A Gift And A Smirk

I confess, I like to cook. At my age I like things to be simple, so I try to simplify dishes that tend to be complicated but still get full flavor. I love pulled pork. If you see them make it on those BBQ shows, it's complicated. So I came up with this. Here's your gift.

                                            Cranky's Pulled Pork

Use only Boston Butt. No other cut works as well. Don't even think about fresh shoulder.
Five lbs, will give you enough for eight people of normal girth.

Place the butt in a cast Dutch oven or a slow cooker. (Yeh, I was tempted to make that, your butt. I resisted.) Add 1 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup rye or bourbon whiskey, and 2 tablespoons of liquid smoke. I suggest hickory or mesquite, and a tablespoon of garlic powder.

With a slow cooker, start it on high. When it comes to a boil, switch to low. Simmer four hours. 
With a Dutch oven, bring to boil on top of the stove. At boil, place in a 300 degree oven for four hours.

Remove meat to the largest bowl available. Cool for thirty minutes, then shred meat with two forks removing bones.

In the last hour of cooking, empty a 16 ounce bottle of catsup into a sauce pan. Pour 1/3 cup of cider vinegar into the catsup bottle and dissolve the remaining catsup. Add that to the sauce pan along with three round tablespoons of light brown sugar, one tablespoon of finely ground fresh black pepper, one tablespoon of yellow mustard, and one tablespoon of hot sauce. Adjust the last two items to personal taste. Slow simmer for 30 minutes.

Add to the pork and mix well. Rather than serve it with bread, I like to take a plastic package, no canned, of sauerkraut, rinse well, add a dollop of dry sherry, heat, and serve.


OK, now to the smirk part. I'll make this short because these people do not deserve much ink. (Yes, I know it's not really ink.) I like Fox News, not only because they support the conservative position, but also because they give liberals a shot to rebut. There are liberals worth hearing, like Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen. These men are serious and thoughtful. I dislike the leering smirking faces of Lanny Davis, Bob Beckell, and Alan Colmes. They try to shout down and talk over any opposition and have never known a conservative to do good nor a liberal to do bad. Ideologues all with no sense of values.