Habanero Pork Roast / Cupcake the Elephant Dog

Well know that I'm back in the working world, I'm going to have to turn more often to my old friend (or in my case friends, as I have 3 sizes) the slowcooker. For this blog post I was inspired to modify a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Low-Carb Slow Cooker Cookbook. The original recipe was for an Apricot-glazed pork roast with apricot jelly, which I modified for what I had in my fridge.

For my version you'll need:

1.5-2 pound pork roast (mine was a sirloin roast, but shoulder would work too)

Habanero Jelly (5.5 oz or whatever size you can find)

1 red onion, chopped

2 Tbs. Cranberry Mustard

1 orange

First, mix together in a bowl the onion, jelly, juice of the orange and mustard

Then trim the fat from your pork roast and put it in your crockpot (I always coat with a little cooking spray for easier clean up)

Then spoon the mixture over the pork. I put it in the fridge as is to start in the a.m.; but you can just cook from this point, 5-6 hours and high or 10-12 on low

Final Result:

It was nice and fall apart tender and juicy- but I was a little underwhelmed by the habanero flavor- I was hoping for a little more zip- would be yummy tossed with a spicy, fruity bbq sauce though

And now for something completely different:

My poor cupcake woke up looking like the elephant man. Her cute turkey waddle under the neck has ballooned to a bullfrog-like bulge. The vet didn't know exactly what's goin on, but thought it was just an infection with some inflammation and sent her home with some antibiotics- my poor deformed looking baby- reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with the goiter lady

Her mood seems good- just a little more lazy (I didn't think that was even possible:P) so hopefully she'll be on the mend soon

The Princess; a..ka Cupcake, a.k.a the Brown Dog

My Cupcake, she is my Princess (God I am such a dork, and very much need more human interaction). After my Thunder died, I ended up looking up a little info about his background (I had the Rabies vaccination card that showed he had been at the Grundy County Humane Society /Dane 911 Great Dane Rescue (In Illinois). You can find them here on Petfinder.com. They are awesome people. I found out Thunder was older than I had thought(which made me feel a tad better, but not much. She also told me they had some Great Danes for adoption then. I hadn't planned on replacing Thunder so soon, and replacing is not the right word as he was irreplaceable, but a life without a dog is not a life for me, so I checked out their photos of "Sheila" on-line. I said yes immediately. My boyfriend and I drove to Illinois to pick her up. The lady whose house she was at had4 or five danes of her own (including a massive 180# male, who was too shy to say hi) and a dalmation or two.
As with Thunder, it was love at first sight. But she was definitely no Sheila-c'mon. She's definitely more of a sweet little Cupcake.

She gave me the Cupcake greeting (she gets millimeters away from your face and just sniffs all over- not really touching. If you're lucky a quick kiss. Her foster mom told us about her insatiable lust for her favorite food- bread. The foster mom had been sick, laying on the couch, and Cupcake stole and ate 2 or 3 loaves of bread from the counter:) Naughty Cupcake! Now the old lady wouldn't expend the effort- but we used to catch her stealing hot dog buns off the top of the fridge. It's really hard to yell while laughing, which Cupcake and Apollo prove time after time.

The Princess napping (her favorite pastime)

and sneezing:

Just lounging around:

Biog stretch:

Cupcake during deer gun season. We walk past wooded areas of farm fields where people do hunt, and I'm not taking any chances. She's pretty much the same size and color as a smaller deer:

All tuckered out after a walk (which for her nowadays is only like 20 minutes- makes me sad reminding me she's getting old:(

Scratch that itch!

Trying to will the chocolate cake to her with her mind:

My poor pathetic Princess "trapped" in the back yard. Her lead was wrapped behind the tree and she couldn't figure it out and just stood there looking pitiful: (this happens a lot)

Cupcake is such a silly girl:) When I get home, or when she's excited she has to grab a stuffed animal in her mouth, and then walks around snorting. A few weeks ago she did this while we were getting ready for a walk, and I let her keep the stuffed kitty in her mouth to see how far she'd go. Kitty accompanied us on out walk for a good half mile. I would've loved to hear what the passing car passengers were saying:) If there isn't a stuffed animal around in such situations Cupcake will make do. She has substituted shoes, sweatshirts, socks, etc... The best is when she goes for a blanket and tries to stuff as much of it as possible into her mouth before trotting around:)

When I got Cupcake, I was living with my boyfriend's sister and her dog Roxanne. Roxanne and Cupcake always enjoyed playing/roughhousing with each other. When my boyfriend and I moved to another city, we wanted to get another Dane so Cupcake would still have a friend in the house and not be alone

: enter Apollo (more on that next time)