecue. It's a weakness of mine. For Thanksgiving, we smoked a turkey. I was nervous so I also roasted a standard Thanksgiving turkey in the oven. Guess which turkey got eaten. 

Exactly.

So Travis smoked a side of pork, I whipped up some candied acorn squash and dinner rolls, and the girls and I had big plans to make French macarons for our first time, but those plans were eventually sidelined. We'll try tomorrow. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, smoking (or grilling, or roasting, or crock-pot-ing) amazing pulled pork is definitely an imperative supermom skill. Here's the rub:

[No, literally, I'm giving you the recipe for the rub.]

Dry rub, Kansas City BBQ style

Adapted from Travis's Christmas present - the "Secrets to Smoking" cookbook

But I didn't have all the ingredients on hand so this is what I threw together.

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 Tbsp. chili powder

2 Tbsp. sea salt (I found this in an Asian market where I used to shop - very coarse and slightly damp...? But don't be too picky with your salt. I'm sure any will work.)

1 Tbsp. smoked paprika

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp allspice

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

I just loved how this looked and smelled once it was all blended. I was tempted to use it for decorating. Rub it on whatever meat you plan to cook and let it soak in for as long as you can before cooking. Seriously you could do anything with this.

You will need the other recipes too. (Don't be alarmed by how scary these look in the pictures. Sometimes the ugliest food is the most delicious. Or so I regularly tell my children...)

Candied Acorn Squash

2 acorn squash

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

3 Tbsp. brown sugar or honey, whatever floats your boat

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

pinch ground nutmeg

pinch ground cloves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Halve the acorn squash lengthwise and scoop out seeds and pulp with a spoon. Place cut sides down on a baking sheet and bake 20-25 min. Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl while the squash is baking. Remove from oven and flip the halves over carefully. Pour the butter/sugar/spice mixture into the hollowed out squash, making sure to cover all the exposed flesh. Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees. Return squash to the oven for another 15 min or until glaze is candied (basically just take them out before they get seriously burned. You can't really mess this one up otherwise.)

The rolls came from my amazing famous published writer friend, Janet Sumner Johnson.

Janet's Rolls

3/4 cup warm milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

3 cups bread flour

1 Tbsp yeast

Put all ingredients, in this order, in bread machine set to "dough" setting. (Alternately, pour it all in your mixer. It's basically the same thing unless you are trying to do this in advance and come home to nearly-finished rolls!) Let dough rise 30-45 minutes. Roll into 18 rolls and place in pan (I use a glass 9x13 dish, but Janet only bakes her rolls spread out individually on a pizza stone! Also good!) Let rise for up to an hour - really however much time you have is good. Just make sure they're noticeably bigger than they were when you first shaped them. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min. Immediately rub tops with butter after taking them out of the oven. Just trust me on that one.

***GOALS for the NEW YEAR***

1. Make my bed every day (we are one day into the new year and so far I am 0 for 1. Well I can only go up from here, right?!)
2. Organize my entire house (no seriously this is going to happen)
3. Finish what I start (no one said they couldn't be lofty goals...)
4. Train for a half marathon by myself in 12 weeks. (This one scares me. I've trained for and run a half marathon before, but certainly not by myself. My attention span is so short. I can scarcely run 3 miles alone without getting bored.) Wish me luck!!!