My "OH SO DELICIOUS" Crock Pot Carolina Pulled Pork

I love pork.....especially pulled pork.  It's one of those things I could seriously eat everyday, without it ever getting old.  My favorite way to enjoy a pulled pork sandwich is with a good Carolina sauce.  A Carolina BBQ sauce is a vinegar based sauce (tends to be thinner than other types of BBQ sauce).  I'm the kind of person who will set up the smoker in the early hours of the morning just so I can get my pork going.  But......it's winter time, and there's a lot of snow that I'd rather not deal with, so to the crock pot we go!

Carolina Pulled Pork

1 pork picnic roast (6-8 pounds (or whatever will fit into your crockpot) --- BONE IN......best flavor with the bone in (and cheaper)
1 cup cider vinegar
1/8 cup of Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp ketchup
2 yellow onions (sliced)
Salt and pepper to taste (I am not a huge salt fan, but for the sake of the pork, I add more than usual)
1/4 cup of water (only use if your pork becomes dry during cooking......for example, if your cooking liquids magically disappear, or if you want to cut the vinegar taste slightly)

Trim the bulk of the fat (and skin) from the roast.  If you are smoking your roast, this layer of fat and skin will help form a bark, but since we're using a slow cooker, it will just become mushy (you'll want to keep some for flavor).  Slice your onions and place them into the bottom of your crockpot.  Next, coat your roast with salt and pepper, and place on top of the onions.  Mix together the vinegar, Worcestershire, and ketchup.  Pour over the top if the roast.  Set your crockpot on low heat, and cook for 7-8 hours.  Turn your pork once every 2 hours (to ensure it's getting all of the juices!).

When your pork is finished, it will shred easily.  Serve with the sauce and onions you cooked it in.  In our house, we love put pulled pork with cole slaw on top (recipe to come later).  Enjoy!

I can not stress the importance of cooking your pork low and slow.  If you cook it too fast, it will become tough.  At the end of cooking, you should be able to shred the pork with a spoon (yes, it will be that tender!)

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Save Money on Gas

Last week I posted on my personal Facebook page that I filled up my car for under $10, only paying $1.15 per gallon (FYI, gas here is about $3.15 per gallon right now).  Of course I was bombarded with questions about how I managed to do that.  If you're guessing another rewards program.......you'd be right!  We signed up, for the Fuel Rewards Network from Shell almost 2 years ago, and we love it!  FRN is a FREE loyalty program that helps us save on our gas purchase by rewarding us cents off per gallon when we shop online, eat out, buy groceries, redeem e-coupons, use your Mastercard, fill up at our local Shell, or make purchases inside our Circle K.  Points add up pretty quick (so quick that some people can fill up for $.01 per gallon!).  Every once in a while FRN offers a special reward for it's members, like randomly offering $.03 off per gallon for the month of December (or something along those lines).  Gas is such a heavy expense for a lot of families, so why not help take the ease off at the pump for little to no effort!  Find out more about how you can save on your family's gas budget here.

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Bing For Schools: Help Get Surface RT Bundles for Your Kid's Classroom

You already know I love reward sites, and you already know that I use Bing to get rewards just for everyday searches.  But what you might not know, is that yo can use your points to help your children's school get Surface RT Bundles for educational purposes.  Once your school hits 30,00 points, Bing and Microsoft will ship out a Surface bundle to your child's school.  To get to your goal faster, why not share this opportunity with other parents at your school?  Make it a community effort to get these tablets for your child's classroom, for FREE!

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If you don't have children, or are interested in other rewards, you can always redeem your points for a variety of gift cards (including gift cards from Amazon, Groupon, Swagbucks, and Fandango).  You can also donate your points to different charitable groups that help to help and educate children in the U.S.

Ladies First

We live during a time where chivalry has been all but lost, women are stronger and more independent, and gender neutrality has become the way of life.  But is it still fair to raise your sons and daughters differently?  Is it vital for their success, or will it hold them back?  I'll admit, I raise my son and daughter in different ways.  Now, before you start sending hate mail, hear me out.  In my house, I say "ladies first", but not for my daughter's benefit, and certainly not to stroke her ego and think she's somehow better than my son, I do this for my son's benefit.  I want him to grow up knowing how to treat women with respect and dignity.  I feel as though by instilling chivalry in him, he will grow into a gentleman.  As for my daughter, I have raised her to understand that she won't always come first.  I don't want her to ever expect a man to allow her allow her to pass first.  In the end, I try to teach my children to respect everyone, regardless of sex, race, sexual orientation, or religion.  But for me, right now, ladies must come first for my son.

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10 Things Your Guy Wants to Hear

As I was scrolling through my Facebook tonight, I came across an article entitled "16 Things Every Girl Should Hear From Their Boyfriends".  Now, as a mother of a young girl, I would hope that my daughter finds a man who would treat her with the utmost respect.  However, I would also hope that she would treat her man with the same respect that she demands.  With that said, I have been coming across a lot of articles like this one lately.  It got me thinking..........what about the guys?  Do they not deserve to be treated like a prince?  So I sat down and thought about all of the things my husband would want to hear from me (keeping it PG of course), and I compiled a list of 10 things I think every guy should hear from his lady.

1. "I respect you enough to let you be the man."  Now don't go crazy here ladies, hear me out.  Guys like to feel as though they are in charge.  So why not give your guy enough respect to make him feel like he's the man of the house?

2. "I appreciate everything you do for me."  If your guy works hard, let him know how much you appreciate it.

3. "You're right."  For a guy to be right during an argument with his lady, that's huge!  (Hehe)  Why not acknowledge when he's right, we sure enough let him know when he's wrong.

4. "I love you."  Plain and simple.  If you love him, let him know!

5. "You look very handsome."  How does it make you feel when you're told you're beautiful?  Good, right?  So make him feel good too.

6. "I forgive you."  If your guy has upset you, or hurt you......let him know when you have forgiven him.  Don't make him go around feeling down about making you feel bad.  That wouldn't be good for anyone.

 7. "Can you help me?"  Now don't ask him to do everything for you.  But ladies, ask for help opening that pickle jar.  It gives him a chance to show off his muscles!

8. "I have confidence in you."  If he's got something big coming up, or doesn't have faith in himself......give him an extra boost.  Let him know how confident you are in him.  You'd be surprised how great it will make him feel.

9. "I trust you."  So many guys live life thinking they don't have the trust of their lady.  Let him know there is nothing to be worried about, and that you do trust him.

10. Tell him what you want.  I have got a huge secret.......guys can't read minds!  Tell your guy what you want, how else is he going to know?