Searching for a GREAT homemade BBQ sauce

I love BBQ sauce, but I'm a bit picky about it. I actually only buy 1 type. I have bought other types/brands, but I feed that to the kiddos because they don't care. LOL Last night I made a BBQ shredded pork that I sorta got from here. Here's what I did.

BBQ Shredded Pork

4lbs pork shoulder- I used a bone in pork picnic ham something or other I got for .99/lb.

1 onion, sliced into rings

2 cups ketchup

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp Frank's Red Hot hot sauce

1/2 tsp salt

Place pork in your crockpot. Put sliced onion in crockpot on pork. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over pork. Cook on low 8-10 hours. Shred meat with two forks.

This made a nice start for a bbq sauce. I will need to adjust the seasonings and maybe add a few things to it to give it more of a kick. All in all, it was pretty good.

Meatball Soup

I have been looking for crock pot recipes to help getting dinner ready during busy summer days. I love that I can toss things in the crock pot in the morning, and have a tasty dinner in the evening. I found this recipe on the 'A Year of Slow Cooking' blog. I changed it up a bit to fit in with my family's tastes and to use up what I had on hand.

Meatball Soup

15-18 frozen meatballs ( yep, that's right. I buy frozen meatballs.)

4 cups chicken broth ( I use homemade, but you can use whatever you have)

1-14 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup frozen corn

1c diced carrots

2 stalks celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced ( or dried minced onion to equal 1 cup fresh)

1 cup rice

Put broth, tomatoes, corn, carrots, & celery in the crockpot. Stire in meatballs. Cook on low 8-9 hours. It's soup, it'll be fine. About an hour before you plan to eat, add the rice and turn to high. That's it. Super easy.

Now, I will say my hubby is not a big soup fan, so this didn't go over with him all that well. I thought it was fine. It was a nice soup. If you use canned broth, it may be a bit bland. I use a lot of spices and what not when I make my broth, so there was flavor added by that.

Crockpot Tuesday- Shepherd's Pie

I recently acquired a copy of Angela Coffman's (of Grocery Shrink fame) Slow and Savory Suppers e-book. It looks like it's gonna be a great crockpot resource. I have only been able to try one recipe so far, but it was fabulous. :) Everyone in the family liked it. I am going to be trying at least one of these a week until I go through them all. Here's the recipe I tried (reposted with Angela's permission, of course)

Shepherd's Pie

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 onion, diced

2 cups frozen peas

2 tsp garlic powder

1 lb ground beef, browned

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2-4 cups mashed potatoes

1/2 cup parmesan or sharp cheddar cheese

1.Combine all but potatoes and cheese in a greased slow cooker. ( I did not grease mine and it turned out fine.) 2. Spread mashed potatoes on top. 3. Sprinkle with cheese. 4. Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.

Sloppy Joe Slop-Sloppy Joe

Ok, bad title, I know. I know you are now belting out the Lunch Lady song. Admit it. You know you are, even if it's just in your head.

Have I mentioned I am not good at coming up with titles for things. I'm just not "name" creative. :) It's true. Maybe I'll get better as the blog goes on, maybe not. Hang around and find out. LOL



Ok, time to reign in the ADD-ness and focus. Focus. FOCUS...Alrighty, here we go. Oh, I feel another song coming on...FOCUS...



Who doesn't like Sloppy Joes?? Well, I am sure some people don't (Let's pray for them, shall we?) , but I am sure they are in the minority. Right??? Well, we like Sloppy Joes around here. The medium & small boys like them with ketchup and cheese. I like mine off the bun, in a bowl, with cheese. The large boy & the hubby just like them. Here's the recipe I use.

Sloppy Joes

Here is a super easy, not from the can version that our whole family loves. It makes a lot, and we usually have leftovers. You can freezer the leftovers or use them in another meal. I'm working on a recipe for the leftovers. I'll post it when I've got it perfected.

2lbs ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper (You can leave this out with no taste issues.)

1 can condensed tomato soup

1- 8oz can tomato sauce

2 tbsp ketchup

1 1/2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp mustard (I use course ground, but you can use whatever you have on hand)

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Hamburger buns

In a large pan, brown ground beef and onion. Add green peppers, if using. Cook an additional 5 minutes or so until beef is cooked through and onions and peppers are soft. While the meat mixture is cooking. Put the tomato soup, tomato sauce, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, mustard, chili powder and garlic powder in a crockpot. Drain meat mixture and add it to the crockpot. Cook on low 3-4 hours. Serve over buns.

I have let this cook much longer with no problems. You could shift it to the "keep warm" setting on your crockpot, if you have one, at the 3-4 hour mark if you like.