Belated 4th of July

Every year I promise myself, I will be in the United States for Independence Day. And where am I? Not in the United States! Again! Seriously, the last time I was Stateside for the 4th was 1999! I think that's grounds for revoking my citizenship.

Anyway, instead of getting to celebrate back in the US, I always invite my friends to my house for a barbecue to "Celebrate the day we kicked you out of our country." :-D They always reply that they'd, "Love to come celebrate the day we got rid of you." Which always makes me laugh, because there's the whole, you fought us for several years to try to keep us, and then you came back later during the War of 1812, thing! Hilarious.

This year, though, it was a little different, because I wasn't in the US, but I'm not LIVING abroad, either. So I couldn't invite people round. But, my best friend, bless her, offered to help me make a 4th of July dinner for me :-) We couldn't do it on the 4th, but . . . never mind! Today is close enough.

We made pulled pork sandwiches. Here's the recipe we started off with.

We made a few tweaks.

1st - We didn't marinate (at all). We just bunged it all in together and let it simmer.
2nd - We didn't use the oven. We used the slow-cooker. Just turned it on and left it for 3 hours. Perfectly done and perfectly moist!
3rd - We didn't have all the same spices, but we got close.

It turned out absolutely PHENOMENAL! Absolutely gorgeous! Loved it. In fact, it was so good, we stuffed ourselves to the point where we can't even eat our Apple Pie!

Along side we had:
A Gorgeous Salad - Greens, Mushrooms, Bell Pepper, Carrots, Walnuts and Cranberries with Honey Mustard Dressing.
Pickled Beetroot - Ok, I know, that's not really "American", but we both absolutely love it, so we had it anyway!
Corn on the Cob - Anything more 4th of July?

Here's some photos of our yummy dinner.