Pulled Pork Sandwich

This is a recipe I modified from a Crock Pot cookbook I received for my birthday. My crock pot by the way, was a hand-me-down from my Mom when I went off to college 30 (not kidding!) years ago.

Ingredients:
- Pork shoulder about 3lbs
- Barbeque sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's regular sauce)
- Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon
- Onion
- Garlic
- Spices (chili powder, red pepper, etc)
- Hamburger buns
- Avocado
- Cheese

Cooking:
- Put the pork in the crock pot on low, you can season the meat with salt and pepper, and toss some minced garlic on top.
- Cook on low for about 5-6 hours.
- Remove pork and pull apart with a fork. Separate and remove as much fat as you can.
- Put back in crock pot, add about 1/2 bottle barbeque sauce, one diced onion, lemon juice, and some spices of your choice (chili powder, red pepper, etc, just a to taste).
- Cook on high about 1 hour.
- Serve on toasted bun w/avocado and melted cheese.

Notes:
- Try to find the leanest pork shoulder! A fatty piece of meat will be a mess when you pull it apart. You will have to throw away all the fat.
- The whole wheat buns from Whole Foods are excellent for this.
- Goes great with salad, tossed with gorgonzola cheese.

Palourde Mariniere

This is a twist on Moule Mariniere, which is basically just mussels steamed in wine, butter, and herbs. I really like small clams, such as manila clams, so I've taken this recipe and pretty much swapped mussels for clams and softened the flavors a little.

Ingredients:
- Small clams. Manila clams from the local asian stores will do nicely.
- Butter
- Olive Oil
- White cooking wine
- Garlic
- Fresh or dried herbs - oregano, herb de provence, etc
- Fresh Lemon or Lime is optional

Cooking:
- Heat about 2 tablespoons each of butter and olive oil until the butter melts.
- Simmer garlic on low temperature so butter doesn't burn, until garlic is browned slightly
- Turn heat very high, add about 1 cup wine and any herbs. Bring the wine to a boil.
- When wine boils, toss in clams
- We are going to wait until all the clams open. This will take some judgement. Boil for a couple minutes with no lid and this will reduce the wine a bit. Some of the clams may not open, so cover with a lid and boil until they do. Do not boil all the wine down, we want between 1/4 and 1/2 cup wine left for the sauce.
- Clams that refuse to open are evil, and should be discarded.
- That's it! Serve in a nice bowl with bread on the side.

Notes:
- The clams should be small. Asian stores have Manila clams which tend to be very small. I like ones that are a little larger, and there are nice east coast varieties in stores like Whole Foods. The quality of the clams is critical for this dish obviously, don't buy cheap ones.

Home Made Pasta Sauce

The trick in this simple recipe is to use real San Marzano tomotoes. Other than that, it is extremely easy!

Ingredients:
- 2 cans D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes
- Garlic
- Olive oil

Cooking:
- Dice garlic, and saute garlic in olive oil until brownish. A dutch oven is a great pot to use for this.
- Puree tomatoes in food processor, and add to sauteed garlic. Careful it will splash when it hits the hot oil
- Simmer very low for about 1 hour, stirring very often.
- You will notice the tomatoes are done when there are orange-ish pools on top of the sauce. You can see these in the picture pretty well.
- Will not hurt to cook much longer if you want a thicker sauce.

Notes:

- San Marzano tomatoes come from San Marzano Italy. There are many San Marzano "style" that are quite good, but not exactly the right tomatoes. It's like a cabernet from Napa vs Central Valley. In general the Napa cabernets are better because of the growing conditions and soil. Real San Marzano tomatoes say "D.O.P." on the can, simple as that.

Guacamole and Crab

Ingredients:
- Avocado
- Tomato
- Garlic
- Olive oil
- Lime
- Cilantro
- Tortilla
- Crab meat (dungeness fresh, or canned - try to get w/leg meat)

Cooking Instructions:
- dice avocado
- dice tomato, removing seeds
- mince garlic, mash garlic with some salt
- season all with pepper and olive oil, and coarsely mix guacamole (avocado, tomato, garlic), sprinkle with cilantro, sprinkle with lime
- crab meat should be shredded and tossed on top or side of dish, and sprinkled w/lime

Notes:
- Guacamole can be pulsed in a food processor, but will get smooth and yellow-brown - make sure you want this consistency; coarse mixing with a fork is ok
- Lime will remove the fishy-ness of the crab meat