Five Meals with Fischer Family Farms Pork

Gerg enjoys a slice of Fischer Family Farms Pulled Pork Pizza

Gerg and I purchased a 6lb Fischer Family Farms Pork shoulder roast. Such good news.

Before we proceeded, we realized this piece of meat would likely sustain us for almost a week (with some non-pork meals in between), so we planned a to get about 5-6 meals worth out of one roast. I suppose could easily freeze the pulled pork after preparing it if you didn't want to eat pulled pork all week. We managed to eat pulled pork all week and not get bored.

Cooking the Roast

We used a simple preparation to cook the meat, since we wanted it to be adaptable to several recipes:

• Fischer Farms pork shoulder roast, about 6 pounds
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 bottle (24 ounces) of New Glarus Enigma
• salt
• pepper
  

Place half of the thinly sliced onions in bottom of slow cooker; add pork, water, and 12 oz of beer. Top with remaining onion slices. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours. Remove the roast, shred the pork into pieces in a separate container. Drink the other 12 oz of beer. Word!


Preparing the Meals


Meal One:
Kansas City-style BBQ pulled Pork Sandwich

Scoop up 8oz of the prepared pulled pork, place it on a whole grain roll, top it with Kansas City style sauce and old fashioned coleslaw.

We served ours with roasted brussels sprouts on the side, which are the bomb-diggity.

Roasted brussels sprouts:
Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in upper third.

Cut brussel sprouts in half, lengthwise. Toss brussels sprouts with olive oil, truffle salt, and pepper. Arrange, cut sides down, in a 17- by 12-inch shallow baking pan. Roast, without turning, until outer leaves are tender and very dark brown, 40 to 45 minutes.

Meal Two: (fast lunch for two)
BBQ pulled pork open-faced sandwich with SweeTango apple slices.

Warm 8oz of the leftover pulled pork, place it on a piece of whole grain toast, and top it with BBQ sauce. Slice up some SweeTangos for a sweet and snappy side dish.

Meal Three:
Pulled Pork Gyozas (potstickers) with Steamed Vegetables

• 16 oz. pulled pork
  
• 1 bunch of green onions
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
  
• 1 thumb-size piece of ginger
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 Tbs. soy sauce
• 1 Tbs. dark sesame oil
• 1 pack of gyoza skins (24 skins in each pack)
• 1 cup shredded cabbage (we left it out since we had coleslaw and brussels sprouts the day before)
  

Finely chop the green onions. Grate the ginger and garlic cloves. Mix all the ingredients (except for the gyoza skins and oil for frying) in a bowl. Let the meat marinate for about an hour, if possible. There are many methods for cooking gyoza. I like this one: http://www.doobybrain.com/2010/04/10/cooking-yaki-gyoza-with-a-dog/

We served our gyoza with steamed sugar snap peas, carrots, and broccoli. Serve with unfiltered sake FTW.

Meal Four:
Pulled Pork Pizza (makes 2 10" pizzas)

Prepare a crust or buy some pizza dough.

Our basic pizza dough:
1 cup warm water
1/4 ounce yeast (about 2 tsp)
1 tsp honey
2 tsp truffle olive oil
1 tsp truffle salt
3 tbsp corn meal

Place the yeast and honey into the warm water. Stir other ingredients together. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture. Stir until combined. Form into a dough ball. Let the dough rise in a covered bowl until it doubles. Beat it down. Roll it out. Sprinkle your pizza pan with cornmeal. Place the rolled out crust on the pan (slightly prebake the crust before adding toppings if you want a super crunchy crust).

Top the crust in the following order with pulled pork, sliced red peppers, sliced crimini mushrooms, diced cipollini onions, fresh grated garlic, fresh sliced mozzarella cheese, and grated Parmesan. Serve with your favorite sauce on the side, dude. We made our sauce with rosemary and basil, and it was boss.

We served our pizza with basil vodka lemonades.

Meal Five: Leftover pizza (fast lunch for two)



[where: Minnesota, Food, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, 55418]

Sweet! A Heritage Festival for Bohemians like Me!

Growing up Bohemian meant a few things for me: my grandma swearing under her breath in a foreign language, delicious pastries with strange names that were unknown to my grade school pals, and everybody making gypsy jokes.

We certainly didn't have a festival in my small town, so I was pretty excited when I read about this upcoming event. Perhaps they'll have apricot and/or poppyseed kolaches like my grandma used to make...

Sokol Minnesota’s annual Czech and Slovak Festival returns to the Highland Park Pavilion, 1200 Montreal Avenue, Saint Paul, Sunday, September 19 from 11 a.m to 5 p.m. This colorful festival features Czech and Slovak food, costumed dancers, the Sokol Singers, as well as the Zuhrah Shrine Band!

The Food

This year’s menu features a wonderful selection of tasty authentic Czech and Slovak recipes including Slovak halušky s kapustou (dumplings with sauerkraut) and holubky (cabbage rolls); potato or cheese pirohy (dumplings), Czech žebírka (pork ribs), kurací paprikáš s knedlíkem (chicken paprika with dumplings), and Bohemian jitrnice (sausage). This year’s version of this wonderful pork sausage comes from Montgomery, Minnesota, where it is made with pearl barley. Not to be missed are oblozené chlebícky (open-faced sandwiches) made-to-order with cold cuts, eggs, cheese, or mayonnaise-based salads such as ham, pea, or potato. Booya is back! Made from the time-tested Sokol Camp (Pine City) recipe, the booya is for sale in individual servings or in bulk. The Sweet Shop has a wonderful selection of kolache (pastries), potica (a Slovak walnut and poppy seed delicacy), cookies, and other treats. Beverage selections include wine, beer, and specially brewed root beer.

The Program

The festival program reflects centuries of Czech and Slovak traditions. The Festival opens with recordings of beautiful folksongs brought over from the old country, including many sung by our own Sokol Minnesota Senior Singers. Under the direction of Georgiana Dolejsi, they share not only beautiful melodies, but also use the correct pronunciation of the mother-tongues and offer the true spirit of all the songs.

The theme of folk music will run through the program, 11:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. with concertinas and the Zuhrah Shrine Band. Musical selections of middle European marches follow the presentation of the national flags and our American, Czech, and Slovak anthems. Musicians are invited to bring accordions or concertinas . Everyone can enjoy a beer and lend their voices to the singing.

After a welcome from Sokol Minnesota President Joe Landsberger, the program highlights Sokol's message of a healthy mind in a healthy body. The adult exercise group performs a prostna that it performed last year in Fort Worth, Texas, and again this summer in Spillville, Iowa. A prostna is a callisthenic drill performed at slets (literally, gatherings of Sokols, or falcons). The first slet in Prague in 1882 celebrated the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Sokol organization; slets continue to this day through out the world.

What is music without dance? Our Sokol Minnesota children’s groups, under the direction of Louise Wessinger, perform in three age groups. The Mlada Skupina (young group) love to sing and dance. The grade-school-age children, Taneční Mládež (Dancing Youth) tackle dances with more difficult steps and sequences, and the Taneční Teens enjoy dances that challenge their abilities. This year the boys created a dance using stilts, and the girls countered with a dance using haying rakes (rabe) from Bohemia.

The St. Paul Czech and Slovak Folk Dancers are looking forward to their 50^th Anniversary in 2012 with a project called 50 for 50, as in 50 dances for 50 years. They perform a trio of dances presented earlier this year at the Festival of Nations demonstrating the Czech passion for music and dance. Miss Czech-Slovak Minnesota 2010, Debbie Jindra of Montgomery, Minnesota, performs a Moravian folkdance used in her competition.

Vendors and Exhibits

Craft vendor booths include Sokol Minnesota’s Krásné Dárky (Beautiful gifts) gift shop with special items, t-shirts, and books, including the Sokol Minnesota Cookbook, and Sokol Minnesota Sings songbooks, CDs, and tapes, with Sokol marching, folk, and patriotic songs in Czech, Slovak, and English. Anita Smisek, an avid singer and collector of Bohemian, Moravian, and Slovak folksongs and music will sell her CDs and sheet music. Anita says that if you want to know a culture, you must experience its music.

Informational community kiosks will include the Czech-Slovak Genealogical Society International and a Healthy West 7^th display by United Family Medicine’s community clinic program.

Join Czech and Slovak Sokol Minnesota to celebrate 150 years of Czech and Slovak presence in the West End of Saint Paul. The Highland Park Pavilion seats 200, giving protection from rain and sun, as well as wide-open views to the park. Additional outdoor seating and a children’s play area are nearby. For more information call 651-297-9000 or email events@sokolmn.org

[where: Minnesota, Food, Minneapolis, Twin Cities, 55418]