New art piece!

Ciaran painted a new picture and had picked a spot to hang it.  It was delivered to our house this morning.

I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet!!

For more of Ciaran's art have a look here.

Slow Cooker - Pulled Pork

As outlined in my previous post I made Pulled Pork in my slow cooker.

To finish it off today I took the meat out of the cooker and shredded it up.

I poured the sauce from the meat in to a pot to reduce.

It went from a thin watery sauce to a thicker sweeter tastier sauce.

I then added the meat back in to the sauce,  Voila I had pulled pork in a delicious sauce!

I should also add that I am celebrating exam results.  For the past three months I was studying Professional Irish and today I found out that I passed.  Phew what a relief!  
So I'm drinking wine out of a Flamingo Glass for fun because I am so happy!  

Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker

On the drive home from work I decided to make Pulled Pork in my slow cooker. 

The butcher didn't have a shoulder of pork so I got a loin of pork instead.

To make the sauce I used a mix of different sauces and flavourings from my fridge and cupboard.

Firstly I rubbed Chinese 5 Spice and paprika in to the pork.

I lined the base of the slow cooker with onions and garlic to flavour the meat.

To make the sauce I used a can of chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, beef stock, garlic, maple syrup, chipotle sauce and tomato puree. 

I added the meat to the slow cooker (crock pot for my American readers!) and then covered in sauce.

I added parsley to the sauce and also a Knorr stock pot for extra richness.

All I have to do is then cook it on low for 10 hours and hopefully I will have lovely tender Pulled Pork for dinner tomorrow tonight!

Dog wash!

I've been looking for a new groomer for Bones for awhile and looks like I have found one.  They have a shop where he can be dropped to or they can come to your house with the mobile grooming van.  The mobile option is actually the same price as where we currently get him groomed - so it makes sense to change!

Here he is on a road trip with Declan.

Bad weather in Ireland

The weather has been fairly bad in Ireland for the past few days - there even has been a bit of snow outside of Dublin!  Yesterday was bitterly cold and tonight we are expecting "Storm Rachel" to hit.  Gusts of 150km an hour are forecast for the night.

This morning on the way to work the road was blocked for a short while as a car was pulled out of the ditch.  It seems that the car had got stuck in the mud and couldn't reverse out.  Not good!

Birdman & Theory of Everything

Last night we went to see The Theory of Everything in the Rathmines Omniplex.  On Tuesdays, they have a €5 ticket special. I booked tickets at about 5pm for the 8.30 show.  It was just about booked out!!  We got two tickets right in the front row (we had to strain our necks back to see the screen - literally a pain!)

The Theory of Everything is excellent.  I really think that Eddie Redmayne deserves the Oscar for his portrayal of Hawking.  Ciaran disagrees and thinks it should go to Michael Keaton for Birdman.  I don't think so but I do think Birdman should get best film......we will have to wait and see!

My Shi Tzu enjoying his jellies!

Here's Bones having a little snack in this short video