Jack and Coke Slow Cooked Pulled Beef

Ingredients 

• 3 lb. beef roast 
• 12 ounces of cola (not diet, we used "Mexican Coke" with cane sugar) 
• 1/2 cup of Jack Daniels (or bourbon of your choice) 
• 1/2 tablespoon chili powder Diced Jalapenos (optional- for spice and taste) 
• Salt and pepper to taste
• One 16-18 oz. bottle of barbeque sauce 

Directions

1. Cut beef roast into large chunks (will make shredding easier) 
2. Pour cola, bourbon, chili powder, and diced jalapenos in slow cooker and stir 
3. Add beef roast chunks to slow cooker 
4. Cook on low for 8 hours 
5. Remove beef from crock pot and let sit until cool enough to handle 
6. Pour Liquid from crock pot into pot/saucier. Add bottle of BBQ sauce, salt, and pepper. Reduce to desired thickness (can skip this if you prefer thinner sauce) 
7. Shred beef and add back to crock pot 
8. Pour reduced liquid back into crock pot with beef. Stir. Cook for one more hour on low. 
9. Serve on soft roll/bun with cole slaw (also great with baked beans)

German Dijon Chicken

Saveur is one of my favorite magazines. It combines my love of food, travel, human interest stories, and kitchen gadgets and lays them them out on pages with nice, pretty photos. I was immediately intrigued by a Chicken Dijon recipe; it's simplicity, the story, the photo. I've also spent most of my life with a huge disdain for mustard, the very smell would make me puke. Over the course of the past few years I discovered I like stone ground mustard (note: our taste-buds change about every 7 years, meaning foods that used to taste gross can taste good over time). I was excited to take my new love of mustard and cook with it.

It wasn't until I went to go make the recipe that I realized it contained an ingredient that I don't have in the house, because no matter how much I try it I hate it; coriander. But I was committed to making Dijon chicken and started to change up the recipe. Channeling my German heritage, I switched the coriander with caraway seed and then kept making changes along the way. The following recipe for German Dijon Chicken is loosely based on the original Saveur recipe, but it was delicious.

• 1 teaspoon caraway seed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 8 piece chicken (about 3 pounds)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup of dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• Crusty bread, for serving

1. Pre-head oven to 300 degrees
2. In a large skillet, toast the caraway seeds over moderately high heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer the seeds to a mortar and let cool. Crush the seeds coarsely with a pestle.
3. In the same skillet, heat the olive. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add breasts to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat, turning, until golden brown all over. Over the course of 10 minutes add the thighs, then the legs, then the wings (by size of piece to promote even cooking).
4. Remove chicken from skillet when it is a nice, golden brown.
5. Add shallots to skilled and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes.
6. Add the broth and wine, stirring with the onions and getting the chicken “brown bits” off the skillet and into the liquid for flavor.
7. Add chicken and bring to boil.
8. Cover put chicken in oven to braise in liquid for about 2 hours, or until chicken is almost falling off the bone (check occasionally to flip chicken if it’s not fully immersed in liquid).
9. Remove chicken from oven. Transfer the chicken to a platter, cover and keep warm.
10. In a small bowl, whisk the mustard with the sour cream. Whisk the mixture into the skillet and simmer the sauce over moderate heat until thickened, about 5 minutes.
11. Return the chicken to the skillet and turn to coat. Serve the chicken with crusty bread.

NOTE: I added brussel sprout leaves from the top of the brussel sprout stalks to the skillet prior to braising. I have a freezer full of these because they are delicious and I get them from the farmers' market in the fall. If you too want to add a vegetable to this to give it extra flavor, vitamins, and fiber, add collard greens.

Top Eleven Things I Learned in 2011

• I could switch jobs and still be very good at what I do for a living.
• Avis disables the Four-Wheel drive on their Jeeps in Cozumel, Mexico.
• Champagne Sabering is just about the coolest way to open a bottle of alcohol.
• Nothing brings 60,000 people together like a good concert in the pouring rain.
• No matter how many body builders and athletes I meet the strongest person I know is my two-year-old niece.
• “Boy push-ups” aren’t just for boys.
• 175 pounds of lean muscle is smaller and sexier than 169 pounds of flab.
• A dog’s Achilles tendon is called the Superficial Digital Flexor.
• Dogs can have Orthopedic Surgeons, Physical Therapists, Acupuncturists, and durable medical equipment.
• The most beautiful words in the English language are, “it’s benign.”
• You are never too old to make new friends.