The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

If by chance you’ve been following me via Twitter or on Facebook the last 48 hours, you know I’ve been preoccupied with only two subjects – the NBC/Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien fiasco and Crock Pot cooking. I know, I couldn’t have two more disparate subjects, but that’s how life is sometimes. While I won’t bore you (right now) with my latest musings on NBC’s mishandling of late night programming, I will happily bore you with my first ever crock pot cooking experience and, in the process, show the power of the Internet.

The other day I tweeted, “I got a crock pot for X-Mas. My first. I want to use it tomorrow, but what should I cook in it? Suggestions? Remember I’m a crock-newb.” I figured throw it out there, see what transpires, if I’m lucky someone will make a suggestion I’ll follow, if not I’ll just go looking for a recipe myself.

There were a number of suggestions via Facebook and Twitter, but the best one came from Jill Druschke who suggested this recipe for pulled pork. After I read the comments for that recipe, I was sold – it sounded excellent.

So, I began my first ever crock pot cooking experience. I’m not a regular cooker, so my selection of spices is meager, at best, so a trip to the store to stock up on spices was necessary. This would have been a very cheap meal if not for that, as the just under 5 lb. pork shoulder was only $9 on sale.

With the shopping done, it was time to prepare the rub. I measured out all the spices and mixed ‘em up nicely in a bowl. Now, the recipe calls for 2 tbs of salt, but I put in closer to 1 tbs, and it turned out fine. I don’t need quite that much salt in my diet.

The next step was to rub the meat with the spice mixture.

Once that was done, I wrapped it tightly in saran wrap and let it sit in the fridge for three hours while I watched “Coming To America.” No, there’s no connection between the two, I just wanted to watch that movie. At any rate, there was less than 30 minutes of prep time for this meal and it was ridiculously easy to put together. Just before I went to bed, I pulled the pork out of the fridge, placed it in the crock pot and set it to cook on low for 8.5 hours. Time for sleep.

I awoke to the smell of simmering pork – is there a better smell to wake up to in the morning? It appears my dog Yeager agreed with me – he left the bedroom, sat down right outside the kitchen and started barking for no apparent reason. It seems he was keen on the pulled pork as well.

When the 8.5 hours was up, I pulled the pork out and placed it on a cutting board. This was my only minor mistake – my cutting board has no gutters and the meat was rather juicy, so we had a bit more cleanup of the kitchen counter than was needed. But the meat was perfect – it pulled apart easily and literally fell off the bone. I discarded the fat and put all the pulled pork back in the crock pot. The meat tasted amazing – succulent and quite spicy!

With the pork pulled and meat placed back in the crock-pot, I poured a little less than half a cup of Trader Joe’s All Natural Bar-B-Que Sauce into the pot, mixed it all up and let the meat simmer for another hour.

Once ready, I invited my friend Dawn and sister Sharon over for lunch – well, to be my guinea pigs, really. Meat was scooped on to fresh buns and instantly devoured – we absolutely loved it. Just amazing flavor. There was still plenty of kick to the meat, but the BBQ sauce evened things out nicely. The five pounds of pork was enough to make probably 8-10 sandwiches. Next time I’ll probably go for a 5.5 or 6 lb piece of meat.

All in all, a great meal with left-overs for a couple of days. I’ll absolutely make this recipe again, but next time I’ll be sure to have some cole slaw to serve with it. It’s great solo, but the addition of cold vegetables sounds very, very tasty. I’ll also only use 1 tbs salt and only a 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce.

I’m sold on the crock pot. Next up is likely rice and beans, some ribs, possibly some chicken stock for a home made chicken pot pie and then maybe some store bough marinated meat. I don’t really have the patience to cook, but when it’s this easy, tasty and cheap, how can I not?

This recipe is highly recommended.

Love what they did with this apparently vacant building near Chinatown in New York City, NY.

I can’t believe it’s come to this. I can’t believe I’ve sunk to this level.

I’m blogging about America’s Got Talent.

I’m an intelligent guy. I run a business. I have a cool dog. I’ve got things going for me.

And I’m writing about the semi-finals on America’s Got Talent.

Don’t say a word. If you don’t watch the show, you don’t know.

You don’t know it’s intoxicating power. You don’t know how it’s more like crack cocaine than anything else. You don’t know how much I want to have sex while watching the show.

Uhm, excuse me.

So, yes, here we go. I’m going to share my “thoughts” (as they are) with you about the 10 semi-finalists from the America’s Got Talent competition on September 1st, 2009.

Oh, Jesus, forgive me. I hope you’ll let me in heaven when that time comes.
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It’s that time of year again when most of the comics industry and half the entertainment industry head to San Diego for something called Comic-Con. I’m driving down on Monday to take deliver of the CBR Yacht early. I find going down early, getting away from the distractions of home, to be a very good thing. Plus, cmon, getting to sleep two days on a quiet yacht in San Diego harbor prior to the craziest convention of the year is a great way to get the mind straight and ready. Plus, I like the idea of a morning jog along the boardwalk. Great way to get some extra cardio in before the con starts.

Of course, Comic Book Resoruces will have full coverage and our blogs Robot 6, Comics Should Be Good and CBR Live! will provide additional news, commentary and photo coverage. Follow all the action on those sites.

So, who’s going?

Taking a break in the Jardins de Tuileries. Truly the best moment of the day on Tuesday.

Me at De Oude Wester cafe in Amsterdam.

Follow all the haught action at twitter.com/jonahweiland.

Just part of Amsterdam’s Red Light district at night — it stays light later here during the spring and summer, but also the exposure on the camera is fooling you a bit. I like this photo.