Monday, May 30, 2011

Slow Cooker Saves the Day


Saturday was quite a day.  I am the chairwoman of the Funeral Dinner committee at our church, and on Saturday we served a funeral dinner to 150 people.  Yes, 150 people.  A funeral dinner at our church entails the committee preparing two meat dishes, and serving sides that are generously donated by the women of our church.  And boy, can those ladies cook!  Typically, a funeral dinner is served to about 30-60 people, but sadly, this funeral was for a relatively young woman who was beloved by many people.  Her parents are active members of our church and have an extensive community of their own who turned out to support them in their time of grief.  It is an honor to be a part of the ministry of providing a funeral dinner like we do, and I am proud of what we were able to do on Saturday.  It took pretty much my entire day, though, and I knew that after spending a full day in the church kitchen I would not be keen on spending much time in my own.  So I tried to plan ahead.  In my meal plan for the week, I had planned to have The Rev grill our dinner, but he was pretty busy with the funeral itself, plus we had the added complication of Middleman waking up sick that morning, and Oldest playing in his second Tball game of the year.  Whenever either of us wasn’t at the church, we were at home comforting a sick boy.  Fortunately, my father-in-law was able to help take care of the kids, but neither of us was in any shape to do much cooking come dinnertime.  Slow cooker to the rescue!  I switched up my meal plans, moving Pork BBQ to today and pushing the grilling to later in the week.  I put the pork in the slow cooker before I left in the morning, and all The Rev had to do at dinnertime was shred the meat and pour on a little bottled barbeque sauce.  Sides were leftovers from the funeral dinner.
Pork BBQ Sandwiches
Pork roast (I think I got a shoulder roast on sale,) whatever size will fit in your slow cooker
Salt and pepper
Celery salt
¼ c. water
Bottled barbeque sauce
Rolls
Pat roast dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper and celery salt on all sides.   Place in slow cooker and pour ¼ c. water over roast.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours, until meat is falling apart.  Remove meat to a platter or shallow dish.  Remove any bones and large chunks of fat.  Shred meat with two forks and move to a serving bowl.  Pour your favorite bottled barbeque sauce over the meat (our choice is Sweet Baby Ray’s,) enough to moisten the pork.  Spoon a little of the broth from the slow cooker over the meat and sauce and stir to combine.  Add more sauce as you like, or pass at the table.  Serve on crusty rolls.  Reserve the yummy broth for another recipe.  It freezes well and is great for making gravy or punching up soupbeans.

Dinner prep took less than ten minutes in the morning
The beautiful sides were leftovers from the funeral dinner.  Fantastic salads!

2 comments:

  1. Funeral dinners are such an underrated, yet important ministry. Keep up the great work! Btw, have you ever tried barbeque chicken in the slow cooker? We usually use legs, but have used app differend pieces of chicken. Just put the chicken in, dump some sauce over it (we use Sweet Baby Rays) and set the slow cooker! Perfect, tender barbeque chicken.

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  2. I love doing a pork roast in the slow cooker! The best part is 5 minutes of prep in the AM, then coming home to the delicious aroma of dinner.

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