Enjoy the Silence and Pulled Pork Sammiches

What I really mean by that title is “Enjoy the Break (from WoW)”.

Which is a little misleading. As stated in my last post, playtime from WoW is down significantly. But it’s still not zero. A little bit of LFR on a weekend, maybe. And I’ve logged a few hours in the Beta.

I don’t want to put TOO much time into the MoP Beta, as I don’t really want to ruin the leveling/story experience. I’m mostly dabbling to see how the changes feel, particularly with the talents. So far, the Mage, DK, and Hunter all seem to play mostly the same. The talents seem to meet what Blizzard has intended – more for personal style than a “must have” increase to DPS/Threat/Healing output. I mostly have trouble with the PvP-centric talents, and that’s because I build my toons mostly for PvE. But as I said, I believe that’s intended.  As for Monks…it’s an interesting dynamic, and I find them pretty fun.  I’ve only tried the DPS spec up to level 11 and the tank spec at 85 (no dungeons, though).

Anyway, I’m enjoying taking some time off from WoW to do other things. I’ve been able to play other video games, watch some TV series and movies, spend more time with Chawa doing non-computer stuff…and with the onset of summer, probably a few more outdoors-y things, such as walking, bike rides, and barbeque (or as Texans cal it: grilling). I’m also going to play Diablo 3. I’ve been watching some game play videos and trailers, and it looks quite interesting. I have played D1 and D2, but never got into them too intensely…so we’ll see how D3 goes. Given that it was free with the annual pass, it’s really no loss on my end. (I say “free” because I would have been paying for my WoW sub for a year, anyway.)

So, that’s WoW stuff. Now for some Pulled Pork.  This is mostly inspired by @Dechion and his Pulled Pork Recipe post.  This version is mega lazy.  And to emphasize my laziness, I am also not going to show any pictures. 🙂  Note that this will feed four people with two hefty sandwiches each, or feed two people twice.  It freezes and reheats without concern.

Things you need:

• A crock-pot to do the cookin’
• 2 lbs (0.9 – 1 kg) Pork Loin roast (don’t trim it yet!)
• 1 large red or white onion
• 1.5 Cups of your favourite BBQ sauce (mine is Cattle Boyz Original)
• 3 TBsp Cider Vinegar
• 1.5 – 2 TBsp Worcheschire Sauce
• 1.5 – 2 TBsp Molasses
• 3 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp oregano (fresh if you have it, but dried works just dandy)

Add sauces and dry product together in the crock-pot and stir thoroughly.  Remove the string from the pork loin roast, but leave the fat on!  Chop the onion as you like.  Add the pork and onion to the crock-pot and use a spoon to coat the pork and onion with the sauce.  (If you don’t coat everything, don’t panic!  Everything will get coated eventually as it cooks.)

Set the crock-pot to High.  After at least 2 hours (3 – 4 hours is also fine), remove the pork.  Now you can trim the fat, which slides off very easily.  Discard accordingly.  Now take two forks and shred the pork and shred it good (I prefer mine finely shredded).  Return shredded pork to the crock-pot and set the crock-pot to LOW.  Stir to ensure the sauce is mixed nice and evenly.

Allow the shredded pork to cook for another 4 hours on low.  I also recommended stirring the pork every so often to minimize any searing of the mixture to the sides of the crock-pot (this may or may not be a problem with your particular model).

If you want to make your own slaw, I again refer you to Dech’s recipe.  Otherwise, any store bought mayonnaise based coleslaw will do. (Vinegar based slaw doesn’t work as nice, IMHO.)

Buy some nice buns or rolls, cut in the middle, put the pork on, top with some slaw, and then close the roll.  Open mouth, bite down (watch your fingers!), chew 26 – 32 times, swallow, and enjoy.

Now it’s time for me to see how my Tiny Tower is doing…

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