Pulled And Stretched Pork Recipe

Well, Smockity Frocks is holding another "What's In Your CrockPot?" carnival and I'm so glad. We use our crockpot more and more around here. It makes dinner time so much easier on everyone! We've discovered pulled pork and how just a little goes a long way. So I like to refer to it as pulled and stretched pork! Not to mention it is super easy and so yummy!

Pulled And Stretched Pork

Piece of pork loin or boneless pork chops (thick cut)

-the amount of pork is up to you and the size of your family. I have served my family of 5 with an inch cut of whole pork loin.

onions

favorite BBQ sauce

water

vinegar

black beans (optional)

Place pork in crock pot with sliced onions. I usually use one whole onion, but you can use less or more depending on your amount of pork. Pour BBQ sauce over pork and onions, enough to cover bottom of crock pot. Add about 1/2 cup of water and I like to add 1 TB of vinegar. I was raised mostly on the East coast and vinegar and pork BBQ go hand and hand.

Cook on low for 6 hours. In the last 30 minutes you can add a couple cans of black beans. This is a wonderful way to stretch the meal if you don't have that much meat.

We like to serve on tortillas with grated cheese and some sour cream. We've also had it on yeast rolls.

Enjoy!

Head over to Smockity's for more great recipes!

Frugal Master Bath Makeover- Update Knobs

So we've hit a little snag with our granite counter tops. They are in, but there has been some quality issues so we are awaiting the owners phone call to straighten things out. In the meantime I thought I'd share a frugal way to update your knobs.

In a post on my main blog awhile back I shared my tips on spray painting your knobs to avoid the expense of buying new hardware. They can be very expensive.


I have found that spray paint is your friend. They have spray paint that is shiny or even leaves a hammered effect. We were sure what color to go with in this project so we tested several different colors to see what would work best.

When we decided on a color we used a very scientifically exact method of making sure the paint was evenly distributed on the knobs...

Bamboo skewers in the dirt.

They turned out really nice and have held up well. There are a few worn spots on the ones we did in the bathroom, but a lot of grimy and wet hands touch those:)

We've got the tiles for the floor in the master bath so hopefully this weekend that will get finished and I will have pictures to show you. We saved some money with the tiles, almost half, for basically the same look. I'll share that whole story with you soon!

First Breath - Photo Contest

One of our passions around here is photography. I love to take pictures, WB loves to take pictures and now our children are getting into it. I decided to enter the I Heart Face Photography contest this week. It's titled Dramatic B&W.

WB took this photo minutes after our first born arrived into this world. There is so much I could say about this photo. The gloved hands you see were only a couple of the hands that worked on her within minutes of her being born. My room had a team of NICU doctors and nurses calmly awaiting her arrival. Luckily for me, after 17 hours of labor, I was too exhausted to be terribly alarmed. WB was equally clueless, as he had his camera posed and ready to photograph the event. Seconds after this picture was taken she was whisked out of the room under a hood of oxygen. NICU would be her home for the next week.

Since WB is a contributing blogger here at this site I thought I'd share his first glimpse of his first born. His little girl, who turned out to be quite the fighter.

Head over to I Heart Face Photography to see lots of other awesome pictures. And don't forget to sign up for my 18X24 Photo Poster give-away before you leave!

March Give Away- Free Photo Poster Print And A Winner!

I have an awesome March give-away from U-printing for one of my lucky readers. They are giving away:
18x24 Poster Print for One (1) Winner (one of your photos)
Paper Stock: High Gloss or Semi Gloss
Specifications: 1 Business Day Turnaround Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only

I have several of these posters at my house and they are framed and hanging. Everyone comments on how nice they look, so I think you will like them too. It is a wonderful way to showcase your favorite pictures. U-printing not only does poster printing but they do promotional printing as well. So be sure to head over to their site and see all the neat things they have going on.

So all you need to do to enter is leave a comment. For more entries tweet it, facebook it, or link to this post in your blog. Come back each time and tell me what you have done for more entries. The winner will be announced Wednesday, March 31.

Good luck!

*I have to have an e-mail in order to award you the prize:)
And I will be receiving one poster print as well for hosting this give away.

Congrats to Spencer you are the lucky winner!!

The Painting Is Complete!

Yes, the painting of the cabinets is done for the most part. Tips to anyone who paints their cabinets sand first, sand lightly in between and wait 24 hours between coats to keep it from chipping. Some you just have to learn the hard way I guess.

This my little vanity area before.

Here it is after.

Notice the light fixtures. I like these much better then our old ones and they did not cost that much at Home Depot. I did see some bronze light fixtures I loved, but they cost over twice as much as these. Being frugal minded I blubbered like a baby reluctantly put it back on the shelf. Oh and did you know there are a gazillion different light bulb choices? If you don't believe me go browse the lightbulb aisle in your home improvement store. I started to get a little grumpy at all the choices. WB, being the wonderful husband he is, recognizes my grumpiness sometimes even before I do. Anyway, I just couldn't decide.

WB calmly let me believe it was all up to me until he saw me fast approaching my melting point in which he stepped up to some nice round lightbulbs and said, "I believe these will cast you in a warm glow setting off your red highlights and if it's possible make you look even more stunning then you already are." What? You don't believe men say things like that? Well, those might not have been his exact words, but whatever he said made me melt. And there is my bit of marriage advice. Marry a man who knows how to sweet talk you in the lightbulb aisle.

This was our sink area before.

Here it is after.

Oh, and WB got some inexpensive drawer pulls at the home improvement store. We have painted our cabinet pulls in the past and it has worked nicely. This time the weather outside wasn't so nice and to save time we bought these. The key is to find some that are inexpensive. You could easily spend hundreds of dollars in drawer pulls, but for me these look fine and I'd rather spend that money elsewhere.

Next is the counter tops. We went with granite. We thought about doing our own concrete counter tops, but decided against. Number 1 it would take some time. WB only has the weekends to work and he is in the middle of training for a 150 mile bike ride sooooo time is limited. Number 2 I'm not sure my back would survive carrying a concrete slab up the steps to our bathroom. But there are some ways to save with granite, which I'll share in the next makeover post:)

Painting Cabinets

I have to admit I have been in hiding since painting my cabinets. Not because I don't like them, but because I was discouraged. Let me explain. We picked a color. It is not the color WB's dear parents chose, which was a very nice color, just turned out a little too light and orange for our liking. We chose the top color.

I got busy taking down the doors and we started painting. I could have sworn I uttered the words "Shouldn't we sand this?" But WB says he never heard those words leave my mouth. I was probably dreaming this whole episode or something. But after we put on two coats and waited a day I saw some chips where the white paint was showing. I was mortified. Did we just paint all the cabinets for them to slowly chip away? WB wasn't very concerned as he was ready to move on to the floor. Whoa, there cowboy! I am all about being frugal and doing this ourselves but I don't want it to look like, well like I painted it.

Which moves me to lend some marriage advice. Oh come on, you knew I was going to work in some marriage advice somehow. When you begin a project don't just assume the other person knows what they are doing. Sometimes I just get into the "Yes dear" mode and I forget to voice my concerns or ask my husband if he has any. Very easily you can fall into the trap of believing your spouse has done the research when he is thinking you've done the research. And well, then you end up with chipping paint.

So here is the plan. We are going to paint another coat. I read online where it is a good idea to sand between coats very lightly. Also, you should wait several hours before adding the second layer. Ahem, we were a little too anxious to be done and see how it looked and we skipped a few things. But it can be fixed so we are fixing it. Then we will move on to the floor. Which we have picked out, but since this post is rambling on I'll just have to share it tomorrow, along with the cabinets.

Can you offer me any other painting advice, quick before I go start painting again!

Bathroom Remodel And More Marriage Advice

Part 1 and 2 of the remodel.

I would love new cabinets and mirrors in my bathroom. I would not love the cost. So since this is a frugal bathroom makeover the plan is to paint the cabinets. I'd love to do some fancy distressing work on them, but when I mentioned this to WB he just looked at me.

He does that a lot. He stares with those gorgeous brown eyes, tilts his head to one side and arches his brows. Like when I wanted to have an "Oscar" themed birthday party for one of my kids and started talking about red carpets, limos and maybe one of those search light thingies to put in the front yard. Yep, I got the look.

Which brings me to the marriage advice part. Never marry a man with big brown eyes that have the ability to stop you mid-sentence with one look. You get all distracted and gooey feeling inside and then before you know it you're riding around on a tractor pregnant. Either that or purchase some of those blinders horses wear. I'm thinking of getting a pair for myself.

Alright, back to the remodel. Here are the colors I narrowed it down to.

Which do you like? I'm thinking the top one.

Now look at this:

This is a fifteen dollar cedar beam WB purchased. We wanted to frame our tub area somehow. We are going for a sort of rustic, old World feel. Anyway, here is what WB did with it.

It has no other purpose than to look nice. I will draw the wood into the decorating of the bathroom when I get to that. But it was fifteen dollars and I feel it adds some depth to the look of the bathroom.

Please weigh in with your color choice and feel free to leave any marriage advice of your own.