Homemade tostadas with sweet shredded pork

Mmmm home made sweet shredded pork on tostadas. This is seriously one of my most favorite dinner meals and I have no problem eating it multiple times a week. I look forward to leftovers here, people. I could seriously stuff myself silly (which I did, eventually). So I decided to share it with you! I haven't posted a recipe in foooooorever, and this is a special treat because I actually made this from scratch and was surprised it came out wonderfully! And I've made it multiple times and it never fails. Mmm mm mm..

First, you'll need:

A crock pot

1 boneless pork shoulder

fajita packet or your own fajita mix (usually I use the the taco bell fajita packet, but I didn't have one today so I did a tbsp of each: chili powder, paprika, oregano, and cumin.).  You just do equal parts of each; you could make more or less depending on what you're using it for. (I actually like using the packet better, but whatevs.)

1 individual cup of apple sauce (or apple juice works too), plus that empty apple sauce container full of water
a couple handfuls of brown sugar
drizzle of molasses

Package of tostadas (they're the flat taco looking things in a bag).

Toppings:
chopped lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado - I wish I had some tonight :( . Also, lime adds great flavor.

I place the boneless pork shoulder into the crock pot. Then, I pour all of the fajita mix over the meat. Next, I pour the apple sauce, sprinkle 2 handfuls or so of the brown sugar over it, then drizzle the molasses over the rest (not a lot). Finally, pour the little bit of water over it so it won't dry out while cooking. Put it on low for 6-8 hours or high for 5-6 if not frozen. In the past when I didn't have that much time I did it low for 3 hours, high for 3 hours. Works just the same and turned out great. After 6-8 hours take two forks and shred the meat (works best if not frozen, mine was frozen so I had to wait a little longer since I had it on low for 6 hours). Add salt to taste. It should taste flavorful and sweet. If it doesn't, add more salt and brown sugar, but I think 2 handfuls is enough.

Not sure why it rotated like that?

Add a lot more brown sugar than I did here. The meat needs to come out looking nice and dark and juicy sweet.

I actually had to add a lot more brown sugar than I originally put in, and sprinkled salt all over it too. You just kind of have to taste test it to see what you really like. Make sure that meat is emerged in the juices.

Grab your tostada, squeeze a lime over it, place a good amount of the shredded pork on top, add lettuce, tomato, and avocado. Eat. Make another. Repeat. X 2. Also tastes good with cilantro lime rice on the side, which I've made multiple times in the past.

The pork tastes like heaven exploded in your mouth. You can thank me later.

The first time I made it Jonathan told me he didn't expect the meat to have a sweet flavor and that he had never tasted sweet meat before, and that it was really, really good. My brother-in-law told me it reminded him of Cafe Rio's sweet pulled pork. I've only had CR food once, so I'm not sure what exactly he's talking about, but I kind of take that as a compliment. ;) After searching a little bit online I found a recipe that was similar to the one I use, Cafe Rio Sweet Barbacoa Pork  by The Girl Who Ate Everything. I haven't tried that one yet, though.

Enjoy!

Let me know how it went if you decide to try it out!

I Never Want To Forget My 7 month old!

Woohoo! I've managed to keep Elena alive yet another month. 7 months down, forever to go!! I always said that with Lydia, she started becoming really fun at around 5-7 months, having such a fun personality. And it rings true with Elena.

Here are some things I never want to forget about my 7 month old!


She loves books! Eating and hitting them, and occasionally looking at the pictures, but she loves swatting them and gets excited when we give her one.

She loves Lydia so much and has a blast watching her do her little acrobatics around the house.

Tonight we found out she loves dogs, A LOT. She squealed with delight over and over and she hit and tried to pull out the poor dog's fur haha.

She is so calm lately..maybe it's because her teeth have finally popped through and it's not causing as much pain.

She is also sleeping a lot better through the night...AND DAY haha. Girl sleeps 5-7 hours during the day. I know, I know, I need to change that. It's a work in progress.

Makes the funniest facial expressions. I kind of just love her eyebrows haha.

She scoots around A LOT. She almost has the army crawl down. But she uses her feet instead of her arms to move around. This is also probably why she wakes up a lot at night. She scoots so far in the crib she runs her head into the bars haha. Tough life.

I never want to forget

How she loves watching herself on the phone camera. She also loves sucking on our phone.

As a matter of fact, she loves sucking on anything she can get her hands on and has a kung fu grip on any cord in sight.

She has mastered the fake cough. I can see her pretending to be sick in the future to stay home from school. ;)

Sometimes I catch her sucking on two fingers from each hand in her mouth. Kind of like how you use your fingers to make a funny face, that's what it looks like.

She is the kind of baby who loves to just be laid down for a nap so trying to force her to nap in my arms at Church is torture for the both of us.

How I love kissing her perfectly round forehead. And smelling her recently washed sweet head. It's my fave.

Sometimes she will just sit back in the swing or her car seat and just stare at her surroundings or us with a blank face. So we nick-named her the Boss and every once in a while Jonathan likes to turn on the Godfather song. It's perfect.

She's a rolly polly. She can roll over from stomach to back and back to stomach. I can't lay her on the couch anymore because she likes to roll over and I'm afraid she'll just roll right off the couch haha. That can't be good. She also likes to lean way too far over when she's sitting that sometimes her face touches her toes. Oh to have that kind of flexibility! Haha

I never want to forget

She loves other babies. She gets a happy face when she sees them and especially when she gets to play with them.

I let her play with all the toys Lydia won't let her play with, when Lyd's asleep. Mwahaha!

When she is either hungry or tired, if a stranger tries to hold her she gets an immediate frowny face and starts crying.

When Lydia sits watching her shows on the iphone (or used to be the ipad which we sold), Elena would sit right next to her and watch it with her. It is adorable.

She can almost sit by herself for long periods of time. I think the longest the other day was was 2 minutes. She's still a little wobbly and leans to the right or left, but she's doing pretty well!

That she now has all 4 top teeth that she got in over a 2 weekspan, along with her 2 bottom teeth. They're pretty sharp. But I'm glad that's over.

She is having more poopy diapers. Woohoo! :)

She weighs 16lbs 14oz.

Screams like crazy when she gets her shots. Poor thing. She's a champ though. :)

She really is such a sweet girl. I have a lot of people comment on how relaxed and chill she is just laying there in your arms.

Here's the vid of her fake-coughing. :)


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202282406199425&l=790545477264616717

He Doesn't Know He's My Hero (Part 2)

So I've been thinking a lot about my Dad lately, and how much I miss my family in Alaska. I've actually been thinking about a paper I wrote about him for an English class a few years ago, which you can read here. But my dad is just so incredible that he took it upon himself to take my laptop and tried to have his work buddies fix it (it was pretty much dead), so instead they copied all of my files and put it on an external hard drive (everything which he paid for himself) and mailed it to me. 

While looking through my files that I hadn't touched in about 2 years, I found a Word document that had my notes of the time I interviewed him about his homeland, about anything that he remembers, and his escape from Czechoslovakia, so that I could write that paper. As I read it I realized I didn't even include half the information I put in that paper. It is such a good insight. And very special to me, as my dad is like treasure chest with the key at a bottom of the ocean. He rarely likes to talk about his past. Maybe one day he will. 

{Note: these are very raw (as in unedited) and personal. Anything in quotations are things he actually said, whereas things after "D:" are things he said but that I summarized when I took notes}

A - Anna
D - Dad

A: Fun things you did as a child. 

D: The funnest thing was to ‘grab something to eat’. Berry picking, hiking in the mountains, mushroom picking. Not much fishing (can’t really fish there). Hiking with friends usually. Not a lot of friends. Went on a field trip with class once.

A: All your brother’s and sister’s names. 

D: Peter (4 yrs older), Agata (1 yr older), (Paul-aka dad), Adele (2 yrs younger), Jan (5 yr younger) .

A:Your favorite thing about the town you lived in. 

D: Church bells (every hour and 12 hr, 300 ft, hear for miles and miles) and Easter holiday.  Church is huge. Gothic cathedrals. Whole town is cathedrals. Spisska Nova Ves. Used to be an old fort. All the women’s last names are taken from their father’s name with an ‘ova’ added on to the end of it. Started the town in 1268 ad. Born in Levoca.

A: Most memorable tradition(s) 

D: Easter.

Easter holiday – The food prepared at your house, taken at 6am (father would be at church with the food) to the church to be blessed. Delicious ham (not factory made.) Boil in the pot for hours with spices. ‘Best thing in the world. Can’t buy it anywhere here’.  7am water chastening. Girls represented Jews and the boys would chase the girls and toss water on the girls or throw them in creeks. The boys would go around house to house to get coins and they’d put a perfume on the old women’s heads.  Dressed in nice white shirts and suits. Everyone dressed up nice. All the girls would prepare houses, paint the walls and wash the houses. Everything done by 9am. Always happened on Monday mornings.

Before: not much farming. Socialistic co-op farming.  A lot of different stores, meat etc. now they have a grocery store.

You couldn’t just say you were "communist". You had to swear your allegiance to the party.  Swear for life, forever. “I think my oldest brother joined up a long time ago. My father and mother didn’t and none of us kids did.” Father voiced his political opinion, sent off to jail for a period of time.  Mother was forced to go to work because we didn’t have enough money for food. [my] dad went to daycare a few times. Mother worked in a factory where they made furniture – assembly line. Grandpa worked for the railroad. Dad trained for the railroad.

A: How did you choose that? 

D: “ You don’t choose it. You go where the money is. You go where you can find work.” 

19 when enlisted in the army, faked an appendix attack, applied for a temp visa,
Dad and Miki (his friend) had a small suitcase. Miki made a million $ in Texas and then got leukemia cancer and died.

A: If you could go back what would you visit first?

D: “I would go see my mom” All the siblings live next to her.  Had a small airport where they had sporting hang gliders, 1 or 2 person thing. Big huge model airplane. 50 ft wide wingspan. They would tow, had a cable connected to the glider and would take it way into the sky, disconnect the cable and the guy would just glide all day long.

A: Favorite food?
D: any sea food “I could see” Perogi – little dumplings. Like spicey Hungarian food. Beef, chicken, and pork.

A: When you first left, did you ever think it was a mistake and that you wanted to go back?

D: “Yeah, I didn’t know if it was going to be good.”

A: Tell me your story of how you escaped: 

D: *Preparations* had a chance to go see a soccer game in Austria. And it just happened. I was able to go. Austria was a neutral country. After me and friend went to Austria, stayed at Refugee camp, worked seasonal jobs, waited for approval to US. Had a chance to go to Australia, Canada, or US. Chose America.

*While being searched* D: "kinda scary, but we made it through.” The Czech soldiers searched through the little suitcase and found many pictures and one pair of change of clothes.  Soldiers didn’t search everybody. They thought Miki and I looked suspicious and ‘we almost didn’t make it.’

Refugee camp: complex of buildings. Free to do what you wanted, free to work or not work. It was your choice. 

~ Click the link at the top to read the whole story ~

It's not much, but I'm so glad I have this tiny bit of information from my dad. I don't know what it is lately, but I have been interested in learning his language and wish from the bottom of my heart I knew more about his homeland. My dad is the hardest working man I know. I may not know him as well as other kids know their fathers, but I love him.