Pasta with Tomatoes and Basil

  This dish definitely falls into my top 10 favorite recipes, and without a doubt is Trevor's number 1 favorite dinner. It is so simple, flavorful, and could most likely be made with ingredients you already have stocked in your kitchen. It would be really hard to mess this recipe up, but one key to making sure it tastes excellent is making sure to use really fresh tomatoes. I only go to the store once a week so I generally make this the same night that I grocery shop to ensure that my tomatoes are as fresh as possible. I used homemade pasta, which is very easy to make, but you can use store bought fresh pasta or dry pasta as well. I will post the recipe for the fresh pasta in a later post with some step by step instructions. Surprisingly I have little else to say about this dish other than just make it, it is so amazing! 

The GRE test is less than 3 weeks away... nervous but excited to get it out of the way so I can actually have free time again and maintain a few posts a week on this blog :) Oh and not having to wake up early on Saturdays to spend my afternoons with the GRE tutor is also going to be plus!

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

  I recently started eating pork again but for some reason I was only using pork in the occasional stir fry or roasting a pork loin in the oven. Then I was on tastespotting a few weeks ago and saw a few recipes for slow cooker carnitas. I really love using my slow cooker, but not eating beef really limits what I can put in my slow cooker. I looked around at quiet a few carnitas recipes, most using a slow cooker, but could not find one that I liked, so I came up with my own. A slow cooker is not the 'traditional' method of cooking carnitas, but as long as you crisp the carnitas in a pan after the slow cooker it will yield a similar, if not better result to traditional carnitas. This recipe is very adaptable, so adjust the amounts of most of the ingredients based on your taste preferences. The one thing to keep in mind is that you want enough liquid in the slow cooker to cover all of your meat. I have a smaller slow cooker, so less liquid was needed to completely cover the meat. If you have a large slow cooker you could always cut the meat into a few pieces to make it easier for the liquid to cover the meat completely. Next time I make these carnitas I am going to plan to make a soup or something with the meat as well that I can put in the freezer. This recipe made so much meat that we could not eat it all within a few days. On the other hand this would be an easy, inexpensive way to feed a crowd! But if you aren't feeding a crowd I would plan a second meal to help use up all the left over meat you will have. As I have mentioned in earlier posts I am in the process of studying for the GRE, which is happening now at the end of this month! I have been really busy trying to prepare for that which explains my lack of posts the past few weeks. Until I take the exam on April 30th I will definitely not be posting as much as I would like to, but I promise I have so many good recipes to post once the exam is done :) Enjoy!