(Crock Pot) BBQ Pulled Pork and Pineapple Cole Slaw

BBQ pulled pork is one of my favorite Sunday family meals. It's easy, simple and delicious; top it with pineapple cole slaw and bread and butter pickles and you've got the perfect sandwich! Pair it with some sweet tea, deviled eggs, corn on the cob, baked beans, macaroni or potato (or both) salad and you've got one scrumptious southern meal ;)

I am trying my hand at food photography. It's actually harder then I thought it would be, getting the right angle and lighting is important. Most of all when you look at the photo, it should make you want to jump out of your chair and go make the recipe right away (or at least make your mouth water :)

If I'm feeling more on the light side and want to save some calories, I make mine into a lettuce wrap, and it is just as good (and I can fill up more on some of those yummy sides, which makes up for those calories I was supposed to be saving, ha!)

So, what do you think? Is your mouth watering? If you need something easy that will feed a crowd and fill them up, then this is what you are looking for.



Crock Pot BBQ Pulled Pork

4-6 lb pork shoulder or pork butt
1-2 bottles of your favorite BBQ sauce

Lightly spray crock pot with cooking spray. Place pork into crock pot and cook covered on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 5-6 hours, or until meat falls apart with a fork. (Some people say to add water, but I find no need for that because all the juices from the fat will come out and cook the meat)
Once meat is finished, take out of crock pot and place on plate. Drain fat from pot and replace meat. Shred meat with fork and pour BBQ sauce and stir to mix. Cook on high for about 30 minutes and then lower to keep warm until ready to eat.

Pineapple Cole Slaw

1 bag of your favorite cole slaw mix
1 bottle of cole slaw dressing such as Marzetti
1 can crushed pineapple

Mix all ingredients together adding dressing and pineapple a little at a time to desired taste. If you want more of a pineapple flavor, you could add some pineapple tidbits, or cut up pineapple chunks. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.


Simple and crowd pleasing; just the way I like my recipes!

Behind The Scenes

Yesterday I did a newborn shoot; a sweet and cuddly 6 day old baby girl. This time I went to the clients house, which is a new experience for me, but, challenging yourself is what makes you better, right?
Anyway, this client is a friend, and while I was soothing the baby and trying to get her to sleep for a pose, I asked my friend if she would take a few pictures of me in action.

All that work to get this shot:

Isn't she precious!?!

I am hoping in the future to bring along another photographer friend to one of my newborn shoots so she can document the process for me.

Better then Marie Calendar's...

Do you need a super easy meal or craving some kind of comfort food? Do you have a friend that just had a baby and you are bringing her dinner soon? Then this really easy and delicious chicken pot pie is just what you've been looking for, honestly, I don't even know if it qualifies as a recipe even, that's how easy it is! This is normally my go-to meal to take to new mommies or to make when I don't have the time or energy to come up with something new for dinner. Now, I do have brag, I have once been told by someone that they thought "This is better then that...what do you call it?? Oh yea, Marie Calendar's pot pie!" Haha, that was an awesome moment :) It is really simple though and its just a few ingredients thrown together, so I can't take a ton of credit for making my own crust or anything like that, because, well, who has time for that?!

Chicken Pot Pie

1 rotisserie chicken
1 box (2 shells) Pillsbury Pie Crust
1 12 oz bag frozen mixed veggies
2 cans cream of chicken soup
Salt/Pepper to taste
(I also like a little Sage)

Preheat oven to 375.

Thaw veggies in water in large bowl in microwave for 2 minutes, drain
Get all the good meat off the chicken, add to veggies
Mix chicken, veggies and cans of chicken soup together
Roll out one pie crust onto a greased pie plate
Spread chicken filling into pie plate
Top pie filling with other crust, pinch both crusts together
Make 4 slits in crust for steam

Pop in the oven for about 25 minutes
Then up temp to 400 for 10-15 minutes
Then up temp again to 425 for 10-15 min
Check the bottom of the pie plate to see if crust has fully baked
Make sure when getting pie out to place onto a cookie sheet to cut or else you will have a crumbly mess all over your counter. Don't be alarmed if the very edges are almost burnt looking; you can use a pie crust ring to help prevent that, or line the edges with foil about half way through (although in my opinion, this is a pain!) I know most people add milk to the soup, and I used to too, but I realized that it just makes the consistency of the filling too runny after it cooked, and I like the filling to be thick and full of chicken flavor.

Let cool for about 10 minutes.

That's it. Super easy and tastes like grandma's pot pie! Enjoy!

My Instagram Mother's Day

 I love Instagram . It's a really neat app for your phone that allows you to snap a photo and then you can instantly change the feel of the picture by selecting a different filter (like a preset or an action), then you can upload it and share with family and friends. I only use Instagram here and there, and often forget I have it on my phone. Well, for Mother's Day, I thought it would be fun to take pictures throughout the day using this app and post what I came up with. We had a fun day that included church, Arby's, the zoo, the play zone on base, Subway and a long drive home. The kids had a great time, and it was so nice to have my mom here for Mother's Day too.

What a great day! I hope you take advantage of Instagram too and have fun with your photos! To my fellow mommies out there, I pray you had a wonderful weekend filled with lots of love, hugs and kisses and appreciation; because there is no other job in the world like being a MOM! :)

7 down, 1 to go!

So, I don't really have a photo for this post, and it has nothing to do with photography. But, it's a big deal {to me} so I thought I'd write about it.

My husband has been gone {for training} for 7 weeks now, and will be coming home in 1 short week! Some days it seems like it has gone by fast and other days it feels like he has been gone for forever. It's always hard to be away from each other for an extended amount of time; especially with 3 kids, a dog and a house to take care of, but these breaks from our normal-every-day-married-life are what I feel makes our marriage stronger. We get to experience that excitement of seeing each other, those butterflies when we embrace for the first time in months, and that silly grin I can't get off my face when I'm on the way to pick him up. It's also really neat watching the excitement on our children's faces when they get to see daddy for the first time in what seems like forever to them.

Other exciting news...during these last months I have been participating in a "Biggest Looser" challenge on Facebook with some friends, and with all the hard work and dedication I won first place! It was my first time participating, so I was pretty hard on myself to do my best. I can't exactly say how much I've lost; my husband knows I was doing the contest, but I haven't told him how many pounds I shed, let's just say it's in the double digits.

My friend and I are planning on going shopping this week...good thing because my clothes are now too big, AND hubby and I are going to HAWAII when he gets back! The sun, the sand, the warmth, my man....I can't wait! We are luckily able to go without the kids since my mom is here visiting and very graciously will be watching them for us. I guess this will be a {year and a half} early 10 year anniversary get away :)

Well, so much excitement going on here lately, I just had to share....

I have had a few photo shoots lately and am coming up with some fun ideas in the area of prints and products I {will} offer.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

~Susan

M's Cake Shoot

This last weekend my friend came over with her {almost} one year old and we set up to take pictures of her little girl getting all messy in her very own pink polka dot cake. Except, that didn't exactly happen.  You see, the thing about cake smash shoots is that you never know what to expect from the little one!
  
We started by taking pics of just M, then set out the cake and put her down to see what she would do. She did crawl over to the cake with curiosity, but once she touched the icing, she was a bit confused. She then wanted nothing to do with the cake, and wanted mommy to get her out of there. So, we took a break, calmed her down and tried to ease her into having some interest in the cake, but that didn't seem to work much; and that's ok. We still got some cute pictures that tell a story, and that's what it's all about. The great thing about photography is it doesn't have to be perfect...in fact, often times those unplanned pictures are the ones that turn out best! 

A Good Friend, A Good Project

Last weekend, my good friend, A and I were downtown celebrating a friend's birthday at a cake shop, of course it just so happened to be at the same time of the running of the reindeer. I gotta tell ya, it was quite the site to see! You would have thought it was Halloween time with all the many costumes people were wearing. Definitely entertaining!
Well, after the get together we split our ways, A and I were riding home together so we decided to walk the streets downtown and I thought it would be fun to try and find interesting backgrounds to take pictures. And, downtown is, well, interesting to say the least! People never cease to amaze me! With all that said, we found a few places and took some pics. Now, A does not like to have her picture taken, so, when I showed her the final photos, and when she said she loved them, I was very pleased.
Here are a few of her favorites :)

Isn't she pretty?!?!


It's always fun to try something new. I am not too familiar with the downtown area, and I wasn't 100% sure how they would turn out, but it's great to be thrown into a situation and see how you do, especially with a friend, that way the pressure isn't too great; I mean if it didn't turn out, I knew she'd forgive me, right, A?!? ;)

Next up is my son's 5th birthday pictures!

~Susan