Today was to be big old, yummy, Hunk-of-Ham-Cooked-in-Apple-Cider-in-the-Crock-Pot Day.
Apple Cider? Check.
Big, old, yummy hunk of ham? Check.
Crock Pot? Check.
Crock Pot Liner? Check. (By the way, for any of you slow cooker fans out there – you must discover slow cooker liners – they are the cat’s meow.)
I put the hunk of ham in the Crock Pot only to find that I put a bit too much emphasis on “BIG” when perhaps I should have thought more about it fitting into my Crock Pot (and I do have a big Crock Pot). The big pig bone and surrounding fat (oh glorious pig fat) was sticking out of the top and there was no way to put the lid on.
Out of the Crock Pot Mr. Pig came and landed squarely on my biggest cutting board. I wielded my bestest, sharpest knife and began to saw at Mr. Pig’s Big Bone. I was only able to abstract all the surrounding [glorious pig] fat from the bone. My cleaver worked no better, although it did split Mr. Pig’s Big Bone down the middle into two more manageable pieces. Marty’s work trailer is locked and he has the key with him so I can’t go borrow a coping saw.
Necessity may be the mother of invention, but desperation is the father of ingenuity and resourcefulness.
While looking for serrated knives, I came across the serrated knives which go to my electric knife and (light bulb moment!) an idea was born! So I plugged that sucker in and starting sawing away at Mr. Pig’s Big Bone. The smaller half finally snapped off and I was left with the bigger, more gnarly and challenging half of Mr. Pig’s Big Bone. I sawed all the way around it until I began to notice that my chainsaw, er, electric knife was starting to get hot and smell sort of burn-y.
Time to grab my pliers and see if I had done enough preliminary prep work to be able to snap Mr. Pig’s Big Bone clean off. Indeed! It worked! Now my lovely hunk of ham fit perfectly into my Crock Pot and I was able to bathe it in apple cider, turn it on low and await all the glorious goodness which will be Mr. Pig for dinner.
In all the hub-bub over sawing Mr. Pig’s Big Bone, I used up all the paper towels and when I opened my cabinet to get a replacement roll, I noticed that the cabinet door was not closing quite properly. Feeling all handy and resourceful, I grabbed my Philips Screwdriver, loosened both screws, raised the cabinet door up a smidge and tightened the screws up tight.
Perhaps I should see about changing the oil in my car . . . hmmm.
Evolution Happens . . . 