Quick Christmas Recap and Crockpot Cranberry Pork

January 02, 2014

Quick Christmas Recap and Crockpot Cranberry Pork

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years Day! I checked something new off my list: making a holiday dinner!

We've been cozy in the apartment during today's snowstorm! We already have at least twice the original forecasted amount. There's a lot of snow out there! And it's not even close to done. Oh, and it's very, very cold.

But back to post-Christmas Christmas dinner. I kinda felt like I was cheating, since I was sitting around watching people open stockings 20 minutes before dinner. I guess that is the point of a slow cooker. And roasting the sides.

It was pretty nice. I made balsamic roasted brussel sprouts to continue with my attempts to add balsamic vinegar into my cooking. I have never been much of a brussel sprout fan, but I'd been told I'd just never had them prepared well. I will admit, that they are better roasted than plain -- they were a little crispy on the outside, and they didn't have that cabbage-y consistency I don't like. They were better, I will admit.

I also made my favorite roasted potatoes. I'm so impatient about smashing them that I burnt my fingers in the process, but it was worth it.

And then there was the cranberry pork roast in the Crockpot. That comes with a story.

It's a recipe that mom makes often, and is quite easy. I played with it a little, but that's not the story main part of the story. The actual story starts when I got out of bed to get the pork in the Crockpot.

I had to get two small roasts since they were small. And I pulled one out only to find it was green. Not good. There was no way I was feeding green meat to my guests, so back to the supermarket I went. It wasn't the only piece of meat returned that morning, apparently.

And then, I played with the recipe. I added sugar. A little too much sugar. Oops. I was a little afraid that we would be having dessert roast. But it did work.

Then there were cranberry sauce, rolls, and of course, there were pies! We had apple, coconut cream AND pumpkin pie for dessert! Yum!

Oh, and in the middle of presents, this little guy showed up by the window with most of a side of a gingerbread house in his mouth! He was really funny to watch!