The magical GREEN pot...

My beloved GREEN dutch oven came through for me again!  In my opinion, even for those on a limited budget, the Le Cruet enamel cast iron dutch oven is worth the purchase price (but keep it in your Amazon shopping cart and buy it during a price dip like I did and buy a GREEN one since mine is surely magical).

Since I am near addicted to the Spicy Dr Pepper Pulled Pork tacos I've been eating, I have longed for a chicken option ... mostly because I wanted to have bacon on my tacos.  I mean, who doesn't want to have chicken bacon tacos???  I wanted to make a pulled chicken, so I could freeze it and make the tacos as easily as I do the pulled pork ones.

My problem is that the rest of the world believes that using a slow cooker will not result in culinary disaster when making pulled chicken.  That just boggles my mind!  And seemingly everyone else also believes that you should use thighs for pulled chicken. I am a white meat kind of gal.  So, I had to work out a recipe for myself.  I also had to try and figure out the cooking time, since I figured chicken breasts would cook far sooner than a pork sirloin roast.   The process has been long and slow and full of great fear and trepidation.  Tonight, I girded my loins and set out to tackle my culinary dream.

Voilà!  Here is my Spicy Pulled Chicken (I know... a boring recipe title).

Look at those lovely jars!

Here are my rejected onions.  Too bad I don't know someone who would eat these.

So, the recipe.  I used 24 ounces of liquid because the pulled pork recipe did.  I think it would be interesting to try it with straight orange juice, but I have enjoyed cooking with beer.   I used honey since something sweet seems to need to go in there when you use those chipotle peppers.  I used cumin because that also seemed the right thing to do given that I wanted to make tacos.  The end result was pulled chicken with a kick.  Of course, that means I just have to add sour cream and cheese with my tacos!

It does sort of puzzle me how I can throw lots of garlic into my recipes and they not end up tasting garlicky in the least.  I was also surprised that the chicken did not end up tasting citrusy.  It was just spicy and very, very, very moist.

My neighbor was introduced to a new liquor last weekend and bought some today.  She came over to have me try it, since I shared the Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares with her.

You keep the liquor in your freezer.  We had two glasses, just to be sure that we had a proper tasting.

The funny thing is that the other day Bettina mentioned grilled cheese sandwiches.  I couldn't get the idea of such tastiness out of my mind, so I made one for dinner.  My neighbor came over in time for the NASCAR race, around 7:30.  I was, however, in the middle of trying to figure out how to make my pulled chicken and was in a bit of a state.

She knew I was cooking, but was willing to set aside her thoughts and feeling about cooking and come anyway.  I very much appreciated that.  I very, very, very much appreciated having someone there with me in my culinary fear and trepidation.  Once I got the chicken in the oven, I mentioned the grilled cheese when making excuses for all the dirty dishes in the kitchen and my neighbor swooned.  To revive her, I made her one.

Butter.
Buttermilk bread.
Sharp white cheddar cheese.
Extra sharp yellow cheddar cheese.
More butter when you flip the sandwich.

My living room was filled with lots of groans of pleasure as my neighbor ate her sandwich.  She even texted a photo to her new beaux.  He wanted one, but lives in Kentucky.  He drooled from a distance.  Clearly, I believe in making wicked grilled cheese sandwiches.

My neighbor left before the chicken was done, but she commented many times that the aroma wafting from the oven was enough to set her to swooning again.  I found it helpful to have someone examine the meat with me.  I checked it after an hour.  Then again in a second hour.  It still didn't look quite what I thought it should be, after pulling apart a section of one breast, so I cooked it for 30 more minutes.  That half hour was just the right amount of time, if you ask me.

My, how relieved I was pulling the chicken!  Pulling ... taking a bite ... pulling some more.  Amos was jealous.  I cannot believe that I managed to pull off the dish.  [Pun intended.]  I tried to call Becky, but she was at a baseball came.  So, I did not have anyone with whom to dance the victory.  I very much prefer cooking with others than by myself.

The other humorous note to the impromptu evening was my neighbor's very, very, very casual question about how much of an inroad I had made on the beer cheese soup.  You see, she had taken home two servings, one for her son and for herself.  Thinking about its rather high level of tastiness, my neighbor let her son eat his beloved frozen dinner and ate both servings herself.  In fact, she took one to work and set her colleagues off in a fit of envy.  They asked if they could buy the soup.

My neighbor has never asked me for any food and oft declines any offer I make.  So, I chuckled over her too casual question.  Then, I asked if she would like for me to fetch a jar from the basement for her to take to work on Monday.  Frankly, she cannot believe that I am willing to share it with her.  Normally, my stingy, selfish person would not be willing in the least, but I did end up with 18 servings in that first batch.  At the moment, I still have plenty to share.

Wednesday is the first day of my new budget cycle.  I still have sausages and two chicken breasts left, as well as the meat for the stew and the second batch of pulled pork I never got around to making.  Plus, there are the three different types of steak that I have been too chicken to try the recipes for which I bought them sitting in the basement freezer. Thus, even though I plan on buying that liquor for myself and have some larder items that need refilling, I am hoping this will be my most economical grocery spending month yet.  Much to my surprise, I even have plenty of sour cream in my refrigerator still.

However ....

This was my milk shelf two weeks ago.

This is my milk shelf today.  Lonely, eh??

I do still have the $15 and change left on the Wal-Mart gift card, but since I have made it this far, I'd like to save that for next month's groceries.  Thus, I shall be milk rationing from tonight until Wednesday morning.

My shopping list thus far:

• McCormack Peppercorn Medley
• Orzo 
• Black beans
• Sweet & Condensed Milk (for more lemon crumb squares)
• Parsnips
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Vidalia onions
• Garlic
• Lemons
• Limes
• Cucumbers
• Grapes
• Blueberries
• Granny Smith apples
• Summer Squash
• Lettuce
• Milk
• Butter
• White Chedder Cheese
• Cheddar cheese
• Chicken
• Rinse Aid
• Comet
• Lemon liquor
• Ginger ale  (depending on how many bouts of nausea I have)
• Saltines (depending on how many bouts of nausea I have)
• Malted Milk Powder (if I can find the recipe that needed this)
• Wax paper (possible need by month's end)
• Affresh (possible need by month's end)

Clearly, I have some sort of deep, unspoken need to maintain a very full freezer.  SIGH.  I think I have enough meals for all of September and October.  Not that I mind.  So, my goal is to see if I can have a month where I spend no more than $100 on groceries and household products combined.  My original budget line was $225 for groceries and $85 for household (that includes all of Amos' needs).  I've gotten that combined amount down to ~$200.  So, if I eat further into the freezer than I have ever managed to do without cooking up more batches of tastiness, I should be able to have a super lean budgetary month.  

Theoretically.

I will finish by noting that I have done well on my last three monthly grocery shopping trips because I have allowed myself one contraband item ... something not on the list and totally unnecessary.  A couple of months ago, I bought a bag of potato chips, which I had not done in a long, long, long while.  Last month, I bought Snapple's Raspberry Tea, which I found in a 12-pack on sale for just $2 more than a 6-pack.  I've trained myself to drink only half a bottle at a time.  [I could shoot whoever introduced me to that addictive stuff.]  I forgot I bought it, so I actually still have 10 bottles.  This month, I bought Hickory Farms Summer Smoked Sausage, which I forgot about until just this week, when I polished it off in four consecutive days of evening snacking.  Anyway, having that one wicked item in my cart has helped me to stick more with my list and with the ingredients for the recipes I'd like to make.

Instead of bemoaning the lack of milk in my life over the next three and a half days, maybe I can think of a contraband item for this month that is extra wicked.