Hot. It's freaking hot

[stitchwhich]

Currently it is almost midnight and the apparent temperature is 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35.5c). It's been about that hot each night, cooling by three degrees before heating back up in the daylight. Daytime temps are supposed to be in the mid 80s but they've been achieving the 90s each day with the humidity taking the heat index into the low 100s. I cannot imagine being homeless in this weather. Besides travelling to work, neither one of us is going out much at all. We do a grocery trip once a week and other wise hunker down in the air conditioning. It is like trying to walk through a swamp outside.

A silly bird has built a nest in the bush by our front porch. I say "silly" because it is rather late for brooding but maybe catbirds are like that. Boy, does it chirp its alarm whenever we go to the car or the trash cans. We're seeing Canadian Geese already migrating. I'm surprised, actually, because while the calendar says that it is time, the weather definitely doesn't. We have an abandoned hawk's nest in our willow tree. I wish they'd come back but I'm sure the rabbits would disagree with me. Maybe we ought to plant a tree in the backyard since our front yard is getting all the birdie action. (We had two sets of nests in the holly bush on the other side of the porch already.)

I've been cooking pork butt in our slow cooker. A lot of pork butt. All of it is to make pulled pork. The first batch came out less tasty than I liked so I'm trying to consider how to change that for the next two tries. Before you give me advice (I wouldn't mind advice at all), the only spicing it is going to get is salt, pepper, and garlic. I am considering maybe making a brine of the three to soak it in before I cook it. I dunno. The next batch is supposed to go to a friend, who is going to pull it all and mix it with barbeque sauce before we put it in boil-a-bags for his camping trip in October. So I'm not so worried about spicing his meat. But the third batch will be used in lumpia and I want it to be recognizably pork. I have to make ham lumpia as well as chicken but the one I am looking forward to eating myself is the pork. I am seriously considering roasting it instead of low cooking it.

Comments

[danabren]

Vinegar. oyster sauce, plain yellow mustard, bad alcohol ($6 white wine eg). Sliced onions on the bottom of the pot, under the pork.

Any of those items would add an unrecognizable improvement to the flavor of the meat. I have a tag "food-pork" for pork recipes, which tend towards the slow cooker, if you're bored on a sultry evening.

[stitchwhich]

I read the sliced onions idea just before you posted (why I didn't think to google ideas is beyond me) and it made a huge difference. The problem I face now is in keeping my spouse's fingers out of the last batch long enough for me to use the meat to make lumpia. Or maybe I should just let him eat it and go buy another pork shoulder. He doesn't often show enthusiasm for anything other than roast beef so it's kinda heartening to see him being so greedy for the pork.

I'll check out your tag for more ideas. I think maybe just making another batch might be smartest.