Best Slow Cooker Barbecue Pork Recipe

If you're looking for a different pulled-pork recipe that will get rave reviews, this is the one. My DH loves barbecue & he & I don't always agree on the type. This particular recipe is so good and not hard to make. You throw everything in the crockpot for 8 hrs. so, it cooks most of the day while you go about your day. When we make it for company, they always love it & ask about the recipe. It's a little spicy but, you can add less of the crushed red pepper if you're afraid of it being too spicy for kids.
Here it is:


4 lb pork (pork butt or shoulder)
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Trim fat from pork & cut into 2 or 3 big pieces. Place pork, onion & cherries into large crockpot (4 qt or larger). Mix together ketchup, vinegar, sugar, red pepper, cinnamon, garlic powder and salt & pour over pork. Cover & heat for 8 hrs on low. Remove pork & shred using 2 forks. Return shredded pork to cooker. Mix and heat with sauce befoore serving. Makes about 12 sandwiches.

Parks & Rec Classes for Kids

My son has taken a few of the classes offered by our Forsyth County Parks & Rec Dept. and some were better than others. He tooks a T-ball & soccer class which was okay but, the instructor was different for half of the classes so, the inconsistency made it difficult. Cameron didn't care for that so much but, there were a few things he liked about it. He also took a Gymnastics class for 18mo-3 yr olds and it was run poorly. The instructors showed the parents & kids which 3 activities they would be doing that day & then sat back & did nothing while the parents helped their child try & do the activities. There was no coaching or hands-on help from the instructors. Also, because of the broad age range some kid were very babyish & some could do alot more. There were 3 boys & 3 girls in his class but less than half showed up by the end of the 6 wk program. Oh well.
On the other hand,Cameron has taken 3 art classes (Little Picassos) and he really loved them. The Little Picasos series is for 20-36 months. Now, I will say that 20 mos. is really on the young side for art class but, some kids can handle it. My son took his frist class at about 23 mos. old and he liked it but, he lacked the self-control that he had later on. He would get easily excited or distracted and want to get up & run around. The same teacher teaches all of the young kids art classes & she is awesome! She's a former pre-school teacher & she is so great with kids. She keeps the kids busy the whole time so, they don't get bored. They usually color or something while they're waiting for everyone to arrive & then everyone sits in a circle on the floor while the teacher talks about this week's project. They have a main project & then, something to do after they finish the main project. Sometimes they give a small can of play-doh to play with which you then get to take home. The parent assists the child with their art which is important at this young of an age. Whenever they make a picture (paint, glue etc.), the teacher comes around with a cute flexible frame in different colors & the child gets to pick the color they want to frame their picture. Also, at the end of each class, everyone goes back to the circle & the teacher holds up each child's artwork & everyone claps. It makes the kids feel so great. I highly recommend doing something like this with your child if they really like art.

Funny & Personalized Greeting Card Idea

A neat idea for personalizing greeting cards started in our family many years ago. One of my mom's sisters found an old picture of some of the family members & put it on the front of a Birthday card with some funny captions. Then my mom cut out & glued another family member from another pic onto the same card & passed it on to another sister. Well, that snow-balled & became a funny thing to do as well as alter the pictures by adding things or clipping out other pics of people to add to them. In more recent years, the art form evolved as the greeting card companies came out with cards that used actual real photos of people. The pics are always old black & white or just crazy looking people in them. So, now sometimes one of us will take our own photos of our family & cut out the heads & glue them onto the bodies of the ones on the pic on the Birthday card. Sometimes altering the captions as well. It has been pretty hilarious. Often times people don't like the body they've been stuck with but, it's a lot fun to make or receive. We usually do this for sisters, aunts or cousins who are out of state because we don't get to see them that often & it's a fun way to stay connected. If I can find one that I have somewhere, I'll post a pic on here.

Delicious and Nutritious Muffin Recipe

Okay, so I know it's easier just to buy a pre-made muffin mix (& I do sometimes) but, it's not that hard to make muffins from scratch. The nice thing is you can add as little or as much of stuff that you want. Also, if you make certain types like blueberry, at least you get real blueberries in them instead of little artificial blueberry-like bits. The recipe below is for Blueberry muffins but, they also have zucchini in them for an extra nutritious punch & they're really good. This recipe makes about 24 regular size muffins or about 48 mini-muffins. The mini-size are great for portioning out as snacks, side-items, or small treats & they're easily portable too!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) at room temp.
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups of blueberries fresh or frozen (thawed & drained)
2/3 cup shredded zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
2 cups all purpose flour

topping: (optional)
1TBSP granulated sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix butter in large bowl until creamy. Add sugar & beat until pale & fluffy. Beat in eggs then vanilla, baking powder & salt. Fold in half of flour & then half of milk to batter then, repeat with 2nd half of each. Fold in grated zuchinni then, blueberries. Be gentle when mixing blueberries into batter so that you're not mashing them up! Scoop into muffin pan with liners (or greased) & then sprinkle mixture of sugar & nutmeg over each top. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool & enjoy!

Cool Music for Kids

A lot of times music made for kids, is music that the parents can barely stand listening to over & over again. I made it my mission a long time ago to make sure I had some music that I could enjoy as well. When my kids were infants I really liked "Beatles for Babies". It had Beatles tunes set to lullaby-type music (no words, just music). Originally, I got it for my sister's kids & they really liked it. It used to have a claim on the package "Guaranteed to make babies stop crying". I swear it was true because when my nephew would be crying in the car & my sister put the CD in, he stopped crying & listened. Anyway it's part of a series called "Happy Babies" and there are other titles in the series that I haven't heard like "Elvis for Babies" & "Country for Babies" . I just don't think I could tolerate either of those in a baby tune kind oof way. There is a "Mozart for Babies" which I also really love. I think classical music can be really soothing sometimes.


There are also a lot of children's artists that exclusively make music for kids. For something toddlers & pre-schoolers would like, there's a group called "Recess Monkey" and they have several CDs which I have checked out from the library. You can always burn your own copy if you really like it -not saying that I've done that ;) and by checking them out from the library, there's no real investment if you decide you don't like it. The CD of Recess Monkey that my son & I really like is called "Tabby Road". It's an early Beatles sounding album with fun lyrics and it's pretty catchy. There's also one called "Aminal House" (yes, that's really how it's spelled) and it's good but, not as good as the other one. They have more CDs but, I haven't heard them. There's also, The Laurie Berkner Band and she's pretty popular in the world of kid's music. I don't know of a specific album that's good but, my son has a few songs he likes. One song is "We are the Dinosaurs" & another one is "The Happiest Song I Know". I also checked out another children's CD from the library which was "Meltdown" by Justin Roberts. It kind of sounds like 80's garage band music. There's a song on it called "Meltdown" like the album title & it's pretty good. There's another one I like called "Cartwheels and Somersaults" & it's all about how excited the family is after the baby sister arrives & now they're all doing cartwheels & somersaults. It's a cute message. The one negative I can say, is that the guy really can't vary his voice at all. He sings every song in the same key but, they are some cute songs.
Of course, sometimes I play "grown-up CDs too. I play old stuff like The Beatles, The Bee Gees & Dire Straits as well as newer stuff like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black-Eyed Peas etc. We mainly listen to the radio in the car & every so often Cameron will ask me to turn it up louder. I guess that's when he likes a song but, he deosn't really say. We like to have little dance parties in our kitchen & great room area and the the kids love to spin around or copy my moves, or be picked up & danced with. Music is big in our house & I mean all kinds. We like hip-hop & rock and everything in between! I even have some French music CDs that we listen too sometimes. Well, anyways, maybe you'll check out some of these options for your kids too!