Pork Roast with Mushrooms and Brown Sugar Apricot-Pomegranate Sauce

Slow cooker pork roast with apricot jam.







My first pork roast recipe- ever. And it's a home run. I apologize for the sports metaphor but I've been sitting at my desk for an hour. And not a single sentence has been birthed. Even after one hot mother of a mug of coffee (and a decaf peppermint green tea that really doesn't count because, well, it's tea), I'm still in a post Sunday fog today, basking in the afterglow of a Sunday afternoon spent with friends. We ate and drank our way through six hours of non-stop conversation. I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. And I'm more than a little tempted to wax poetic about friendship and how we choose our true family and what a head banging blue-in-the-face relief it is to sit at a table with soulful people who wrestle with big questions and hunger for authenticity and integrity while also making you laugh out loud without covering your teeth and feel proud of your mayo-free potato salad.




But I won't. I'll tell you about my first pork roast instead.




I'll say it up front. It took decades to get me here- to ease into a place in my life where I might actually, finally, consider buying a hunk of pork and roasting it. I started off slowly, slyly, trying turkey bacon ten years ago. Then I graduated to the real deal roughly six years ago. Organic Sunday smoked bacon. Nitrate-free, of course. And when my body did not protest and the world as I knew it did not go up in a hellish ball of blistering flames, I decided to move on to the hard stuff. I was ready.




It was finally time to roast a pork loin. And Dear Reader- was I intimidated. You know it. In fact yours truly was almost quaking in her Rocket Dogs. Well, maybe not quaking. More like, shivery-nervous. So I decided two things.




First- that I would use my trusty slow cooker. Simple. Familiar. Not too much to screw up. Second- that I would make a sauce with pomegranate juice and a jar of apricot jam. It just seemed like a good fit.




And guess what? Tender, juicy, tangy-sweet deliciousness ensued.




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Pork Roast with Mushrooms and Brown Sugar Apricot-Pomegranate Sauce

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Pomegranate Smoothie - Dairy-Free

Pomegranate smoothie- dairy-free bliss.







I'm delirious. I could blame it on the wind. There is a loco spring wind here in New Mexico, you know. And it can make you, well. Crazy. It rough rides up the Chama River like nobody's business and bitch slaps the mesa behind us. It buffets the casita absolutely senseless and whips tumbleweeds into missiles. I'm not kidding. There are moments when you wonder if the roof will lift off. 




You start looking out the window for flying monkeys. 




So you hunker down and pull out pots and pans to conjure mashed potatoes into colcannon just to cope. You bake comforting Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. You feel like whipping up your own brand of frenzy.




In the gentle guise of a vegan smoothie.




Because you crave pomegranate. We all know deep and vibrant hued fruits are good for us. You've read about all those studies, right? How all those yummy antioxidants and goodies like anthocyanin feed our brains and keep us sharp, on the edge, where we need to be?




Psychology Today reports that preliminary results indicate that people who eat a cup of blueberries a day perform 5 percent to 6 percent better than a control group on tests of motor skills. I'm not good at math (will blueberries help?) so I'm unsure if "5 to 6 percent better" is a huge deal, but, Hey. For the sake of my asymmetrical motor skills (I was the Aspie geek who was never- ever- picked for any team in school) I'm willing to eat a few more blueberries, pomegranates and cranberries. Not because I harbor hopes of better motor skills.




But because they taste so good.




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Pesto Bacon Lettuce & Tomato Wraps- Gluten & Wheat Free

Brown rice tortillas wrap it all up.







Flour tortillas and sandwich wraps have always been a favorite around here. How simple can you get? Throw some deli, salad greens, tomatoes, avocado and dressing onto a soft flaky tortilla and boom. You've got a meal. A portable meal, in fact. Perfect for picnics. Customizable. Accommodating. And tasty as all get out. What could be easier? It's clear why America has gone wrap crazy.




You lovely and talented wheat-eaters out there get all kinds of choices- whole grain lavash, flax and spinach wraps, low carb, garlic herb, and classic flour tortillas. But a gluten-free wrap is tough to come by. Your intrepid goddess at large has been mourning her wraps and lime infused burritos for quite a few sad and wrapless years now. And I'm sorry- those teff wraps you can sometimes find in the health food store? Please don't e-mail me about them. They smell so funky- like a gym sock used yesterday in some unspeakable act- although they do roll around a tube of fresh ingredients with a flexibility akin to the flour tortillas I vaguely recall. I might even try them again- if I can just get past the smell. Perhaps I could pinch my nose while munching.




The best gluten-free wrap I've tried is Food for Life's brown rice tortillas. If you nab a package when they are piping fresh and pliable, you're in for a treat. The problem is, they turn stale faster than Madonna's reinventions. And far too often you tear open (what you thought was) a fresh package from your local Whole Foods only to cry slow tears of salty frustration when your much anticipated wrap falls apart and splits into an unappetizing melange du jour you sullenly eat with a fork.





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Pesto Bacon Lettuce & Tomato Wraps- Gluten & Wheat Free

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