This evening, E.J. and I hosted a group of 8 for dinner and wanted to come up with something Paleo that was also appealing to the group (some are trying the Paleo thing, and some aren’t).
We’ve found that in general, Slow Cooker, BBQ, and Smoker recipes seem to work best for occasions like this. The beauty of the slow cooker and smoker recipes is that you can literally set and forget… perfect for gatherings where you plan on enjoying visiting with your company for several hours before you feed them. Tonight, we went with a pulled-pork done in the smoker, and it was fantastic. First, E.J. coated it with mustard and black pepper and set it to chill for a couple of hours. Then he put it in around 3 am this morning, and we pulled it out around 6pm. The result was a fabulously moist and tender pulled pork that didn’t even really need sauce, but we served it with buns, onions, and Bone Suckin Sauce for the folks to eat it alone or in a sandwich.
I served it with baked shoestring sweet potato fries, but instead of olive oil, I used coconut oil and I used an Italian seasoning blend along with the salt. We added a nice bagged salad along with some new dressings we found from Bolthouse Farms. They have soybean oil, which is generally a no-no, but don’t have sugar and still turned out to be incredibly tasty. We tried the Roasted Garlic and the Creamy Balsamic and they were both hits.
Finally, I offered some of my Paleo desserts in the freezer as a finishing touch and they were also well received. All in all, it was a highly successful meal, and everyone gave glowing reviews.
