This recipe is a bit more work than I normally like for crockpot recipes. Crockpot recipes to me should be "throw in the pot and go" so it annoys me when they require you to brown off the meat first or saute the veggies first. However, my husband is still on block leave after his deployment so he had the time to do all the prep work today.
I do have a sneaking suspicion that you could skip the steps of browning the meat and sauteing the veggies {if you're really lazy like me}. I think if you upped the cooking time to 8 hours on low the veggies would soften enough and the raw meat would brown. I'm going to try it next time we make it. I'll let you know how it goes.
Also, next time we'll use a different cut of pork. The boneless pork butt that we had in the deep freeze was just waaaaayyyy too fatty for our liking. Plus, the slow cooking of the meat means that you can still get the tender, juicy meat factor even with a super lean cut of meat, like tenderloin.
To wrap it up, this was a great stew for a cold night and we'll definitely make it again {with the aforementioned changes to the recipe}.
"Communion Cornbread"
FYI, if your cornbread mix package expires in 2008 and it is now 2010, it will not "be fine" like you and your husband think it will. It will instead look like this:
And your husband will dub it "Communion Cornbread" because it did not rise at all and is basically unleavened cornbread. It still tastes fine, but it's not ideal. I recommend heeding the expiration date on cornbread mix. :)
ahahahaha....communion cornbread, I love it!
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