Laurie Sterbens on Root Beer Pulled Pork

LUCY BURDETTE: The Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America has a mentor program, in which a published writer is matched with an aspiring writer so that words of realistic encouragement can be exchanged. I’ve enjoyed meeting Laurie Sterbens so much that I thought you’d like to meet her too. She’s a former newspaper food editor with an MFA and she has a very funny voice—read on, you’ll see!

Root Beer Pulled Pork the Hard Way by Laurie Sterbens   

photo by Allen

If you cook at home and are inclined to things like pulled pork, you’ve probably heard of root beer pulled pork. Easiest thing in the world: Throw a bottle of root beer in the slow cooker, plop a pork roast in, cook. So I don’t mean to be misleading with that headline. Slow cooker pulled pork is not difficult.

However, it’s not without its issues. For one thing, root beer. Option one is to buy a six-pack of pricey craft-brewed root beer, then figure out what to do with the other five since we don’t normally drink soda, and never with sugar. Hey, we may eat pork and throw chemicals on it, but we have some rules to live by.

The other option is to buy a 2,000-pack of diet root beer, and then we end up drinking diet root beer until it’s gone, which is even worse than drinking five fancy root beers.

I found my solution when I went to a party where a friend was drinking hard root beer. You see where I’m going with this. Huge epiphany. Root beer, pork, alcohol — there’s no going wrong here, and leftover hard root beer is not a problem because alcohol.

photo by Phil Denton

Actually there is one way to go wrong here. The first time I tried this, I used a pork loin roast. This is a lean cut and, of course, healthier. It made pulled pork with a nice root beer flavor, but it was not as tender as it could have been. Use a pork butt or pork shoulder roast instead.

Serve with whole wheat hamburger buns and sweet potato fries to try to maintain some nutritional dignity.

Root Beer Pulled Pork

1 2-pound pork butt or pork shoulder roast
1 bottle hard root beer
Sea salt and and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Barbecue sauce
Hamburger buns
Shredded cabbage if desired

    Place roast in slow cooker. Pour root beer over roast. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
    Drain liquid from pan. Pull meat apart with two forks until all shredded. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir.
    Serve on hamburger buns, topped with barbecue sauce and, if desired, shredded cabbage.

Here’s Laurie's website.  It's subtitled "Good Food with a Side of Killer Fiction." Take note of her name because I think you’re going to see it on a book cover!

Laurie Wood Sterbens is a former newspaper food editor and graduate of the Seton Hill University Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. She worked as a reporter, editor, columnist and designer before completing her first novel, Black, White and Dead All Over, a mystery featuring Chrissy Rooke, an overwhelmed food editor at The Daily News and single mom of a first-grader who thinks he's a ninja. Tensions are mounting at the newspaper as employees anticipate layoffs from the cost-slashing new owner and the new managing editor. When the new boss demands that Chrissy abandon her focus on healthier recipes and focus on desserts, Chrissy's attempts to reason with him end in a loud confrontation witnessed by the entire newsroom. 

 

LUCY: You can imagine what happens next...Laurie will be stopping in today to chat about food, newspaper life, murder, and whatever else comes up!

How Not to Plan a Party Menu by Laura Alden

LUCY BURDETTE: Speaking of writing fast, Laura Alden offers this lesson on how important it is to pay attention to your husband when you're writing! (And Laura, we're all waiting for our invitations!)

LAURA ALDEN: My husband and I moved into our house ten years ago. To my husband,
this means it’s a perfect time to have a party. Now there are parties
and there are Parties, and my husband figures that if you’re going to
have a party you might as well have a Party. As in, invite friends and
family from near and far, get a keg, killed the fatted calf, and serve
it up with all the fixings.

We first discussed having a big shindig in February. Back then I was
frantically busy trying to work through the first draft of PTA Mystery
#4. At dinner one night, my husband casually mentioned that he’d like
to have a Party this summer. “A what?” I said vaguely. “Sure. Sounds
great.”

In early May, I was frantically busy trying to finish the final edits
of #4 before the May 15 deadline. He asked if I thought early July
would be a good date for the party. “Um, this July?” I asked vaguely.
“Sure. Sounds great.”

Then the other day I was starting to work on the synopsis for PTA #5.
My husband said, “We should probably start thinking about a menu.”

I blinked at him. “Menu? For what?”

“For our party.”

Though I didn’t actually ask, What party? I came pretty close. “Oh,” I
said. “Right. The party.”

He gave me a look. “You remember that we’re having a party, right?”

“Pulled pork,” I said quickly. “You cook a great pulled pork.”

He smiled modestly. “Well, it’s not bad, but the recipe could use a
little tweaking.”

While he went on about the ratio of vinegar to barbecue sauce, I
mentally lined up a list of easy-to-cook foods. Easy was crucial, for
while #4 was on my editor’s desk, the synopsis for #5 was due June 15,
and I really, really needed to get started on writing the first book
in my new series, the bookmobile cat mysteries. (Pen name, Laurie
Cass.) After my husband settled on how he was going to make the
perfect pulled pork, I asked, “How about grilling some hot dogs?”

“Okay, sure.”

“And the potato salad from that restaurant supply store is excellent.
Their spinach dip is good, and what do you think about getting some of
their vegetable trays?”

He eyed me. After umpteen years of marriage, he knows me pretty well.
Which is nice come Christmas, but he also knew perfectly well that I
was trying to weasel out of anything that remotely resembled cooking.
“It’d be nice if you made those shrimpy things.”

I bit my lower lip. The shrimp puffs were tasty, and I could make them
ahead and freeze the little buggers, but making enough for a Party
would take half a precious Saturday, at least.

“If you make those,” my husband said, “I’ll make baked beans.”

A marriage is made of many things. One of them is knowing when to bow
to the inevitable. “Deal,” I said.

Moral of the story? Pay attention to what your husband says in
February. You just might find yourself spending a Saturday in July
cooking shrimp puffs.


Laura’s debut novel, Murder at the PTA was an Agatha Award finalist for Best
First Novel. Her third book, "Plotting at the PTA," will be released
in early July. JRW tried to get her husband's pulled pork recipe, but he claims he doesn't use one! But here is the link for Laura's shrimp puffs, straight from the Food Network.

Laura says: Nothing fancy; just don't overfill the muffin cups. First time I made

this the bottom of the oven was a monstrous mess...