Dr. Pepper Crockpot Pork Roast

I tried a great new recipe and thought I would share since I know many love Dr. pepper as much as I do.

4 lbs. loin of pork
1 cup Dr. Pepper (I used diet)
1/2 cup orange marmalade (I used the low sugar)
1/4 cup soy sauce (Again I used low sodium)
2 tablespoons ginger (I used powder but think if you buy the fresh it would kick this up a notch)

The directions called to cook it in the oven at 325 degrees for 2 hours but I didn't want to heat up our house so I chose to do it in the crockpot. After mixing the Dr. Pepper, orange marmalade, soy sauce and ginger, I poured over the pork in the crockpot. Since my crockpot is new I cooked it on low for 4 hours. The pork was tender and really good.

For those of you that don't love sweet, this may not be the recipe for you although I think if you added some horseradish for heat this would taste really good and counteract some of the sweet. I am also thinking next time of adding garlic and onion for some additional flavoring. I would think this would work with pork chops and chicken as well. Also I should note that my husband is not a big fan of Dr. Pepper so I didn't tell him that this had Dr. Pepper in it till after dinner. He was suprised as he coudn't taste it.

We served our roast with roasted zuchini and yellow squash "fries". You cut them in long skinny sections to look like fries and toss with olive oil and flavor as desired. Cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Make sure to flip the fries 1/2 way through.

Besides eating yummy food, I have been busy studying. I really am trying to stay on top of all the studying so that I don't get behind. My teachers expect 3 to 4 hours of studying for each hour you spend in class. So that means I have to do about 15 hours of studying a week. I don't mind but it does leave me very little time to do stuff to blog about.

My famous husband

My husband got quoted in a magazine article... pretty cool!

Economics check

I got a 95% on my economics prerequisite class which is a pass ( 70% or higher). It is nice to have the test over and know I rocked it. Now on to accounting! I should ace this since I do it for a living.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I know I haven't had time to much blogging lately so I decided to spend some time today to catch the blog up. I finally posted the rest of the cruise pictures so take time to view them below. I must have gotten so tired of taking pictures on the cruise that I didn't take one picture on Christmas day. We got off the cruise ship early Christmas morning and spent some relaxing at the house then headed over to Lisa and Doug's for Christmas dinner. It was really nice to be able to spend Christmas with both families and not feel split! It was a nice day to relax and just enjoy.

After saying good bye to my family on Monday the 29th I headed to work and worked every single day from the 29th to the 10th of January. It was not only month end but year end and there was a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.

Needless to say Bruce and I celebrated at 8pm on New Years Eve with a bottle of champagne that we won on the cruise. By 10 we were in bed asleep. Both exhausted from all the activities the week before and all the catch up work that we had to do that week.

On Friday January 2nd, I had orientation for school. They gave me all my books for the semester and I got to meet other people that were entering the Masters program as well. Then on Saturday, I had school at 8am. I have economics for three weeks then it switches to Accounting. All my prerequisites are on Saturday - they will cover the basics that should have been learned in the first four years of college. Since it has been 10 years for me, I need the brushing up.

My other class is statistics and I have it on Wednesday night. I went to the first class just to learn that I was in the wrong building and had to drive to another location. I wasn't the only one that was there so all six of us walked in late. Good thing the only thing I missed was the syllabus and not any of the subject. I think this class will be the hardest for me as stats was hard the first time around.

Bruce has been very patient and supportive over the last couple of weeks. Picking up a lot of the workload around the house and even cooking a killer meatloaf last Sunday. I love you! Thank you for all you do.

My first NFL Game!

On Sunday the 28th, we all went to the Bucs game. It was my first NFL game and although the bucs lost it was a great opportunity. I really would like to go again. Thanks to everyone at work for the tickets!

Happy 5 year anniversary!

I am very proud of Mike and Becky and very happy they were willing to share their five year anniversary with us. This picture is from our dinner at Roy's on the 26th. We had stuffed ourselves on sushi and fish but couldn't help ordering the chocolate lave cake and upside down pineapple cake. I had mentioned it was their anniversary so the pastry chef wrote Happy Anniversary on the dessert plates.

Sting Ray City - Grand Cayman

Here are some pictures from Grand Cayman Sting Ray City. Mike and Becky bought us water proof cameras to capture the memories. Sting Ray city is a sand bar out in the ocean where the sting rays chill out. The water is only 3 ft deep and so they are safe from Sharks -their biggest predator. Since they don't have to worry about death they are very calm and yes it is safe to go into the water with them. Of course some people decided to get really friendly with them and give them a hello kiss. Jb wasn't into the kissing thing but he got to feed them. They loved him. The were practically crawling up him to get to the food.

It was very fun - although took some getting used to feeling sting rays gliding by your legs.

Carnival Inspiration Day 5

Our last day on the ship was a sea day. One thing that I always wanted to do was tour the kitchen so we decided to do it this trip. Mike and Becky joined Bruce and I on the tour. See how excited Mike was?

They had a huge cork board of the entire dinner menu for the ship -every day with pictures. I guess if you have over 90 countries working on board pictures are the best way to communicate.

They were already preparing food in the kitchen and all the workers were smiling. This guy was cutting watermelon to look like flowers for the buffet. I really wanted to ask him if he had ever cut himself because I cut myself when I am on land that doesn't move and he is trying to do this on a boat that is moving and rocking.

What happens to all the left over food on a cruise ship? Well it goes into a grinder to become really small particles and then is flushed into the sea to become fish food. They do this 3 times a day unless they are near land....

Since it was Christmas Eve, they held a special Christmas program that we attended. The dancers put on a special number then they had the kids in Camp Carnival do a special number as well. And of course the big finale was Santa Claus! Bruce, Mike and Becky couldn't wait for all the Christmas joy to begin -I think the martini and virgin pina coladas probably helped.

Later that night, we went ot the late show which is pretty cool. Lots of fun costumes and songs. It was a great ending to a great cruise.

Carnival Inspiration Day 4 Mexico

For our day in Mexico, we decided to go tour some Mayan ruins. It was a very long day and I would not suggest this excursion for the person that is prone to seasickness. From Cozumel where the ship docks, we took a 45 minute boat ride to mainland Mexico. The water was very rough and yes a lot of people ended up sick. After that the hour bus ride to get to the ruins was a peace of cake. I felt bad as I was so tired that I fell asleep for most of our tour guides talk during the bus ride. Once we got to the ruins our tour guide continued telling us all about the Mayans and Tulum. Then we got 1 1/2 hours to tour on our own. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!

Bruce leaning on a little building that I believe was built for storage.

Me enjoying the views!

JB - not sure why he is sticking his tongue out but we were listening to the tour guide at this point so I don't think he knew we were taking a picture.

My mom is the only one of us that walked the 3 flights of stairs down to the beach area. It was really windy and Bruce and I didn't want to get sandblasted. Do you see the iguana looking over the edge?
Mike and Becky enjoying our tour guide's wisdom.
Once we were done touring the ruins, we went back to the little shopping mall to wait for our tour bus. We got to eat chicken quesadillas and some of the hottest pico de gallo ever! The trip back to the cruise ship was just as bumpy as the ride there but we made it. We were way late getting back to the cruise ship and ended up being the last ones to board. They were already casting off and we had to wait for some of the ropes to clear before we could board. Good thing they didn't leave us!