Slow-Cooked Carnitas for Cinco de Mayo

Yesterday Freddy and I decided we wanted to make carnitas to celebrate cinco de mayo. Since there was a big fight.. Mayweather vs. Cotto.. we bought it on ppv and called the homies to come eat, drink, be merry, and watch the fight with us. We got the carnitas in the slow cooker a little late so they weren't ready until 9pm when the fight had already started, but they were WORTH IT! dang... soo tasty... and easy! I can see myself making this again with spanish rice (also easy), refried beans and homemade salsa for another party. 


We based our carnitas recipe on this one from allrecipes.com: http://bit.ly/IQGjyZ but changed a few key things. 
 Ingredients: 
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder 
2 teaspoons ground cumin 
1 teaspoon dried oregano 
1 teaspoon ground coriander 
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
4 bay leaves 
1 cup orange juice 
1/3 cup chicken broth 
5 pounds bone-in pork shoulder roast (actually one had a bone, one didn't? is that normal? Also, it was 1.5 pork shoulders because we bought two but only 1.5 would fit in our slow cooker) 


We followed the instructions on the recipe, trimming about half of the fat off the pork, substituting orange juice for some chicken broth, and cooking on high for about 6 hours instead of low for 10 hours.


I shredded then fried up some of the meat just to make it a little crispier on the edges, but  it was good without frying it too. Just depends on how you like carnitas!

Not the best picture ever because this is actually the carnitas I ate this morning for breakfast, but you get the idea. Everyone loved the food... and I have to say that they were some of the best carnitas I have had... including el camino...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

i hope you're not hungry

Here is what my trip looked like in my belly 

 l'As du Falafel - best falafel ive ever had and probably in the top five meals you can get in Paris

 Finally got to go to Mariage Freres. Parisian tea-time

open-face sandwich with chevre mm mm 

macarons (which were much prettier than they were tasty) at angelina 

 l'africain at angelina. heaven (aka pure chocolate) in a cup

 Thanksgiving dinner in covent garden.

 Interesting patty of stuffing, brussel sprouts and bacon-wrapped sausage.

of course punkin pie for Thanksgiving 

Amy's latte at the Modern Pantry 

such a delicious and simple british breakfast. roast tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, bacon and toast. 

Amy's lavender (was it lavender? I can't remember) bacon-topped french toast.

Alright now go get a snack- I know your mouth is watering.

photodiary of london and paris

My ten days in London and Paris in photos:

glimpse of sunshine near LSE, London

blustery day on the seine

light-up Paris

the musee d'orsay and tour eiffel at twilight

parisian lunch that reminded us not all parisians are friendly

reflecting in trafalgar square

stumbled on a cute store opening in covent garden. 

marilyn monroe-esque french connection window

all saints store front in covent garden. looove the sewing machines.. I really need to learn how to sew. mom.. help..?

beautiful amy on the pont des arts. too cold for a pique-nique, but not too cold for a posed shot and some self-timer fun :)

see what i mean about the self-timer?

also, wouldn't you like to get the lighting tech who did the louvre to do your own house?

one picture explanation of how french children are so adorable

amy's urban ballerina concept, in one outfit... taken very literally.

The trip was, of course, amazing. I got to spend time with one of my best friends for ten days! and since I had seen pretty much all of the touristy stuff in both cities, we spent our time eating, drinking, being merry, and soaking in the romance and culture around us. Stay tuned for a pictorial tour that will explain why my pants are feeling a little too snug this week. 

light-up London

I thought I was impervious to jet-lag, but here I am, wide awake, alarm set to go off in 2 hrs so we can catch our 0525 train to Paris in the "morning". London is beautiful this time of year, especially at night when shop windows light up and the reflections of christmas lights on wet sidewalks twinkle.

The sun even came out today sometime before we browsed the National Portrait Gallery and ate lunch in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-fields.

trafalgar square in sunshine

I am incredibly anxious to get back to Paris and hoping in the back of my mind that it is just as magical in November as it is in the spring and summer. will let you know how it turns out! goodnight

DAY1! char & eddie arrive

On their first full day of adventure, we did a lot of walking, lounging, and pique-niqueing. 

Maris and me in the stairwell of my building. 

Exploring the city, soaking it in

glamorous candid

peeking out the window

We had lunch of sandwiches from the boulangerie and ate at a park on Ile St.-Louis. Napped in Place des Vosges, my favorite park in Paris, and met up with Charlotte and Eddie to walk though the 2ieme and 3ieme-- Notre Dame, louvre, tuileries, pont des arts, etc. Props to C & E for making it the same day they arrived from California. 

Filling in the gaps - Day 0

slowly but surely I plan to fill in the gaps of those glorious five months last year. Marianne kindly pointed out to me that in yesterday's post I wrote a total of two sentences on the last two weeks in Paris while rambling on about other stuff :) Sorry... I guess that's how my mind works.


I'll be filling in the gaps little by little so stay tuned!


I'm calling today Day 0 since for some reason that's the way I have the pics organized on my external. 


The first thing we did after J & M got settled in my apt was go out to grab a bite to eat and just take in the city and the beautiful weather. We weaved through streets in the Marais until we arrived at l'As du fallafel-- best falafel in Paris and best falafel I've had ever. 

our little 3some on the girls' first real venture of the two weeks out into the city. we're still on my street here-- you can see Chez Janou on the left with the green awning.

Instead of paying extra to eat in, we decided to take our falafel pitas to go and eat on the steps of a church around the corner.

Here we are stuffing our faces... pretty good first meal in france.

We spent a few hours in the rest of the evening just walking-- possibly my favorite activity to do in Paris. There's so much to see and while I <3 the metro so much, it was June-- the weather was beautiful, the sun was about to set and you obviously can't enjoy these things as much when you're underground. We walked down toward the Louvre and Pont Neuf... 

laughed at a silly re-titling of the Hangover for France

enjoyed good company, good walks, beautiful views

acted shamelessly like tourists

and sipped beer on the walk home. We're going for a full cultural integration, right?

All in all, a joyous day that is making me miss my friends and last June while reliving it now.

Finally, a tribute to one of the best meals in Paris--

it's too bad the food is already demolished at this point. I will be looking for a better pic of the falafel to showcase. It will make your mouth water.

Looking back...

I never posted anything about the my last two weeks (and probably my FAVORITE two weeks) in Paris when Jessie and Marisa came and stayed with me. Charlotte and Eddie also came so we had quite a full house, but it was definitely the more the merrier, especially because it was my birthday week!

I'm supposed to be working on a paper about the relationship of an artist to his art... the radical empathy of Shakespeare-- are his characters more than he is or are they perhaps negated forms of him?... does an artist/playwright have to annihilate herself to take on and create other poetic identities (Keats-negative capability) ... Nietzsche says the artist "is, after all, only the precondition of his work, the womb, the soil, sometimes the dung and manure on which, out of which, it grows--and therefore in most cases something one must forget if one is to enjoy the work itself" ... are we supposed to remember that Astaire choreographed his routines and that he and Ginger did 100 takes of that last dance in Swingtime or should we stay strictly within the plot of the movie and think of them only as Lucky and Penny?

and I ramble.

Flights lax -> CDG for the week of Thanksgiving are $819 on US Airways.

We climbed the Eiffel Tower on my 21st birthday :) You're only allowed to go to the second level if you are not taking the elevator-- probably a good thing since I'm not sure we would have made it all the way to the top. This is our "after" picture. It's a pretty nice sum up of how much fun we had over those few days in Paris.

Hilarious video of me and Charlotte skyping with my mom when for some reason her voice sounded like a chipmunk :) All in all one of my favorite birthdays.


Addendum:

I forgot how much I love bangles. There's something about accessories that jingle that I think is charming. I used to wear a tiny bell pendant made out of copper that was gifted me when I went to Mexico on a "junior ambassador" program in 8th grade. It made a subtle clinking noise that I thought was cute as a freshman in high school... then a friend pointed out to me that it was something like a cowbell. I haven't worn it much since that comment.