Shredded pork tacos (p. 189) and Macleid's rockcastle chili (p. 513)

I'm getting caught up on postings!

Since I had made pulled pork, it seemed really logical to make Shredded pork tacos (p. 189). This is one of the stupidly easy recipes in TJOC--a tortilla, some pulled pork, a little sour cream, some avocado, and it's done.





It's amazing that something so simple can be so delicious! The pork and avocado combination was tasty. And it's a great use of pulled pork when you are starting to get sick of bbq.

I decided to knock another recipe off of the randomized list and make Macleid's rockcastle chili (p. 513). The recipe is has a lot of steps and ingredients but isn't particularly difficult. First, bacon was cooked, then removed from the pan. A pound and a half of beef, a lot of garlic, some onion, and a bottle of dark beer were briefly cooked in a pan and then removed to a Dutch oven. Make sure it's a big one because this recipe produces a LOT of chili.





I used a local beer (although I don't remember the brand). Cans of tomatoes, kidney beans, Northern beans, and pinto beans were added to the mix, along with some ancho chile powder, ground cumin, black pepper, and another bottle of beer.

This seemed like an awful lot of beer for chili, but I figured, what the heck do I know. And this chili wasn't looking great for Josh--he really hates beans.




The chili was simmered for about three hours and it was done!



How was it? It's hard to objectively say. The experience was bad and it took Josh and I (who are apparently idiots) a couple bowls to realize that the chili wasn't the problem--our crackers were horribly bitter and awful. I think there was too much beer in the recipe too and if I was to make it again, I probably would only use one bottle and the rest water or tomato juice.

I'm not a huge chili fan (I feel like a terrible American by saying that!) so I'm probably not the best judge. But between the strangeness of this recipe and Josh's hatred of beans in chili, I doubt I'll be making this recipe again (although I do like ground beef better than chunks in chili).