BBQ in the Crockpot!

To ring in the summer season, we made our first homemade pulled pork bbq in the crockpot. Talk about juicy and succulent! Bryan went to Costco and brought home a 15 lb pork shoulder! Obviously, it's just the two of us so we cut it in half, plus 15 lbs will NOT fit in our crockpot. We injected it with apple juice and garlic cloves. We also added salt and pepper and Mrs. Dash's Extra Spicy seasoning. We set it on high for 6 hours. After the 6 hours, we drained the excess, shredded the meat and added a ton of Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce. Set it to warm for another 45 minutes. I made pulled bbq sandwiches with toasted whole grain kaiser rolls.

While the pork was roasting, I made a homemade mac n cheese with whole grain rotini, cheddar, parmesan, and mozzarella cheese.
Recipe is as follows:


1 box of pasta
1/2 stick of butter, cubed
3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 cup of milk
3 eggs, beaten
1 can of cheddar cheese soup
1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper
1/2 cup of parmesan
1/2 cup of mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil pasta according to box directions. Melt 1/2 stick of butter and cheddar cheese in a saucepan to a thick, melted cheese. Add melted cheddar cheese, sour cream, milk, eggs, cheese soup, salt and pepper to the cooked pasta and stir to coat. Place pasta in casserole dish and sprinkle with parmesan and mozzarella and/or bread crumbs. Bake on 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

To conclude our feast, we had corn on the cob and deviled eggs. Now I have plenty of leftovers for lunch all this week! We plan on cooking the other half of the shoulder sometime in July with plenty of friends to join in!

Cheers :)

Renting is SUCH a Bargain!!

My newest addiction: Rent the Runway! It's a website based out of NYC, where you can rent designer dresses and accessories for a week/weekend and when you're done with the event, just mail it back. Now how easy can that be?! I'm always tempted to buy fun, flirty, flashy dresses but never do because "when am I going to wear this again?!" Problem solved :)

So I heard about this on the radio and immediately signed up. You have to be on a wait list for a day or so but by the next day, I was all ready to go! There is NO membership fees to join. My 25th birthday was a few weeks ago and I had planned for a bunch of friends to go out in DC and wanted a super fun dress to party in. Went to Rent the Runway and rented my flashy, blue sequin dress for only $50! Another plus...you get to pick 2 sizes in case one doesn't fit right! All for the same price. It was at my apartment Friday afternoon. I wore it Saturday night. Dropped it in the mailbox on Monday morning in a postage paid envelope and was done with it! No dry cleaning or worries. I also purchased the $5 insurance coverage in case something horrible happened but believe me, I was extra careful :)


My dress was such a hit!! I had compliments not only from my friends but from complete strangers on the street. I felt gorgeous that night and all it cost me was a little over $50. Can't beat it.

I've already rented another dress for an August wedding. I'm sure there will be many more "events" that I'll need a fun dress for :)