Crave Wednesday: Pulled Pork Sandwich with Mustard Sauce

A long long long time ago Thatboy had made a deal with Thatkid about staying dry through the night.  He let Thatkid come up with a reward for every 10 nights.  And if he stayed dry for 30 nights, Thatkid picked a trip to Sea World.  But those 30 days came and went and we all kind of forgot about it.  Until last month, when we finally made good on our promise.  Hey, we didn't promise we'd go immediately, right?

This was by far our most successful trip to Sea World to date.  Thatbaby is old enough to really enjoy and participate it.  And Thatkid is old enough to take advantage of his favorite things.  Like he can finally stand still long enough for the feeder fish to nibble at his fingers.

As usual, we let Thatkid pick out the things he wanted to do.  Sharks were very high up on the list. 

Both boys love the shark tunnel, which lets you get right up and close to the sharks. But with a very thick layer of glass keeping you bite-free.

We also went to the Arctic area to check out the belugas, walruses, and crawl through the polar bear tunnels.

Thatkid is finally tall enough to ride almost all the rides.  Which he loved!  We took turns going with him.  Thatboy did the flume ride and the flight simulator, I did the raft ride.  Thatbaby is also now big enough to ride the little kid rides, so we all met up there.

And of course, SeaWorld is just chock full of ways for these boys to stretch their legs and burn off energy.

This past weekend was the first and last weekend where we had almost nothing planned.  There's always something, but this weekend it was just soccer, swim lessons, and Thatboy took Thatkid to see Lion King.  I'm laughing as I read that, but really, Sunday was the first day in forever I didn't leave the house!  And I took advantage.  I took advantage of that and the fact that it is far too warm to actually be summer.  I set Thatbaby up with the water table, and fired up the grill.  A long Sunday at home means pulled pork all week!  The tangy mustard sauce reminds me of the barbecue from summers in South Carolina.  I miss real barbecue!    We even ate dinner outside, complete with pickles, potato salad, and cole slaw.  I love my cole slaw atop my pulled pork.  That's not a South Carolina thing, that's a "me" thing.

Pulled Pork Sandwich with Mustard Sauce (from Cooking Light)

7 to 8 cups hickory wood chips

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp dry mustard

1 Tbsp smoked paprika

1 Tbsp black pepper

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 boneless pork shoulder

2 Tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup Dijon mustard

2/3 cup cider vinegar

1/3 cup molasses

1 tsp hot sauce

16 whole wheat hamburger buns

1. Soak wood chips in water at least 1 hour, drain.
2. Combine sugar, mustard, paprika, salt and pepper in a bowl.  
3. Pat pork dry and rub with sugar mixture.
4. Remove grill rack and set aside.  Prepare grill for indirect grilling, heating 1 side to high and leaving 1 side with no heat.  Pierce bottom of a disposable foil pan several times with the tip of the knife.  Place pan on heat element on heated side of grill.  Add 1 1/2 cups wood chips to pan.  Place another disposable foil pan (do not pierce this pan) on unheated side of grill.  Pour 2 cups water in pan.  Let chips stand 15 minutes or until smoking.  Reduce heat to medium.  Maintain temperature at 300.  Place grill rack on grill.  Place pork on grill rack over unheated side.  Close lid; cook 6 hours at 300 or until meat thermometer registers 195; covering pork loosely with foil after 5 hours.  Drain and add 1 cup additional wood chips every 45 minutes.  Refill water pan and add charcoal to fire as needed.  Remove pork from grill; let stand 20 minutes.  Unwrap pork; trim and discard fat.  Shred pork.
5. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat; swirl to coat.  Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Add 1/2 cup sugar, mustard, vinegar, molasses, hot sauce and 1/2 tsp salt.  Bring to a simmer.  Cook 15 minutes or until thick.
7. Arrange about 3oz pork and 2 Tbsp sauce on each bun.